Best Musical AVR

[Samd]

This is slightly different to an earlier thread of mine cos, for various reasons, I now have to reduce the number of 'items' in use.

Could you please let me know which £1000-ish AVR you think is likely to be the most musical? Intend to sell CXA 80 and my Denon (which does very well with stereo) and, perhaps, CXC and replace with 7.1.2 AVR.

 

[CnoEvil]

This is such a subjective question...and hard to answer for somebody else.

Speaking totally personally, the only AVR amps that I could live with for music, are Arcam....but that doubles your budget.

Brands that are probably considered more "musical" would be Anthem, Marantz, Yamaha and Denon.

I think that you have to decide just what your priorities are ie. Is your main goal to have an immersive AV experience, with music much less of a priority; or is 2 channel seen as first and foremost, with reasonable AV performance being acceptable.

Most AV amps will give you a fun Home Cinema experience.....but if you are looking for "Musicality" within your budget, you will need to check out the 2 channel performance of the brands I have listed above and pick the one that makes your music collection most enjoyable.

 

[abacus]

While only the top Pioneer AV Receivers are tuned/Tweaked by Air Studios (One of the top recording studios) their smaller models aren’t too bad either, so add these to your list as well.

Another option is to go for a used (Or discontinued) TOTL model which are normally good with music and could probably be had within your budget.

Anthem are in the same price bracket as Arcam, so new are probably out of the question for you, (Just like the Arcam) but if you can stretch your budget you will amazed how good they are with music. (Not forgetting the formidable room correction software of Arcam & Anthem, which puts all the others to shame)

In the end, only you can decide by having a listen to some at your dealer.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Samd]

Anthem at first looked possible at £1600 but that's only 5.1. Arcam at 2 grand might be grounds for divorce but as my partner and I have not been married for nigh on 30 years now...!

 

[psurquhart]

Buy a second hand Arcam - an AVR450 comes in under a grand these days.

I have one hooked up with PMC speakers and for an av amp it's been awesome.

Wont do Atmos but for everything else it's been amazing for me.

 

[bigboss]

I have found Yamaha, Marantz and Denon to be musical AVRs at that price point.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Well it's a hard one this as I totally understand why your looking for a all rounder one box of tricks I am running a stereo amplifier and a Av amplifier as both music and films are important to me so I decided to have both but wish companies built a amplifier that did it all to a high standard so it pleased music lovers and film lovers

ive only tried my Yamaha 1070 using the air play for iTunes and to be honest I was surprised how good music sounded but then I am basically using my stereo amplifier though the 1070 so not sure if it qualifies as the 1070 not really doing the work really .

but the Yamaha 1070 and most of the current new Yamaha Av range supports Flac files and most of the quality streaming formats and a good onboard Dac chip and music direct button to bypass unwanted stuff to spoil your music .

In regards of Arcam AVs what experience I've had with Arcam was good with music as I used to own the Arcam Av8 and P7 power amplifier hooked up to monitor audio gold floor standing speakers but that was a lot of money back then to buy but was very good for both music and films so what a modern Arcam AVs sound like I am not sure .

maybe see if you can demo a load of different Av amplifiers to find out if any of them are any good for music it's the only way of knowing really I might just hook up my L+Rs tomorrow to find out how good the Yamaha 1070 is with music I might be surprised you never know .

 

[Leeps]

Like some of the comments above indicate, I personally think that the preamp sections of modern mid-to-high-end Av receivers are pretty good with decent DACs and most of us are using their digital inputs anyway. (I can't say the same about the analogue inputs, from experience with my own AVR).

However for music, in my opinion, where AV receivers fall down and/or differ greatly is their power/current delivery and room-correction software. That's certainly the case with my own amp. I actually like the musicality as such, but it's not as capable at controlling the bass as my previous integrated amp, despite it's significantly higher power ratings. (But we all know about AVR's power ratings!)

With many mid-to-high-end AV receivers running 9 or 11 channels, ultimately their power and grip of bass for two channels is limited. This can be solved by either running a separate power amp for your front left & right channels, or the AV direct input of a suitably-equipped integrated amplifier. Personally I'm inclined to consider the power amp for simplicity-of-use's sake. Also it means you can have a mid-priced AVR with a decent power amp. AV receivers are outdated quite quickly, so buying a high-end AVR in my opinion is a fool's game unless you buy a highly discounted previous year's model. Otherwise you're just losing wads of money with depreciation considering their useful life. At least if you had a decent power amp, you could keep that for many years, just replacing the mid-priced AVR when all the formats make it obsolete.

But the other primary area that AVR's differ is their room-correction software. And Arcam and Anthem really do lead the way here.

Personally, spec and price-wise, I'd be really interested in a Marantz SR7011 maybe adding a decent power amp in time, but the thing that does hold me back a little with this option is the Audyssey's room-correction software which I don't think is anywhere as effective as Anthem and Arcam's alternatives. Actually Anthem and Arcam's room correction software offers some users (if you had a really acoustically unhelpful room) significant benefits over an integrated amp.

So I think in the meantime I'm just going to have to save my pennies and wait for an Arcam AVR550 when it's discounted and about to be replaced! Or maybe an AVR390 and adding a power amp? So many options!!! But for you, much might depend on how good or bad your room it acoustically. If you don't suffer bad reflections and bass nodes (like my room does), then you may feel that room correction is not as critical for you. In which case, it's hard to argue with the Marantz SR7011 at the moment for about £900. Quite a lot of ability for the money, particularly when you consider you'd easily pay half that just for a streamer that had all the features it has.

 

[Samd]

and some interesting alternatives for me to consider. Anyone know where I could demo Anthem 720 please? I'm Derbyshire. So few suppliers on the web

 

[Native_bon]

Like some of the comments above indicate, I personally think that the preamp sections of modern mid-to-high-end Av receivers are pretty good with decent DACs and most of us are using their digital inputs anyway.  (I can't say the same about the analogue inputs, from experience with my own AVR).

 

However for music, in my opinion, where AV receivers fall down and/or differ greatly is their power/current delivery and room-correction software.  That's certainly the case with my own amp.  I actually like the musicality as such, but it's not as capable at controlling the bass as my previous integrated amp, despite it's significantly higher power ratings.  (But we all know about AVR's power ratings!)

 

With many mid-to-high-end AV receivers running 9 or 11 channels, ultimately their power and grip of bass for two channels is limited.  This can be solved by either running a separate power amp for your front left & right channels, or the AV direct input of a suitably-equipped integrated amplifier.  Personally I'm inclined to consider the power amp for simplicity-of-use's sake.  Also it means you can have a mid-priced AVR with a decent power amp.  AV receivers are outdated quite quickly, so buying a high-end AVR in my opinion is a fool's game unless you buy a highly discounted previous year's model.  Otherwise you're just losing wads of money with depreciation considering their useful life.  At least if you had a decent power amp, you could keep that for many years, just replacing the mid-priced AVR when all the formats make it obsolete.

 

But the other primary area that AVR's differ is their room-correction software.  And Arcam and Anthem really do lead the way here. 

 

Personally, spec and price-wise, I'd be really interested in a Marantz SR7011 maybe adding a decent power amp in time, but the thing that does hold me back a little with this option is the Audyssey's room-correction software which I don't think is anywhere as effective as Anthem and Arcam's alternatives.  Actually Anthem and Arcam's room correction software offers some users (if you had a really acoustically unhelpful room) significant benefits over an integrated amp.

 

So I think in the meantime I'm just going to have to save my pennies and wait for an Arcam AVR550 when it's discounted and about to be replaced!  Or maybe an AVR390 and adding a power amp?  So many options!!!  But for you, much might depend on how good or bad your room it acoustically.  If you don't suffer bad reflections and bass nodes (like my room does), then you may feel that room correction is not as critical for you.  In which case, it's hard to argue with the Marantz SR7011 at the moment for about £900.  Quite a lot of ability for the money, particularly when you consider you'd easily pay half that just for a streamer that had all the features it has.

Listen to an Arcam Av amp you may change your mind about real power with 2 channel music.

 

[Vladimir]

Some AVRs completely cut off frequency 60Hz down to meet their specs. They don't sound very good without a sub. Always read the fine print.

 

[Samd]

and some interesting alternatives for me to consider. Anyone know where I could demo Anthem 720 please? I'm Derbyshire. So few suppliers on the web

but as the 520 is neither Atmos nor DTS X, if only using 5.1 speakers, would the omission of those make any difference please?

 

[Blacksabbath25]

and some interesting alternatives for me to consider. Anyone know where I could demo Anthem 720 please? I'm Derbyshire. So few suppliers on the web

but as the 520 is neither Atmos nor DTS X, if only using 5.1 speakers, would the omission of those make any difference please?

Harrow hifi you can google it but the Anthem are very expensive to buy I would look at the current Yamaha advantage range at least you get Atmos and DTS and not to bad on music as I tried my 1070 out today but quality wise will never be to the same standard as a stereo amplifier .

so it's cheaper to buy a Av with pre L+Rs and connect your current stereo amplifier to the Av it works a treat for me .

 

[Samd]

and some interesting alternatives for me to consider. Anyone know where I could demo Anthem 720 please? I'm Derbyshire. So few suppliers on the web

but as the 520 is neither Atmos nor DTS X, if only using 5.1 speakers, would the omission of those make any difference please?

Harrow hifi you can google it but the Anthem are very expensive to buy I would look at the current Yamaha advantage range at least you get Atmos and DTS and not to bad on music as I tried my 1070 out today but quality wise will never be to the same standard as a stereo amplifier .

so it's cheaper to buy a Av with pre L+Rs and connect your current stereo amplifier to the Av it works a treat for me .

The Yammy 3060 is currently £1499 and the Denon 6300 down to £1200 - both were originally £2000. The Denon is being replaced this autumn I believe. My current Denon does a really good job with stereo and I am hedging towards the 6300 - can't find anyone local-ish for the Anthem

 

[bigboss]

There have been issues with Denon 6300.....I was looking at it but held back after reading the issues. People have noted a buzz/whine through all channels that is amplified by Audyssey settings. Very obnoxious at volume levels over -10db.

 

[Samd]

There have been issues with Denon 6300.....I was looking at it but held back after reading the issues. People have noted a buzz/whine through all channels that is amplified by Audyssey settings. Very obnoxious at volume levels over -10db.

Hadn't picked that up before but...

I've done some digging on this problem one, and managed to get a repair agents for Denon to admit that this problem exists. There is now a technical note in their knowledge base and the fix is to replace the DAC board and update some firmware.

Units with serial numbers greater than 6101501290 were fitted with the fixed board at the factory, and do not (should not?) have the problem.

How true I know not - just a recent post on Amazon.