Arcam Home Theater Receivers & Processor Overview

Company & Product Overview

This overview is home theater receivers and processors from Arcam - the AVR11, AVR21, AVR31, and the AV41 Processor. At Audio Advice, we have been fans of Arcam sound for over 30 years. Arcam got started in 1976 with some engineering students at Cambridge University who created an integrated amp called the A60. Ever since then, they have mostly focused on producing great value two-channel stereo products. Their gear has won numerous awards over the last several decades and we have always loved its warm and engaging sound quality. Arcam dabbled around in home theater in the early 2000s, but it was not until they were acquired by the Harman Group in 2017 that they started getting serious about home theater in addition to two-channel.

The Harman Group owns a great many high-performance audio companies, including two of our other favorite brands, JBL and Lexicon. With the deep knowledge and resources Harman could provide in the home theater world, it’s a great marriage with a company that knows how to make amazing sound with one that can handle all of the software and HDMI issues that can bog down a niche company.

Their first round of Dolby Atmos based receivers they introduced a couple of years ago totally delivered on great sound, but it was apparent the Harman software expertise was not fully embedded at Arcam yet, as they had some bugs even though they sounded incredible. We have been extensively testing the new models and are very happy to say the software works perfectly and we have yet to see any glitches at all! 

These new products are three home theater receivers and one surround sound processor. In this overview, we will go over the features they all share and get into why you might want to move up with the receiver models.

Design & Build Quality

All of the new models have a similar appearance with a darker gunmetal finish with silver knobs and buttons. What they really nailed from a user perspective, is the front panel display. Most displays these days are pretty hard to use for any type of set up as you just can not see enough to easily navigate.

All of the Arcam units have a very large and easy-to-read display with a great GUI. You can quickly navigate through menus using the front panel which is pretty cool.

Build quality is very good, which is what you should expect in this price category. The fit and finish is great, and the appearance perfectly matches some of the companion amplifiers you might want to add to some of these units.

Features & Technology They Share

You can truly tell the backing of Harman allowed the Arcam engineers to include all of the latest features you commonly see on mainstream home theater receivers along with the Arcam sound that made them famous.

From a surround sound mode perspective, they cover all the bases with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and AURO-3D. On the video side they have HDMI 2.1 with HDCP2.3 and support Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG. All of the inputs also support 8K@60fps and 4K@120fps. That is pretty impressive even compared to anything else on the market. 

All of the models have 7 HDMI inputs and one of them is set up to work with eARC. On the two channel digital side you get 4 Coax and 3 Toslink digital inputs. In other words, these units can handle super complex systems. The only thing missing is a phono preamp, but we feel for someone getting a unit that sounds as good as these Arcam units, you will probably want an external phono preamp anyway.

To get your favorite streaming sources into your home theater you will find Google Chromecast, Apple Airplay2, Bluetooth aptXHD, and Harman’s MusicLife app which gets you TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, and Napster. The units are all Roon Ready and support MQA as well. 

We really like the level of control the Arcam units give you over fine-tuning your speakers to subwoofers. You will find the ability to set crossover points in 10 Hz increments and in something we have only seen in $20K+ units like the Datasat, the ability to change the crossover slope from 12dB, 24dB, 36dB, 48dB/octave. Very impressive.

All four products use the same high-end DAC set from ESS Technologies. DAC is short for digital to analog converter and is the hardware that takes the stream of 1’s and 0’s coming in and translates them into analog. ESS is recognized by audio engineers as the place to go to get the best sounding DACs. Two ESS ES9026PRO Sabre DACs are used in all of these, which is a 32 bit, 8 channel DAC designed for high-end audio equipment. Needless to say, the sound these produce is what you would expect from very high-end audio gear. We will get into the audio differences you hear from the internal amplifier differences when we go into each piece of equipment.

When we tested out the Arcam AV41 in a great two-channel stereo system to hear how good the DAC’s were, we were very impressed. We had it connected up to a pair of Aerial 7T Loudspeakers and a Cambridge Edge W Power Amp in two-channel. The subtle nuances this system was revealing made us think we were listening to a very high-end two-channel DAC preamp, it is definitely audiophile-level without a doubt!

At Audio Advice, we are huge fans of properly calibrated room correction. Dirac, in our opinion, is one of the best ones out there and all of these models give you the latest Dirac Live software. Dirac has gotten very easy to use even for a novice and the results in most rooms are just stunning. Dirac has just introduced what is called Dirac Live Bass Control, which does even more to blend multiple subwoofers with your speakers. There are only a few home theater receivers on the market that can even do this advanced version of Dirac and if you want to use it, any of the Arcams will handle it, but it is an additional purchase from Dirac.

While the Arcam units come with a decent microphone, if you are serious about great sound, we recommend purchasing a better aftermarket model, Mini DSP makes an excellent one for the money. 

If you are like most of us into this fun hobby, you might enjoy music or movies in your home theater by yourself, with just a couple of people or a large group of friends. This is where these products are really cool. When you take your Dirac measurements using the microphone, you can focus the measurements on just one chair, a couple, or your entire room. Then the room correction will be based on making it ideal for those positions. With the Arcam units, you can load 3 different Dirac correction curves into the unit, even going so far as to assign them to an input. This way you can easily pull up the one that best suits your listening use case at the time. 

Now we will go over what you get as you move up from one unit to the next.

Overall Recommendation

The new units from Arcam give us that rare combination of great sound and just about every single piece of tech you would want in the home theater world. They are certainly not at the bottom of the cost stack for home theater components, but worth every penny for what they provide. We compliment Arcam for bringing together audiophile level sound with some super cool features and the incredible Dirac correction system. 

We hope this overview of the new Arcam home theater receivers & processors will help make your buying decision a little easier. If you are thinking about building a home theater or updating yours, be sure to check out Home Theater Central, including our free 3D home theater designer where you can design your system, see lots of videos of complete installations, and browse our inspiration gallery and how-to videos. 

At Audio Advice, we've been designing and installing high-performance home theaters & smart home systems for decades. In fact, we've delivered more custom theaters than anyone in the Southeast! We are now offering Home Theater Design no matter where you live in the United States. If you are interested in a custom home theater or upgrading your current system, give us a call at 888.899.8776, chat with us, or stop by one of our award-winning showrooms.