My personal review and experience with Arcam AVR 550 with Dirac Live

As a Chicagoan, I’ll heed your suggestion.  What kind of a warranty did the Arcam have?  Lasting less than 2 years is really poor performance; I have a 20 year old Pioneer ES in my basement system that’s going strong.  I recently replaced a 9 year old Onkyo
AVR in my living room system that worked flawlessly with a Anthem AVR that sounds great and I really think the service from Simply Stereo in Hoffman Estates is excellent (I’ve been dealing with them for years).  I hope that things work out for you.
btw, Midwest Audio in Arlington Heights is an excellent repair shop.

Audio Consultants has closed all of their Chicago stores except Evanston.  I used to deal with the Hinsdale Store but when that closed changed to downtown, and now that is closed.  Neither of the latter two did any in house repairs