On the other hand, Samsung is the #1 TV Manufacturer worldwide and having an amp with HDMI that is not compatible with their TV sets is really disappointing.
I’ve just reveived today for testing purpose a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 and guess what ?
It worked directly our of the box :
the TV powers on and off the amplifier every time
the “TV audio” source equivalent never is without sound (forcing to select / deselect the amplifier as a source several times before eventually getting sound)
there is no sound interruption. At all.
I do still prefer the Arcam warmer sound (Lyngdorf is more “analytic”) especially for voices in tv shows.
Now I’m really hesitating to return the SA30… for an alternative not as good regarding sound quality (at least to my ears) but that at least works as expected.
If only we had a timeframe of resolution… audio cuts issue is lasting since at least Augustus !
I mentioned TDAI-1120 several times already, as for me this is the only real competitor to SA30, with more or less same feature set and in similar price.
Lyngdorf products are very good, and are really polished. Room Perfect is superb.
But as you said - it will not suit everyone.
Knowing that Arcam is working on solution, and we have that new JBL amp in the pipeline, which will put more pressure on Arcam to get things sorted before its out, I would stick to SA30. That’s what I will do.
Hi Alex,
what about the sound of the Lyngdorf compared to Arcam SA30?
Does Lyngdorf support MQA?
It only has 40w 8 ohm is this an issue with B&W 706s2 in your opinion?
How does the phono stage sounds the arcams sounds strange compared to my Marantz PM7000N.
Hi all - on the subject of random distortion, today I’m playing an MQA from Tidal on my Win 10 PC in to a Focusrite Scarlett USB interface then in to powered monitors and I got what seems like the same distortion as I’m getting intermittently from my SA30. I was pretty surprised to say the least.
On further investigation I found this thread on Reddit (1) Track Distortion MQA/HiFi : TIdaL (reddit.com). I don’t really want to speculate because it’s entirely possible that these are two separate issues however it’s interesting and points to the possibility that it’s an issue that is MQA-specific and across different devices. I would speculate it’s a resampling error but I would expect the SA30 to play native sample rate whereas I have my Scarlett set to 44.1khz.
Anyone else had distortion playing from PC or mobile with MQA?
The sound of the Lyngdorf is more analytic (very precise), less warm.
I would say it’s a question of taste, my preference still goes to the SA30.
If only the software (and especially HDMI) issues were solved
The Lyngdorf amplifier has not 40w but 60w for 8ohms.
I use it as a test since several days with Dali Opticon 6 speakers (4ohms) and can confirm it still has a good reserve of power.
Unfortunately I can’t judge for the B&W nor the Phono as I had not possibility to test / compare.
Hi all, i hade a felling last week as i was listening my Marantz PM7000N coaxinput + Node2i there is some distortion but was not so obvious because on the Marantz there are not so clear Highs as on Arcam. Was not sure what is going on. Also i figured i m getting mutch more distortion mconnect + arcam and Node2i+Coax+Arcam as on musiclife + arcam. Maybe it has something to do with double unfolding or so. I dont know.
I am also trialling Roon at the moment and have found that the frequency of the distortion occurrence is worst with Roon.
I order from best to worst:
Musiclife (~20%)
MConnect
Roon (>75%)
I still think that the issue is to do with DAC and the sampling frequency being provided from the DSP being mis-matched with the source file.
When you sample a digital file at a non-integer multiple of its source sampling frequency, it sounds distorted, just like we are experiencing.
A question that I have is whether anybody has experienced many hours of listening music using any source (external analogue in for instance).
If we don’t use Dirac, use an analogue input and apply source direct, we should theoretically bypass all digital circuits and code, thus have no distortion (I haven’t tried this but will at the weekend).
I now since 867 mostly listen to my Basis turntable, which feeds a new Teac PE 505 phono stage connected to the PVR analog input, Arcam in Direct mode, have never heard distortion. It actually sounds very very good. When I switch in Dirac, its only a matter of time before I will start to notice what sounds like loose snares on a snare drum, on transients. Switch back to Direct, all is good. Now I have streamed via Roon to the SA 30 for hours with no distortion. And Roon is picking songs, called Roon Radio, mixing all formats from Red Book to MQA 352, 192, 96, and my HD tracks from my hard drive which are red book to 24/192, so the full mix.Roon upsamples red book. So I am not sure what triggers the distortion. When it can play a mix of formats for hours perfectly , then start out of no where the distortion bug, which is only solved by a hard reboot or sometimes switching to analog Direct and then restart Roon. I have begun to to switch off the Arcam at night and let it sit, then start fresh the next day. Very frustrating.
Ken
So the distortion is definitely happening in the digital domain, which is easier to fix (shouldn’t require replacement hardware).
So, there is a failing in the ADC conversion (to allow Dirac to work in the digital domain) and then back to analogue via the DAC.
I believe internally the Arcam works at fs = 96Khz with Dirac, so somehow the clocking of the data samples are being mis aligned (I think via an incorrect sampling frequency).
Has anybody ever heard ‘no distortion’ for a long period of time without Dirac enabled via streaming or connecting digitally to the SA30?
streaming 16 bit 44k1 Hz flac files from my nas, I don’t use Dirac nor Roon. Until I streamed 24 bit 88k1 Hz flac file from my nas the distortion kicked in, for more details refer to Distortion on 24 bit 82.2 kHz track, ref#109. I believe fixing this issue is a prerequisite for distortion free listening with Dirac enabled and/or Roon.
listening to TV audio through ARC
Furthermore I think there must be a reason why the SA30 isn’t fully Roon certified, the distortion might be part of that reason. As long as the Roon integration isn’t finished completely (certification is part of it) we might encounter bugs related to this integration.
good question.I wonder if it has something to do with memory buffer, which gets cleared switching it to analog direct, or switching it off and back on. Maybe a memory leak in the DSP firmware. But this is all speculation. But since the distortion bug didn’t start till 705, it must be a software issue. Since JBL is releasing a amp that appears to be identical to the sa30 inside, I am confident this will be sorted out soon. And when it is sorted out, I bet it gets Roon Ready certification as well. I did notice JBL is claiming the new amp is Roon Ready so they must expect to get this all fixed. Fingers crossed!!!
Ken
They released SA30 probably too soon, with bugs (as they did other equipment) and there are still bugs now. What makes anyone think JBL will be different? Does it really grow the user base considerably by them doing this and does that warrant any more of an investment on Samsung/HK’s part? I’m not so sure, but suppose we will find out soon enough!
They have form in the roon certification too. No guarantee the JBL amp will be in any a different situation than the SA30. I don’t think officially saying something is “roon ready” means a jot, other than technically it’s possible if they pull their fingers out!
