The Anthem D1 has been considered one of the finest AV preamps you can buy, for good reason. Its flexibility and amazing sound have won over countless reviewers and consumers alike. Not being a company to rest on their laurels, Anthem added world-class video processing to the critically acclaimed D1 Director AV preamp and released it, calling the new unit the D2. The video processor in the Anthem D2 not only scales up to 1080p and 24 or 60 fps, it can also perform vertical stretching for use with anamorphic lenses, making it a one-box solution for even ultra-high-end home theater systems. It may just be the only currently available integrated video processor to perform this task.

Additional Resources
• Read more preamplifier reviews by the staff at HomeTheaterReview.com.
• Find an AV receiver to integrate with the D2.

In the spirit of "more power is never a bad thing," Anthem has added their own proprietary room correction software based on scientific research done by the National Research Council, which investigated how we humans actually hear, and used their findings to adjust and compensate for speaker and room inadequacies. The Anthem Room Correction (ARC) now comes standard in all D1 and D2 AV preamps, and is available as an add-on for $399 to any older D1 or D2. The ARC is a huge step forward for this exceptional processor and makes what has been one of the best available significantly better. Anthem really did the room correction right on this piece. While most companies include generic microphones, each individual microphone from Anthem is calibrated and assigned to the software and serial number or your processor, making sure you get nothing but the same result they obtained in their modeling of the system.

The Anthem Statement processor offers all most will ever need from an AV preamp. It offers four HDMI inputs and one HDMI output, plus 10 channels of assignable balanced and single-ended outputs, a 5.1 channel input and a whole host of stereo analog ins, including a balanced input. Video inputs are covered nicely with composite, S-Video and component inputs and outputs. All these features are packed into a beautiful black case that comes in free-standing or rack-mount versions.

The sonics of the Anthem are smooth and clear, with great separation and detail often not found in lesser-priced and sometimes even higher-priced AV preamps. The neutral nature of the D2 sonics are very welcome and really stand out above the bright and harsh nature of lesser processors, even if they eke out a few more features for wooing customers with the "laundry list effect." It's important to trust your ears, because in order to significantly improve on the sound of Anthem D2, you should expect to spend double or triple the investment to get to the next level of audio performance from an AV preamp. Add to the value proposition that Anthem's D2 is one of the most stable, reliable AV preamps on the market and its value only goes up.

Read about the high points and low points of the Statement D2 on Page 2.