Only MCA 325G2 & MRX740 are on demo. Below is the listed price for MCA. There is an on-going promo till 8.8. Likely can save a few hundred bucks more.
225G2 - $3,460
325G2 - $4,320
525G2 - $5,780
From Anthem website, all MCA share the same electronic components & design for the channel. So maybe u can audition the MCA 325G2.
With your vast experience with Anthem ARC & HT, maybe u should do an audition of the MRX alone Vs MRX+MCAG2 combo & provide your thoughts in this topic.
That quality of the sound is predicated on a few things. Listening environment and the type of speakers. If the room is not ideal and no ARC is apply, likely it’s not going to showcase the best side of Anthem. Since E77 is not doing any ARC, it defeats the purpose for me to evaluate. I hope Arvind can do a one off ARC calibration at the very least.
Fully agreed. But just to evaluating what the MCA will bring to the MRX should be fine.
Will u be adding MCA525G2 to your system?
Will play around with MRX540 with ARC on. As I pretty new to ARC, likely will perform the Auto calibration 1st & once the MCA arrives, will do another round of ARC calibration. After which, will be back to provide my 2cents worth of thoughts…hopefully will not get addicted too much & keep calibrating…
Haha…I have heard MCA in action before and I’ll tell you this…its powerful and your front stage will open up even more. Do take note that MRX 540 is rated at 100W 2-ch driven at 8ohms as compared to 140W. So you will definitely benefit from MCA 225 Gen 2.
And yes, I’m considering MCA 525 if the price is right…
Yes, connect your 5.1 system to your MRX 540 first and run ARC. You will be pleasantly surprised how good it is. If you don’t find the sound or bass to your liking, send me the .arc files to have a look and I’ll try to make some changes and send you back the file to upload. Before you attempt to run ARC, pls read up how to do a proper ARC - e.g. mic placement with varying heights in an “X” formation and also the phase alignment etc.
And yes, I’m considering MCA 525 if the price is right…
Honestly, the MCA225G2 costs more than MRX540. But now I got a 400w @4Ohm per channel driving my Dynaudio Contour S3.4LE rated at 280W @ 4Ohm… Hopefully, I can hear more details & impact. Had been very reluctant to add a power amp for many years caused did not see any value in it. Always prefer to get better & more powerful integrated amp instead till I tested the MCA with MRX…
I suspect the MCA525G2 pricing is near to your MRX1140… 
Nice. Will do if help is needed… I don’t have a sub for my living room setup. Maybe I will move my bedroom HT unit out to play play… Hopefully, this wouldn’t trigger me to get another sub for the living room setup.
This is expected as more likely than not the power rating is different btw the MRX and MCA.
Thus when they swap the signal out to the MCA, the higher power means louder output.
Thats why when u mix different power amp in a single setup, you will notice you need to set diff output level due to power difference (I’ve on case in mine where my ctr channel is powered by 1000W while my L+R at only half of that).
Agreed. Thought that by lowering the volume, I would lose more details & less impact but instead I’m getting much more finer details & better bass control, less fatigue & more enjoyable. Anyway, will see how it goes when used in my room. Hopefully it will perform much better with ARC on. 1st time with ARC. Had been a long user of Audessey… haha.
I have left Audyssey for ARC and that’s telling since I used to be a strong advocate for Audyssey. LoL…
Looks like I’m in the correct path. Was looking at their STR integrated amp because of ARC thingy as well initially. Many internet reviews commented ARC elevated hifi experience but too bad many local dealers don’t do ARC calibration. In addition, the asking price is a bit turn off.
Oops… off the topic. I shall keep quiet till the arrival of the MRX540 & report back on my personal view. Will do some homework on the ARC calibration & firmware update in the meantime.
MCA225G2 cost more than MRX540? How much is MRX540?
Listed price is $3,090 MRX540. Now 8.8 promo so below 3k. I bought this together with the MCA225G2 & was given a bundle price so not sure the actual discounted price. Maybe can check with e77. Heard they left 2sets, I took 1 so they should have 1 more to go else need to wait for 2-3 mths.
8.8. promo for MRX540 is $2780 (incl. GST). According to Arvind it will ends on 08/08/22.
This evening I went for a short demo with MRX740 which is what they have in the showroom as mentioned by LTTan it’s not calibrated. They are using a pair $30k Dali floorstanders + $8k Dali center speaker + REL subwoofer (forgot the price Arvind mentioned a few thousand dollars range). No external power amp used.
IMHO, the sound is decent since it’s not calibrated. It seems to me the showroom space has no treatment done. Sad to say my 13 years old Marantz receiver SR6004 + 4 stereo power amps & decent speakers + SVS Ultra 13 sub sounded better. I told Arvind so too. I believe it will definitely be better if it’s properly calibrated with ARC.
Anyway 2 pcs of MRX540 is arriving on 11/08/22. I have made the full payment and will pick up on Thursday once Arvind text me. I guess the other MRX540 goes to LTTan.
Welcome on board the Anthem community…
My MRX540 delivery is on 12 Aug. Likely we (bro Goldberg & LTTan) snapped up the last 2units from E77.
For those whom is still interested on the MRX540 & cannot wait can go to TEG to checkout. (Was there prior to E77). They still have the MRX540 on hand & there is some discount as well (I didn’t ask much on this). Unfortunately, they don’t have any MRX or MCA on demo. So what they can offer to have a feel in Anthem sound is audition the STR pre-power stereo amp combo (approx. $16k! - I will be getting the AVM90 + MCA525G2 instead) as per below.
Just to add a bit more observation during my audition at E77 - Observed that the surround speakers are in-ceiling type & I think a bit way too high (~3m) maybe as Atmos height back will be nice. Despite I tried by standing up (to get closer) during audition, I just cannot get much actions from them. There are a lot more infos coming from the front $30k+$8k speakers especially with the MCA225 powering the L/R. Also noticed that Anthem didn’t have Dobly TrueHD & Atmos or DTS-master mode selection when playing my 4k disc…So the audio mode is used is basically IMax, Dobly Surr or DTS-X.
Note: Personally, I feel that Atmos is the best… then Dobly TrueHD/DTS Master & lastly Dobly Digital in my simple 5.1 setup on effect & bass control.
Goldberg bro mind to share how u gonna to get the MRX540 to run 9 channels mode with it’s 7 pre-out channels (daisy chain using split-RCA connectors?). Am interested but not going there at this moment. Thks!
thanks bro Goldberg for sharing, I’m tempted to get stereo setup for music only, may consider 540 but not in a hurry.
The waiting period for next shipment is 90 -120 days.
I’m following the same configuration as my Marantz running in parallel & yes using split RCA connector for Front Height + Front Atmos to a stereo power amp and Side Surround + Back Atmos to another stereo power amp.
Front will be connected to another stereo power amp. Center to another stereo power amp. Only the Back Surround is connected to Anthem. The extra power makes a great different to the sound.
Marantz running in parallel & yes using split RCA connector for Front Height + Front Atmos to a stereo power amp and Side Surround + Back Atmos to another stereo power amp
Gotten a back panel photo of the MRX540 from internet… Was studying this photo & thinking what config I could achieve (likely configuration will be; I think 5.2.1 or 7.2 at most. Either we get Surr back or Atmos height.) prior to seeking advice in this form for opinion as my current config is 5 flat.
This is the MRX740 back panel…
Am a big fan of having HOT back surround effect. Therefore if needs to upgrade, I will be adding Back Atmos height with the surround Back speaker.
Especially, when playing Ant-Man, in that particular scene when he was shrunk in the bath tub, can hear the water splashing from left to right at the surround speaker. Also The hobbit, Unexpected Journey, there was a raining scene when they were riding the pony… The rain just sweep from left to right at Surr speaker as well giving the feeling like wind is sweeping the rain…
