I currently have an Arcam AVR300 which I have been very happy with, but I'm ready to upgrade (this time to a processor rather than a receiver, as I want to keep my Rotel RMB-1095). Based on the specs, I'd love an AV888 but at this point it's out of my price range. Accordingly, I've been considering at the AVP700 or the AV9 - but I'm having trouble finding anything comparative on these two. How do they compare?
Arcam AVP700 & AV9 Processor Comparisons
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The AVP700 is basically an AVR350 minus the amps. The AV9 pre will be much better, but to hear a real upgrade you will also have to spend some money on decent amps (with either processor).
Why not get an AVR500 or AVR600? Both of them will be a significant upgrade and the avr500/avr600 would be in av9 league.
The AVP700 is basically an AVR350 minus the amps. The AV9 pre will be much better, but to hear a real upgrade you will also have to spend some money on decent amps (with either processor).
Why not get an AVR500 or AVR600? Both of them will be a significant upgrade and the avr500/avr600 would be in av9 league.
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I was considering the AVR500 or 600, but the continued issues of pops and HDMI handshake did it for me, so I went with a used AV9 and a used DVDO Edge for HDMI switching/upscaling duties. I'm using it with a P90/3 for the fronts and a P1000 for the surrounds (might use the 3 spare channels in the P1000 to biamp the fronts once I get some extra cables and time to rewire my speaker cables). The whole package cost less than an AVR500 (even on offer in the sales), including a matching Arcam CD player I picked up as well.
This combo is so much better than my old Denon 2808 for CD playback, yet the AV side of things seems to be just as good (I stopped using the Audyssey on the 2808 after it helped to damage my subwoofer with some ridiculous boosting). All I need now is a new BluRay player with good analogue outputs, but the AV9 does a good job with DTS core at 1.5mbps in the meantime.
I was considering the AVR500 or 600, but the continued issues of pops and HDMI handshake did it for me, so I went with a used AV9 and a used DVDO Edge for HDMI switching/upscaling duties. I'm using it with a P90/3 for the fronts and a P1000 for the surrounds (might use the 3 spare channels in the P1000 to biamp the fronts once I get some extra cables and time to rewire my speaker cables). The whole package cost less than an AVR500 (even on offer in the sales), including a matching Arcam CD player I picked up as well.
This combo is so much better than my old Denon 2808 for CD playback, yet the AV side of things seems to be just as good (I stopped using the Audyssey on the 2808 after it helped to damage my subwoofer with some ridiculous boosting). All I need now is a new BluRay player with good analogue outputs, but the AV9 does a good job with DTS core at 1.5mbps in the meantime.
Thanks akhter & Kelvin. To respond in order:
I think my experience with the AVR300 taught me that I probably want to go the route of separates, even if it is more pricey (particularly as my speakers are Magnepans & bloom with more power). At the moment I am using a Rotel RMB-1095 power amp, but would consider upgrading if necessary.
akhter: You also point me towards the AV9 - though I've heard discouraging things about the ability of the AV9 to handle bluray codecs(?). I recently bought an Oppo BDP-83SE - a great blu-ray player w/- exceptional analog outputs - it may be worth considering for your system.
Thanks again for your input, I'd love to hear you thoughts on the above.
I think my experience with the AVR300 taught me that I probably want to go the route of separates, even if it is more pricey (particularly as my speakers are Magnepans & bloom with more power). At the moment I am using a Rotel RMB-1095 power amp, but would consider upgrading if necessary.
akhter: You also point me towards the AV9 - though I've heard discouraging things about the ability of the AV9 to handle bluray codecs(?). I recently bought an Oppo BDP-83SE - a great blu-ray player w/- exceptional analog outputs - it may be worth considering for your system.
Thanks again for your input, I'd love to hear you thoughts on the above.
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Yes, simply put the AV9 doesn't do the HD codecs, hence my next search is for BluRay player with good analogue outputs (quite high on the list is the Oppo 83 or maybe the SE model, or the new Arcam BluRay player if it ever appears).
It's a concious decision I made knowing that the Denon I had that did the HD codecs, didn't sound very good for CDs. The AV9 does sound very good with CDs (especially in direct mode, which is purely analogue and no ADA processing). The few films I've watched using just the DTS core or even the straight DD soundtrack still sounds very good...I'm not sure that the Denon sounded any better with the HD codecs TBH, so kind of a win, win situation for me as I simply wanted to improve CD playback while maintaning a quality 7.1 AV setup. Surely a good BD with internal HD decoding and analogue outputs is going to better still (I hope
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It's a concious decision I made knowing that the Denon I had that did the HD codecs, didn't sound very good for CDs. The AV9 does sound very good with CDs (especially in direct mode, which is purely analogue and no ADA processing). The few films I've watched using just the DTS core or even the straight DD soundtrack still sounds very good...I'm not sure that the Denon sounded any better with the HD codecs TBH, so kind of a win, win situation for me as I simply wanted to improve CD playback while maintaning a quality 7.1 AV setup. Surely a good BD with internal HD decoding and analogue outputs is going to better still (I hope
Bear in mind that if you plan on using the AVP700 for Bluray, you will be dependent on the Bluray players bass management (or lack thereof) for its analog outs. I continue to be dissatisfied with the level of bass I am getting from Bluray, so I am in the process of upgrading my AVP700 to an Integra DHC 80.1 which I will pair with my P1000 amp. I simly can't justify the cost of the AV888. My usage is almost exclusively for HT.
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If you wish to use the external 7.1 analouge inputs then 'yes'.
If you wish to use the external 7.1 analouge inputs then 'yes'.
Both the AV9 and the AVP700 can only decode the "old" audio codecs (DTS, DD, DPL) via coax or optical SPDIF. The HDMI port on both these units does video switching only. To benefit from the new Bluray codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DD+, DTS-HD) you will need to find a Bluray player that does native decoding and has 7.1 analog outputs, which you can fed to the 7.1 analog inputs on the Arcams. In the case of the AVP700 (not sure about the AV9), you can't apply any processing or bass management to these inputs, so all tweaks need to be done via the Bluray player. At least on my Bluray (Pioneer) the ability to tweak the anolog output is quite limited, resulting in bass that just doesn't cut the mustard. I really don't want to start changing the volume of my subs all the time, every time I switch audio sources, so I think the answer is to get a processor which can handle the decoding itself, via bitstream from the Bluray player.
At least with seperates, I can reuse the P1000 amp.
Both the AV9 and the AVP700 can only decode the "old" audio codecs (DTS, DD, DPL) via coax or optical SPDIF. The HDMI port on both these units does video switching only. To benefit from the new Bluray codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DD+, DTS-HD) you will need to find a Bluray player that does native decoding and has 7.1 analog outputs, which you can fed to the 7.1 analog inputs on the Arcams. In the case of the AVP700 (not sure about the AV9), you can't apply any processing or bass management to these inputs, so all tweaks need to be done via the Bluray player. At least on my Bluray (Pioneer) the ability to tweak the anolog output is quite limited, resulting in bass that just doesn't cut the mustard. I really don't want to start changing the volume of my subs all the time, every time I switch audio sources, so I think the answer is to get a processor which can handle the decoding itself, via bitstream from the Bluray player.
At least with seperates, I can reuse the P1000 amp.
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You can also use something like an Oppo '80 or '83 that will re encode any HD soundtracks to 1.5mps DTS which may well be good enough for many. As I mainly changed to the AV9 to improve my stereo sound (which it has in spades) I'm quite happy with the results listening to DTS 'core' which is the higher bitrate available via coax/optical when listening to a DTS MA soundtrack, hence my probably change to the Oppo soon. The AV9's analogue inputs are effectively just an 8 channel volume control (which is also why it is such a neutral sounding processor).
While there may be a slight further improvement by changing to a higher quality player with full bass management and higher end SQ, I feel it might not be worth the expense in my case. Though I will doubtless have a home demo of the Arcam BD player at some point once it's available to make sure.
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It all depends on your priorities and mine have become biased to listening to 2 channel again lately and my 'bells and whistles' HD AV amp didn't do it for me, but the AV9 does (plus is was very reasonable secondhand and has nearly 3 years transferable warranty remaining).
While there may be a slight further improvement by changing to a higher quality player with full bass management and higher end SQ, I feel it might not be worth the expense in my case. Though I will doubtless have a home demo of the Arcam BD player at some point once it's available to make sure.
It all depends on your priorities and mine have become biased to listening to 2 channel again lately and my 'bells and whistles' HD AV amp didn't do it for me, but the AV9 does (plus is was very reasonable secondhand and has nearly 3 years transferable warranty remaining).
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