Receivers, Arcam or Onkyo?

[admin_exported]

I have an Arcam AVR-300 and I love the amp for its musical capability. The only thing is I listen to music and also watch lots of films via HD sources.

My question is are Arcam about to launch a new amp that deals with HD Audio or should I go with the Onkyo? Currenlty I use the analogue 5.1 outputs out the back of the Toshiba ep-35 (and yes I did buy HD-DVD - oh dear!!)

If anyone has any info on both...???

Spoinster

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Spoinster,
I have also got an AVR300 and have to say nothing I auditioned when I bought it came anywhere close to sounding as musical. I have not listened to the new Onkyo range, but I have heard that it is not as musical as the Arcam (not wishing to sound to nationalistic, British firms tend to focus a lot more on how something sounds rather than how it looks or what features it has).

I am not aware of anything that Arcam have in the pipeline, although I am sure they are secretly beavering away on the next releases (they are about due a new line up of their FMJ kit by my reckoning).

I would love for Arcam to bring out a new DiVA receiver that could cope with HD sound formats as, like you, I would be in a real quandary whether to upgrade (?) to something less musical in order to get the new formats

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Seldom,

Thanks for your reply. Looks like I'm just going to have to wait until they bring out their new range. In fact actually I bought the Toshiba ep-35 on a bit of a whim and then 2 weeks later Warner announce they were dropping HD-DVD and the of course Tosh announce the same thing just the other week. So I've decided to wait until Blu Ray players come down a bit as now I have a worthless HD-DVD player!! To be honest my DVD player and TV combination aren't so far off HD with the upscaling so can wait a little, maybe the new Arcam's wil be out then.

Spoinster

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't get sucked in by an amps ability to decode the new HD sound formats if I were you. So long as it can strip LPCM from HDMI, and you player can output that, then you are going to have very good sound. Audiolab were running the 8000AP like this from a PS3, at the Bristol Show, and the sound was impressive. As you say, British firms don't tend to major on acquiring all the latest badges for their kit, and it certainly isn't always necessary either.

 

[ROB2009]

I have just auditioned the Arcam AVR350 against a Denon AVR-3808, my priority is music quality and the Arcam won hands down. Absolutely no contest, the Denon was so flat with music I didn't even demo it with movies. Whilst the Onkyo may be better than the Denon?, I doubt that any Japanese box will come anywhere near the Arcam for out and out music quality. I personally would sacrifice a bag load of features and processed sound fields that I will never use for a quality music sound..........Only my humble opinion, though!

 

[Anonymous]

I just bought and Arcam AVR280 after comparing with Onkyo and Marantz options. The Arcam was much better for music of all sorts. My problem is the choice of speakers to go with it. I'm leaning towards Quads (21L2 or 22L2), which I used in the demos. Any thoughts?