Arcam AVR350 vs Onkyo 875

[madeinstein]

I know that Arcam is better for CD music and Onkyo is better for movies.

My question is really how much better is Onkyo with movies? Is it just a picture (reon upscaler) or sound as well?

My setup is going to be just 2 floorstanders for now (B&W CM7 or Tannoy RS) and maybe few more speakers to build 5.1 system later on.

 

[Anonymous]

I had to decide between these two myself and having auditioned them both (brought along my own Tacima 6 way block) which musically put the 875 on par with the AVE350 to my ears! Bought the Onkyo, feed it with a good mains and signal source and it sings, plugged in on a normal mains supply it sounds a bit muddy on music with it lacking in mid range sparkle/depth/detail.
Its brilliant on its upscalling abilities!
Analogue interconnects are the way to go with playing Cd's

 

[Andrew Everard]

to all trevor79 says

 

[Anonymous]

mmm does the Tacima 6 way block really make that much difference?

 

[Anonymous]

Having a new lcd tv, onkyo, ps3, V+ box and other gubbins, I'd like to know what the best value mains block is too. I hadn't thought of one untill I read this, and now I'm sold on the idea. This looks great value at £30. Any others to consider? What is the WH test winner?

 

[Anonymous]

this one is a the one What hifi recommends. If you search amazon theres plenty of retailers selling it for £20 ive always been skeptical about what difference these make and a new mains lead

[quote user="SAP7"]Having a new lcd tv, onkyo, ps3, V+ box and other gubbins, I'd like to know what the best value mains block is too. I hadn't thought of one untill I read this, and now I'm sold on the idea. This looks great value at £30. Any others to consider? What is the WH test winner?[/quote]

 

[madeinstein]

That's interesting, I didn't know that conditioner/filter that cost 20 quid can make such a bit difference.. unless you're talking about the one that cost 149 quid on amazon?

(Tacima) 6 Way Mains Conditioner & Radio Frequency Interference Filter - 20£
Tacima 6 Device Mains Conditioner & Filter For Enhanced Sound & Pictures - 149£

Regarding Onkyo vs Arcam.. I'm going to audition both next saturday with B&W CM7 and PMC speakers.. I will definetly ask about the power filter. Read a bit more about the Arcam today and it's missing so many features.. it looks more like music amp that av amp.

How does the HD formats work? (DTS-HD for example). If the blueray player supports it and av amp doesnt, is it possible to decode it inside the player and send a raw signal to av amp so the HD sound plays ok? Or do I need to have av amp that support HD formats?

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="madeinstein"]How does the HD formats work? (DTS-HD for example). If the blueray player supports it and av amp doesnt, is it possible to decode it inside the player and send a raw signal to av amp so the HD sound plays ok? Or do I need to have av amp that support HD formats?[/quote]
That's exactly how it works. The PS3 for example decodes all the new HD sound formats onboard and outputs them as PCM. As long as your amp is able to accept multichannel PCM via the HDMI socket, this will work fine.

 

[madeinstein]

Do you know if Arcam supports PCM over HDMI?

I guess if it does than if the Arcam is better for CD music it should be better for movie soundtracks as well? Or am I missing something?

And what about HDMI 1.3? Does it matter if av receiver supports 1.3 or not.

 

[matengawhat]

I'm fairly sure that none of the Arcam Amps accept sound via HDMI so no way of getting the new HD sound from the PS3 if thats going to be your source.

 

[professorhat]

[quote user="madeinstein"]Do you know if Arcam supports PCM over HDMI? [/quote]

No, it doesn't I'm afraid. The HDMI is for video switching only. It does have 5.1 analogue inputs though, so a Blu-Ray player with 5.1 analogue outputs and which can decode all the HD sound formats onboard would be fine.

[quote user="madeinstein"]I guess if it does than if the Arcam is better for CD music it should be better for movie soundtracks as well? Or am I missing something? [/quote]

No, it's not that simple. Musical playback and home cinema playback are very different. WHF's choice on home cinema amps is the Onkyos because they are very good at home cinema playback, not necessarily music.

[quote user="madeinstein"]And what about HDMI 1.3? Does it matter if av receiver supports 1.3 or not[/quote]

Depends on whether you want to take advantage of the things the 1.3 spec provides. If, for example, your Blu-Ray player and TV both support deep colour and you want to use it, you need a home cinema amp that can pass this on. Or, if you buy a Blu-Ray player which can bitstream HD sound formats over HDMI to an amp, and you want the amp to decode them, you'll need a 1.3 certified amp.

 

[madeinstein]

Thanks.. So it has to be Onkyo then!

Hopefully I wan't be dissapointed with the sound against the Arcam on saturday. Arcam is missing too many features and it can't really compete with Onkyo.

 

[Anonymous]

What astounded, was just how good the Onkyo 875 is playing music with the mains cleaned up. It made less of a difference to the Arcam. I suspect the diode bridge along with one or two other components are of higher quality which will gives a purer feed to the signal paths.
On the Onkyo it made a similar difference to linking up the PSX unit onto a Cyrus amp! Now that is a excellent £25ish upgrade to me!
I would strongly suggest buying a Tacima and taking it along and letting your own ears make the choice between the two. With the added features of the Onkyo it was the one for me. I would add that as my system has run in and settled down the sound staging has opened up more, is more effortless to drive along with greater verve.

 

[madeinstein]

Trevor79 just to double check with you.. you're talking about the 20£ Tacima not the 150£ one?

(Tacima) 6 Way Mains Conditioner & Radio Frequency Interference Filter - 20£
http://www.amazon.co.uk/o/ASIN/B000PS5700/026-8048730-9392401

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, that's right. It gave a good improvement to my Samsung TV picture as well. (where everything is up scaled to 1080p by my Sony HDX 970 recorder) It also acts as my main music server off its 250gb hard drive. (I discovered the Hi Fi quality by experimenting and was gob smacked!)

 

[madeinstein]

Thanks! Ordering this now

 

[madeinstein]

[quote user="professorhat"][quote user="madeinstein"]Do you know if Arcam supports PCM over HDMI? [/quote]

No, it doesn't I'm afraid. The HDMI is for video switching only. It does have 5.1 analogue inputs though, so a Blu-Ray player with 5.1 analogue outputs and which can decode all the HD sound formats onboard would be fine.[/quote]

I've had a chance to listen to both Arcam and Onkyo and Arcam just sounds better IMO. I've been researching this topic and looking at the new Denon BlueRay players which are HDMI 1.1.

I think the best setup would be BlueRay player that support HD formats and has optical outputs for each channel (like Denon DVD-3800BD) which is connected via optical to Arcam AVR350 AV Receiver, and picture goes directly from BlueRay player to TV (or via Arcam). I guess the only missing part would be deep colour support - have no idea what the difference is so can't comment on that.

 

[professorhat]

Do you mean analogue outputs for each channel? Optical is no good for HD audio as it can't handle the bandwidth.

 

[madeinstein]

yes sorry I meant analog.. but anyway check this topic looks like Denon supports HDMI 1.3a so it would be ok with deep color if connected directly to TV
http://whathifi.co.uk/forums/t/13267.aspxhttp://whathifi.co.uk/forums/p/13267/88498.aspx

 

[professorhat]

Yup, think that should be fine.