Jim, hate to disagree with Auxinput, never heard a current crop of Japanese receivers that I would say are musical and I don’t know how Auxinput came to his conclusion, based on hearing them where and under what conditions at a Best Buy with their poor quality electronic switchers and the Yamaha units unless things have changed from a few years ago, have been losing market share for years and just recently are trying for a comeback with their new expensive 2 channel line..
We tested Nad, Arcam, Audiocontrol, Cambridge Audio, and Anthem under identical conditions hard wired to a single set of speakers and sharing the same digital source under volume matched criteria. In our shop you can actually see our four brands of surround products on the same shelf we are showing the Audiocontrol which is a better version of the Arcam and made in the same factory, the NAD, the Cambridge and the Anthem products.
https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/ms.c.eJw9zNENgDAMA9GNkJMY19l~;MURL~_H06XSzpNiOKwdW84kAW...Best sound by a country Mile Arcam/Audio Control these $3.4k-$4k receivers are incredibily musical, and come closest to real high end gear. The Arcam 550 is not a class G amplifier but a conventional one, the Class G amplifers are amazing sounding and combine the Class A sound with Class A/B efficiency, Class G is a dual rail concept which swithes from a Class A low voltage/wattage rail to a higher output one for peaks.
The fact that you are denigrating Arcam when everone in the industry lauds the Arcam as one of the best sounding receivers on the market either shows you are biased for some reason about Yamaha, which by the way very few dealers sell, and the expensive 2 channel products have been plagued with quality control issues, or you have not gotten a proper demo of the Arcam units. (Note that the $6,000 AVR 850 uses class G while the $3,400 AVR 550 uses conventional amplification.)
https://hometheaterreview.com/arcam-introduces-three-new-av-receivers/Second Best Tier: Cambridge Audio for sheer clarity and punch, Anthem for best in class room correction, The NAD’s new line of receivers were warmer and puncher without the same clarity that the Cambridge or Anthem had, a warm melodic sound fantastic feature set upgradable.
Third Class, We have tested Pioneer Elite and Denon compared to the others no contest.
The Cambride Audio CX 200/120 are amazing sounding for high performance theater and are total bargains, because Cambridge is closing them out probably to bring in a new model with Atmos.
The CX 120 was originally $2,000.00, now for $1199 the CX 200 was originally $3k close out price is $2k
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
