Here are some Sound & Vision LAB results. The Anthem, Sunfire, and Aragon were compared in the same write-up.

1) AC3 NOISE LEVEL on 16bit Signal (the larger the negative the better):
Sherwood 7108 -68.5 ($300 receiver)
Yamaha rx-v730 -67.7 ($599 receiver)
Sony DA4ES - 74.9 ($999 receiver)

Sherbourn PT-7000 -72.4 (Outlaw 950 clone)

Anthem AVM20 - 75.2 dB
Sunfire TGIII - 75.4 dB
Aragon Stage One - 75.6 dB

2) MULTICHANNEL ANALOG Inputs - Distortion (1 kHz at 200mV)
Sherwood 7108 0.05%
Yamaha 730 0.03%
Sony 4ES 0.02%

Sherbourn PT-7000 0.02%

Anthem 0.05%
Sunfire 0.02%
Aragon 0.003% (one tenth the distortion level!)

3) MULTICHANNEL ANALOG Inputs Noise Level (A-wtd re 200mV) The larger the negative the better.

Sherwood 7108 -74.5 dB
Yamaha 730 -80.4 dB
Sony 4ES -79.2 dB

Sherbourn -69.8 dB (the worst of the lot, is this Soundhound's "absolute transparency"?)

Anthem -84.4 dB
Sunfire -87.2 dB
Aragon -88.3 dB


[This message has been edited by Ricky (edited April 09, 2003).]