Arcam AV8/P7 - attn JD.

[gazzerr]

John D,

Due to my imminent move back to the Middle East I have a short list of 2 for my proc/amp purchase, being Arcam and Tag. I had planned on waiting until the digital link for SACVD/DVD-A was established - (I believe that a standard has now been approved).

However, I now will have to buy before Xmas or wait for 4 years!Can you let me know if the AV8 is hardware upgradeable and if you intend to include any digital multi channel interface as a retro grade fit to your AV8 processor?

Do you also know which of your retailers operate the VAT refund scheme for export orders?

Thanks for your help

 

[John Dawson]

Hi Garry,

Tha AV8 is modular, so hardware upgrades that don't involve throwing away the whole of the guts are possible and expected in due course.

We are very aware of the digital interface issue (I can bore for England on this). Whilst we have not agreed what we will do in the future, not least because all the standards are not yet agreed, I can say that if the market need is there we will very likely support it. My personal favourite is HDMI (a superset of DVI that supports audio and hi res video) but there are major issues inside a processor (can't go into this as HDMI is under heavy NDA) that have to be solved. We are in the loop on this with the chip companies but note that full solutions in silicon are realistically a couple of years away from being implementable in a product, so don't get hung up on this now. FWIW the jitter figures on our DVD-A players are lower than the measured recovered jitter figures on a current digital DVD-A/SACD link that I have seen reported in the press, so the promise of better sound quality by using an all digital link is absolutely not a given - the analogue link we are using today in the AV8 is better. You will save on interconnects though with an all digital link

As far as I am aware just about all of our dealers can do VAT refunds - best to ask them in advance of course.

HTH.

John Dawson (Arcam)