Toronto –
has begun shipping its third A/V
receiver, the opening-price $999-suggested MRX 300.
The audio electronics company’s
first two A/V receivers – the $1,499 MRX 500 and $1,999 MRX 700 – shipped in late
December. A fourth at a higher price is in development.
The HDMI inputs and outputs of the
current models in the field and in Anthem inventory are upgradable to HDMI 1.4a
with a downloadable firmware upgrade, but the next production run will include
1.4a off the bat, a spokesman said.
All three current models feature
seven amp channels, four HDMI inputs, decoding of all Blu-ray surround formats,
Anthem Room Correction (ARC) technology, and Dolby Pro Logic IIz
post-processing technology. Pro Logic IIz derives two front-height channels
from soundtracks. All three also feature second-zone audio output and 1080p 60Hz
up-conversion with Deep Color support, and composite/component video to HDMI
conversion.
All but the opening-price MRX 300
add Internet radio access using the vTuner portal through wired Ethernet
connection to a broadband modem. These models also add front and rear USB
inputs to play music from a connected hard drive or from USB memory sticks in
the MP3, WMA, AAC and WAV formats.
The 700 adds HD Radio.
