qirex
New Member
I don't think any current model AVR under $2500 is recommended here. That's the class where you get into larger housings, much higher quality power supplies and much more shielding than the $1000 and under world. AVRs are a shrinking market, especially at the lower end and everything is made to a price point. If you took this JBL's components and moved the power supply to the outside and put several inches and 2 layers of steel between the amps and the DACs I bet it would measure better. In my opinion it's not really fair to compare a single chip DAC or amp in its own steel box with a discrete external power supply to all those things plus HDMI switching, surround decoding, room correction, etc.crammed into one shoebox.Thank you for the solid and impartial review as always! I was hoping for better results as well. It seems perplexing that no one has yet to catch the Topping/Fosi/Aiyima/IcePower lightning in an AVR bottle.
My wish is somebody eventually makes a decent small stand-alone surround processor but that's not the market the companies build them for, which is high end and custom install where they absolutely do not want a $500 5.1 decoder to exist. The Toppings and Fosis of the world don't seem too keen on having to deal with all the baggage and expense of HDMI and surround format licensing/certification.