Attempted to Hear an Arcam this Weekend

Holydoc

But it failed miserably. I went to the Arcam locator and found a shop in Huntsville, Alabama that was suppose to have them, Audio Insight. Once I got to the shop, I was disappointed to find that they only carried Anthem. Not a total 5.5 hour waste of a trip since I had a good lady friend in Huntsville but a bit disappointing.

However while I was at Audio Insight I was able to listen to a nice selection of Martin Logans being pushed by the Anthem line. Clarity was awesome and a pleasure to listen to. Since I was not out to purchase speakers, I had not brought along any of my own CD's so I will not give you a comparison of sounds in my set-up and the Martin Logans. I can state that though they sounded wonderful instore, they are very expensive (in comparison) and look kind of funny. Now my companion thought they were very appealing in looks, but I have my reservations about such a long grill with a stubby cabinet look.

Well to make a long story short, this place only carried Anthems, Martin Logans, and Polk LSi lines. This was encouraging to see a small specialized shop that deals only in two-channel listening.

Now for my question. If you have some good links or opinions about the Anthem line (pre-pro only), I would love to hear them (do not worry about links already here. I am actively reviewing them now). They did push music quite nicely out of those Martin Logans.

Just thought I would share my field trip...

Forgot to mention... ARCAM locator has been updated to not reflect this store now. Looks like my next trip may be across the Panhandle.

Early B.

Huh? You mean you'd rather demo a component before you buy it? That's an old fashioned concept. Just buy it used and try it. If you don't like it, re-sell it. No problem.

Seriously, I find demoing audio equipment to be a waste of time. It's only fun when you're not buying something.

Holydoc

Early B. wrote:

Huh? You mean you'd rather demo a component before you buy it? That's an old fashioned concept. Just buy it used and try it. If you don't like it, re-sell it. No problem.

Seriously, I find demoing audio equipment to be a waste of time. It's only fun when you're not buying something.

Speaking about demo'ng the product, I asked the salesman what their policy for letting me take home a set of speakers or the Anthem pre/pro to try it out. He stated that I could keep it a couple of days as long as I left a credit card with them. I thought that was fair.

I also asked him if he had heard a comparison between the Anthem and the Outlaw since that would probably be my baseline. He stated he had never heard them up against each other but would be interested in my findings. It was nice to talk to a stereo place that actually even knew who Outlaw was.

janmike

I hear Anthem makes really good gear. I am in the process of looking for a HT processor and Anthem is one of the ones I will be considering (AVM20 or AVM30) among a couple other brands.

Holydoc

janmike wrote:

I hear Anthem makes really good gear. I am in the process of looking for a HT processor and Anthem is one of the ones I will be considering (AVM20 or AVM30) among a couple other brands.

Jan,

When you start testing the different brands against each other, be sure to tell us all how they compared. Good luck on your shopping.

Holydoc

Just an update. Found a dealer that has a demo ARCAM AVP-700 for $1750. He said he would let me demo it for 10 days and would meet me half-way to drop it off. I will pick it up and give everyone a review of what my untrained ears hear.

My testing procedures will be the following. Please comment on whether this will be adequate or not. I am NOT doing a blind test since $1750 investment should be very noticable without checking to see if I am fooling myself into believing it is (plus I do not have an available switcher box anymore and do not wish to have my lady swapping cables. Anything goes wrong and all the love rushes from my weekend.). If it is not immediately noticable, I will just return the unit. I will be comparing it to my Onkyo Receiver.

1) Before testing I will hook up the preamp and calibrate the speakers with AVIA.
2) Once calibrated, I will compare in two-channel mode using everything the same including the volume settings. This means physically switching the interconnects from Onkyo to Arcam between passages of music.
3) I will compare in two channel mode first. Using accoustic tracks (Eric Clapton), vocal tracks (Loreena McKennitt), and Blue Man Group.
4) All source components will be hooked up via digital connections so only the DACs of the two preamps will be tested.
5) After two-channel testing, I will test 7.1 system using a selection of Pixar and surround-around scenes.
6) Will have a few people over to see if they can tell the difference as well. BTW...none are audiophiles.

Does this sound fair? Is there anything that I may be missing or doing wrong? Anything I should be testing that I may have forgotten?

The purpose of this test is to determine if this new preamp is worth the investment at this time. Remember a negative decision on this preamp will not necessarily mean it is not as good as my Onkyo. This will just identify that the weakest link in my system may not be the source but may be something else like the speakers. Just trying to discover where I should invest my money to get the biggest "bang for the buck".

All comments are welcome.

janmike

I never actually ended up listing to any other gear but made a buying decision. I purchase a Proceed AMP5 and a Proceed AVP-S. I have the amp and will have the processor next week. Great gear IMO.

audiobliss

Wow. He'll let you keep it for 10 days, AND meet you half way to drop it off? I'd say you've found yourself a shop to do business with!

Holydoc

True to his word, we met in a parking lot half way between his store and my house. I am now in possession of an ARCAM AVP-700 preamp. Along with this demo unit, he gave me Amp interconnects, 1 S-Video for the monitor, and a brand new remote from his new AV9 demo unit (this he got to replace the AVP-700 unit). He said the original remote had finger prints on it so he swapped it out for the brand new one. All in its original box with its plastic protection film that covers the displays still in place for me to try for 10 days.

We actually sat and talked audio (for the first time I did not sound completely idiotic when talking about audio) for about 1 hour in the parking lot. He also sells Verity Audio Speakers and Bay Audio speakers. Neither I had ever heard of before. Plan on making a weekend of it not too long from now to go to his place and listen to these speakers.

www.verityaudio.com

www.bayaudio.com

Hopefully will have you a two-channel review by the end of the weekend and then a full up theatre review by next weekend.

HiPerf360

Beautiful speakers.