Hi,
Any news on this topic? Or have you just used to the issue? I would appreciate any help if there is a solution to the problem.
Thanks,
Taras
I was thinking the same thing yesterday when my SA30 stuttered, lost connection and after a few minutes reestablished the connection. This with a few other annoying things is a quirky box which I hope to replace. The SA 30 sounds great but it is a work in progress for which Iāve lost my patience.
So no progress for more than a year, and no one from Arcam is actually looking into the issue? Are all devices corrupted or is there any reasoning of what might be wrong with the certain subset of the devices?
The first thing Arcam asked me to do was to directly connect the SA30 and Roon server to the incoming router. This would be a major reconfiguration of my network that is not easily done and not desirable for listening purposes. I have a home wired network that uses a few access points and switches to connect to most of my rooms to the internet. I run my NAS and Roon server in a room away from my listening area to isolate the computer noise from my music listening. Roon could be part of this equation but Iāve have found no diagnostics in my network or my roon server to suggest the problem is in the connection of these devices. Iāve seen this problem described in the Roon Community with devices other that the SA30. The Roon community has no definitive solution for this. I donāt have the time or patience to fully trouble shoot this. Although I have my SA30 on network standby, it reboots frequently when I turn it on. The SA30 is the the quirkiest device in my digital collection of music and computer devices.
I have tested different scenarios and setups:
- wireless (bought another router to test the issue) vs wired
- Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, MusicLife via uPnP
- digital and optical (via TV)
The issue happens without any visible logic or reason.
My firmware is up-to-date.
This device drives me crazy.
I have no real evidence because I donāt think anyone else has responded positively to something I discussed with arcam_paul a while ago, but I believe that the stuttering or stopping entirely of streams and/or the inconsistency of MusicLife to control the streams and maintain a play list is down to the UPNP implementation and potentially can be eased or removed by tweaking the settings on your router, have a search back for my posts that started asking about slow amp start-upā¦since I made changes Iāve had zero issues with streaming including with MusicLife as a controller. Like I say no firm evidence other than my own observations, but I donāt believe it coincidence.
See what you thinkā¦
Do you happen to use Home Assistant and itās Arcam FMJ integration?
I have same thing, but ONLY when using this integration. If i disable it, no reboots.
There is some bug in the integration that is causing it. It also doesnāt allow SA30 to go into standby after set time (20 minutes by default). Created issue for it in Github, but no progress from creators.
It happens via SAT, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, and MusicLife via uPnP. After a few attempts with the Arcam technician, I have returned it to the dealer for diagnostics/replacement since its usage is unbearable. I will keep everyone updated on the resolution status, if any.
Soā¦ I donāt want to get a āgolden shovelā reward for digging out this thread butā¦ itās been a while and the issue is still thereā¦ and itās annoyingā¦ I hope Guys from Arcam will finally address that and fix the software because itās a great-sounding amp but the user experience is really badā¦
BTW, I was going through the latest (from 2022) release notes - āJ218 Fix distortion present when switch between sample ratesā - I think that distortion issue evolved into a stutter ā reboot issue nowā¦ perhaps it would be worth taking a look into that specifically?
Sorry to bring bad news, but most probably they will not fix it. It SEEMS that they abandoned SA series now.
Thereās been no updates to SA30 since 1542 firmware, which made it somewhat stable, and now they released new Radia series. So to me it seems SA is dead to them.
Youāre right that itās a very good sounding amp, but software is very poor and customer service does not exist. Shame on Arcamā¦
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Hi Taras,
Wondered if you managed to resolve things. Mine stutters regardless of input.
Cheers
Rob
Hi Rob,
I tried a few software downgrades and then upgrades as suggested by the dealerās support. That did not help. Then I returned it back, and they confirmed a hardware issue and replaced the network module. After that, everything works like a charm (fingers crossed).
Iād suggest contacting your dealer and asking them to fix it.
Thanks,
Taras
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Thanks! This is good to know. I have the same issue and returned it twice.
For my second repair request I documented the issue ten times with different settings (inputs, network, etc.). In addition I saved the logs every time. The common part in the logs seems network related. The interesting part, it seemed even network related when I had no network connected. This made no sense to me until I read your post.
I hope they fix it this time. It is still in the shop for repair.
If anyone still has the issue and tries to fix it, I can give an update of my progress with this issues.
I just got my Arcam back from the repair shop. They changed the Avatar Module. Does anyone know what this is?
From my first test runs, it seems that my Arcam is fixed. Fingers crossed.
Maybe this helps anyone with the same issue.
Avatar module is network module.
It handles streaming and DSP part. Itās basically a small computer built in the amp.
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Thanks 
. This matches the errors I have found in my log files. It make me optimistic, that everything is fixed.
Yes, this is not the first case of failed Avatar module in SA30 on the forum. But it is quite rare still.
Avatar module is the one marked in red on the photo. So they are just swapping the module sitting on the socket.
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As mineās out of warranty, I wonder if I could pull that module out of my CDS50 and put it in the amp? Would they be the same spec?
You can try it, but the Avatar module needs the corresponding application to work. The application of the CDS50 is obviously different from that of the SA30.
In addition, the model number of this module is AP72598, and you can search for a lot of information about it.
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And it turns out that having now tried it, streaming through the CDS50 results in the same stutter, silence and recovery breakdown that my SA30 has. So swapping definitely wouldnāt improve matters.