Back to normal

"Deathly quiet" is the only term I know to explain ANR-B's reduction in op amp noise. Dialog and music was untouched and the noise floor disappeared. The system is very intuitive. Not too many knobs and buttons. From left to right ANR-B has two channels that can be used for two mono sources or one stereo source. This is facilitated by the analog or AES ins and outs on XLR jacks on the back. It has RJ-45 LAN and RS-422 connections.

The link button allows the unit to be operated in stereo mode using one set of controls. Setup opens a menu on the display for accessing internal settings such as input and output type, LAN settings and firmware management. Each menu item can be scrolled through using the data wheel next to the display. The preset button opens a list of factory presets including ISDN (50Hz-8kHz) and cell phone (220Hz to 3.8kHz) filtering, along with presets for landline and music. These provide fine-tuned noise reduction and can be applied to 20 user-defined presets for different applications.

Each of the two input channels have the adapt and train buttons plus bypass and residual controls. Bypass removes the ANR-B channel from the audio chain, and holding the residual button allows for monitoring the noise being eliminated. If program material is heard on the residual output, using less suppression is necessary. Each channel has a suppression knob. Finally each channel has 10-segment input (with clip indicator), output and noise reduction meters.

It is vital to mention that noise reduction is a crafty art form. No two environments are alike, so proactively learning to experiment with the combinations available on ANR-B is important. Also remember that the system performs best when audio input levels are as strong as possible. With that in mind, iZotope's ANR-B can be the best 1RU investment installed in a problem audio chain.

Wygal is the programmer, engineer and Web designer for Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.

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