"It’s far and away the most musical A/V receiver I’ve ever used."

e-town’ s Steve Guttenberg discovers an A/V receiver
that might just be good enough for you.

If you’ve been looking for a home theater receiver than can do double duty as a high-quality music system, and your sonic preferences (both for music and movies) lean towards sophistication rather than exaggeration, the AVR100 might be the right receiver for you. Steve Guttenberg explores the prospects in a new review posted on the e-town web site. The excerpts below focus on performance related issues. The full review, which includes a feature list, connectivity details, etc., can be found at www.etown.com.

Arcam AVR100 Dolby Digital/DTS A/V Receiver

When I first saw Arcam's gutsy "Home theater that doesn't suck" ad for its AVR100 A/V receiver in Stereophile magazine, my heart swelled with joy. Could Arcam, one of Britain's top-selling high-end audio brands, really produce a receiver that totally decimates its mass-market competitors? Not quite, but the AVR100 is right on target with home theater-curious audiophiles. Take it from me, this thing performs that well.

The AVR100's innards look high-end; there's a massive toroidal power transformer and eight vertically oriented daughter boards. This bad boy was designed for music lovers; it bypasses the digital signaling processing (DSP) in stereo mode, so analog music signals aren't messed with. The AVR100's dynamic range control lets you dial in just the right amount of compression, which will be great for late-night viewings of "Saving Private Ryan."

Look & Feel: This is one of the handsomest A/V receivers I've ever seen. No glitz, no flash, no harsh displays, just clean lines. The controls are closer to high-end thoroughbred than to mass-market electronics. The volume control requires more than the average amount of knob spinning to effect a relatively small volume change. Same deal with the remote; the volume changes are slower than usual, but it makes it easier to get exactly the right playback level.

Performance: I spent a good deal of time just listening to CDs with the AVR100, and didn't go through the usual high-end withdrawal symptoms. It's far and away the most musical A/V receiver I've ever used. The AVR100's amp reacted confidently to anything I threw at it; it didn't get squirrelly when I pumped up the volume. It seemed a lot more powerful than the 100-watt-per-channel Technics SA-DA10 A/V receiver I'm reviewing now.

Comparisons with my $1650 list Pioneer VSX-27TX receiver were illuminating. On BB King & Eric Clapton's Riding with the King CD, the Pioneer squashed most of the air and life from the music, while the AVR100's sweeter stance let more of the masters' tasty blues tear on through. BB and Eric's voices were more believably present as well.

Then I hooked up my Wadia 860 CD player to the AVR100's all-analog 5.1 inputs. Leonard Bernstein's timeless score for "West Side Story" upped the sonic ante again. This is a very early stereo recording from 1957, but its immense soundstage puts many modern CDs to shame. The AVR100's innate smoothness and transparency eased the glare of the disc's tipped-up high-frequency balance. The Pioneer's muddled focus flattened the instruments' and voices' dimensions. On the music scorecard, the Arcam blew the Pioneer's doors off.

OK, but can this guy bust out serious home theater hijinks? I popped in David Cronenberg's auto- ... no, make that sicko-erotic flick, "Crash," and started the fun. This film, about lost souls getting "turned on" by watching, or being, in car crashes, is ghastly and unsettling. At the same time, it's superficially cold, yet wildly and wickedly sensual. In short, no one will ever confuse it with a Steven Spielberg film.

The AVR100 kept my interest pinned on the bizzarro film's story, not the sound. The AVR100's low-distortion sound is just so sweet and easy, you just accept it as real, not gee-whiz impressive. Aggressive or bright dialog is well served by the AVR100's forgiving tonal balance. But the DVD of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" didn't generate the sort of wrap-around envelopment that I get from the VSX-27TX when auditioning or simply listening to Dolby Digital soundtracks. And the AVR100's bottom-end texture and control was on the soft side of neutral. So, the home theater contest is much closer, but I'd give the edge to the Arcam because it was just plain easier to listen to.

The AVR100's FM reception is average, but its sound quality is not. It's warm and avoids the typical FM hardness. Entering presets is an intuitive process, and I had all of my fave stations stored in a few minutes.

Value: This A/V receiver's sound is crafted for sophisticated audiophile tastes. In that sense, the AVR100 is a great deal. True, the bass-management shortfall might be a deal breaker for some of you. Those quibbles aside, though, I'd say this receiver is a superb value. Once again, the AVR100's biamp-ability may be a big deal for audiophiles.

Like the ad said, it doesn't "suck." But it may not be for everyone. The AVR100's sort of "relaxed fit" sound may strike some listeners as too laid-back. If you want a sound that leaps out of your speakers and constantly calls attention to itself, then the AVR100 may not be the best bet.