New Arcam AVR's

@ti33er I think you are referring to the law of diminishing returns.

You could spend £1000 and get a sound that is perfectly adequate, or spend £2000 and get a sound that is 10% better (for example) and so on, so on. It all depends on what is important to you and where you want to draw the line and compromise / settle.

My line was drawn at an Arcam AVR550, an external DAC for music, a 2 channel power amp for my atmos speakers, and a mono amp on my centre. This combination brings me a lot of pleasure, and hits the spot where a lot of other (as it happens, lower cost) AVR's and amplifiers failed to really impress me.

I am probably not going to explore the new range of Arcam's because I have a set-up that I am really enjoying, and I don't have the budget to keep reaching for another small percentage improvement.
Really like this post ands sums up why I didn’t move to anthem. I’m really really happy with my kit. So much so I demoed a acram 850 with MA and by far to my ears the combo of Denon/iota KK/MK/SVS moved much better
 
Really like this post ands sums up why I didn’t move to anthem. I’m really really happy with my kit. So much so I demoed a acram 850 with MA and by far to my ears the combo of Denon/iota KK/MK/SVS moved much better
Did you try the Arcam in your room with your speakers etc, or in a demo room with different speakers?
 
Did you try the Arcam in your room with your speakers etc, or in a demo room with different speakers?
It was at Sevenoaks with MA not mine. I know the comparison isn’t the same but they showed off their best against what I have at home is my point. Pound vs quality....
 
Today I looked at the Arcam AVR20 and 30 at the Magnolia store (Best Buy) who just got them in a few days ago. I didn't get a chance to hear them, but I played around with the controls and menus. They both seem as well made as the last generation, but a few things were really disappointing. The screen is very detailed and it appears that you can perform most any function from the front panel. The problem is that the buttons are all exactly the same and their labels are virtually impossible to read. I'm not sure who decided that grey text on a grey background was a good idea, but even at eye level I just couldn't read them without great difficulty. In low light down low in a cabinet, forget it. You navigate using up/down buttons that look the same as all the others, and the enter button is kind of in the middle of the row of all the identical buttons. This is a seriously shit design! The screen is sharp with a lot of data, but small with small text. The remote is like toy, incredibly cheap-feeling for a $6,000 piece of gear. The backlight doesn't come on automatically, like an NAD, so you have to push a button in the dark to turn it on, and all the buttons feel pretty much the same.

I hope it sounds good, because so many of the fundamental basics just aren't well-designed. I'll probably still buy one if it sounds good. Not much point in listening to it at a store, so I can't comment on the sound.
 
Did they remove the OSD in favor of the small front screen and remote app?
I've heard rumors, and wonder if they are true.
 
The salesman didn't indicate this, but I didn't ask either. I can't imagine that would be the case, but I'm going to check the Arcam website and see if there's any information there.
 
I’d hope the OSD when changing Volume during a movie would be a bit more subtle than this horrible Luminescent blue and white box they currently have (like OPPO, slight translucent grey that is not so garish) - I know you can disable this OSD entirely so nothing comes on your screen, but it’s not always helpful to understand if the volume has been altered or not without some sort of OSD.
 
Wonder if we getting auro?
This guy mentions a British firm
 
Seems to me they are just using the Arcam name now to push more product.
Silly question, we not related to Cambridge audio are we? I assume we came from AR Cambridge of old, I had that wooden amp and my old man had AR17 speakers,great they were
Still loving my 390, handles everything I throw at it really well,very happy
I bet richer sounds don't help set up Dirac do they? I think for layman that might be to much
 
Looking at the spec ,new DAC
WiFi, Bluetooth,eArc Google cast
Can't see much else, pretty much just a rebadge? Has it got properseparate sub outs this time? Proper missed opportunity not getting hdmi latest spec (2.1?) What else should they have done? Guess it shows how good harmen thought the originals were...
Will they offer trade in deal as incentive to upgrade I wonder?
 
I had to laugh at this review of 550
"The included microphone makes Dirac setup easy to do. Just put the microphone at the desired listening position and tell the receiver to calibrate itself from the menu. Done."
Surely not possible? Thought there was like 20 positions to make it worthwhile?
 
Looking at the spec ,new DAC
WiFi, Bluetooth,eArc Google cast
Can't see much else, pretty much just a rebadge? Has it got properseparate sub outs this time? Proper missed opportunity not getting hdmi latest spec (2.1?) What else should they have done? Guess it shows how good harmen thought the originals were...
Will they offer trade in deal as incentive to upgrade I wonder?
No not a rebadge, new chipset, the worst bit of the old Arcam range is new.
 
Looking at the spec ,new DAC
WiFi, Bluetooth,eArc Google cast
Can't see much else, pretty much just a rebadge? Has it got properseparate sub outs this time? Proper missed opportunity not getting hdmi latest spec (2.1?) What else should they have done? Guess it shows how good harmen thought the originals were...
Will they offer trade in deal as incentive to upgrade I wonder?
As far as AVR390 to AVR10 goes I wouldn’t be rushing, but go up to AVR20 or above and you get 16 channels of processing....
 
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Looks good, although more a hands on preview of a prototype, nice seeing it playing Qobuz, OLED display also looks good, but as ever will be interesting to see if the display can be seen from the seating position for me... Also didn’t see any osd menus...
 
OLED display = one more thing that could (and will) break :)

They could have learned from Naim...
 
Really?!?
Also no mention of HDR10+ even though someone said the old ones did it, although I’ve never proved it...
 
With Naim, It's not the question whether it will break- it's just the question WHEN it will break ;)

BTW, the display costs just a few dollars in China, but repair by Naim costs a couple of hundreds of dollars. They've added some logic to show mirrored picture on display, so easy DIY swap is not possible.

I hope Arcam uses higher quality OLED displays.
 
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Lol they could just stuff in an iPhone screen ...I’ve never had one fail; until I dropped one of mine on the tarmac <cheeky>
 
I think it is a back lit TFT, not an OLED.
Certainly the grey looking black doesn’t shout OLED to me :)
 
OLED is prone to burn in which makes it a poor choice for this application in my opinion due to the static nature of the content displayed. I highly doubt Arcam have implemented some sort of pixel shifting to minimize burn in.

It's not a matter of if but when burn in occurs if they are using OLED screens which would surprise me as on the FMJ AVR's they scrimped & saved on anything they could that was not vital to sound quality.
 
So auro coming but not on av10
Weird...

All new Arcam AV receivers support Dolby Atmos, DTS: X, DTS Virtual: X and IMAX Enhanced. Later come for AVR20 and AVR30 update via Auro-3D in addition to the ingenious audio-Upmixer Auro-Matic with, only for the AVR10 not.
 
IMAX Enhanced has 4 movies you can buy... I'm surprised more AVR companies aren't putting money into licensing it so that people can watch Angry Birds 2 with iMax Enhanced audio / video...
 

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