I currently have an AVR30 for demo & am running the latest firmware using Bass Control with a 7.4.4 setup & cannot watch any Atmos content due to distortion through all my speakers.
If you guys are wondering what this "distortion" sounds like here is an audio clip.
Shared with Dropbox
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This issue has been confirmed by Arcam from other owners reporting it but we are now coming up to three weeks since they confirmed it as a bug & still no fix.
After over a week since reporting this myself & other bugs I have not even received a reply from Arcam.
To rub salt in the wound this issue was not present in the previous firmware so it is a regression due to poor testing before releasing new updates.
I could revert back to the previous firmware but then I would be faced with no bass at all due to a bug in that firmware build that pegs the LFE channel 10dB lower than it should be.
From my experience over the last couple of weeks I would strongly suggest anyone thinking of buying any of the HDA range & plans on using all the features to consider waiting another few months at least as there is still quite a few bugs to be worked out before I would call this range fully functional and Arcam's handling of new updates is slow & is like playing Russian roulette as the next revision could fix current bugs but cause others.
They have had over 8 months to iron out the bugs & we still have plenty.
Agreed.
@Steve Withers, you are extremely fortunate to not have experienced any bugs with your unit in your setup and are the first person I know not to have experienced any bugs. My unit is half broken/ half works. 3 weeks plus of time wasted, stress, frustration and sleep lost. My AVR30 has been the worst product I have ever owned in my life. Yet, I am struggling to make the call to send it back, for a few reasons which I will explain later.
From first power on, it has given me stress and hardship: the very first thing I was greeted with was a blinking screen on the unit, with a ticking noise, forcing me to cold power off, at which ear deafening bangs from my speakers and subs were made, damaging my ears. I had to force power off like this a few times, each with the same ear deafening bangs. My dealer was prepared to file a report with Arcam at the time. And I was about to return my unit after just 30 minutes or so. But with the support of the owners thread, I sought to give it another go, which I did. It has been an utter frustration, upset and inconvenience since. I am only sticking with it for now due to the the sound of it being the best I have had from an AVR and feeling that I have exhausted most options out there. If I go back to a Yamaha A3070, it would likely feel like a major regression sound wise, but I would have peace of mind and no stress. That said, the A3070 is now hard to come by and I have since sold my unit. So, I feel stuck between a hard rock and a hard place at the moment. Yes,
@AdamAttewell, I strongly feel that my unit is a pure Russian roulette, too.
The only benefit for me so far has been the stella sound when it works. And even when it does, there is always a bug or two present. Not one day has gone by to date, where I have ever had smooth operation.
My last Dirac calibration took over 5 hours due to distorted measurement tones, which after week 2 - 3, have for some reason become very frequent dangers and hinders to my speakers and basic operation.
I have 5 pages of bugs, reported to Arcam and only one meagre response asking me what software they can use to open the EDID bin files I shared with them about a 3D issue I thought was a bug but is not (I previously informed them of the setting I changed to fix the issue). I have had my ears damaged by frequent loud pops and bangs - just had some, in fact from speakers and subwoofer playing a DTS-HD track - which, along with Atmos/ Atmos based setups, are an utter nightmare and danger to people's equipment and ears.
Overall, I am extremely disappointed and severely ashamed of Arcam for releasing a broken range of products. It is an abuse of long standing customer's and new customer's good-will, hopes and expectations - I feel embarrassed for the latter, and I myself am a little embarrassed when asked by inquisitive forum members, 'how are you getting on with your AVR30?', or, 'how are you finding your AVR30'. So, I tell them like how it is, the best sound I have had but very bad overall, or I tell them to read the owner's thread, or this post. It is simply inexcusable.
I purchased the AVR30 on a hunch that it would be good for me. I did not get on fully well with the AVR550 and reverted back to my Yamaha A3070 at the time. After realising again the limitations of my A3070 and YPAO, and finding out that the HDA range share the same ESS Sabre Pro DAC as the A3070, which I absolutely love and think the best DAC I have heard, I felt it could be the perfect balance and AVR for me. My hunch proved correct: it truly is, from a sound perspective the AVR30 is my dream AVR, combining the energy, wide soundstage and clarity my A3070 had (I think a large part of this is the same DAC used) with the magic of Dirac. But everything else about it has dashed my hopes - not even hopes, but normal and fair expectations of a working product, this was not even a major thought, because I really thought that the soon to be released version 1.36 firmware at the time I purchased my unit, would fix most of the bugs and I would be OK. This has not been the case. But I am sticking things out for now as I am hoping for a new FW soon. But given the regression of the current FW, I have little hope. Still, I will wait and see. For me, time is now the keeper of these machines. And that will determine if I will be the keeper of the AVR30.