Arcam AVR 350 and DV137?

Try the ARCAM users forums at www.avforums.com. They will discuss only ARCAM products over there.

I have a 350 and love it. I formerly owned an AVR300 and before that was a "Linnie" with Kairn preamp and aktiv Kabers w/3 amps. The improvement of the 350 over the 300, at $500, is the best investment in audio, IMO. The noise floor drops to nothing, rendering all instrumentation lifelike in body and spaciousness, and voice emotional quality will make you cry. When I was an audio dealer, from 1976-1998, that kind of improvement used to cost thousands, or even be unobtainable. The rest of my system is two pairs of AE1 MkIII with a REL Britannia 2 sub, and Arcam FMJ DV29 as transport (using the AVR350 DAC), Nordost cabling.

I've just today listened to the AVR 350 and DV 137 in a demo room in a hi-fi shop today.

I'm partially deaf because of a scuba diving accidident I have had recently, but my hearing is on the mend.

Anyway, even though hearing with partially muffled ears I can tell easily that this pair is a fantastic combination, and they were played through 500 GBP B&W speakers. I reckon this combo is very good value for money. A breathtaking combination.

My speakers at home are professional Dynaudio Accoustic mid field active reference monitors (with XLR balanced inputs) used in recording studios - fantastic speakers, so I'm very keen to get this pair of units home to try out with the Dynaudios.

The DV137 is having some pretty severe teething problems, according to early adopters and Arcam. Best to wait until Arcam sorts it out before buying.

I've been in the industry for going on ten years, and have owned everything from creek 5350se to meridian 500 series to marantz SR-14ex. Now it's this AVR350 and a pair of silverline sr17's, with a digital feed from a denon 2900. The only multichannel rig I've run that surpassed this one was the SR14ex with my old pair of Dynaudio Contour S3.4 (still kills me that I sold those). The SR-14 had more slam and was a tad on the warm side. The Arcam has a darker noise floor and better imaging and soundstage (gotta be those wolfson dacs). The Arcam is more accurate sounding, I'd probably only take the Marantz over it if I had a really large room or ineficiant speakers. But keep in mind the SR14 was 4500 new, whilst this is 2500, pretty big difference. You have to go to separates to get better resolution that this amp provides, and even then best bet is still Arcam. Really nice stuff.