As good as Onkyo?

[hunnyy]

I am considering buying a new AV amplifier; my current machine is a Yamaha AX757.

My budget is up to £1,000, and I know the Onkyo 805 and 875 get rave reviews, but a) I don't like the look of them and b) they are fractionally too tall to fit in my rack!

Are there any other amps right now I could consider that will be close in sound quality to the Onkyos, or do I need to wait until a real competitor hits the shops?

(My DVD player is a Yamaha S2700 and my speakers are Monitor Audio Gold Reference).

Many thanks.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Try the Yamaha RXV3800 which sounds great with music, and is one of the best amps around for AV purposes at the moment.

Our only concern is that any AV amp at this price point isn't going to ve getting the best out of your speakers. They're a high quality hi-fi speaker, and appreciate dedicated hi-fi amplifiers. Many of these amplifiers can bi-amp your main speakers which will help, but on the up side they'll do at least a similar job to your current amplifier.

 

[JoelSim]

Surely one of the Arcams would be better than all of these for movies and music. Some cracking deals around at the moment, such as this,

this,

this

this

and this.

There are a few choices depending on what you want to spend.

Edited by mods to avoid busting links.

 

[hunnyy]

Thank you,FrankHarvey, for your response. (My centre speaker is Monitor Audio Gold Reference also; together with Gold Reference left and right speakers, and Mission rear speakers, I'm very happy with this speaker set-up).

Would the Yamaha RXV1800 be much behind the RXV3800 in terms of sonic ability, and it's ability to reasonably partner my speakers?

Regards,

 

[JoelSim]

How do you do the links like that please?

 

[hunnyy]

Hi JoelSim, thanks for reply.

I understand what you say about the Arcams, but intend to buy a Blu-ray player in the not too distant future, so an amp with the ability to decode HD audio is one of the boxes I'm looking to tick.

 

[JoelSim]

On the video side, the AVR350 offers switching (but no scaling) for all video inputs, including three component inputs and two HDMI connections. The receiver will also convert composite and S-video inputs to component, and cross convert composite and S-Video in either direction. It will not, however, convert composite, S-video, or component to HDMI (as some competing receivers do).

The video switching did an excellent job. Even when I passed a 1080p HDMI Blu-ray source through it and displayed it on my 78-inch wide screen, I could see no degradation in the image.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not going to comment on the Arcams as I've not heard them, but I have had extensive listens with the RXV-1800 and Onkyo 875, to my ears there wasn't much in it, I have to be honest and say that I actually prefer the sound of the Yamaha. To my ear it sounded a bit better in stereo, not in power but in imaging.

Edited: House rules violation - Mods

 

[Anonymous]

hunnyy:
Hi JoelSim, thanks for reply.

I understand what you say about the Arcams, but intend to buy a Blu-ray player in the not too distant future, so an amp with the ability to decode HD audio is one of the boxes I'm looking to tick.

This is a fair point but at last we are beginning to see BD players with internal HD audio decoding and proper analogue outputs with decent bass and speaker delay management (think Panasonic BD50 for example). These allow you to port the player's multichannel outputs directly to the multichannel input sockets on AVRs like the Arcam 250/280/300/350. Note these AVRs all allow you to continue to set speaker levels in the normal way through the multichannel input. We could definitely have a full and frank
discussion over which method of transporting the audio sounds better and I hope you would not rule out older style AVRs for this reason.

It is not often realised but it is also better to decode the audio in the player to either analogue or at least PCM over HDMI as this allows for seamlessly mixing in secondary audio streams like a director's commentary or (God forbid) button beeps etc. This would apply to any BD Profile 1.1 or 2.0 player and of course all HD DVD players (which had roughly the equivalent of BD 2.0 specs from the outset).

On a separate point, yes I too would like to know how to make links that simply say "this" rather than dump the whole url. Somebody please enlighten me

John Dawson (Arcam)

 

[Andrew Everard]

John Arcam Dawson:
On a separate point, yes I too would like to know how to make links that simply say "this" rather than dump the whole url. Somebody please enlighten me

John Dawson (Arcam)

Sorry John, it's one of the foibles of the Forum software used for the site. Have just been through your site options and also Joel's, and you should now - I hope - be able to do links and things.

 

[fr0g]

John Arcam Dawson:On a separate point, yes I too would like to know how to make links that simply say "this" rather than dump the whole url. Somebody please enlighten me
John Dawson (Arcam)

PJPro has an excellent post on this forum which explains everything...

Here

 

[Gerrardasnails]

hunnyy:
Thank you,FrankHarvey, for your response. (My centre speaker is Monitor Audio Gold Reference also; together with Gold Reference left and right speakers, and Mission rear speakers, I'm very happy with this speaker set-up).

Would the Yamaha RXV1800 be much behind the RXV3800 in terms of sonic ability, and it's ability to reasonably partner my speakers?

Regards,

If a £1k is your budget, I would go for the new Sony av receiver that is out next month, the STR-DA2400es and also buy a stero amp with the rest, may be one of the Arcams for around £500 (the receiver will be similar price). You could then use the stereo amp for music and take the pre outs from the receiver to the stereo amp for when you want to have surround sound. The Sony gives you HD audio, upscaling and converts analogue to hdmi.

Joel, if I had the money mate I would get an Arcam processor and power amp and use analogue for a bluray player like Mr Arcam says. However, it's a lot of money - maybe in a few years time when I'm not being stung for childcare and the like! I am so pleased with my first dip into Arcam ownership, I can see myself getting a full set too!

 

[professorhat]

Gerrardasnails:If a £1k is your budget, I would go for the new Sony av receiver that is out next month, the STR-DA2400es
Wow, how can you be sure this will be any good?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

professorhat:Gerrardasnails:If a £1k is your budget, I would go for the new Sony av receiver that is out next month, the STR-DA2400es
Wow, how can you be sure this will be any good?

I can't be. That's up to the buyer to check it out first. I would be amazed if it didn't leap frog immediately over the Onk 606 and Denon 1909 though.

 

[madeinstein]

hunnyy I agree with Joel on Arcam to my ears it was much better than Onkyo (music wise), I haven't got a chance to listen to yamaha. The Arcam setup I've listen to was Arcam DVD player + Arcam AVR350 + PMC GB1

Two issues I found with Arcam are lack of HD decoding (you can get around that if you have analog outputs in your BD player) and second one is lack of support for HDMI 1.3 meaning no Deep Color (and yes you can again get around that by connecting your BD player directly to TV).

But after you do these two workarounds your Arcam would be just purely music amplifier for 5/7 channels and it's no longer AV Receiver.

I think you should ask yourself a question if you want an AV Receiver only for movies or for music as well.. If for movies only than buy a proper AV Receiver and forget about Arcam (or wait until there will be decent HD version of Arcam). If for both.. then forget about good music as I personally think there isn't anything on the market that can do both.

 

[Anonymous]

madeinstein:
hunnyy I agree with Joel on Arcam to my ears it was much better than Onkyo (music wise), I haven't got a chance to listen to yamaha. The Arcam setup I've listen to was Arcam DVD player + Arcam AVR350 + PMC GB1

Two issues I found with Arcam are lack of HD decoding (you can get around that if you have analog outputs in your BD player) and second one is lack of support for HDMI 1.3 meaning no Deep Color (and yes you can again get around that by connecting your BD player directly to TV).

But after you do these two workarounds your Arcam would be just purely music amplifier for 5/7 channels and it's no longer AV Receiver.

I think you should ask yourself a question if you want an AV Receiver only for movies or for music as well.. If for movies only than buy a proper AV Receiver and forget about Arcam (or wait until there will be decent HD version of Arcam). If for both.. then forget about good music as I personally think there isn't anything on the market that can do both.

Do you not find the arcams overly warm and possibly a wee bit dull with music! although it probably depends on what kinda music you listen to and what speakers your using

 

[madeinstein]

garethwd:Do you not find the arcams overly warm and possibly a wee bit dull with music! although it probably depends on what kinda music you listen to and what speakers your using

To my ears Arcam AV Receiver was better than Onkyo AV Receiver for stereo music although as you said Arcam suppose to be very warm and that's why on my next visit to my local shop I will be comparing some stereo amps Arcam, Naim, Linn (and maybe Primare if I find it in another shop). And for movies I think they're both good.

 

[Anonymous]

Ive not heard the primare! but the niam should be worth a listen you wont fall asleep whilst listening to your music on that

 

[hunnyy]

Interesting! As I'd like one (HD audio encoding) future-proofed amplifier to handle everything, and because I don't listen to CDs, (around 80% of the time it's movies around 20% it's music video/concert DVDs) I'll arrange to demo the Yamaha RXV-1800, RXV-3800, Onkyo 805 or 875 and perhaps one other.

Thanks to everyone, to-date, for their replies to my first post on this forum.

 

[Anonymous]

madeinstein:
hunnyy I agree with Joel on Arcam to my ears it was much better than Onkyo (music wise), I haven't got a chance to listen to yamaha. The Arcam setup I've listen to was Arcam DVD player + Arcam AVR350 + PMC GB1

Two issues I found with Arcam are lack of HD decoding (you can get around that if you have analog outputs in your BD player) and second one is lack of support for HDMI 1.3 meaning no Deep Color (and yes you can again get around that by connecting your BD player directly to TV).

The Arcam AVRs incorporate HDMI switches and, as such, can pass through signals conforming to any format including the much vaunted (but not really necessary) HDMI 1.3.

All flavours of HDMI support 12-bit deep colour in component (as opposed to RGB) format - indeed the DV137 and 139 output SD or upscaled video with a depth of 10 bits from their Anchor Bay scalers. But no consumer movie disc or broadcast format supports more than 8-bit colour depth anyway so this is all a bit moot.

So you should be able to route the output of a BD player or STB through your Arcam AVR to use it as a switch with no loss of quality.

HTH.

John Dawson

 

[JoelSim]

Andrew Everard:John Arcam Dawson:
On a separate point, yes I too would like to know how to make links that simply say "this" rather than dump the whole url. Somebody please enlighten me

ÿJohn Dawson (Arcam)

Sorry John, it's one of the foibles of the Forum software used for the site. Have just been through your site options and also Joel's, and you should now - I hope - be able to do links and things.

ÿ

Thanks Andrew. Will give it a go.

ÿ