Old AV receiver that's great for 2 channel stereo?

nightrider1470 · 7 Apr 2018 at 13:42

Hoping to find a few oldschoolers here who can think of an av receiver from the past that's amazing for 2 channel stereo... Doesn't need HDMI but must have optical in.

This is for a friend of mine who just wants to use for music and movies..

I recently bought s Arcam 300 used and loving it, but its known failure rate is pretty evident! So don't really want to recommend it to him.

Any recommendations?.... His budget is £300

nightrider1470 · 7 Apr 2018 at 16:43

If Carlsberg did posts

As always thank you

nightrider1470 · 7 Apr 2018 at 20:23

For under £300?? ??

nightrider1470 · 8 Apr 2018 at 15:47

darreny said:
If it's only to be used in 2.0 then how about technics sua900.
If it's to be used as surround then one if the yamaha lucid mentioned. I have the dsp-a1 and it's pretty good with music

That technics sua900 sounds interesting !. Always wanted to try Technics, I might look into one myself

.... Wondering, how it compared to my arcam 300 via specs

nightrider1470 · 9 Apr 2018 at 20:50

darreny said:
I've had a switch around after trying different combinations at weekend and am now using my old technics amp from the early 90s as L/R power amp from my yamaha 1073 and it has given me back the smile when listening to music. It's just so much more dynamic and lively compared to the yamaha especially with youtube.
I've not setup with the room correction yet but pure direct is a joy to listen too.

Which technics amp?

nightrider1470 · 9 Apr 2018 at 21:00

nlyh said:
As far as older AV receivers go, I would personally be looking for one with a direct mode to bypass all the processing effects if you want the best stereo performance.

Using an optical in would not yield the benefits described above.

The Arcam AVR350 is a cracking unit based on the second hand prices you can pick them up for now under £300. It gives the best performance in direct mode from a source like a CD player connected via analogue RCA leads. The direct mode also provides more power and control into 2 speaker channels. It no doubt still sounds decent enough in stereo using digital in, you just don't get the benefits described prior. They are getting fairly old now though. I have one of these units still, though I replaced it on main system.

What would your friend be using that requires the optical

Chromecast for both of us... To be honest we have similar setups.

So for me to make use of direct mode, we would need to buy another DAC and connect via analogue?. …

I would be interested with a device myself that I could connect my external hard drive to and supported Hi-res audio with analogue out.... But don't have a great deal of money, and I'm sure without a high budget I'm better off with using optical and the Arcams DAC with stereo pcm mode