vince32837

Mark, Another big plus the 990 is that its backed by Outlaw Customer Service for 5 years. You have any problems with unit, they will have it fixed inside of 2 weeks! or send you a new one! Arcam probably take 2 months??? Vince

Mark, Most other Arcam players stated that AVR300 Receiver was 95% sound quality of a AVP700 Pre-Pro. Based on your thoughts that the 990 is dead-even or better than a AVR300 receiver means the 990 is dead-even or very close to a AVP700 (which is MSRP $2200 = 2x 990 cost) The other issue is the AVP700 shuts down from static electricty every 3-4 months requiring a power cycling for most users...Unacceptable on a $2200 unit. Thanks for the additional detail to your review, Vince

Mark, I appreciate you taking the time to match up the AVR300 vs. 990. Three others have stated in PM emails to me that Arcam AVR300 sound and the AVP700 sound is near identical w/ a slight edge to the pre/pro(AVP700). These three others also stated the AVR300 and AVP700 for 2-channel music was in a different league from the 990. For DVD movies, the 990 and AVR300/AVP700 were quite close. Obviously your opinion differs from theirs. From reading your post, you use stronger verbage on the AVR300. I noticed you focused on live music recordings giving the 990 the edge...Did you listen to just plain studio recorded CD's? what was the 990 and avr300 delta there? What would be your opinion on: 1) DVD Movies: 990 is X % of a AVR300 sound quality 2) 2-channel (not live) music: if you got the chance? I am riding the fence on buying a pre/pro...the 990 and the AVP700 are on my shortlist. If the 990 is within 5-10% sound quality above or below an AVR300 I'll should join the 990 club too... But if its 20-25% below, I'll pickup an AVP700 with its static electricty issues etc.... Thanks Vince