but dont you think thats a great achievement for an AVR to play music at almost 2 channel stereo quality . ?
Companies such as Arcam, NAD and others have years of experience developing 2 channel amplification. They have also spent years fine tuning the circuitry. So, for a company like Arcam, implementing the audio circuitry in an AVR to duplicate the 2 channel amplification is not too much of a hassle. That is one of the reasons that such companies could not compete with the Denons and Yamaha. These companies looked at AVR from a different perspective. For them loudness, enhancement of low frequency and
a playing around with the sound signature to enhance a movie watching was no big deal. Companies such as NAD and Arcam, on the other hand, thought customers would be happy with faithful and transparent amplification after the decoding is done. This did not work for them.
Arcam has learnt it's lesson and in the AVR 600, it has actually built a tank of an AVR. With large amounts of power, the AVR thrusts the sound at you. Parasound was one company that understood the market well, and decided to go the processor/amplifier way so that the user can decide what he wants. Believe me, none of these companies that specialise in audio amplification as their primary business and have a passion for that, will be able to compete with the Denon's and Yamaha's at the budget range. They will all locate themselves at the top end depending upon their existing user base to grow with them.
also you mentioned " budget DVD players wont work " i dont have the budget for a DVD player right now but firstly will it make that much of a difference & secondly are the Denon DVD players any good ?
I think we have discussed this many times in the forum. You need a good player to deliver good music. An AVR/amp etc., can only amplify what is given to them. If you give them good quality sound, you will get good music amplified for listening.
A budgetary DVD Player is not meant to play music. because of the additional video and multiple audio circuitry, these manufacturers assume you are not going to use such players for 'audiophile grade sound. They will cut corners in the audio circuitry, have an inexpensive DAC, and even hope that the digital signals will be sent for better decoding at the AVR end.
Some of the players that our members are happy with are Oppo, CA, etc.
If you are really serious about music, no DVD Player less that some 1500-2000$ will do the justice a simple CD Player costing 400-1000$ can.
Cheers