Tony, aka "adidino," has been through more processors than anyone on the forums, lol! Actually, he thought the av8801 was good but not great (as did I), and he loved his SSP-800, and still thinks it was the best processor he ever had until now. Now, he just got the Bryston SP-3, and he says that is decidedly better than the SSP-800 (although both are stellar) in 2 ch, which is what I really cared about. However, he doesn't like some of the quirks and the fact that it doesn't have RC. He will probably end up with one of the uber-processors like the ADA.
For me, the av8801 was great for movies, good with mch music and OK with 2 ch music. It was strange, in that, as a straight preamp, it was dark, with excellent bass detail but rolled off highs, and a narrow soundstage. With Aud engaged, the highs came back somewhat, the soundstage widened dramatically (this was impressive), but the bass lessened and it was less engaging. Aud was impressive at first listen, but lost it's luster within 10-15 minutes. Now, that was just me, it probably could have been markedly improved with a lot of tweaking (which the 8801 affords in spades), but I just didn't want to bother.
Also, as a caveat, understand that I have very resolving speakers that are both a blessing and a curse, and reveal everything (and require upgrading everything
). I think most people looking at the av8801 as a one-box solution have systems that will easily absorb it and make good music/movies. Those with higher end, more revealing systems will probably use it for movies and add a high end pre-amp for music. This was the way I wanted to go, but realized that I really like mch SACD and Bluray music, so I needed a better one-box processor for this reason.
Hope this makes some sense. Of course, maybe I should have waited for the Foundation myself, but I had an itchy trigger
