Should i buy an Arcam SA30?

Am using Roon, am using MQA and am using DL. Yet I haven’t had distortion for a long time (knock on the woods :smiley: ).
What resync delay you have set in Roon? And do you by any chance have wireless ap/router or other source of potential interference/noise nearby your SA30?
And is your SA30 connected using wireless or wired?

I have been a long time Arcam fan as I love their house sound. I never demo’d the SA30 as I knew it would not let me down sound wise and on that front it hasn’t. It was a worthwhile purchase as it meant I could get rid of my CDS27 SACD / Streamer. I mainly stream my own music in FLAC format in various resolutions from my NAS.

Where it has let itself down is the issues with the firmware. For me the only real issue has been the occasional distortion issue. On the latest firmware I rarely get it now and it is quickly resolved anyway by selecting a different input on the remote then going back to the required input (in my case NET) and starting the track again.

The latest firmware is the best yet resolving many previous issues.

Weighing everything up, I think the SA30 is a highly recommended amp. Maybe put your concerns to your dealer and ask if you can return it if they are not resolved within a certain time. Having said that if you’re in the UK you should have a case under the consumer rights act.

Sevenoaks didn’t bat an eyelid when I asked to return it after 1.5 months of ownership - In reality it was a present, so contacted them within 2 weeks of finding out the major issue.

When I spoke to Arcam and they knew about the distortion issue and that the SA30 has been out for over a year, there was only 1 real answer.

…and you have to remember, I’m a massive Arcam fan…DV137, CD36, AVR350, AVR600 and use a AVR850 in my main room.

It hasn’t put me off Arcam, only made me open to other brands. I purchased the SA30 without listening as Arcam has never let me down, until now.

The resync delay is set to 4000ms. What is yours? I just recently activated the resync delay. The sa30 is plugged into a Netgear gigabit switch then to a Orbi satellite that’s in another room. The Arcam shares the Netgear switch with a Asus laptop that serves as the Core for Roon. I have noticed the distortion is less often lately.

I have 500ms delay in Roon. Sa30 now connected to wireless, so now basically nothing is connected to it, except for TV using HDMI. And of course power and speakers :smiley:
Can you try wireless connection, and check if it helps?
Just trying to find some pattern here…

So you are not using RAAT? What are your setting for the SA 30 in Roon? Mine is uncertified Roon Ready grandfathered in with Roon. I did not think you can get MQA or highest resolution via wifi.

Ken

I am using RAAT. Why would using wireless limit the resolution or disable RAAT?
Everything works as it should be, including RAAT and MQA. Of course showing as uncertified Roon endpoint.
Sa30 has dual band 2x2 adapter, with connection speed of roughly 170Mbps (in my case). Even considering real transfers are lower, it’s still more than enough for any audio streaming.

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When I remove the ethernet cable on my SA30, the only SA30 endpoints that show in Roon are the Airplay and the Google Cast, which of course do not support 24/192. How are you connecting to it in the audio settings in Roon. Sorry I am still new to Roon.

Ken

Hi Felix,

Ok, since I had never used the wifi connection I needed to go into the web client and set the wifi network and password. Roon found it and you are correct, it shows the same uncertified Roon Ready just at a different IP address. I am listening now and the path shows RAAT, MQA etc. I am listening to a MQA 352.8 file and it is being passed to the SA30 properly and the SA30 is downsizing it to MQA 192 properly and DIRAC is running. So now I test. I will steam to it all day over the wifi and fingers crossed the distortion will not appear! Thanks big time for the suggestion!
Ken

OK I streamed all day via Roon and wifi, all formats in a all day playlist. No distortion heard. Very interesting. I wonder if anyone has tried a RF ethernet filter?

Sounds promising :slight_smile:
Keep testing and let us know.
I suspect, that some noise is causing jitter, which makes DAC to lose lock (making it simple). Changing source causes DAC to re-lock to new source, hence distortion is gone.
Was wondering about a cause of this noise, and it seems it might be related to ethernet, as this seems to be preferred way of connection here.
I read recently about this ESS DACs issue with losing lock, if PLL bandwidth is low. Someone mentioned, that in other amp with ESS, setting width to low caused sound degradation (but also solved issue with cracks and pops from TV on optical input).
Now people in this forum noticed, that SA30 sounds different/ better since v705 FW.
MAYBE, just maybe, Arcam changed PLL width in that firmware, which caused different sound, but also introduced distortion in some scenarios (something causing noise in the clock, which is causing DAC to lose lock, cause of PLL setting).
It’s just a wild guess. But then again - I haven’t had distortion for weeks. Now it seems situation improved for @Ken after switching to wireless.
So maybe there’s something to it?
Haven’t tried any rf filters on ethernet, as I think wireless is as good option if only one has good signal at home. Ethernet is in theory galvanically isolated with miniature transformers in the socket, but in case of high frequency it doesn’t filter all the noise.
If that is really the cause, than it means Arcam unfortunately messed up ethernet implementation, as filters should be built in the device.

It’s sad that we have to start wild guessing just because Arcam does not recognizes issues and shows no transparency at all.

As another member of this topic shared earlier, a lot of users are being frustrated and If the situation does not evolve quickly, some buyers will start to destroy their brand image… and/or consider legal means to have their unit refunded.

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This is 2021 for heavens sake. Listening to music via a £2000 amp shouldn’t be troublesome or frustrating, or require constant troubleshooting by the consumer with various issues that have now lasted for a year or even longer. This is an Arcam amp we are talking about here, not some £199 amp newly brought to the market by some start up company.

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I just Purchased after all .
I am unboxing and i am starting the transition to Arcam. it cames with Firmware Version 1.21 amd 1s notice with no sources connections at all, after standby 1-2 times didn’t wakes up from the remote.
Now i will start 1st to hear some music from my sources and next i will start upgrade to the latest firmware.

@iarvanit remote is universal, which means you need to change it’s operating mode, for it to control amp.
Press “amp” button on remote, and standby should work.

To say the least, Arcam should have sent a well worded email to every registered owner of the SA 30 outlining the problems discovered and their timeline to fix and address the issues. It might take one worker an hour or two to get this done. Instead they have remained silent and after 1 year have not resolved serious problems with software and possibly hardware that causes terrible distortion and drop outs in the digital domain. My guess is the Arcam reps know the trouble and are just focussing their efforts with the dealers on the new AVR’s and are ignoring the SA 30 till it gets fixed. I have noticed there are no new reviews of the SA 30. Silence is golden…

Guys Everything ok so far .
I just have 2 questions , can i manage audio volume from my TV remote when it is on ARC mode ? I have try and i cannot.

i can stream through Airplay from Iphone but i cannot See Google Cast from Windows 10, inside Spotify App.

@iarvanit yes, you can. You need to enable this option in amp settings. There is option for volume control and power control using ARC/CEC.

@Ken you’re right, they should do that. Hard to say why they are acting like this, and even delete posts on Facebook and Twitter, that say about issues.
This is in fact far from professional…
AVR’s seem stable now, so I’m hoping they will now put more focus on SA30.

Arcam have developed a very good reputation from being under the wing of its founder John Cartwright of arguably the best value for money sound quality you can purchase.

I think John left quite a fews ago…

It is a real shame that they delete posts but I do know that their operation teams were very open about the distortion issues on the phone.

When all said and done, several posts on this forum have alluded to the fact that no product provides the same sound quality and features for the same money.

If you are fortunate enough to have the money to purchase a solution which provides distortion free music then great but I do realise that the £2k cost of the SA30 is already pushing people’s budget and at the end of the day, it is still a lot of money, whereby sound quality ranges from…

1/10 (distortion kicks in) to 9/10 (when it’s on form).

My answer to anybody who is thinking about purchasing the SA30 is to wait a couple of months for the next firmware.

If Arcam fixes the distortion, happy days… if not, purchase something else but this will cost more.

My point is that now they are ruining their reputation. SA30 being returned to dealers by many people (like you). It’s sad.
I know they are open about distortion if you call them or even on email.
BUT not in public, not in social media.
It would look much better if they publicly admitted there is a problem and they are working hard on solving it. And maybe even update people on the progress, timeline etc. They would probably regain some trust, and maybe even convinced some pissed off customers not to return this otherwise great device. But now we don’t even know if they know the root cause of the issues.
So all it takes is honesty. I know, it’s funny to use this word, when we talk about business :slight_smile:
I’m lucky one, with virtually no distortion now. It’s now 5 or 6 weeks since I had distortion last time. So apart from some small quirks, like volume control when using “max volume” setting, I’m happy. No major issues. I was even lucky enough to apply for developer status in Roon, so am able to still use RAAT.
I’m not thinking about replacing it, especially that as you said - in this price range there’s very little competition, especially if you want all-in-one. NAD M10 is more expensive and doesn’t sound as good, so it leaves us with Lyngdorf TDAI-1120, which is also great device. But in my case it has low WAF :slight_smile: