So I'm looking to rebuild the home theater system

Curiousjim, 

The Market can best be divided by the Japanese brands with every feature under the sun and having decent to good sound quality

vs.

American and European brands, Arcam, Audiocontrol, Primare, NAD, that are more about sound quality.

The Arcam and Audiocontrol receivers are really special sonically, The Audiocontrol Maestro M7 receiver is an upgraded version the Arcam with an improved amplifier, and a longer warranty, both the Arcam and Audiocontrol products are made by Audiocontrol in Oregon. 

Over the years we have set up Onkyo, Integra and Denon and Marantz Receivers none of them sounded as warm, punchy and clean as the higher end brands mentioned above. 

We sell and display, Arcam, Audiocontrol, NAD, Anthem, if we can answer any specific questions please reach out to us.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

The reality is that when you build captavating home theater you don’t think about the bells and whistles instead you are drawn into the Movie, TV program or Sporting event other than good to excellent room correction, we would take a product which sounds better then one that has useless features such as transcoding, or video upconversion or other silly features.

We sell the Anthem and they are very, very good, however, they excell more at pure theater roles then the Arcam, Audiocontrol uniits which have overall better amplfication and greater musicality, which they should have for the additional cost an MRX 720 Anthem’s best selling 7 channel unit at $2,400.00 vs the Audiocontrol at $4,000.00 and the Arcam AVR 550 at $3,400.00 for a comparable bunch of channels.

So here is what we would rate in order of importance as criteria for selecting an AVR.

1: Sound quality for both music and theater
2: Quality or room correction
3: Does it have all the inputs and outputs that are required
4: Does the receiver have any streaming apps for music that I may want to access unless I am comfortable with adding an external box.
5: Reliability of product
6: Ease of servicibility
7: Upgradability modular NAD or non Modular everyone else.

These are the criteria that we value.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

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

Caphill we are dealers for both Arcam and Audiocontrol which is an even better pro version of the Arcam products and we couldn't agree with you more.

The Arcam's have been getting rave reviews for years because they sound better and although some bells and whistles are nice, such as streaming music and Dirac or ARC the most important thing is the way a unit sounds. 

The Arcam sound smooth, with great soundstaging, and wonderful tonality.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ