AudioControl receiver vs separates

We are an Audio Control dealer and have direct experience with both their processors and their A/V receivers.

To answer your question, yes a very high end receiver can beat lesser or similarily priced separates. 

It is all in the design of the piece, in some cases the high end a/v receiver is the company's 5 or 7 channel amplifier with a processor board in the same chassis.

We used to do that very same demo of a Audio Control $6k A/V receiver vs a set of similarily priced separates and there was no real improvement with the separates. So the purpose of the demo was to show that you could create a very high end system with a receiver for those that didn't want to take up the additional space that separates would require and wanted to save the cost of having to buy 2.5-3.5 good sets of interconnects. 

We currently have a great setup at the shop which is the Anthem AVM 60 processor for $3k with the Audio Control Savoy a $2,500.00 5 channel amplifier from Audio Control and that combo totally rocks. Yes the Audio Control processor would be even better but the Maestro M7 is $5,500.00 so then the package would go up considerably.

In our reference theater room we use the Audio Control Maestro M9 pre/pro with the Plinius Odeon a monster of a multi channel amp and the sound is too die for

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Audio Control dealers

Of course a single unit can sound better than separates, given that the quality of the single unit is better.

However, what sucks with separates for home theater is many do not support modern formats. I see processors still being sold that are $10K and don’t support HDR nor Atmos.

Also, you want room correction, at least for the subwoofer. For the consumer level, Audyssey (Denon/Marantz) is the best, though I recommend the $20 app as the default target curve sucks. Higher in price gets your Dirac or Anthem’s ARC, but again many of those products don’t support modern formats.

The NAD T777 V3 is $2500 and I believe it supports all the current codecs (not HDMI 2.1 I believe, but I wouldn’t think you’d have use for that). It has Dirac, which is really good.