Question Moving from a Denon AVR-X4300H to a Arcam AV860?

[barwell1992]

So I’ve had my Denon AVR-X4300h for a long time now, my system has evolved around it fairly significantly and is very stereo focused, so I think it’s time to move onto a processor, but I’m not really shure where to start..

Setup is 5.1.2 and is in a living room so no room treatments. Nord NC500 MK2 triple channel for the front stage and a quad channel Nord MP NC502 for the rears and heights. Morduant short performance 6 fronts, Mezzo 6 rears, MA CP-IW460X center and C265-IDC atmos channels. Arcam C31 stereo pre-amp with HT bypass.

I like the Arcam sound with the Morduants as they are quite analytical so as a pairing offer a balanced sound, however I’m not totally sure how much the arcam stereo pre colours the sound in fixed gain/HT bypass mode probably a little but I can’t say I really notice it but could be an issue.

So naturally as I’ve found a good pairing in arcam kit I’ve been looking at arcams previous gen processor the Av860, would you say it’s a wise move or would I be better looking elsewhere Anthem, emotiva, marantz etc ?

Any and all advise welcome.

 

[rc789]

When I changed to the marantz sr7012 it was superior in sound quality to the pioneer sc lx701. The 701 was no where near as good as previous generations of the pioneer with air tuning. I now have an AVR550 which is an AVR hooked up to the integrated SA30. Whether the Sa30 is in the mix or not, the AVR sounds much better than the Marantz so i doubt you’d be disappointed. My speakers are easy to drive so I don’t have to worry about that. If you went for a processor you’d have external amps so as long as they were up to the job you should be okay for power. Arcam does have a gain of 31db and it seems the easiest way to get the best out of them may be to use Arcam power amps. This might not be the most suitable option but one that avoids some debates a couple of members on here have been going at for a while. I think...

 

[hidave]

I have had a few Marantz processors 8802 and 7705 then moved to arcam AV390 used as a processor which was better than the marantz Dirac in my room just works well, then i noticed that on ebay a Lexicon MC-10 which is a re-badged AV860 and its been fantastic, much better than the AV390.
The seller on ebay is still selling the Lexicons brand new sealed £2k a bargain.