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Arcam FMJ AVR400 AV receiver

Brit audio dynamite

Wall to wall of sound

Musically, this receiver is comfortable with both whip-cracking rock and easy listening. A streamed FLAC rip of AC DC’s Back in Black rippled though my listening room. It sounded so good that I didn’t want it to stop. More subdued fare from Japanese MOR songstress Emi Fujita proved equally enthralling. The imaging precision is pinpoint, as suddenly I was an extra in Lost in Translation.

Arcam FMJ AVR400

A sound performer, but it'll cost ya

With multi-channel movie fare, the AVR400 really began to warm its lid. Arcam itself rates power output at 90W per channel. However, during my audition, I felt there was far more muscle on tap than that. At no point did the AVR strain when all channels were driven to duress.

The AVR400 offers a fair few picture processing and output options among them Edge Enhancement, MPEG N.R (removes heavy compression artefact), Noise Reduction (helps suppress random noise within the picture) and various component RGB configurations.

However leaving the AVR on its default outputs is not always the best approach. During tests it became clear that the Faroudja Torino DSP, which sits before the output stage, was creating a reoccurring frame skip on horizontal movement (confirmed by Arcam’s senior engineer Andy Moore). By putting the AVR on Bypass it cut the DSP out of the loop and immediately cured the problem.

Of course, Bypassing the Torino out means you lose upscaling of SD sources. For what it’s worth, I’d also suggest selecting the Follow Input setting as this ensures the AVR will always output exactly the input signal (ie 1080/60 source material isn’t processed erroneously as 1080/50). Of course, with so many tweaks available you’ll have hours of fun finding the ones which work best for you.

Verdict

Of course, Arcam AV receivers won’t appeal to everyone. Quite apart from the cost, these designs also slightly idiosyncratic and most definitely British. If I knew anything about automobiles I’d pull out a pertinent car analogy here. But I don’t, so I can’t. Suffice to say this particular model is so good it threatens to make the more expensive AVR600 almost redundant. At the very least you should treat yourself to an audition, just don’t blame me if you end up buying one. ®

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Arcam FMJ AVR400

Arcam FMJ AVR400 AV receiver

Refined and stylish AV receiver with Internet radio and networked media features.
Price: £1699 RRP

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