Proceed AVP and AVP2 upgrade

I have an AVP and have wondered the same thing myself. There is a review at www.audioreview.com under Proceed AVP that is really a review of the Proceed AVP2. The person that wrote it had an AVP upgraded to an AVP2 and was very pleased with the results. It is a $2500 upgrade and some dealers may not be comfortable doing the work so you may have to send it back to Madrigal.

I had the AVP --> AVP2 upgrade done.

You get a few nice features with the upgrade (DPL II, better bass management, DTS-ES, etc).

You also get a noticeable increase in sound fidelity. This is most obvious with 2-channel music, including DAC functionality. In fact, I sold my Mark-Levinson No.36s after getting the AVP2 upgrade because the AVP2 (IMO) did a better job w/ DAC functionality than the No.36s (the AVP was never this good w/ 2-channel music DAC).

All in all, a very positive improvement.

The biggest negative (if you already have an AVP) is that you do not get any additional connections. The fact that there is only 1 toslink connection is a major pain (XBox and DSS receiver both utilize toslink).

Burra - thanks fo the info...I've been running a seperate DVD and CD player setup, but if the AVP2 upgrade can give me better music using a single transport, it seems like a good route to go. I've been fairly impressed with the limited amount of listening I've done so far, just with the AVP. Sounds like improving 2-ch was a priority in the AVP2 design.

Burra - one other question for you...what's your opinion of the Pro Logic II music mode? I've never heard it, but I'm curious how it compares to the music surround mode of the AVP, which I find far more enjoyable than most processors' DSP modes for music. A little less focus in the soundstage, but pleasant in some ways. Does PLII improve on that any?

I honestly do not do ANY post-processing to two-channel music so I cannot comment.

Others have made positive comments, but I prefer the unaltered sound of a good 2-channel mix.