My guess also is that the Anthem won't be competitive on price. My front three channels will have Anthem amplification with the other eight from Marantz, so I guess either one has a natural home. Mind you, musical performance is important, but I think either will do the job ok.

As far as loudspeakers and positioning goes, I keep seeing several differing opinions. The Dolby document as listed above gives a fair amount of info from the horses mouth. There's also an interesting podcast over on AVForums which has an interview with THX representatives regarding their opinions and findings on immersive audio and speaker positioning. I wonder if anyone will develop 'on' ceiling dedicated speakers for those who don't want holes cut in the ceiling.

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