What is it about Arc you don't like?
There is nothing I don't like as such, just that it could have been better if.... My feeling is simply that it is so overrated to begin with (just my opinion based on forum posts etc.) such that hearsay, that lead to groupthink, might have been the reasons their users don't seem to bother questioning anything about it. There are some who did, including me, on a few lengthy threads on AVS, but all were quickly rebut, some were helpful, among some that weren't. If you do a search, you won't find too many objective measurements of it such as REW graphs, that you could easily find by a quick search on the internet, for plenty of graphs posted by Audyssey and Dirac users.
I do have some minor issues with ARCg, that I hope via future updates, could be improved. I am not too hopeful because the majority of the more vocal users just keep praising, very few would voice their wishes for improvements, on things like the following improvements would be nice:
1) Lower the chirping tones, as it is it is so loud (probably around 85 dB, may be a little less), again just a minor thing, but something who uses small surround speakers voiced their concerns (again, often got told......blablabla, discouraging further such voices
, not Anthem's fault, just users groupthink mentality or it's just my feeling)
2) Allow the user to repeat any measurement points during calibration, Dirac is very good that way, even Audyssey apps allows that now, especially the X version. This is an important feature for a lot of people who use 11 to 15 channels, plus 2 to 4 subwoofers. ARCg does allow you to do something to limited extent, but unless I missed something, I would have to finish the whole run, before I could go back to repeat the measurements that I felt need to be repeated the various issues, such as sudden noise from pets, phone ring, whatever beeps, things starting in the house, low flying planes, sirens on the streets...etc. I have not done any calibration for months now so my memory is fading and might have remember the details slightly wrong so don't take what I said to the bank.
3) More flexibility for target curve adjustments would be great. Unlike Audyssey and Dirac, you can't just create your own curves, though they do let you make changes in things like room gains and tilt, within certain ranges they allow. I think they probably did not to avoid people from making adjustments that don't make sense to them, if that's the case, it is a good thing, but then they should allow such restrictions to be disabled, if some advanced users choose to.
4) Improve on the accuracy of their predicted FR, as it is now, users frequently posted their predicted curves, often the whole pdf files, that show very smooth and flat FR graphs for all channels. Users who use REW to check, will know the real world pictures may not be like that at all. Obviously it is room dependent, and to some extent, related to the user's skill and knowledge so some would get better results than others, but I have done many calibrations, tried different mic positions, patterns, follow different methods advocated by experienced users, dealer, online and I could never get rid of some major dips and valleys in the deep bass, without doing extensive, time consuming, trial and error type of tweaks, to get the results that could get closer to what Audyssey's app, or Dirac Live could achieve quicker and better. I posted some such graphs before (on ASR's ARCg thread if I remember correctly), if you are interested to see it.
5) No dynamic eq, that's one thing I missed, I tried the dolby one (forget the name) that apparently would do something similar, but it actually seems more similar to dynamic volume, not the same as Audyssey's. On that feature, DL doesn't have that either, with more users by the day, I would bet DL will eventually add that feature. If Audyssey and Yamaha can do it, anyone can right?
Above are just things I can quickly think of, there are more for sure, and there are obviously many positive things about it too, but I am just trying to answer your question, and hope you find it useful in you deliberations, if you are still on the fence. If you already have Anthem's, it's up to you to plot some graphs that may help you fine tune performance, or if you are happy to just trust you ears, then enjoy! It is still a great product, the included mic and stand are of excellent quality, and the product is still highly tweakable, just not as good as the other two, in terms of flexibility and "accuracy", based on my own experience. Keep in mind the fan issue, that is of course not related to ARCg, but the devices.
