RE: Re: AVR300

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Demo of AVR300 booked for 2pm at Audio-T in Chandlers Ford...
>=20
> Let me know how you get on.  Are you comparing it to anything=20
> (eg the Denon)?

Erm ... Well ... Demo now booked for 2pm on the 23rd October for a Yamaha
DSP-Z9.

OK - My thoughts on the Arcam ... I'm afraid it's gonna be a fairly random
jumble as I'm still mulling causes and effects around - the problem with
analogue audio is it's analogue and there's so many things that can change
the perception of a product.

Started out with the AVR300 hooked into a set of floorstanding PMC's - the
PMC's I know reasonably well from the studios at SDL where we used to drive
them with Bryston amps. The PMCs are a slightly inefficient speaker and
maybe not the easiest load to drive but they absolutely excell at revealing
detail - and hence any deficiencies - in the source signal. The Brystons
were capable of sinking quite huge amounts of power into the PMC's without
imposing much of a noticeable sonic signature of their own which was ideal
for studio use. Similarly the PMC's would therefore (hopefully) show up any
strengths / weaknesses in the AVR300, yeah?

Right - standard fayre "audio in movies" tracks - Chapters 12 and
24 of
"City Of Angels" - Chapter 12 has Meg Ryan lounging in a bath
with a beer,
and if that wasn't reason enough to play it then the music overlaid over
th=
e
sequence should sound quite thick and "sleepily dirty" as Ms Ryan
unwinds i=
n
her steaming bath and we voyeuristically look on. Hmmm ... Sure it sounded
good but it didn't have that dirty edge to it that I know is there.
Similarly, chapter 24 - Sarah Maclachlan (sp?) sounded perfectly
presentabl=
e
but where I would expect to feel really drawn in to Ms Ryan desperately
wanting Nicholas Cage to appear I really felt that I was watching a movie
and listening to a piece of music - again the two threads - audio and video
- didn't have that connection that I would expect.

Wheel out the old warhorses - Mike's DTS demo discs. Now Mike (not my boss
=
-
another Mike I know) has a nice setup based around Quad ESL63's, Quad amps
and Sony processor and I *KNOW* that the response of the ESL63's is
something that no moving coil loudspeaker can ever hope to match but the
sound effect tracks seemed slow and lifeless. There was little attack on
th=
e
rifle fire and machine gun fire tracks, the F1 cars track should make your
ears tingle with the harshness of the engines howling past but again that
wasn't there - this is stuff that I know his ESL63s have little trouble
reproducing and I know that the PMCs can at least make a recogniseable stab
at if the amp driving them has enough balls to do the job.

Next up - yeah, the Diva sequence from Fifth Element. Predictably the Arcam
rendered that as it had done everything else - very pleasantly and very
listenably but without the involvement that I know a good system can evoke.
Shoot me down for making such comparisons if you want but City of Angels
demo'd on a Meridian processor and DSP5000 speakers (OK so it's =A317k
wort=
h
of kit) will have you feeling horny as hell on chapter 12 and sniffing like
a girlie on chapter 24 and it just wasn't there on the Arcam.

At this point the guy from Audio-T decided to pop out to his car to grab a
couple of DVDs and Mike and I had a bit of a chat while he was out of
earshot. Mikes first comment was "It's shit..." but we did
negotiate a
little and finally agreed on "over polite" - it won't offend you,
it won't
sound awful (which a good number of AV amps can do if you try to get them
t=
o
play music) but it also won't grab you by the scruff of the neck and throw
you headlong into a movie.

Audio-T blokie back in the Dem Room we discussed this with him ...
"Ah" he
said ... "Then I don't think you're going to like the Denon then"
and blood=
y
hell was he right. Sorry but if the Arcam was best so far described as
polite then I can only describe the Denon (again on the PMCs) as dull. It
lasted about 30 seconds before we switched back to the Arcam.

Next was a 96/24 DVD of Queens "A Kind Of Magic" - here the Arcam
did make =
a
good stab at making music and again it was perfectly pleasant to listen to,
if ultimately a bit uninvolving. The thing is this is exactly the same
conclusion I came to when I had a listen to their =A36k AV8/P8 pre-power
combination a couple of years ago and I know that swapping the Arcam power
amp for a (much cheaper) Rotel power amp in that demo brought back a bit of
rawness that seemed lacking in the Arcam power amps.

Anyway - from here we started wandering in conversation ... A friend has
been toying with upgrading his KEF reference speakers to a set of the new
(and very weird looking IMO) 203 floorstanders (=A33k a pair) but hadn't
he=
ard
a set - I was told this morning that the new KEF references sound very
different to the nice warm, rounded "comfy slippers and smoking
jacket"
sound that the References of old have and I asked to have a play with the
203's that they had in at Audio-T. Jesus - what a difference from the KEFs
of old! DTS DVD of the Eagles live, start of first track - admittedly
rathe=
r
loud, 90db on the Arcams volume scale (100db is it's maximum) - came in
sounding rather bright and Mike and I looked at each other expecting things
to get painfull pretty quickly but to both our surprise it didn't. Yes,
the=
y
are nowhere near as warm sounding as the KEFs of old and they are far more
detailed but it's not harsh - that top end detail is matched with a
mid-range detail and bass details that does hold everything together quite
beautifully and we sat through several tracks of the Eagles live just
enjoying it - of course do you want to be chucking a =A33k set of speakers
(and that's for just a stereo pair) on a =A31,300 amp?

Unfortunately we'd already gone *WAY* over time and I didn't really want to
start winding through the test material again so left it at that ... And
I'=
m
back there in a fortnight to have a demo of the Yamaha DSP-Z9 which - at
=A33,300 - is going to be unfair to compare the Arcam to I suppose but
afte=
r
seeing the specs of the thing (and the features list - hell, it has a built
in Faroudja scaler for fecks sake and not only does it upconvert video
signals from composite and s-video to component but it also downconverts as
well so your component connected DVD player can be run component to the
projector and composite to your bedroom if you wish!!!) then it has to be
looked at.

The thing is I do have an AVR300 here at home now ... And I have it to play
with for a couple of weeks (it's due back when I go for the Yammy demo) and
I plan to try to let it show its best but I have a feeling it's going to
sound just a bit too polite for my liking and I don't think I can get my
Rotel back from the person I've loaned it to in time to see if that
"cures"
it...

...I wish I'd been able to afford that ruddy AX10 that Pioneer loaned me a
year and a half ago.

Phil

=20