SA30 build 867, version 1.41

Software
42

Yes, I am having the same issue. Fortunately it seems to be sorted by switching to Roon, making the Dirac choice, then back to the analog input of choice. Are you hearing distortion after a few hours as before?

Ken

43

I have had the distortion problem once since the upgrade and that in a FLAC 192khz 24bit track on Roon , so it seems to be resolved somehow but not totally. Hopefully it is a problem that occurs more seldom from now. But I have distortion in my PM input, and that is a new problem for me, so I have to have that input in Direct ON.

44

Oh that’s no good at all. Hopefully your room is pretty good and you can enjoy your vinyl without Dirac. One of the issues I had with the phono stage was digital hash noise at volume above 50. So when I was playing vinyl on MC stage at a higher volume , between songs it sounded like an old dial up modem making a connection in the back ground. Not super loud, but once you hear it you can’t unheard it. Annoyed the crap out of me. I even tested by moving the SA 30 to another room, with nothing connected except headphones. The mc stage was dead quiet until I pushed in shorting plugs. Then the noise. So the circuit is muted until something is plugged into the phono jacks. The noise is internal to the Arcam and I think the network card is too close to the phono stage or something. So it was either buy a higher output cartridge or buy an external phono stage. I bought a Teac PE 5050 external phono stage, problem solved. So I have not used the phono inputs with the new firmware. I have the Teac connected to PVR and other than the Dirac not working correctly, no distortion. But to get the Dirac filter on, I go to Roon, change the filter , Roon sees the filter change, then switch back to the PVR input and listen. I will fire up the table and make sure there is no distortion in a minute. I am enjoying the Nutcracker suite in MQA via Roon at the moment and it sounds incredible… the love hate continues.

45

Yes, you’re right. I still have to say that I think my SA30 sounds better now with the new software, and when the SA30 works correctly, it’s a joy to the ear, so it’s a little love and hate at the same time as you say. Had the idea to sell it, but with the new software it feels like it’s close now to becoming something really good. We can only hope that they continue to troubleshoot and soon come out with a new software that solves some of the problems.

Maybe it’s a good idea for someone in this forum to gather all the problems we find and inform support about it. Maybe better that it comes from one person so they avoid multiple support requests.

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46

Thats a great idea! I just tested the PVR input with my vinyl via the PVR input. I was using Roon and I just pressed the PVR input with vinyl playing. Nothing. Dead quiet. Switched to Direct, music plays. Switched out of Direct and the Dirac filter kicked in that was set in Roon. So it’s repeatable. And if the distortion is solved this is a quick work around until they get the rest sorted. BTW, I’m listening to Booker T. and the MG’s “In the Christmas Spirit” on vinyl. A reissue by Sundazed but it’s a Stax recording. Just wonderful if you like some soul with your Christmas music! It’s on Tidal if you have that. One of of my favs.

Ken

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47

Indeed, lets collect the problems. I would suggest to create a separate issue for each encountered problem in the issue category, just fill in the template text. Do not forget to mention the steps you executed and state your expectation and of cause the actual result. If relevant then please attach screenshots or audio recordings. I will make sure these problem reports are passed onto the Arcam development team. In this way we are able to contribute to a better product.

I do not own a turntable and I do not have a Roon subscription. I think it would be best if @ken or @Pierre_Sahlin would start with creating issues and I’ll pass them on. What do you think about it?

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48

Sounds fine. I will give it a few more days to make sure I have the issues nailed down and repeatable.

Ken

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49

Fine, that’s no problem. Take your time, I prefer quality bug reports over a lot of reports :wink:

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50

Well I let it stream Roon most of the day… big time distortion has started and I rebooted and its still distorting. I guess I will shut it off for the night and hope its good tomorrow. Very disappointed . Dam

Ken

51

Does anyone know what this symbol means? Seems to be

image
image3024×4032 3.33 MB
new at this build.

52

Why increase the delay? Setting lip synch to 50ms delays the audio even further. I dont get it.

53

After listening on the new firmware for 2 days now. I am generally very impressed with the sound that I am getting. There seems to be a wider stereo imaging and the sound just sounds a whole lot better. I know they had some issues with the filters on previous firmware’s so it looks like they may have solved those.

Regarding MQA, I have a number of test files I have downloaded from this website. I then stream them from my NAS.

I did hear distortion at first but after selecting another input and then going back to NET it all seems to be ok. An observation that I have made though is this. The downloaded files are either 24/44.1 or 24/48 but the amp display and the Musiclife app or the WebClient report totally different sample rates.
An example being, as I type this I’m listening to a track that is 24/44.1 but the display states MQA 192.khz and MusicLife and the WebClient state it is 176.4khz?

The only other issue from my point of view is the ‘Cast to Device’ capability from a Windows PC still hasn’t been resolved. This is a minor issue to me but occasionally I might have a file I’ve downloaded or been given and I just want to quickly listen to it without having to put it on my NAS.

54

All is fine again. I let the amp just sit all night turned off. But it was distorting bad last night both on analog and via Roon. I engaged headroom management in Roon hoping maybe Roon was causing the clipping. I wonder if the dac is getting hot. I was not driving the amp hard when the distortion started. It had just been streaming continuously all day via Roon.

Ken

55

Check your firmware version. I saw that down arrow when mine had a firmware update ready to install. Or I think that’s what I saw before it started its update to 867.

Ken

56

Thanks. I think you’re right. Thought that it had jumped to 867 but it’s still saying 705.

57

Just reboot it, turn it off and on with the power button, wait and pray… I actually had to cycle mine twice or maybe it shut off and back on itself. I was holding my breath. I have guests for the holidays and was afraid it was bricking itself. But all was fine.

Ken

58

I did some further testing and the results are interesting:

Test Setup:

Windows 10 PC with ASUS ESSENCE STX II Audio Card (used for both analogue and digital coax testing)

Results are as followed:

  • With Test Sequenc 01 – Analog direct – delay 2-3 frames or 33-50 ms

  • With Test Sequenc 01 – Analog with DIRAC curve – delay 9-10 frames or 150-167 ms

  • With Test Sequenc 01 – digital without DIRAC – delay 5-6 frames or 83-100 ms

  • With Test Sequenc 01 – digital with DIRAC – delay 3-4 frames – 50-67 ms

  • With Test Sequenc 02 – digital with DIRAC and VLC – delay 210ms -250 ms

  • With Test Sequenc 02 – digital with DIRAC and Firefox – delay 190ms -210 ms

Interestingly DIRAC reduces the delay on the digital input by quite a bit.

Results confirm my previous experience with about a 50ms delay on digital with DIRAC.

In the next days I will get a TV with eARC so I can test this feature then.

Of course, those are not really scientific measurements or testing procedures and I might do some more testing.

59

Yes it took a few attempts and crossed fingers. Very messy but in the end it got there. Thanks again.

60

Also after the amp updated itself it switched itself off then on much like a laptop pc does after an update

61

I’m quite happy with the new build. :slightly_smiling_face:

During the last two days I didn’t encounter any major problem and like some other users mentioned, the amp sounds better than ever. One of the reasons I “downgraded” from the 705 build was the lean sound of that specific build. I must say that the 867 build sounds very similar if not a bit better than the 521 build which I used until now.

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