It does seem we agree. I suppose it’s a half filled thing on how you look at it. Most AVRs are fine in most situations, and I believe that is true. But none of them are remarkable for being SOTA. At least not yet. Does it even matter at a certain point? I’m still of the camp that thinks let’s make them sing perfectly and then we can discuss how much is enough. I don’t think we are there yet with AVRs. So I guess I’m still a bit glass half full.
Amir wrote very nice words about Storm Audio, but considering the price, it´d rather be a good processor!
Still, I hope someone on marketing from an AVR/AVP manufacturer takes a look around here and considers that getting a well-measuring device with solid functionalities (room EQ, nice menus...) is worth it and may consider ASR as the authorized independent voice to confirm it (without excluding other objective reviewers such as Gene in Audioholics).
My money waits for the Pioneer,it's out and at a grand less with Dirac already onboard,not a future 250 buck or so update it's a no brainer to me at least
Why would movie soundtracks be any lesser quality than music?!? There are plenty of dynamic sota movie soundtracks that blew away most stereo recordings especially older ones.This whole avrs are bad for music is ancient audiophile hogwash.Guaranteed any of the avrs you're are looking for sound just as good if not better than your NAD with every kind of music.There is no magic in the wires in the box.As long as the dac is adequate and enough power per channel to handle your listening space the only real difference is which room eq you prefer.Room eq will make the biggest difference compared to what you have now.Dirac seems to be the best with Audessey right behind it.
In fact, I´d say an AVR gets you, coin by coin, a better value than a lot of integrated amps. You have several channels of amplification, subwoofer management, room EQ, possibility to listen to multichannel music (and stereo, of course!), a decent phono stage if you also like vynil... And all in a very single package! If we take a look at Amir´s performance tests, a lot of AVR´s are not far from very average systems. With the popularization of class D Hypex and Purifi amps in AVR´s, they may actually get a chance to become part of the "transparency guaranteed" club in a not so distant future.