ARNiTECT
Established Member
Dirac Live 1 & 3 were not a problem for me to setup. I have been really impressed by Dirac, but I've not tried any other system.DIRAC is a much more sophisticated room EQ than Audyssey (which the Denon uses), however Audyssey is much easier to set up.
Thank you for the comparison, as we can't test audio equipment in the UK, due to the current lockdown, our only option is to base the decision on other's opinions. ASR reviews the new Denons as performing well for an AVR, but ASR doesn't have a review of my Audiolab 8200AP, or any Audiolab for that matter. My previous AVR was a Denon, and it was a huge step up in fidelity to my 8200AP.I have two legacy pieces of kit here for comparison - a Denon AVC-A11XV, and an Arcam AV9/P7 combo.
For surround sound, the Denon definitely does 'steer' much better and sounds more lively. That impressed me on a short listen. However, with extended listening, I found that Audyssey did too much damage to the signal, and the speakers simply disappear with the Arcam in a way that the Denon could not match (and that is without any EQ on the Arcam).
Every Denon AVR series amp I've heard has been very weak with music, with no exceptions.
I tried all options, the best to my ears was small speakers, preouts to poweramp, with Dirac enabled.Have you tried running the Arcam 550 bypassing all the processing? That is my preferred way to run all AV kit even if they have sophisticated EQ. Set all speakers to 'large' and sub to 'on' and disable the EQ.
Unfortunately for all the sophistication of modern processing, basic things like digital crossovers add a lot of distortion.
Not sure where to go next with this... I have packed up the AVR550 and plugged in my old setup, with a few practical tweaks and an audible improvement (not bridging power amp channels).I should add that switching AV receivers at this level in my view is only likely to make minor differences to sound quality. I do not agree the Anthem etc would make a large difference.
I still have a niggling curiosity based on ASR's poor reviews of the AVR390/850 and the good reviews of the x3700h/x4700h, but I am sceptical until I hear either of them.