arcam avr 600/500 vs primare spa22

[stpierre76]

Hi guys,my name is john and writting to you all the way down from australia. m currently in the market to purchase a new receiver and m torn between the arcam avr 600 and 500 versus the primare spa 22.Has anybody ever compared those 3 items?Here in australia only a very few shops carry those brands and none stock both so can not get a non biased opinion.Plus I will be purchasing receivers from the uk via online as even with freight cost it almost behalf the price here.So if anybody knows of a good reputable online dealers please advise.Thanks in advance.john

 

[Anonymous]

only one ive heard is the avr 500 from arcam which sounded so good im looking at an upgrade myself, one thing to be aware of is no pre-outs, so if you wish to add a seperate 2 channel amp at a later date you cant, this is what im not sure off?. have managed to arrange a home demo (not sure when its going to happen could be a while) before i jump straight in, primare kit is good stunning build but only heard the i30 2 channel amp.

not that i will be able to help much but what speakers and other kit do you have?

 

[stpierre76]

Thank for replyingmate.I do indeed may lean towards the cheaper arcam(avr 500) as not sure if I can really justify the massive price difference(well here in australia at least).If the only difference between the 600 and 500 is just a few features and wattage but processing and audio is the same then the 500 is for me.I m quite keen to listn to the primare but in brisbane no one stocksit only in sydney which is a bit of a bummer(like the unconventional looks of primare).One guy was telling me that primare is really good in 2ch but not so much in HT.How true is that???Have a oppo blu ray player, run a pair of focal 826 for friont and matching focal centre/rear.I currently owned the marantz sr 7002, and was told that by going to arcam I d see a considerable improvment in sound.Hope it s true.

Thanks for your time and reply

 

[Anonymous]

i belive that the major difference between the 600 and 500 is mainly connectivity no dab radio and no networking ( last two can be added i belive ) sonicly they are surposed to be very very close, have not heard your speakers so i cant comment on matching the two.

and another thing, the arcam will not out put stereo to all 5.1 or 7.1 ( use have to use music prologic to achive this, they are thinking of doing this with a furture firmware update but only thinking of it may never happen) this i only use for late night listerning which is not too often.

can download the instrustions here

http://www.arcam.co.uk/products,fmj,av-amplifiers,AVR500.htm

it did sound good

primare looks great but i have not heard it, i have eyed it up but their is about 3 models over here basic spa 22 which cannot decode hd internaly but can receive hd via pcm, with hd decoding and with hd decoding and upscaling (does you head in).

best if you can demo.