If you didnt think it was that much better then dont spend the extra money on it. I just say what I think. I am not going to be buying or even considering buying one - However the 710 is appealing because it has a a linear power supply.
Also the new arc lets you set what freqs to eq to - So you can set 250hz as the highest for it to go which I would do.
Secondly it will eq to a house curve - even though its not a linear hard knee cuve a house curve is still better than flat. This is an edge this system has for those who cannot do this themselves.
I personally setup my eq manually as I know whats happening then, I also use the minumum amoutn of eq I can get away with
Although looking at whats been posted ARC only displays freq reponse it doesnt display decay so while it may look like its making big changes, these changes could actually be detrimental.
Also it uses 1/3 smoothing of its graphs - while these look pretty they dont show the true story of whats going on in a room and what its actually doing.
However I suppose for simplicity its easier to get your head round - desnt make it right though
Differences heard or not heard is where other factors are maybe playing into the situation - either the implementation isnt great, or the setup wasnt great - or the room wasnt good enough to let you hear the differences properly I dont know
If you look at it from this point of view - the oppo 105 has a linear power supply the oppo 103 doesnt.
I know the 105 has better dacs and stuff as well - but out of the 2 only 1 is classed as a good analogue stereo product. Now home theatre isnt stereo but its sound reproduction all the same so the imprtant factors are the same for both. All the decoding, precossing pre amplification and amplification is all going on inside the receiver so the power supply is affecting every stage.
Linear supplies generally sound richer and fuller and cleaner as a starting point - but then what happens as the sound gets more complex the linear keeps its soundstage where the smps doesnt it sounds muddled by comparison. The smps is injecting noise into the system as well - noise or jitter whatever way you look at it.
You bolt that onto a pair of MA Apex for example and thats where you do or dont get levels of harshness depending on other factors
can smps sound good - yes but linears are 99.999999% of the time will be significantly better.
Thats is why its in there - it would have been cheaper for them to use an smps - these can provide multiple voltages, they are cheap to buy, can provide high power for low cost and low heat - but the higher the power drawn the more nosie created.
Consider that in the deisgn of a power amp? A 5 channel power amp for example - its pulling a lot of power.
The torodial is in there for best sound quality - its the flagship product. The av receiver does so much ina system, this is where big investment is worth every penny. Chances are it will be owned years and with extra effort over the time its possible to get max performance out of it.
This is just my take on it - maybe they couldnt get a smps to have more power so they put a torodial in there.
I am pretty sure its for sound quality - look at the design of their expensive power amps - all torodial based
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram