Video Asylum

Posted by Harmonia (A) on June 29, 2005 at 12:08:25

In Reply to: Arcam AVR 300 posted by krv on June 29, 2005 at 06:27:36:

IMO, you'd have to spend much more and go separates to meet or exceed the performance of the AVR300, especially if you listen to any music through it. (As a high end 2 channel audiogal, most HT receivers fail on music rerpoduction for me.) This receiver is a killer for the price.

You can get better, more powerful amplification with a separate multi-channel amplifier from a high end company...for around 2.5k on up.

I compared this receiver to the comparably priced, usual suspects from Denon, Onkyo, Rotel, Marantz et al. (In fact, I've owned two Denon receivers.) The AVR300 has a better pre/pro section than many separate pre/pros I heard.

In fact, you could easily keep the AVR300 as your processor long-term and add external amps if your speaker requirements ever grow to need more wattage than the Arcam can supply.

The AVR300 is better sounding - more spacious and open, more resolving and much more dynamic - than the AVR200 (which I think is a nice receiver in its own right). I'm not wild about the tuner, but I'm not wild about the tuners in any HT receivers. (I use a vintage Luxman.) No matter how loud I played the 300, it never got hard or congested on movies or music, something I cannot say of my Denons.

If you love your current Arcam, the AVR300 is a no brainer. Don't overthink this. No receiver I've heard at the same price comes close.