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Opinion on Adding Processor to skip buggy AVR HDMI

Hey Audiogon Community,

I bought an Arcam AVR360 earlier in the year, and I love the way it sounds. Unfortunately, its awesome audio performance is completely overshadowed two things:

1. Screen flickers / flaky HDMI
2. Video processor leaves weird screen artifacts (i.e., un-anti-aliased line art / fonts, or noisy MPEG decoding)

That said, I want to keep the amplification part of the amp because that part sounds amazing all the time, and is not buggy.

The AVR has analog RCA inputs on the back that I am hoping I can use to connect a processor to (skipping the AVR's internal processing and HDMI switching)

Does does sound like a crazy idea to anyone? Any red flags you see with doing this? Any suggestions on preamp/processors? I am looking at NAD and Marantz at the moment, and potentially Krell and Rotel.
unctonythetiger
5 responses Add your response
bobnegi
25 posts
 
Don't know how many HDMI devices you are running through your Arcam,
I run my Blu ray with 7.1 analog out to the processor, sounds wonderfull

That is if your disc player has analog outputs, run all your other stuff through digital coaxial, connect the HDMI cable directly to the video output device (I use an HDMI splitter for this)

If you have 7 RCA interconnects kicking around, may be worth a try
unctonythetiger OP
12 posts
 
Thanks all - quick replies below:

dbphd: Thanks - not sure an Oppo will really help me out here.

zydo: Good ideas for sure, and I appreciate the offer. The 360 is under warranty, I just dont want to send it in (this is my second one, and it isn't worth it to me to have to be without, not to mention get it back and have it have the same issue). Also, I bought it to do the HDMI switching, so its not fulfilling one of its primary jobs. My previous Marantz did this perfectly, and was way cheaper. What are your thoughts on putting a processor in front of it, and just using the 360 for amplification?

stringreen: yeah i have all audioquest pearl cables and interconnects - so should be good to go on the HDMI front.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,470 posts
 
If you haven't try good HDMI cable...I have Wireworld which I love.
zydo's avatar
zydo
242 posts
 
I would do one of two things.

Send the 360 in and have it repaired. (I assume you have swapped HDMI cables) If you purchased it new, it's under warranty. If not, I'm a dealer and can hook you up with an Arcam authorized repair center.

Run your video to your T.V or PJ and run the audio only to the 360. I'm actually using a 360 at the moment while my amp gets checked out and this is the way I'm using it.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
dbphd
1,630 posts
 
I take the HDMI-1 output from my Oppo BDP-105 directly to the projector, thereby bypassing the processor. HDMI-2 goes to the processor for audio -- though you may not need a processor with the ability of the Oppo to do speaker management, etc. The Oppo has very good video processing, and an HDMI input I use for a DirecTV HD-DVR.

db
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