I spent a good bit of time listening to both units today and these are my evaluations. The receiver is a very nice unit for the money. It is not quite as good as the Arcam 500 but at over twice the price for the 500 that is to be expected, It held its own against the 350 and 280 they had. If you add the fact that it can pass True HD and DTS Master it is the better buy. The 650 is fast and sounds solid. It is not the equal to the 840C for cd playback that probably would stand to reason. I did use the Cambridge DAC for CD playback and that closed the gap some. The tonal qualities were similar but the detail I thought was good but not as good. That being said the 840 was in a set up with direct connections to every unit and the 650 was not. I decided to purchase all three units and will be getting them tomorrow. I loved the Arcam but I cannot spend that much on unit that I may well add an external amp to someday. I think the Cambridge represents a solid value in a field that is ever changing.