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Great multichannel amps do not cut it in stereo

This is more of a comment than a question.

I have been dabbling in hifi for almost two decades, and in the past 8 years or so moved into what I call 'quality' audio - as far as my budget could muster. I listen to multichannel all the time for TV and movies, but love my 2 channel set up, supported by my dedicated 2 channel amp to run stereo duties.

Since 2009 I had been lusting after the Arcam AVR600 as a no-compromise one box solution for both multichannel and stereo. With the AVR600 model coming to the end of its life I managed to land a new one for a very reasonable price compared to its original rrp. Heavy? Yes. Impressive? Yes.
However, as a two channel amplifier it did not come close to my $1500 Burson Audio integrated stereo amp in terms of detail, soundstage, PRAT etc - in my opinion.
As many have said before, you can not expect one car to be both a utility and a sports car; and you can not expect a jack-of-all-trades also be a master in one area. And this became very evident to me in my comparison.

The Arcam AVR600 is definitely a nice piece of kit, albeit it has its technical gremlins. But it simply can not keep up with a high quality dedicated stereo system, if that is what floats your boat. I can not imagine multichannel separates being much better, as these had been extensively compared to the AVR600, with most indicating a close to on-par performance.

So really, my message is that for high quality multichannel and great stereo reproduction, look for a two box solution including a dedicated stereo amplifier. Spend less on the former, and more on the latter!
128x128marcinziemski
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
yea each monoblock must be connected to a separate dedicated power line. don't forget that.
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dbphd
1,628 posts
 
As an instantiation of avgoround's suggestion, I use an analog Parasound JC 2 BP preamp with a pair of JC 1 mono blocks for stereo; for mch and HT I use a Bryston SP3 prepro, the front LR of which passes through the JC 2 BP to access the JC 1s while the SP3 goes directly to a third JC 1 for center channel and to a pair of A 23s for side and rear surrounds.

db
avgoround
287 posts
 
Dbphd's setup is really the only type of setup that makes sense if one's pursuit is to maintain the highest level of fidelity for 2 ch duties -across a wide range of 2 ch audiophile setup budgets - when doing a single location/all in one system, really. You still get the relative level of performance desired out of the multi/HT setup, while maintaining the hi-fidelity 2 ch system. Because even going for a relatively modest budget 2ch preamp, mated to quality sources w superb analog out capabilities for the 2 ch part, is almost always going to yield better sonics across the board than the same or even more money spent on a more expensive higher end AV prepro set up that's doing both the music and HT multi in one standalone AV unit! (Likely all connected up n processed in the digital domain internally, typically, which you really need for processing DD/DTS multi, IMO)
If someone has a better concept for getting better overall results with two ch as a priority, I'd like to hear about it..
michaela
314 posts
 
From what I can see the AVR600 is not a multi-channel amp, it is a receiver. They are many compromises made in the design of a receiver versus a pure power amp so I would expect a receiver to not be sonically on par with separates.You are not really comparing apples to apples.
avgoround
287 posts
 
Yes, Michael, it IS indeed a receiver. In this case, his best Sonics -by far- are to use the preout mains for left/right channel of the AVR600, looped into a better 2 ch music preamp and dedicated 2Ch amp setup for 2ch music. This is basically as I suggested.
You can forget all the massively OVER HYPED ballyhoo of reviewing gloss-overs that the hifi rags wrote on these otherwise very nice sounding AV receivers which Arcam rolled out over last decade n a half! They were simply better sounding AV gear than most Chinese made AVRs, and without Room Equalization!!
Better 2 ch can be easily had, even from passive pre/direct approach, imo.
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