I just received my Widescreen magazine and read the review of the Arcam. The review is much too glorious for me to believe there is no sponsor bias, but the AVR does have my interest. It’s the first one that’s came out in the past couple years that has grabbed my interest. Ignoring the rubbish and praise of the reviewer, and looking at the receiver’s specs, functionality, video processing chip and user interface, it does look like one hell of a receiver at a price point that isn’t really out of line. MSRP of 5K, so figure a street price of around $3500. Not too bad considering what you get. My only reservation at this point, is how well it works. Most, if not all receivers that have HDMI come plagued with bugs. The 3808 has been bug free and that, to me, means more than some perceived or real idea of sound quality. If the thing doesn’t work correctly, or has a bunch of bugs, it really doesn’t matter to me how well it “sounds” because the damn thing will find itself being thrown out a window in an uncontrollable fit of rage after a few buggy hiccups. – I’m sticking with my 3808 till it blows up. And when it does blow up, I’ll most like by another one. It’s been a nice treat to simply hit the go button on my remote and have all my stuff work right……….
