AV Receivers

Thanks for the wonderful review. I think it clearly points out the same AVR250 performance advantages that we have experienced in our own testing.

I see there were a couple of minor quibbles regarding functional issues. These become more understandable when you appreciate Arcam's performance goals. A good example is the issue of "no bass management" on the 7.1-channel direct input. Doing multichannel bass management in the receiver would require multiple conversions—digital to analog in the player, back to digital in the receiver prior to applying the bass management, and finally one last conversion to analog. Not a very satisfactory solution. That's why it is always best to apply bass management for DVD-Audio and SACD in the player, as is the case with all Arcam players.

I suspect the "pops" (which couldn't be duplicated in TJN's system), and maybe the intermittent ghosting as well, are symptoms of how complex home theater systems have become, rather than any fault with the AVR250. Especially with satellite and cable, it is possible to have differential ground potentials. Couple this with the possibility of an intermittent connection on any one of scores of interconnects, and it becomes very difficult to track the problem back to the real source. This is especially true of reviewer's systems, which are constantly being torn apart to accommodate new gear. Suffice it to say, the AVR250 and its big brother, the AVR300, are currently providing artifact-free performance in tens of thousands of systems worldwide.

Thanks again for appreciating all the hard work that Arcam's engineers put into the AVR250.

Gary Warzin, President
Audiophile Systems (U.S. Importer for Arcam)