Advanced Settings:
Your First Time Running ARC

Anthem Room Correction offers a great deal of power and flexibility to adjust the target curves for your system. For the audio enthusiast, this is just plain fun. We get it. If you're tempted to run ARC for the first time and start tweaking your system right away by adjusting the settings, consider the following advice. A great deal of research has gone into the algorithms that drive ARC and calculate parameters for the target response curves and bass management settings.

We strongly recommend letting ARC adjust all the settings and spending some time listening to your system before diving into the deep end with manual adjustments. When you’re ready to proceed, please remember that most Anthem receivers, processors, and preamplifiers allow you to create multiple profiles. If you are unfamiliar with the more granular controls within ARC (which can sometimes be confusing at first to novices and experts alike), let ARC set all the controls in the first profile and create a second profile where you manually tweak the settings. Upload both to your audio equipment and listen! Switching ARC profiles in your device’s menu is easy. You may be surprised how much you like what ARC automatically does.

Other Considerations When Using ARC

Something to be aware of is that when you first listen to your corrected system, it may sound as if the equalization has reduced overall bass. It is easier to hear peaks in response than dips. ARC does more than level peaks; it also levels dips. With the equalization turned on it may be immediately apparent that boominess is gone, but it may take longer to notice that a wide range of bass notes are now audible, and for this reason, you might want to spend a week getting used to the new sound. Once becoming accustomed to tight bass with the entire frequency range playing at an equal level, chances are you’ll never want to go back to bloated one-note bass.

If comparing ARC on verses ARC off, note that the subwoofer’s level is calibrated to match the other speakers when ARC is on. If ARC is disabled, the subwoofer level may require manual adjustment.

Viewing graphs for the first time may create the temptation to change targets immediately. There is rarely a good technical reason to do so. If you are not satisfied with the initial results, examine the pre-correction measurement curves. They show how your system performed before room correction. Does the unaltered response reflect the general performance expected from your speakers, especially in the bass? If not, do not try to compensate through room correction. It bears repeating that ARC is not meant to be a substitute for proper speaker positioning, nor can it reliably force your speakers to do something they weren’t designed to do. The purpose of ARC is to take performance to a higher level after implementing traditional setup practices.