Lexicon RV6 - Stepping Out of Comfort Zone

Going back in time, the one time I had a non Japanese AVR for my home theater was way back in 1997 when I was using a Sherwood AVR with a pair of TDL RTL3SE and some unknown KH rear speakers with no center channel nor a subwoofer. What can I say, limited student budget :). Even that, we fellow students in Brighton enjoyed a surround sound with the top of the line SONY DVD player. However, as I progressed in life, I had the opportunity to experience ARCAM as well. Quite delightful processor. When I return to Malaysia, the market was dominated by Yamaha, Onkyo and Denon. The names like Lexicon, ARCAM, Bryston etc , one needs to really indulge into serious HT set up to start seeing this names to reside in our house as its only sold by specialized shops. The Japanese brands however, can be purchased from most chain electronic shops like Harvey Norman, BEST Denki, DHT etc. 

From 2001 till now, I went through 2 Yamaha and 1 Denon AVR. Went through the evolution from DVD DD and DTS to being among the first to adopt Bluray in Malaysia in 2007 and then 4K ATMOS in 2016. Somehow, I have settled into the Japanese Home Theater environment....

..................... until I was introduced to Lexicon RV6 by AV Designs a couple of months ago.

Yes , I am actually a movie buff but I rarely do reviews on HT equipment because of a few reasons:

• It does take some time to calibrate the sound
• A lot of re-cabling to do - Oppo 4K player, Astro, Apple TV, Samsung 4K player, PS4, Subs and speakers
• My setup is in th family living room upstairs. Not a proper enclosed dedicated HT room.

But with this RV6, it was worth the time spent with James Tan of AV Designs to really understand and enjoy what this unit can do.

SPECIFICATIONS

The RV6 does not fall short when it comes the specification. Some of the key features to me is listed below:

• Logic7 Immersion natural sound up mixer
• Dolby ATMOS and DTS:X 7.1.4 decoding
• DTS Virtual:X
• Dolby Vision compatible
• ARC compatible
• Dirac Live for Lexicon room correction
• Lexicon AV Control App
• 7 channel driven at 90 watts (don't panic yet :)
• Spotify compatible (TIDAL would be good if they can do it)

Full specifications can be found HERE

The front fascia is is such a simple and minimalist design. A small blue LED screen that shows input and audio format, up and down input selector button, volume knob and a few key features buttons. Also available is a headphone jack and audio input jack.

On the rear, most AV enthusiasts will be happy with the 7 HDMI inputs and 3 HDMI outputs with ARC. It offers pre outs for each channel if you feel you need more power for your set up.

There are also analogue audio RCA inputs and digital inputs as well if you would like to use the Cirrus DAC available in this unit.

The unit is beautifully finished and looks classy compared to a typical AVR with lots of lights and switches. 

The remote control is similar to my ARCAM CDS50 SACD/Streamer unit. Easy to use for the basic features for this unit with backlight feature as well. I recommend to download the Lexicon AV Control App available for iOS and Android to have a more modern feel in controlling the unit.

 

CALIBRATION

AV Designs was kind enough to fully calibrate the system for this review. The last calibration I did was with my Denon 6 years ago using an Audyssey microphone and some subwoofer crawling. James and his colleague took about 2 hours to complete everything with one subwoofer placed in front and another in the rear of the room via a wireless transmitter. Do note that my own set up was actually a 5.1.2. An additional sub was introduced for this review. 

THE SET UP

• Oppo UDP205, NETFLIX, Apple TV
• PMC Twenty.23 and C - LCR
• SVS PRIME rear speakers
• SVS Elavation speakers
• SVS NSD12 subwoofer
• JBL subwoofer (added for the review)

THE SESSION

I re-watched quite a number of movies over the past 2 months. Justice League, Superman, Jurassic World. Metallica S&M2 concert etc using Oppo BD205, NETFLIX, Apple TV, ASTRO UHD. Each and every device is fully compatible with RV6. One small glitch that happens now and then is the ARC from my new SONY TV when playing NETFLIX. Sometimes, the audio will revert to the TV instead of the RV6. Have to restart the TV and sometimes the audio data does not comes out on the RV6 display. Small glitch but I am sure a better HDMI cable could fix this.

For the overall review, I opted for Star Wars Episode 3. In these 2 samplers, I hope readers can get an idea of what kind of experience you will get having an RV6 in your system. 

Scene 1 - The Death of Count Dooku

The swaying of light sabers with the RV6 sounds meatier compared to the thinner sound that I am used to. It had more life to it. Every hit of the sabers created an impact to my listening pleasure. The dialogue through my center channel also sounds crispier with high clarity. Just listen to the dialogue between Anakin and Count Dooku in this sample. The immersive experience of the surround and ATMOS delivered by the RV6 is simply giving more engagement to me. 

Scene 2 - Yoda vs Darth Sidious

A similar experience here with the light saber and dialogue. Yoda's growling voice sounds really convincing and so does Darth Sidious. The rumble of the Senate's floating seats were also very impactful. The way the low frequencies were channeled to the 2 subwoofers was simply remarkable. Do note that even though the RV6 have 2 sub outs, the device does not split the channel. A device had to be installed to ensure 2 subs can be used with a greater impact. You can discuss further with James if you require 2 subs. The background score during this duel sound huge and gave the right engagement level to be immersed in this scene. Full of life. 

THE CONCLUSION

Overall, Lexicon gave me a complete different experience (even compared to my previous ARCAM, Sherwood AVR). What is the difference you may wonder right? Firstly, the level of engagement with what I am watching. It really pull me more towards having a livelier cinematic experience. I attribute this mainly due to its level of clarity, There were moments that certain effects were brought up on channels that I did not experience before. Sounds cliche right but that is one of the key differences I experience with this Lexicon.

Second, my subwoofer as well sounded more engaging and giving me real impact. Do note that the secondary subs is just a small JBL sub coupled with my front SVS sub.

This RV6 is one AVR that focuses entirely on sound quality. The physical design although beautifully finished, Lexicon opted for a simple and minimalist design. Yes you get Spotify Connect for your music pleasure but I am quite sure that is just an attempt to go along with the market.

If you are into getting a new AVR or purely want to hear to something different than Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, please contact AV Designs for a demo of either this Lexicon RV6 or its bigger brother RV9.

H-2-6, Block H, Boulevard Business Park, No. 115, Jalan Kepayang
51200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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03-6241 1237