Anyone tried an ARCAM AV8? Advice please
 

"Bob Latham" wrote in message
...
I've been trying for some time to get to the bottom of a problem I've been
having with an AV8. I have come close to buying one because in general it
is an excellent piece of kit and sounds very, very good indeed.

My problem is to do with centre speakers. My front left and right are of
late 1970s design and I'm not going to change them (still think they're
great) but matching a centre speaker would be all but impossible and in
all probability very expensive. I also don't care much for centre jobbies
as they are difficult to place and most sound quite boxy to me.

So you guessed it, for some years now I've used my Yamaha surround decoder
in phantom mode which has been fine. If I try this with the AV8 then
everything is not fine, there is just far too much centre channel in the
mix. Vocalists are in your face whilst the band is in the garden and film
dialogue is loud with sound effects diminished substantially.


Common mistake to make with 'mass market' brands like Yamaha, Pioneer,
Panasonic and Sony is to think that, just because some of their models are
cheap, they don't know what they're doing........