I have my Arcam since summer and I have to say: I love the sound and the Dirac feature. But
I have some issues with my SA 30 and I wonder if those issues are common.
My TV sound via eARC or ARC or Toslink: During e.g. movies the sound is multiple times gone. I have to pause the TV and after a while the sound is back. My TV is a Samsung The Frame. With my previous receiver I never had any sound issues (same settings and same cable)
AirPlay takes multiple tries until a connection is established. Never had this issue with Bluesound Powernode (even on the same Ethernet port) or my Bose devices in the same network
The SA 30 powers suddenly on. This happens even if no one is at home or during nights.
Arcam support is no help at all. With the help of posts within this forum I have tried resetting the device, reinstall the newest firmware and a downgrade with instant upgrade as well.
Yes, The Airplay issue and the suddenly powers on. This just tells me it is time to reboot the SA30. I also get stuttering in which the SA30 loses connection to my music source. I’ve learned to live with it. The SA30 sounds great and I listen to it every day with a minimum of drama.
Mine kept powering on every night, I set the sleep after inactivity to 20 minutes and it hasn’t happened since … I may try extending it to longer as sometimes it cuts out before I want it to.
One can only wonder how bad ARCAM is at product development besides the audio quality. For a device that has been on the market for so long and has already had several firmware updates, it really is a poor performer.
I think it’s a great shame as in the past they’ve produced brilliant equipment and for some reason they don’t seem to understand that not resolving the issues … no one will trust buying their products in the future in case it’s repeated.
They are good with hardware, very, very bad with software.
Unfortunately i wouldn’t count on that. Market is too big, and many customers are not technical and are not willing to read the forums etc. So let’s say none of the current SA30 customers will buy new devices. But we are very, very tiny part of the market. There will be many new customers, that are unaware of Arcam’s issues.
I used to believe, that “free market” works and fixes such issues. You know, people voting with their wallet etc. But that was many, many years ago, when i was still young and a bit idealistic. The longer i live and the more i see, the less i believe in market. Actually i don’t anymore…
Yes that is true. But Arcam dealers are another lot all together. And if expensive new Arcam products keep getting returned for refunds because of software glitches, they will drop the Arcam line. Could you blame them? They spend years developing a customer base that trusts them and Arcam just craps on them. I have noticed big dealers heavily discounting Arcam to sell off inventory and no longer carrying Arcam in my area. Just saying…
Of course not, and considering Arcam’s actions it’s the only right thing to do now. Maybe one day they’ll come to their senses.
But you need to remember, that US market is different, than i.e. in Europe.
I personally know a guy who (now used to) work at the main Arcam distributor in Poland. In a way they don’t give a damn till they can get good money from it. Same with dealerships/shops. They will sell whatever brings profit. Not all of them, but majority.
And customers will usually buy what has been recommended by the shop, till it fits the bill. For Polish standards at least, we are talking about expensive devices, so in many cases they are bought by people, who don’t know anything about it, just want a good piece of gear and have the money. Many people who know anything about good audio gear… cannot allow themselves to buy it.
Our market is not mature (and wealthy) enough.
Are you sure they will not be carrying Arcam in the near future? Discounting may be related to Radia series. In Poland SA series is also seriosuly disounted, as they want to get rid of the stocks to start selling Radia.
I have not talked to them directly, but they were heavy into Arcam 2 years ago selling all of their AVR’s, setting up the Dirac for home theaters etc. They carried pretty much all of Arcams products and the salesman I worked with owned a Arcam AVR himself. This retailer is big in the state where I live. They have been around a long time. They have several stores. If you search their web site only 2 Arcam products are still available. Maybe they will bring out Arcam again some day…
Intermittently dropping out of audio every half hour or so, bloody frustrating, ruled out streaming issues by using a Blu-ray and optical connectors, same result as with eArc.
My issue was not only eARC but was on all inputs - just like you describe it. Today I brought mine to my hifi dealer to have a repair. They will send it to ARCAM. So I am happy to give a report after it have my device back… But if it is not working I think I will sell it and move on.