Arcam AV9 Processor
- Thread starter benleeys
- Start date
Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:
Ben,
Sorry, I do not have any experience with the AV9. But since noone with that experience has answered yet, I offer my opinion despite that fact.
The only piece of Arcam kit I have is the DV137 uniplayer. Arcam needed months after the product release to fix a number of severe issues. Those issues were show stoppers. I was THIS close to returning the player and demanding my money back. I hated that thing and the fact that I had spent over 2 grands on it!
A friend prevented me from returning it, pointing to Arcam's track record of customer support. Today I am grateful for that. In the end Arcam implemented the required fixes, well for the most part anyway. And the updated player sounds so irresistably musical that I wonder what the proponents of after market mods who have actually owned Arcam kit have to say about it.
To summarize, I believe that Arcam devices can be quirky, especially their DiVA line. When they do work, they sound great. Despite potential issues, if home theatre audio performance meant as much to me as two channel performance does, I'd probably get the AV9 myself.
It should be very good as a two channel pre-amp, also. I seem to recall a thread comparing AV9 and C31. Try the Arcam Owners' Forum:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=119
Sorry, I do not have any experience with the AV9. But since noone with that experience has answered yet, I offer my opinion despite that fact.
The only piece of Arcam kit I have is the DV137 uniplayer. Arcam needed months after the product release to fix a number of severe issues. Those issues were show stoppers. I was THIS close to returning the player and demanding my money back. I hated that thing and the fact that I had spent over 2 grands on it!
A friend prevented me from returning it, pointing to Arcam's track record of customer support. Today I am grateful for that. In the end Arcam implemented the required fixes, well for the most part anyway. And the updated player sounds so irresistably musical that I wonder what the proponents of after market mods who have actually owned Arcam kit have to say about it.
To summarize, I believe that Arcam devices can be quirky, especially their DiVA line. When they do work, they sound great. Despite potential issues, if home theatre audio performance meant as much to me as two channel performance does, I'd probably get the AV9 myself.
It should be very good as a two channel pre-amp, also. I seem to recall a thread comparing AV9 and C31. Try the Arcam Owners' Forum:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=119
ralflar,
Many thanks for your input. I greatly appreciate and value opinions from this site, more so when the AV9 costs an arm. The reviews I've come across have been very favourable, so I was very much tempted.
Intention was for it to double as an audio preamp in case I decide to retire my Classe DR6 as well. My only reservation is that it lacks a balance output since my amp is rather a distance away. Pity. Alternatively, I might simply go for a Rotel RSP-1098 or the RSP-1068 and look for a good preamp.
Pcar928fan
Well-known member
I REALLY like my 1098 but don't tell some of the folks on this forum or you might get a nice email flame for even considering such gear!
It does a GREAT job w/ surround processing in my view and with the screen on the front there are endless possibilities of what you can do with that. I personally use it to monitor all my CCTV cameras around the house while I watch other stuff on the TV. Incidentally I checked on the really high end Halcro out of Austrailia that has a screen on the front and it WILL NOT support a different picture on the screen...it will ONLY play on its built in screen what is being played on the main video output! SUCK!
Oh, you need to know that the Rotel does NOT have balanced outputs. I was surprised by this. The big Rotel amps have balanced in and I knew they did so I just figured their top of the line Pre/Pro would have balanced out...NOT!
Good luck!
I REALLY like my 1098 but don't tell some of the folks on this forum or you might get a nice email flame for even considering such gear!
Good luck!
James,
Is there something here that I am ignorant about? Pray tell.
I always thought Rotel is good value for money. The 1098 looks great; the 1068 is basically a sans TFT screen version of the 1098 and cost about equiv $700 less here. To me, it's a feature not worth paying for, though it certainly has its use. I do know there's no balanced output from these units, which is a pity. But IMHO, they are rather good for HT; for analogue, they lack in certain aspects of a good analogue preamp, so if I settle for one of these, I will be using it with a good 2-ch preamp with balance output and anologue bypass.
