Anthem STR Integrated Amplifier

My friend and colleague, Dave Bar, is one of Crutchfield's most knowledgeable and seasoned audiophiles. So when he invited me over to his house recently to check out a new piece of gear, he didn't have to ask twice! As we took our seats in his cozy listening room, I noticed that the new face in his equipment rack belonged to the Anthem STR integrated amp. It's a muscular multi-tool of a component, with a complete set of digital audio inputs: Toslink optical, coaxial, balanced AES/EBU, and asynchronous USB. It also provides four analog inputs, plus separate phono inputs for MM (moving magnet) and MC (moving coil) cartridges. These days, Dave listens primarily to 2-channel digital music sources. We listened to a mix of discs played on his Oppo Blu-ray player, and digital files played from his MacBook Pro. The STR is one of the most powerful integrated amplifiers Crutchfield has ever carried. Its power amp section is conservatively rated at 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms, or a hefty 400 watts per channel i...