Arcam/MusicLife

[miketruman]

I'm hoping someone out there will be able to help me before I throw my kit into the nearest river! I am the proud owner of a (second hand) Arcam CDS27 which is paired with Arcam A39 amp and KEF R3's. The mechanism is a bit clunky but it sounds great as a CD player and also sounds great when it streams. The problem is the dreadful app that controls the playback and I know others have spoken of it before. Apart from the usual dropping of the connection, having to reinstall the app, turn everything off and then on again, now it's taken to only playing one track and then stopping. Whatever I try to do, play something else, replace the cue, change the settings etc, it will only play that track until I turn the A27 off and turn it on again - no other way to clear it. At which point I can play another single track over and over again. Aaargh!
Question is, is there another app which will control this player or am I stuck with the river option?
Your help will be much appreciated.
Thanks
Mike Truman

 

[Al ears]

There is always eBay....

This may be of some help...

Question - Advice required, ARCAM CDS27 CDS50 Musiclife App

Hi all I am considering dipping my toe into the murky waters of streaming to my Arcam set up, and have read so many confusing reviews and specs its unreal. I am currently using Spotify from my android phone, and laptop, to "stream" via spotify connect to a yamaha wxad10 that is hooked up to my...

www.avforums.com

 

[miketruman]

Thanks for that and I read the thread carefully. Didn't help much. So I've spent quite a while trying to sort this out and I've found the solution. If anyone is having the same problem, it's all about the network settings. To explain -my CDS27 is attached via ethernet to the main router. My phone is connected via wireless to a WiFi extension. The start of the problem was when the extension broke down and failed over several days. I had another bit of kit which I plugged in and connected - the problem was that this was not a WiFi extension but a Wireless Access Point. Although I could access the web and the MusicLife app, the addressing was slightly different which caused the app to destabalise. I've now replaced the WiFi extender and it all works perfectly. Hope it helps.

 

[bristollinnet]

I truly had a soft spot for Arcam, which makes this all the more painful.

They are now just a brand to be exploited by foreign owners rather than a British company with a commitment to quality. They continually over-promise and under-deliver. They release product with immature firmware and their software is close to the worst out there. Every update they issue fixes one thing but then screws up something else. The fact that WHF keep patting them on the back in their reviews is disturbing.

Excellent at making 'old fashioned' amplifiers, but frankly I'd look elsewhere for everything else. At least you had the good sense to buy second-hand.

 

[miketruman]

Couldn't agree with you more on the current Arcam's - shame really but that is why I went for the A39 amp in the first place and then a second hand CDS27 - last of the line!
I discovered that the connections problems were all to do with my wifi and I'd like to share the details as it might help others. The wifi was not strong enough from my basic router to form a strong connection with my phone, so I used what I thought was an extender. Instead this unit was configured as a router/extender and it was the router bit that was the problem as it required an ethernet connection to work. Although the passwords and naming were the same, the app saw a router which was different from the ethernet address expected by the CDS27. So they didn't handshake and that caused the instability. It took me a while to figure this out but once I had re-configured the offending bit of tech to be just an extender, then the connection became stable. Wifi is a tricky subject but, in this case, the app was innocent!

 

[ScienceGent]

I can't offer much to help sort it out but if its any consolation the MusicLife app is, frankly, pretty bloody awful at controlling my CDS50. Version 4.1.5(4157) forgets everything after the first item to be played. That is even worse than previous versions which at least could be prodded somehow into continuing. Also, it hangs upon reading directories and has to be restarted. Some may say its network latency, server problems, blah blah blah. Nonsense. I have a Yamaha streamer which does exactly what it says on the box. The Arcam rubbish will soon be put up for sale.

 

[miketruman]

I couldn't agree more - eventually I ditched the awful MusicLife app and downloaded the mconnect app - there's a free version and a paid-for at £4.99. Either of them controls the Arcam perfectly and seamlessly but the aid-for version is a bit better at re-connecting. I suspect the same will apply to CDS50 or the ST60 as well.
Hope that helps.