2. home-theater
  3. 180702-80039

Arcam AVR20 vs. Denon AVR-a110 anniversary edition...

As the title suggests, I am looking for feedback on these two specific AVR’s... I currently have the Arcam, and I love it’s musicality in my setup, which is mostly used for two channel audio. I have had Pass Labs preamps in my rig with Carver Raven 350 power amps in the past, but having a family means trying to get the most out of my rig while taking up less space.

The Arcam is a great piece for that purpose, but I am currently on my 4th one in just a year. Reliability has been their downfall. I have an opportunity to trade for the Denon pretty much even on the dollar side of things, and was hoping someone here might be able to offer e bit of insight as to what the anniversary Denon sounds like. I know they are highly regarded in HT, but I am curious as th how they compare to the Arcam in stereo operation. My speakers are Polk Audio L800’s and sources are Yamaha CDS2100, streaming audio from computer, and soon a Pro-Ject P6.1 turntable that I am restoring....

nooshinjohn

Showing 4 responses by soix

soix
10,015 posts
 

Me neither, but they are very neutral and transparent (probably why they’re used in recording studios) so were very good at clearly revealing the differences between the AVRs I compared. 

soix
10,015 posts
 

I compared the Arcam to the Yamaha driving a pair of B&W 804 D3s extensively in the in the same system with audiophile-level recordings and it wasn’t even close. The Arcam sounded just like the Denon and Onkyo while the Marantz sounded like mush. The Yammy sounded a lot like like my $10k separates while the others sounded like, well, AVRs. What we’re you listening to with the Arcam? Hope it doesn’t fail on you out of warranty. Again, good luck with that.

soix
10,015 posts
 

Good luck with those Arcams dudes!  Hope they’re worth it down the road.  Shoulda gone with Yamaha or Anthem that are both bulletproof and sound better than Arcam.  

soix
10,015 posts
 

If 2-channel and reliability are important I’d go with Anthem, but if that’s out of the budget Yamaha Aventage line would be my next choice. I got to compare Yammy directly with Arcam, Denon, and Marantz driving B&W 804 D3s in stereo and the Yamaha was the clear winner and also very reliable. It was the only one that displayed the characteristics of my much more expensive separate amp and preamp. Best of luck.

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