This is a review and detailed measurements of the Arcam AVR390 Audio/Video Receiver (AVR). It is a 7.1.4 unit kindly purchased and drop shipped to me (refurbished unit). It seems to have been announced back in 2017 and available in 2018. I don't know if it is still a current unit or not. It seems to cost US $1,499 from what I can find online.
Note: our company, Madrona Digital is a dealer for Harman which acquired Arcam a while back. I am also friends and a professional colleague with founder of Arcam, John Dawson (no idea if he is still with the company -- I hope not). So feel free to read as much bias into this review as you like.
The AVR390 has a unique and rather serious look:
I found the controls a bit non-intuitive. There is a button labeled "RTN" on the remote which you would think stands for return as in go back to upper menu. But it doesn't do that and instead reserved for some oddball function on other devices. Selecting inputs on the remote puts it in a mode to control that source device rather than the AVR. Anyway, it does the job but won't impress anyone at Apple for usability.
The large vents on top allows easy peaking into the unit. There, we see a giant void in the front which I assume is for more amplification channels in higher up models. A little fan sits there in that space which never came on. The heatsinks on the amplifier are the most substantial I have seen on any AVR which massive fins (2 to 3 inches deep) and large number of packed high power discrete transistors mounted on it. This no doubt contributes to the heaviness of the unit.
The back panel shows the usual connections:
Notice that there are only 7 channels of amplification even though there are provisions for more channels, needing external 4 channel amp for those (height 1 & 2 and second sub).
AVR DAC Measurements
As usual we start with analyzing the digital to analog (DAC) converter performance. I fed the unit a 1 kHz tone with HDMI as the digital input and these are the results at the pre-out:
The AVR390 is unique in AVRs in that it limits the output to 1.3 volts at volume level = 75. You can turn up the volume after that but nothing changes in the output! Other AVRs allow the output to keep increasing, albeit often with sharp increase of distortion. Sadly, the AVR390 generates copious amounts of distortion even at this low output level (we like to see 2 volts output). Third harmonic is the highest which establishes the SINAD (a measure of noise and distortion) to a sorry 70:
This is as broken as it gets folks.
Noise level is dismal as well:
The high noise level demolishes intermodulation+noise versus level measurement:
The dashed orange is a cheap mobile phone headphone dongle!
Bad news continues in linearity test, most likely due to high noise level:
The high noise level hides myriad of sins but still, the AVR390 manages to show some jitter/spurious tones:
Multitone test shows more decent results since it is not run at full output level:
Lowering the output voltage from max of 1.3 volt improves performance some but shows other issues:
Notice that below about 0.5 volts, there is a sharp drop due to much increased noise. Our total SINAD is now down in 50 to 45 dB! This is incredibly bad for any device producing audio.
Filter response is OK:
This is one stunningly bad implementation of digital to analog conversion.
AVR Amplifier Measurements
There are multiple ways to drive the amplification from analog to digital and with "direct" mode. Let's start with the best one which is analog input with direct mode on which disables all processing including bass management:
This is quite good! Turning off Direct mode activates digitization of input and performance goes to hell:
Likely performance is limited by the lousy DAC subystem which we see when feeding the unit with HDMI:
When used in analog direct mode, performance ranks way up there:
And is respectable even across 2-channel amplifiers:
Signal to noise ratio is also very good in direct mode:
Frequency response is quite good even when the input is being digitized:
AVR Power Measurements
Here is the performance with analog input with direct and non-direct modes:
I could not get the unit to clip as it would go into protection mode complaining about excess DC on the output. Notice how much performance you lose when you digitize the input (in green) and that strange gain staging (steps).
Oddly in 8 ohm mode, it would go into clipping:
Conclusions
A great analog engineer designed the amplifier in the Arcam AVR390 and did a great job both in measured performance and proper cooling. Sadly the digital section received no scrutiny and produced some of the worst results I have seen at its max output of just 1.3 volts. Given the legacy of Arcam and marketing material for the product/brand, this is truly shameful performance.
Needless to say, as a package I cannot recommend the ARCAM AVR390. Maybe wait a few years until they are given away for nothing and buy it for its amplifiers and run them in direct mode.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I am getting killed carrying these heavy boxes around. So I asked one of the panthers to help and he pointed to his thin arm and asked if I was seriously asking him to help! I need to put them on a better diet to build up more muscle mass to help me lift gear and that costs money. So please donate as much as you can using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Note: our company, Madrona Digital is a dealer for Harman which acquired Arcam a while back. I am also friends and a professional colleague with founder of Arcam, John Dawson (no idea if he is still with the company -- I hope not). So feel free to read as much bias into this review as you like.
The AVR390 has a unique and rather serious look:
I found the controls a bit non-intuitive. There is a button labeled "RTN" on the remote which you would think stands for return as in go back to upper menu. But it doesn't do that and instead reserved for some oddball function on other devices. Selecting inputs on the remote puts it in a mode to control that source device rather than the AVR. Anyway, it does the job but won't impress anyone at Apple for usability.
The large vents on top allows easy peaking into the unit. There, we see a giant void in the front which I assume is for more amplification channels in higher up models. A little fan sits there in that space which never came on. The heatsinks on the amplifier are the most substantial I have seen on any AVR which massive fins (2 to 3 inches deep) and large number of packed high power discrete transistors mounted on it. This no doubt contributes to the heaviness of the unit.
The back panel shows the usual connections:
Notice that there are only 7 channels of amplification even though there are provisions for more channels, needing external 4 channel amp for those (height 1 & 2 and second sub).
AVR DAC Measurements
As usual we start with analyzing the digital to analog (DAC) converter performance. I fed the unit a 1 kHz tone with HDMI as the digital input and these are the results at the pre-out:
The AVR390 is unique in AVRs in that it limits the output to 1.3 volts at volume level = 75. You can turn up the volume after that but nothing changes in the output! Other AVRs allow the output to keep increasing, albeit often with sharp increase of distortion. Sadly, the AVR390 generates copious amounts of distortion even at this low output level (we like to see 2 volts output). Third harmonic is the highest which establishes the SINAD (a measure of noise and distortion) to a sorry 70:
This is as broken as it gets folks.
Noise level is dismal as well:
The high noise level demolishes intermodulation+noise versus level measurement:
The dashed orange is a cheap mobile phone headphone dongle!
Bad news continues in linearity test, most likely due to high noise level:
The high noise level hides myriad of sins but still, the AVR390 manages to show some jitter/spurious tones:
Multitone test shows more decent results since it is not run at full output level:
Lowering the output voltage from max of 1.3 volt improves performance some but shows other issues:
Notice that below about 0.5 volts, there is a sharp drop due to much increased noise. Our total SINAD is now down in 50 to 45 dB! This is incredibly bad for any device producing audio.
Filter response is OK:
This is one stunningly bad implementation of digital to analog conversion.
AVR Amplifier Measurements
There are multiple ways to drive the amplification from analog to digital and with "direct" mode. Let's start with the best one which is analog input with direct mode on which disables all processing including bass management:
This is quite good! Turning off Direct mode activates digitization of input and performance goes to hell:
Likely performance is limited by the lousy DAC subystem which we see when feeding the unit with HDMI:
When used in analog direct mode, performance ranks way up there:
And is respectable even across 2-channel amplifiers:
Signal to noise ratio is also very good in direct mode:
Frequency response is quite good even when the input is being digitized:
AVR Power Measurements
Here is the performance with analog input with direct and non-direct modes:
I could not get the unit to clip as it would go into protection mode complaining about excess DC on the output. Notice how much performance you lose when you digitize the input (in green) and that strange gain staging (steps).
Oddly in 8 ohm mode, it would go into clipping:
Conclusions
A great analog engineer designed the amplifier in the Arcam AVR390 and did a great job both in measured performance and proper cooling. Sadly the digital section received no scrutiny and produced some of the worst results I have seen at its max output of just 1.3 volts. Given the legacy of Arcam and marketing material for the product/brand, this is truly shameful performance.
Needless to say, as a package I cannot recommend the ARCAM AVR390. Maybe wait a few years until they are given away for nothing and buy it for its amplifiers and run them in direct mode.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
I am getting killed carrying these heavy boxes around. So I asked one of the panthers to help and he pointed to his thin arm and asked if I was seriously asking him to help! I need to put them on a better diet to build up more muscle mass to help me lift gear and that costs money. So please donate as much as you can using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/