Arcam AVR390 AVR Review

[Promit]

Far from ideal (or even enough IMO) but still much better than the usual "review" which is just some random internet guy saying "believe me it sounds wonderful". And another big "surprise", I haven't found a single review to say that one of those AVRs sounds bad ... not a single one, not even something like "well, this one is not that great". No sir, they are all great sounding and super deals. Thanks a lot "audio press".

Don’t forget that every speaker could pass for one twice the price if the reviewer were blindfolded, that subjective component impressions line up neatly by price, and that no one has ever tested a cable and found that it sounds the same as anything else.

I hate the dishonesty and general incompetence that passes for professional audio journalism.

 

[tecnogadget]

Does Anything matter?

By this logic, we should only review and discuss products that are either “in development” or not yet started development. How do you propose we get access to those products to test them out?

This Arcam series is discontinued (AVR 390,550,850,860). Current offer is AVR10, AVR20, AVR30 & AV40.

Does it matter? Most of this line of receivers are discontinued and no changes will ever be made. It is what it is.

But still don't get the "and no changes will ever be made. It is what it is."
Well, the changes are the new generation already listed above, and after Amir measures them we'll be able to tell if they improved.

 

[lashto]

Don’t forget that every speaker could pass for one twice the price if the reviewer were blindfolded, that subjective component impressions line up neatly by price, and that no one has ever tested a cable and found that it sounds the same as anything else.

I hate the dishonesty and general incompetence that passes for professional audio journalism.

There is surely a lot of incompetence but dishonesty is probably a much larger/worse issue.
It looks like the audio-industry and (most of) the audio-press are best drinking buddies and their favorite party music is the sound of cables..

 

[TabCam]

@amirm The FFT charts of the analog direct in vs analog in with DSP shows exactly the same amount of noise while the figures show a 10dB advantage for analog direct. The 10-20 kHz part of the chart is missing so I reckon the 10 dB difference should be there?

 

[amirm]

@amirm The FFT charts of the analog direct in vs analog in with DSP shows exactly the same amount of noise while the figures show a 10dB advantage for analog direct. The 10-20 kHz part of the chart is missing so I reckon the 10 dB difference should be there?

Sorry about that. Shouldn't have been cut off that way. The distortion levels are lower so that is probably contributing.

 

[thunderchicken]

Measurements for a Troels design would be great to see. I'm anxious to find out who among the diy kit designers will stand up to the tests here. Which speakers do you have?

I built the Discovery 15 design and love them to death.

 

[Krobar]

Will look into it.

Is it possible to direct it to Amir? Would be great to get some results for the new line and you can ensure the perfromance of your new purchase before committing to it.

 

[BDWoody]

Thanks. It doesn't matter much in that measurement. I don't want to stress these amps anyway so the conservative setting is fine by me.

Why not? What's the worst that could happen?

 

[Gringoaudio1]

I'm not sure when the Golden Age of Arcam was. Probably 20 plus years ago if ever. When your friend was in charge Amir they farmed out production to China where they made the most unreliable crappy products in their history. And it seems they continue to even while not made in Asia. I've had two units from the 2005-ish period. I had the terrible hum that befell these products from this era. Going into the guts of them revealed a bogglingly weird and bad design philosophy. Multiple power supplies (diode bridges regulators) and all over various boards. This required AC running throughout the unit. Potential for noise is appalling. Some boards with through-hole and some surface mount. Clearly different teams working on each board podging it all together at the end. Sorry this company has been pulling the wool over our eyes for decades methinks. Friend or not with the founder.

 

[amirm]

Why not? What's the worst that could happen?

Yeh, I wonder.

 

[amirm]

Multiple power supplies (diode bridges regulators) and all over various boards. This required AC running throughout the unit. Potential for noise is appalling. Some boards with through-hole and some surface mount. Clearly different teams working on each board podging it all together at the end. Sorry this company has been pulling the wool over our eyes for decades methinks. Friend or not with the founder.

That does sound really bad. It is possible they were in HDMI hell as well, being forced to license subsystems from other companies that they stuffed in there. Reminds of me Anthem doing the same.

Here is the kind of memory I have from John and the old Arcam:

 

[MerlinGS]

I'm not sure when the Golden Age of Arcam was. Probably 20 plus years ago if ever.

Arcam makes the JBL Synthsis SDP 55 processor. I think it is just an AV40 with a JBL faceplate. Although the units seem to have a lot of promise, their launch has been disastrous. The JBL processor initially released was basically a broken processor that failed to deliver at virtually every important level. The firmware updates have been fairly poorly handled (although fairly frequent). Each firmware update seems to lead to another set of problems. The last one seemed to be the least problematic, but the processor is still far from delivering on all its promises.

 

[TabCam]

Arcam makes the JBL Synthsis SDP 55 processor. I think it is just an AV40 with a JBL faceplate. Although the units seem to have a lot of promise, their launch has been disastrous. The JBL processor initially released was basically a broken processor that failed to deliver at virtually every important level. The firmware updates have been fairly poorly handled (although fairly frequent). Each firmware update seems to lead to another set of problems. The last one seemed to be the least problematic, but the processor is still far from delivering on all its promises.

Although I think Harman/Arcam/JBL should never have launched a v0.9 version and a lot was not delivered at launch, I do not agree that the firmware upgrades were that poor. All nowadays firmware upgrade solve issues and yes, they introduce new ones. This time they reacted relative quickly and it starts to get fully functional.

 

[Krobar]

Arcam makes the JBL Synthsis SDP 55 processor. I think it is just an AV40 with a JBL faceplate. Although the units seem to have a lot of promise, their launch has been disastrous. The JBL processor initially released was basically a broken processor that failed to deliver at virtually every important level. The firmware updates have been fairly poorly handled (although fairly frequent). Each firmware update seems to lead to another set of problems. The last one seemed to be the least problematic, but the processor is still far from delivering on all its promises.

That's fairly inaccurate. I have had an AV40 since launch and with the exception of the broken 1.24 firmware it has always been at least a stable playback device once a film/stream is running (Early firmware did have quite a few switching issues). The last 1.28 release seems to be working pretty well and a lot of users are happy with it, it still has bugs but the remaining bugs now are getting more and more specific. I demod an Emotiva XMC-2 as well and maybe it is a low bar but Harman have delivered Dirac and are in a better place with firmware than Emotiva in my opinion.

 

[jam]

Does it matter? Most of this line of receivers are discontinued and no changes will ever be made. It is what it is.

But very often it is indicative of the engineering design that may be reused on the future product lines. Many companies don't reinvent their wheel if it gets the job done however well or less well it may accomplish its task. We've seen this time and time again over the years. Redesigning electronic circuits involves added labor and production costs.

You're also forgetting the used market. Some folks that buy second hand equipment with very hard earned money when they have a very limited amount of disposable income also would like to have their cake and eat it too while hoping that it tastes good as well.

 

[jam]

That does sound really bad. It is possible they were in HDMI hell as well, being forced to license subsystems from other companies that they stuffed in there. Reminds of me Anthem doing the same.

Here is the kind of memory I have from John and the old Arcam:
View attachment 62376

Thanks for this interesting info Amir. I searched online for the presentation and found it. I haven't gone through it thoroughly yet but it seems to have a lot of usefull info about audio transport over HDMI. For those that would like to download the PDF, here it is. Enjoy!

 

[tparm]

One thought I have about all this stuff, and I get this site is Audio “Science” Review, but there doesn’t seem to be any weight given to how something actually sounds. At least in the tests I’ve read. I’m sending Amir my AVR850 because I believe it’s a piece that should be in this database and I’m curious. No matter how it measures I can say it’s the best sounding piece I’ve had in my system.

Over the years I’ve owned Martin Logans, Klipsch, Focal and now Polk LSiMs. I’ve had Anthem, Emotiva, Adcom, Marantz, NAD and now the Arcam powering my stuff and this sounds best, hands down. Unscientifically, it’s power, control, air and dynamics are superior to what I’ve heard in my room. So, even if it measures like shit, I’ll probably still use it. Or I’ll buy a Denon x3600, run it in 11 channel mode and add a Benchmark AHB2 inline for the front LR channels, even though we don’t know how that piece sounds, but we know it measures really well.....

 

[Gringoaudio1]

Yes despite a bad hum that comes and goes, the 2005 Arcam AVR DIVA 350 I have in my 3rd string system sounds lovely too when it’s not humming. So I clearly can’t hear specs.

 

[Sancus]

One thought I have about all this stuff, and I get this site is Audio “Science” Review, but there doesn’t seem to be any weight given to how something actually sounds.

That's because it's generally accepted that ANY audible difference would show up in measurements, so there's nothing to weight. There's a good thread here about what the audibility thresholds are for the things discussed in the electronics reviews. And plenty of less useful threads where people try to argue about it.

If, on the other hand, you're referring to room correction differences specifically, well that's reviewed separately and certainly does make audible changes to the sound, and those changes are captured in the room correction review measurements. The regular reviews don't engage it, if it's available in the product.

P.S There's tons more information in the explanatory articles listed in this wonderful index.

 

[GXAlan]

Over the years I’ve owned Martin Logans, Klipsch, Focal and now Polk LSiMs. I’ve had Anthem, Emotiva, Adcom, Marantz, NAD and now the Arcam powering my stuff and this sounds best, hands down. Unscientifically, it’s power, control, air and dynamics are superior to what I’ve heard in my room.

Those subjective comments point toward the Class G amp being a key strength of what you are listening to. I am looking forward that the AVR850 test.