It was time to replace my Denon AVC-A1HDA receiver.
A listening session comparing Denon to Arcam convinced me to go for the Arcam.
Since i have large and difficult front speakers i went for the AVR31.
I like the sound, but i experienced a few issues:
1# Setting up Dirac was difficult and the Windows app. crashed a few times and i had to make
a registry hack to get it working. After a few measurements i managed to get result.
The measured distance gets saved into milli seconds (mS) in the profile on the Arcam.
However to get the values in the default settings you have to recalculate the mS values
to meters using the speed of sound manually !
2# The remote controller has no button to change the source to “Display” (TV)
Fortunately using a Logitech Harmony universal remote has this function.
3# The receiver does not always autodetect the source, so you’ll have to loop through
the available modes to get sound
4# Backing up the settings using “Store USB Backup” results in a useless
ARCAM_AVR31.bak file with 0 bytes
5# No issue but for setup you have to use the small display on the device, not shown op Display.
6# probably i have to tinker a bit with Dirac Live, but the profiles it has created so far
do not improve the sound for me. I am still using the uncorrected default settings with
manually speaker distance and levels ajusted.
All things considered… yes i like the sound of this receiver. But one may expect more mature software on a receiver of this price category.