Anthem makes a statement with its flagship D2v pre-pro
You did take that money set aside for your next preamp-processor upgrade out of the stock market didn't you? Better hope so if you had your heart set on the Anthem Statement D2v -- the flagship model is now shipping, complete with eight HDMI 1.3 inputs and a pair of outputs, top notch video processing courtesy the VXP silicon, and four DSP cores handling audio duties with support for high resolution audio formats and of course, Anthem's Room Correction (ARC) software. Oh yeah, and a (gulp) $7,500 price tag. Most definitely overkill, but we wouldn't expect anything less from an Anthem flagship. If your heart and wallet are up to it, check after the break for the full press release and a few more pics -- window shopping never hurt, right?
Toronto, Ontario – March 5, 2009 – Anthem, a leading manufacturer of high-end electronics for music, home theater and distributed audio systems, announces the availability of version two of its award-winning Statement D2 audio/video processor. The next-generation model enhances the unparalleled performance features found in its first iteration with significant upgrades.
As a pioneer in the troubleshooting and integration of HDMI™, Anthem knows better than most how to utilize these connections to their fullest. The Statement D2v is equipped with four additional HDMI 1.3c inputs (for a total of eight) and one additional HDMI 1.3c output (for a total of two), delivering unprecedented connection capabilities for a preamplifier/processor. All inputs and outputs offer Deep-Color support (36-bit) and high-definition audio streaming.
More connections are useful, of course, but performance is king. The Anthem Statement D2v delivers outstanding video enhancement courtesy of its updated VXP® digital image processor. This "latest-generation" processor offers professional-grade, fully-adaptive deinterlacing. Also included are adaptive 3D noise reduction, mosquito noise reduction, block artifact reduction, adaptive detail enhancement featuring sharpness and texture enhancement with overshoot control, and adaptive contrast enhancement. The D2v's powerful, multi-layered graphics engine allows for sophisticated on-screen display generation that is ideal for setup menus.
Audio performance on the Statement D2v has been ramped up to meet the demands of emerging HD audio standards. Two dual-core digital signal processor (DSP) engines offer 800 MIPS (million instructions per second) of processing power to allow 7.1-channel decoding of Dolby® Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD™ High-Resolution Audio and DTS-HD™ Master Audio. The Anthem Statement D2v also supports 24/192 PCM audio input, up to 7.1 channels.
Anthem's Room Correction System (ARC™) is a standard feature on all Statement D2v preamplifier/processors. While equalizing frequency response in a room to achieve some generic (i.e., "flat") response is a common approach, it sounds unnatural because it assumes the listening room is anechoic and does not account for how a speaker sounds in a room. Anthem's true audiophile approach with ARC instead uses proprietary processing to compute each speaker's in-room frequency response and then computes a target frequency response for each to yield the optimal sound.
Estimated FMV for the Anthem Statement D2v is $7,499.
