Arcam AVR390 AVR Review

[Luminous White]

There are still a lot of bugs it seems in the JBL processor (SDP-55). Had a member interested in getting one but backed off after hearing about software issues. For same reason, I have not looked at getting one for my own use.

I see. Thanks for the reply. I may be picking up the AudioControl Concert XR-8 in the next month. If so I may be able to send it to you if shipping costs aren’t abhorrent. What is the usual turn around time for you to do a review?

 

[amirm]

I see. Thanks for the reply. I may be picking up the AudioControl Concert XR-8 in the next month. If so I may be able to send it to you if shipping costs aren’t abhorrent. What is the usual turn around time for you to do a review?

If you can arrange with me in advance, I can turn it around in a week or so if needed. Audio Control is actually located near us (at least the company is). So should get to me quickly in theory.

Normal turn-around time is about 4 weeks right now.

 

[Juwieh]

Thanks very much for the review, Amir!

I own the AVR 390 for two years and use it almost daily in a dedicated, acoustically optimised listening room with excellent speakers, both for music and movies.

Actually I have never actually realised any of these flaws - to me, the sound is just great. Even at very loud volumes, I do not hear any noise or distortion.

However, I clearly hear the massive improvement with Dirac Live being turned on. Other than the poor SINAD, whose audibility can be argued about, this makes a huge difference, even though I already have an acoustically excellent room! I'd never give up Dirac Live for getting a better SINAD.

And there are not many alternatives on the market. When it comes to SINAD, NAD is apparently even less an option than Arcam. And the new Arcam series seems to be having the same flaws, as your AV40 review shows.

Thus, although it is sad that the digital section has these flaws, the AVR390 still seems to be a pretty good option to me for anyone who wants just the best sound in his home.

I am looking forward to your Dirac measurement and am curious what you will be measuring there. Particularly I'd be interested in in-room measurements for localisation accuracy, because this is really the greatest improvement that Dirac Live achieves.

 

[Luminous White]

If you can arrange with me in advance, I can turn it around in a week or so if needed. Audio Control is actually located near us (at least the company is). So should get to me quickly in theory.

Normal turn-around time is about 4 weeks right now.

Sounds good. Unfortunately they’ll probably have to send it me first as it will be a dealer employee accommodation purchase and they may not like sending it to an address that isn’t mine, and I’m in Maryland so that’s across the country twice. But we’ll see. Go figure reading this gives me some pause as it is Arcam based but that said I haven’t read a single bad review of an Audio Control product elsewhere (though reviews are few), and I hold on to some hope given that they make measurement hardware too. I’ll be in touch once I decide. Thanks!

 

[Krobar]

Sounds good. Unfortunately they’ll probably have to send it me first as it will be a dealer employee accommodation purchase and they may not like sending it to an address that isn’t mine, and I’m in Maryland so that’s across the country twice. But we’ll see. Go figure reading this gives me some pause as it is Arcam based but that said I haven’t read a single bad review of an Audio Control product elsewhere (though reviews are few), and I hold on to some hope given that they make measurement hardware too. I’ll be in touch once I decide. Thanks!

Don't suppose you could get hold of an X9? It has different opamps, DACs and must have a different DAC design than all other Audiocontrols and Arcams/JBLs so would be very interesting.

 

[Luminous White]

Don't suppose you could get hold of an X9? It has different opamps, DACs and must have a different DAC design than all other Audiocontrols and Arcams/JBLs so would be very interesting.

Maybbeeee...as that thing is very expensive, even with my connections. I would definitely want to see it tested too though. Want to start a go fund me for testing lol?

 

[amirm]

Sounds good. Unfortunately they’ll probably have to send it me first as it will be a dealer employee accommodation purchase and they may not like sending it to an address that isn’t mine, and I’m in Maryland so that’s across the country twice. But we’ll see. Go figure reading this gives me some pause as it is Arcam based but that said I haven’t read a single bad review of an Audio Control product elsewhere (though reviews are few), and I hold on to some hope given that they make measurement hardware too. I’ll be in touch once I decide. Thanks!

I can pay for return shipping so you would incur one trip to me. I think it is important that we complete testing of all the high-end offerings out there. These are expensive purchases and people need more visibility into the engineering that goes into them.

 

[rccarguy]

Does this model and the 550 suffer same issue as the 850 with large/small differences?

 

[Juwieh]

Which issue exactly are you referring to?

 

[Lukasz]

Thanks amirm, i have avr390. For me sounds very good, but...this review, I'm really worried. Where is a solution? Buy separate dac (topping d90)?

 

[hmt]

Just don't use it as a preamp and you are fine.

 

[Juwieh]

For me sounds very good, ...

Well, then where is the problem?

I also own it and find its sound excellent, and so did most of the other people. The matter is, the flaws in Amir's measurement look impressive in the charts, but in fact they are so tiny that normally you are unable to hear them, and they won't impact your listening experience.

There are other flaws that have a much greater impact. That is, the asymmetric bass management and the impact of the crossover frequency on the LFE channel. These are clearly audible, but they are not covered in the measurements. These are things that annoy me about the Arcam, not the SINAD.

Anyway, there is no AVR on the world that is good at everything. The great feature of the Arcam is Dirac Live, which in most situations easily makes up for those few drawbacks. I'd never go for a Yamaha or Denon or whatsoever (all of which I owned before) just because of a poor SINAD.
So don't let these measurements spoil your party, the Arcam sounded good before and it will continue to do so.

 

[Sanctum OF Bass]

I don’t get why this piece of junk doesn’t have a headless panther .

 

[Lukasz]

I'd never go for a Yamaha or Denon or whatsoever (all of which I owned before) just because of a poor SINAD.
So don't let these measurements spoil your party, the Arcam sounded good before and it will continue to do so.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your response. Generally there's no problem, I like over thinking sometimes
about details. I also think that compering Yamaha and Denon, Arcam is the best. Now I enjoy listening to my
stuff.

 

[aronake]

Does this model and the 550 suffer same issue as the 850 with large/small differences?

I'd be very interested to know this too. Considering buying an Arcam AVR390 or 550 as I really like DIRAC (have a mini DSP DDRC-2D for 2 chanel which I really like). I would run it for movies only but with external amps, so speaker setting would be small. So if small helps the AVR390 to work, that could be a good option.

 

[Krobar]

Does this model and the 550 suffer same issue as the 850 with large/small differences?

I'm pretty sure that large / small bug that was reported was a mistake in testing. Good proof of this was the SDP-55 review vs the Arcam AV40 review, the DSPs and software for these two are identical and I dont think it was a software fix. The Denon correction that was published within a month of these tests was in exactly the same area too.

 

[BlackSpider777]

hi all,

Is the Arcam AVR550 a good buy still? getting a killer deal on it & was wondering if it will eb a upgrade from my Nad T758v3?

Thanks.

 

[TabCam]

I consider it still current. It is just missing hdmi 2.1 and e-arc but I have no use for that tight mow. I do not how much of a step it will be as I reckon Dirac Live makes the biggest impact. If you do not use full Dirac Live yet, it probably is. It also depends on your partnerring equipment, loudspeakers foremost.

 

[Anterantz]

Well, then where is the problem?

I also own it and find its sound excellent, and so did most of the other people. The matter is, the flaws in Amir's measurement look impressive in the charts, but in fact they are so tiny that normally you are unable to hear them, and they won't impact your listening experience.

There are other flaws that have a much greater impact. That is, the asymmetric bass management and the impact of the crossover frequency on the LFE channel. These are clearly audible, but they are not covered in the measurements. These are things that annoy me about the Arcam, not the SINAD.

Anyway, there is no AVR on the world that is good at everything. The great feature of the Arcam is Dirac Live, which in most situations easily makes up for those few drawbacks. I'd never go for a Yamaha or Denon or whatsoever (all of which I owned before) just because of a poor SINAD.
So don't let these measurements spoil your party, the Arcam sounded good before and it will continue to do so.

For those of you who hate yamaha or denon so much you could be more fair and compare apples to apples because arcam costs like twice a japanese! If some day arcam, no one is capable of making an 11-channel av while respecting its famous sound quality, because spending € 4,000 on 7 channels would be to kill them if they were not heard properly.

 

[Brentvdg]

Thanks amirm, i have avr390. For me sounds very good, but...this review, I'm really worried. Where is a solution? Buy separate dac (topping d90)?

Hi All,

I'm in the same boat here. I have the 390, and trying to optimize my experience with it. I'm just getting back into higher end audio after 15 years, so I'm shaking off a lot of rust!

Would the consensus be to buy an external DAC/streamer if I listened to a lot of Spotify, and go analog into the Arcam from that? It still applies Dirac to the analog instead, so I don't think I'm bypassing that capability.

Another thing I'm fuzzy on from this review and thread is the performance of the preamp outs. I have Buchardt s300's which are 4 ohm, so I put an old adcom 5400 on those.

Any thoughts on these things?

Thanks!
Brent