The new Anthem AVM-30 preamp/processor/tuner from Anthem Electronics creates the ultimate listening experience for music and home theater. Designed and built in North America, on the same award-winning platform as Anthem's extraordinarily successful AVM20, the Anthem AVM30 offers double the number of component Video Inputs and Outputs, gorgeous new aesthetics, including a finer-grained brushed metal front panel with Blue vacuum fluorescent front-panel display and Blue and Red LEDs. Like its predecessor, the Anthem AVM30 is already being hailed as one of the most tweakable, personalizable and flexible pre/pros on the market.

Just like the AVM20, the AVM30 is essentially 8 high-end components in one--preamplifier, digital-to-analog (DAC) and analog-to-digital (DAC) converter, surround-sound processor (SSP), HDTV video switcher, multi-room/whole-house entertainment control center, AM/FM tuner and headphone preamplifier.

Unlike many SSPs on the market, the AVM30's whole home focus is as much about distributed video as it is about distributed audio--making it possible and simple to direct and select audio and video program material throughout the home. 12-volt trigger options allow homeowners to automate as much of their system as they choose. With the AVM 30, a system can operate in four separate areas of a home simultaneously. Any source can play in any of four paths, and users can watch one source, while listening to another. This pre/pro can also operate two complete 7.1 home theater systems playing concurrently.

The Main Path provides video and multichannel audio for the main music and home theater room. Zone 2 and Zone 3 paths provide 2 component video outputs and 2-channel audio outputs with volume, bass, treble and balance controls operating independently of the Main Path, and of each other. The fourth path, Record, provides video, 2-channel analog-audio and digital-audio record outputs, selectable by source. With the addition of an external preamplifier or receiver the Record Path can be used as a fourth independent audio/video zone.

Like its predecessor, the AVM30 features Anthem's own precision Digital Signal Processing design, and uses one of the most powerful DSP engines available--the Motorola® 56367 DSP chip. Among other tasks, it heads a full slate of surround-sound decoding, a package that includes the company's own Anthem-Logic Music™ and Anthem-Logic Cinema™, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby EX, DTS Neo: 6, EX Matrix, ES Discrete, and THX Ultra2/THX Surround EX with four optional modes. Dolby Pro Logic IIx software will also soon be available as a free download from Anthem's website (www.anthemAV.com).

Unique to Anthem's AVM design is the inclusion of THX Audio Setup, offering flexibility with THX processing not offered by other SSPs on the market. Consumers can adjust rear-speaker delay in a 7.1 setup to achieve the best surround sound when applying THX, and a Boundary Gain Compensation feature improves bass balance in rooms where subwoofer placement causes a "boomy" bass and disables Re-EQ when THX is on.

The increase to 1-Mbit memory on the motherboard in the AVM 30 provides double the memory for storing code for the DSP and provides added flexibility for any future software upgrades. A faster microprocessor offers more than double the clock speed of the AVM 20 and significantly faster response from the front-panel controls, as well as from the unit's remote control. Optional rack-mount handles are now available for this unit.