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Arcam AVR390 AVR Review

Dj7675

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Ouch. People wanting Dirac sure have to pay a price in performance to get it it seems with first NAD with the T758 and now with this Arcam. A current needs to be tested to see if things have been corrected. I like Dirac but I just wouldn't consider a unit unless it has at least average performance. And this was $2500 before it was closed out.
 

North_Sky

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Sasha

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I have the much older AVR350 (the model with no HDMI audio input, only video throughput) and while it seemingly sounds good in direct mode and has a decent amount of power, it also had some peculiar issues.

The bug I encountered was that I moved the amp from the upstairs hi-fi to the downstairs TV and suddenly there was what sounded like a ground loop hum. I checked all the cables, changed extension leads, unplugged everything and replugged one by one but it wouldn't go away. After a few weeks with it annoying me regularly and many fruitless attempts to fix it, I finally went through every option in the slightly torturous menu system and tried turning all the speaker outputs on and off alternately. If I remember correctly I had to toggle the subwoofer on and off (I had no sub connected and had it disabled in the menu system) and suddenly the hum disappeared. Toggling it on and off in a certain order would reinstate or remove the hum. Helpful.
 

stunta

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audioBliss

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Ouch. People wanting Dirac sure have to pay a price in performance to get it it seems with first NAD with the T758 and now with this Arcam. A current needs to be tested to see if things have been corrected. I like Dirac but I just wouldn't consider a unit unless it has at least average performance. And this was $2500 before it was closed out.

Yup but most other room correction does not do enough. And with no room correction you better have a really good room and multiple subs. But even with that you still need to calibrate the system in a good way. An AVR without powerful calibration is also pretty useless in my mind.

So basically if you want an AVR/Pre that actually works and has room correction and measures decently well and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg it’s the Monoprice HTP-1. But that’s still 4 grand and then you need at least 11 channels of amplification. And even that didn’t exactly measure reference. So yeah I dunno, you can’t really win I guess.
 

GD Fan

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Hopefully the new models (AVR10/20/etc.) do better than this.
 

beefkabob

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What's the cheapest way to get 5.1 Dirac in an unbroken AVR?
 

Jimbob54

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Yup but most other room correction does not do enough. And with no room correction you better have a really good room and multiple subs. But even with that you still need to calibrate the system in a good way. An AVR without powerful calibration is also pretty useless in my mind.

So basically if you want an AVR/Pre that actually works and has room correction and measures decently well and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg it’s the Monoprice HTP-1. But that’s still 4 grand and then you need at least 11 channels of amplification. And even that didn’t exactly measure reference. So yeah I dunno, you can’t really win I guess.

I have a serious question for anyone that "does" HT. Why? I totally get good/ excellent stereo kit. There is a joy to reproducing music as well as possible.

But , for me, once you have a big enough, well set up TV and a sound device that can produce enough volume to be engaging, whats the appeal? The sound on a movie is its least compelling facet. With music its everything.

I can't square investing so much $$ and room space to try and replicate the horrid overbearing sound experience in cinemas.

FLAME ON!
 

Sancus

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Yup but most other room correction does not do enough. And with no room correction you better have a really good room and multiple subs. But even with that you still need to calibrate the system in a good way. An AVR without powerful calibration is also pretty useless in my mind.

So basically if you want an AVR/Pre that actually works and has room correction and measures decently well and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg it’s the Monoprice HTP-1. But that’s still 4 grand and then you need at least 11 channels of amplification. And even that didn’t exactly measure reference. So yeah I dunno, you can’t really win I guess.

TBH we need a thorough Dirac review before it's really worth recommending to most people, given how much more expensive and painful it is to use Dirac compared to Audyssey XT32, which does a good job as was already noted in its review.

I'm not really that interested in Dirac until they finish their bass module, and IMO you aren't going to achieve good bass without at least 2 subs no matter what your room looks like.
 

Sancus

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ta240

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This is probably one of the reasons people buy fancy power, interconnect and speaker cables. "I spent a bunch on a famous brand AVR and I still don't enjoy listening to it; there must be something else wrong"
 

JamPot

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As a long time reader and admirer of this site, I thought it was time I posted.

I bought the Arcam 850 a while back a 'silver bullet' for music & moves and to reduce my box count setup of separate multi/stereo power amps and Oppo 105 (as AV processor). Amirm's review is in alignment with my experience of the AVR 850. Great as a analogue amp (particularly with the class G muscle) but terrible at everything else. The dac section (Cirrus) was pitiful & limited to 24-48khz for music and sounded so poor I used my Oppo 105 for audio conversion duties. After 6 months I shipped it out for a Denon 7200 at a third of the cost; miss the dirac and the amp section but all other aspects of performance are better. I plan to get a stereo purifi power amp and keep music separate from movies.
 

A800

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This is probably one of the reasons people buy fancy power, interconnect and speaker cables. "I spent a bunch on a famous brand AVR and I still don't enjoy listening to it; there must be something else wrong"

It's a conspiracy.
 

Dj7675

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What's the cheapest way to get 5.1 Dirac in an unbroken AVR?
Depends on your definition of broken. It would be interesting to hear from @amirm on which is the least broken... This one or the NAD T758. I would think the NAD would be the least broken because the DAC only gets terrible at -6 or worse. SINAD at 1V if 88/89. The amps in the NAD are also not rated well compared to other units either. You could, however get an external amp like an Outlaw 5000 that does not require more than 1V to be driven fully And make it work, but that is a lot of work just for Dirac in my opinion. If you read the Denon X3600 review the DAC and Amps both perform very well. Amir also did a review of Audyssey XT32 with the app and gave it very good marks as well. I had the T758 and sent it in for Amir to review and have since went with a Denon X3500H for my living room and an X8500H for my theater. In my 2 channel system I do use Dirac (minidsp shd) and like it very much. I’m just not sure either of these units are worth it considering their basic DAC performance.
 

AudioJester

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Yup but most other room correction does not do enough. And with no room correction you better have a really good room and multiple subs. But even with that you still need to calibrate the system in a good way. An AVR without powerful calibration is also pretty useless in my mind.

So basically if you want an AVR/Pre that actually works and has room correction and measures decently well and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg it’s the Monoprice HTP-1. But that’s still 4 grand and then you need at least 11 channels of amplification. And even that didn’t exactly measure reference. So yeah I dunno, you can’t really win I guess.

Doesnt the Denon 3600 do everything you want at a much cheaper price??

Amir's review of the Audyssey correction busted the myth that only dirac can do the job....
 

tecnogadget

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Doesnt the Denon 3600 do everything you want at a much cheaper price??

Amir's review of the Audyssey correction busted the myth that only dirac can do the job....
Audyssey does the job...but Diracs makes it much better, still the King of Room EQ.
Its not an apples-to-apples comparison.
 
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