Arcam SA30

[Paulguk]

Here’s our friend EllisDJ talking about an Arcam amp 850 he reviewed and he mentions they are not 100 per cent reliable:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB810T8OI3s


I cancelled my order from last week of this amp thanks to him and his review.

Now I have had the SA30 a couple of weeks most of the issues I picked up on before have now been resolved by email with Arcam. I can now bring it out of standby with the remote by changing a setting on the unit. It still occasionally skips tracks when streaming. The biggest issue I have found is that I cannot select the USB input either from the front panel or the remote.

 

[asdf]

2. Occasionally when streaming an album from my NAS using the Music Life app it will begin a track and skip to the next track even though I haven’t done anything. I know this is amp related because prior to purchasing the SA 30 I was streaming to the Arcam CDS27 streamer / CD player in the same way and it never did it with that.

Did you notice this with their latest Music Life beta which can be found here? Next to Q&A the latest SA30 firmware can also be found there.

 

[Paulguk]

Did you notice this with their latest Music Life beta which can be found here? Next to Q&A the latest SA30 firmware can also be found there.

I’ll have a look. Thanks

 

[Paulguk]

Now I have had the SA30 a couple of weeks most of the issues I picked up on before have now been resolved by email with Arcam. I can now bring it out of standby with the remote by changing a setting on the unit. It still occasionally skips tracks when streaming. The biggest issue I have found is that I cannot select the USB input either from the front panel or the remote.

The USB input can be selected in the webclient only at the moment. I have tested it and it works.

 

[asdf]

I’ll have a look. Thanks

A lot of things have improved in their latest MusicLife iOS app beta compared to the released version, o.a. the basic playlist functionality. Did the latest MusicLife beta solve you problem?

 

[Paulguk]

I’ll have a look. Thanks

A lot of things have improved in their latest MusicLife iOS app beta compared to the released version, o.a. the basic playlist functionality. Did the latest MusicLife beta solve you problem?

I have looked at the Beta app you refer to. It won't solve the issue I referred to because as I said in the original post it never did it when streaming to the CDS 27 using the same version of the app. In other words the only thing that changed was going from the CDS 27 to the SA 30.

 

[Alex_Onthebeach]

Now I have had the SA30 a couple of weeks most of the issues I picked up on before have now been resolved by email with Arcam. I can now bring it out of standby with the remote by changing a setting on the unit. (...)

Hello,

Could you share the setting that you have changed to solve the remote control issue ?
I have the very same amplifier with the very same problem

Thanks in advance,
Alexandre

 

[Paulguk]

Hello,

Could you share the setting that you have changed to solve the remote control issue ?
I have the very same amplifier with the very same problem

Thanks in advance,
Alexandre

Go into Network Settings and set Net Standby to ON.

 

[Alex_Onthebeach]

Go into Network Settings and set Net Standby to ON.

Thanks for the feedback Paulguk !
Unfortunately this setting is already on for me

Are you connected via LAN or Wifi ?

 

[Paulguk]

I am connected by LAN

 

[Alex_Onthebeach]

Sh*** me as well and still it does not wake up from sleep via the app

 

[Paulguk]

Sh*** me as well and still it does not wake up from sleep via the app

I have just re read your post. I am referring to the capability to bring the amp out of standby using the supplied remote control not an app. Which app are you on about anyway.

 

[Alex_Onthebeach]

Ah ok.
I’m using Arcam Control

 

[Paulguk]

Ah ok.
I’m using Arcam Control

I have just tried using the app and it works for me. I put the amp into standby and waited 2 minutes then took it out of standby using the app. I’m using firmware v521.

 

[Alex_Onthebeach]

I have just tried using the app and it works for me. I put the amp into standby and waited 2 minutes then took it out of standby using the app. I’m using firmware v521.

Thanks so much for the testing !

I suppose that your auto shutdown is off ?
(I understand it completely shuts the unit down, not in standby mode)

 

[Paulguk]

Thanks so much for the testing !

I suppose that your auto shutdown is off ?
(I understand it completely shuts the unit down, not in standby mode)

Yes Auto Shutdown is disabled also.

 

[bristollinnet]

Arcam SA30 is up for the WHF ‘product of the year’ award, which frankly is taking the p*ss.

It deserves ‘raspberry of the year’ given it was launched with so many issues.. The Arcam MusicLife App is just as rubbish.

 

[gotgelf]

Hi all.
I've bought one Arcam SA 30 a few days ago.

Unfortunately, I’ve found the issue. When I’m listening TIDAL (via SA 30 directly) occasionally there is a noise in the track's background.
I’ve made 2 videos and put them on YouTube:

After a restart of the amplifier, everything works fine again with the same tracks.
Moreover, when I get this issue, I try the next track and it works fine, but after I come back to the one where I got this noise, I hear it again.

The problem is definitely not in the speakers (I’ve used them with other amplifiers and they are passive)


I'm using the latest software:

• Version 1.33
• Net Ver v705
• ARC Ver v1.6
• ARC Rx v 1.0.0

Does anyone have something similar to SA 30?

 

[Mariusz Paliga]

Hi all.
I've bought one Arcam SA 30 a few days ago.

Unfortunately, I’ve found the issue. When I’m listening TIDAL (via SA 30 directly) occasionally there is a noise in the track's background.
I’ve made 2 videos and put them on YouTube:

After a restart of the amplifier, everything works fine again with the same tracks.
Moreover, when I get this issue, I try the next track and it works fine, but after I come back to the one where I got this noise, I hear it again.

The problem is definitely not in the speakers (I’ve used them with other amplifiers and they are passive)


I'm using the latest software:

• Version 1.33
• Net Ver v705
• ARC Ver v1.6
• ARC Rx v 1.0.0

Does anyone have something similar to SA 30?

Hi, I have exactly the same problem with my Arcam SA30. At first I thought it was only a problem with Tidal but recently it happend while playing music from USB.
Such distorted sound comes only from right speaker and problem is resolved by restarting the amplifier.

does anyone know how to fix it?
I have up to date firmware

Regards,
Mariusz

 

[BlackSpider777]

Hi, I have exactly the same problem with my Arcam SA30. At first I thought it was only a problem with Tidal but recently it happend while playing music from USB.
Such distorted sound comes only from right speaker and problem is resolved by restarting the amplifier.

does anyone know how to fix it?
I have up to date firmware

Regards,
Mariusz

Has the issue been fixed by a firmware? surprised such an amp is having distortion issues when streaming..

 

[Paulguk]

Has the issue been fixed by a firmware? surprised such an amp is having distortion issues when streaming..

It is better with the latest firmware but not fully resolved. I personally rarely get it now. You don’t have to re power the amp to resolve it, just select a different input and then go back to the required input and start the track again.

 

[BlackSpider777]

It is better with the latest firmware but not fully resolved. I personally rarely get it now. You don’t have to re power the amp to resolve it, just select a different input and then go back to the required input and start the track again.

Thats nice to hear, does it happen only with Tidal or even other stream platforms like Spotify? this distortion happens with analog signals too like cd player etc? Considering this amp but the distortion thingie is abit of a bummer..

Thanks.

 

[Paulguk]

I don’t use any of the subscription streaming services. I stream from my NAS, occasionally play a CD from my OPPO player and use the AV function for my left and right channels in conjunction with my processor for AV.

People do report the issues you mention though.

There is an unofficial forum where all things SA30 can be discussed.

https://arcam.discourse.group/

 

[BlackSpider777]

I don’t use any of the subscription streaming services. I stream from my NAS, occasionally play a CD from my OPPO player and use the AV function for my left and right channels in conjunction with my processor for AV.

People do report the issues you mention though.

There is an unofficial forum where all things SA30 can be discussed.

https://arcam.discourse.group/

Yes read that forum but all i see is people complain & complain.

How is the performance when using it for your AV function which i think is the Processor Mode.
Also the distortion you rarely get does it only come by streaming from your NAS or also from the Processor Mode when using it for AV?

Thanks..

 

[Paulguk]

Yes read that forum but all i see is people complain & complain.

How is the performance when using it for your AV function which i think is the Processor Mode.
Also the distortion you rarely get does it only come by streaming from your NAS or also from the Processor Mode when using it for AV?

Thanks..

Some of the comments in the forum are justified in my opinion, particularly some of the major issues that have existed such as the distortion and I believe issues with the HDMI ARC feature but I do agree some of the more minor ones often look like people looking for oddities in the amps behaviour.

I rarely get the distortion issue but when I do it is always at higher resolutions than regular 16/44. It has a tendency to do it with files at 24/88 (SACD rips).

I never get it in processor mode but that will be because I don't use DIRAC so the L and R analogue input from my processor is going straight to the amp and not touching the DAC.

To sum up, I am still pleased I purchased the SA30. It has a lovely sound and I know Arcam are working on resolving the distortion issue.

Originally I was going to buy the SA20 and keep my old Arcam CDS27 for streaming and CD duties but decided in the end to go with the SA30 so that I could sell the CDS27 and have one less box. I use my OPPO BDP 105 player for CD's and streaming multichannel music.