Anthem PVA 8 Amplifier - 8 Channels at 125 Continuous Watts

"It can kick the snot out of an AV receiver on all fronts when it comes to powering multiple speakers. It can also woo an audiophile with engaging musical playback and it can draw even a jaded home theater enthusiast into the dialog of a movie with ease." - Home Theater Review

A PASSION FOR BETTER SOUND!
Before pragmatic design, before performance testing and long before production comes passion! A passion to produce something exceptional. Anthem products are extraordinary, meeting and exceeding the needs and expectations of audiophiles everywhere. Whether for personal or professional use, Anthem products are worldclass leaders in high-end performance and value.

• Aluminum faceplate
• Heavy-gauge steel cabinet
• 800VA toroidal transformer
• 100,000 microfarads capacitance
• Bipolar output transistors (28)
• Auto on/off
• Remote trigger (12V)
• Five-way binding posts

EXPERT CRAFTSMANSHIP. SUPERIOR QUALITY CONTROL
Anthem's products are award-winning and internationally recognised not only for their exceptional sonic performance, but also for their superb craftsmanship and reliability. Every product must meet our rigorous standards of performance before it is released to market. The result is a truly superb selection of products that are guaranteed to provide their owners with complete and lasting satisfaction. It’s not surprising that Anthem products are highly sought after around the world!

122 dB SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
“… an incredible S/N ratio of 122 dB. Good grief! That’s as good as no noise at all,” said Brian Florian, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, commenting on the PVA 7. Whether it’s the subtle (or not-so-subtle) special effects in a movie, or the tonal subtleties produced by the strings of a single violin, PVA amplifiers capture it all! Ultra-low distortion and a truly incredible signal-to-noise ratio place these amplifiers among the cleanest and quietest on the market. From a silent black background, sound appears in its purest form to envelop you in powerful emotion.

SUPERIOR COMPONENT PARTS AND MATERIALS
Superior performance demands superior components and materials. PVA amps are designed and built in North America using the finest quality parts and materials. From military-spec (FR-4-rated) epoxy circuit boards to multiple high-current bipolar-output transistors; from oversized, computerdesigned heatsinks to our own custom-designed robust binding posts, the build quality of these amps ranks among the finest in the world!

EXEMPLARY CIRCUIT DESIGN
The sonic purity of the PVA amplifier design is the result of our intensive research and development in high-end design. Superior high-end sound begins with a superior power supply. These amplifiers use custom-built, low-noise, high-power toroidal transformers and advanced power supply regulators with high-quality, low-ESL/low-ESR filter capacitors and huge storage capacity.

Our proprietary and patented circuit designs follow Anthem’s ‘Keep-It- Simple’ principle, using the fewest number of parts in the signal path to maintain the integrity of sound. These amplifiers provide the finesse and instantaneous output power to effortlessly reproduce the challenging variety of special effects in movies and demanding musical passages. They are stable as a rock, even into difficult loads.

PVA amplifiers can be powered On/Off three ways: manually, with the On/Off switch on the front panel; remotely, via the 12-volt trigger input; or automatically, with our patented Auto-On/Off circuit—an incoming audio signal immediately switches it on, and approximately 20 minutes after the audio signal ends, it simply switches off.

Anthem PVA 8 Amplifier Reviews

Home Theater Review
When considering the choice of purchasing a high quality multi-channel amplifier, it's always good to go with a brand name that personifies superior audio manufacturing quality. And one of the most prestigious audio companies in this highly esteemed category has to be Anthem. Not only does Anthem's design team pay attention to every detail when building an audio component's inner circuitry, this company also creates multi-channel amplifiers that deliver pure unadulterated power to every audio system they are hooked up with.

During my time with the Anthem PVA-8, I was surprised at this power amp's ability to propel clean and concise audio throughout the audio spectrum without even a hiccup, across a variety of pretty demanding speakers ranging from in-walls to bookshelf models to modest floor standing speakers from Anthem's big brother, Paradigm.

Songs that featured acoustic guitar sounded crisp and clean, while electronic keyboard progressions really came alive with a good degree of vibrancy that other multi-channel amplifiers I've auditioned haven't come close to achieving. In-walls brimmed with dynamics in ways other multi-zone amps normally don't provide.

You gotta love Anthem's easy-to-use binding posts for easy installation. Anyone who has jammed quality speaker cables (9 channels of them these days) into the back of an over-crowed receiver will appreciate how easy it is to install the PVA-8.

Audiophiles could easily live with the sound of this 125 watt per channel amp across two channels even if it is piped into other rooms of the house.

It can kick the snot out of an AV receiver on all fronts when it comes to powering multiple speakers. It can also woo an audiophile with engaging musical playback and it can draw even a jaded home theater enthusiast into the dialog of a movie with ease.

Anthem has a winner on its hands with the PVA 8 multi-channel amp.

Anthem PVA 8 Amplifier Specifications

GENERAL
Inputs    8-Single-Ended, 1 Relay Trigger (3.5-mm Mono Jack)
Outputs    8 Pairs Speaker Binding Posts, 1 Relay Trigger(3.5-mm Mono Jack)

SWITCHES
Front Panel    Power (On/Off)
Rear Panel    3 On/Off Modes (Trigger, Manual, Auto)

POWER OUTPUT (Continuous RMS, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, <1.0% THD)
Impedance 8 Ohm - 1 Channel Driven: 125 W
Impedance 8 Ohm - All Channel Driven: 90 W
Impedance 4 Ohm - 1 Channel Driven: 200 W
Impedance 4 Ohm - All Channel Driven: 120 W
Impedance 2 Ohm - 1 Channel Driven: 300 W
Impedance 2 Ohm - All Channel Driven: -

OTHER SPECIFICATIONS
HEADROOM    1.25 db (8 Ω); 2.13 db (4 Ω)
POWER BANDWIDTH    10 Hz - 80 kHz (125 W @ 8 Ω)
FREQUENCY RESPONSE    20 Hz - 20 kHz (-0.20 db); 5 Hz - 100 kHz (-2.5 db)
THD + N    <0.002% @ 1 kHz; <0.03% @ 20 kHz (100 W into 8 Ω)
INPUT SENSITIVITY    1.12 VRMS for 125 W into 8 Ω
INPUT IMPEDANCE    10 kΩ
DAMPING FACTOR    200 @ 1 kHz (ref. 8 Ω)
S/N RATIO    122 db, A-weighted (ref. 125 W)
CHANNEL SEPARATION    >65 db (100 Hz - 10 kHz)
VOLTAGE GAIN    29 db
SLEW RATE    28 v/µs
POWER REQUIREMENTS    1500 W @ maximum power output (8 Ω load)

DIMENSIONS (H X W X D; Height Includes Feet)    14.9 x 43.8 x 42 cm
WEIGHT (Unpacked)    21.6 kg