Sorry, not up to sending music file. But the track that reveals possible problem most clearly is the opener from The Beatles' debut album.
Bummer, I just did a factory reset on my unit and the count in is all there. Arcam must of had a bad batch go through the factory. I got mine a month ago but have no idea what the manufacturing date is. Arcam really needs to step up and be more proactive on this if they want their reputation to not suffer from this. The sale to Samsung already put question marks on their rep, and this issue can only tarnish it. If anyone is here from Arcam, or knows anyone from Arcam, you should let them know that their silence in this community is not a sign of something good. The other thing is although my player is fine the quirks are definitely there, like when I’m streaming, if I choose disc on the remote, it does indeed go to the disc playing mode. But if I do the opposite and try to go BACK to my stream, it won’t work. I have to either shut the deck off or eject the cd, but even then I have to go back to th iPad and reload my streaming choice, which is stupid, just go back to the stream I was on. So, I honestly see the potential of this deck to be great, Arcam just needs to re engineer these quirks out and this could be an OPPO level player, it wouldn’t be that hard, it’s all in firmware, I’m positive about that. Every bad experience from someone like you leads to somebody else NOT buying it, and that’s not a good thing. Arcam, are you listening???? Beave
That audio lab is a nice kit, it just doesn’t do SACD and uses an older ESS 9018 chip, which is a bit lower quality then the current 9038, but it’s all subjective, my OPPO 105 sounds so close to my OPPO 205, that I could live with either. But the 9038 just has that extra edge in sounding Analogue that the 105 can’t quite match! But again their so close so you might find the Audiolab tickles your fancy just right! On the What HiFi review, the reviewer said the 8300 was less satisfying then the 8200, but then another reviewer on HiFi review, while stating that he’s read that review, couldn’t agree with it and found the 8300 wonderful! So there you go, it’s all subjective. But if Arcam DID implement the fixes I brought up, and that includes making the front panel display more user friendly information wise, then they’d have one killer kit. If not then I would never buy an Arcam unit again. The market for loyal customers is way too tight in this internet era to blow us and our concerns off. Woo to the company that does that! Beave
Ok, I’ve had some good coffee so I’m full of energy. I just sent a link to this thread to Arcams customer service people with the advice that they should read it and get involved. Don’t know if it’ll do any good but if they don’t respond then we have our answer don’t we?? Ok, time for a porch smoke break....... Beave
Good man. Will report back on hi-fi stores' chat with Arcam on Monday. Currently grooving to Elton's Diamonds box set. Stuff like Honky Cat has never sounded better in my opinion. Also, Tug Of War had never sounded better earlier. What's That Your Doing a revelation.
Excellent! Just a word to people over here in the USA part of the world, the AudioLab unit is 230 volts, so if you bought one for use here, you’d need a voltage converter. Glad your digging the tunes, if it’s a toe tapper I think you’ve found it! And the price is competitive. Back to the Arcam, I cannot believe how good this thing makes 128kbps mp3 streaming radio sound!! It truly is amazing, lovely sound! Beave
Ok, I’m not done yet, (told you it was good coffee...). When streaming internet radio, which I’m doing now, the ‘cd’ remote transport buttons work on the stream. You can pause the stream, then hit the play or pause button and it resumes, but here is something I just figured out, my display was showing ‘mp3 128 kbps’ on the stream, if I hit the ‘stop’ button on the remote, the stream stops for a few seconds, BUT THEN RESUMES WITH IT NOW SHOWING ‘AAC VBR’! So, it seems like there are 2 different choosable streaming options on this station, ‘jazz24’, one is the mp3 stream and by hitting the stop button on the remote, it toggled to a variable bit rate stream!!! Again, just another secret not documented in Arcams owners manual. Beave
Nothing too sophisticated, and all well used. I've got a Cambridge Audio Integrated Amplifier and Mordaunt Short speakers.
Just to check, did you try downloading the firmware update on the Arcam? Prior to buying mine, I had a unit on loan to me for a home demo that had the same issue. Once I downloaded the firmware update it was fine. When I decided to buy one, I had to do the same to my unit.
Chaps in hi-hi shop did the firm update and thought they'd corrected the problem until I played a couple of favourite CDs and proved to them the problem still existed.
It made me smile when the youngish hi-fi chaps doubted me when I told 'em the openings of I Saw Her Standing There and Band On the Run weren't playing correctly on their swanky new CD player. Little did they know this stuff's part of my DNA.
Hi HarryH - thanks for doing some legwork on this - I've been meaning to go to a dealer and see if they have a unit with the same problem as mine has but not gotten around to it! I'm really starting to worry that this is a hardware issue with my unit. It seems that some folks have managed to solve it with a firmware update but others have not which makes me think that there are 2 similar but separate issues - one of which can be fixed with a firmware update and one which can't. There is some hint of a similar issue in the notes for one of the firmware updates but I can't remember the exact details. Unfortunately it looks like I have a unit that can't be fixed through firmware. I have a problem ticket in with Arcam but haven't heard anything for several weeks now - last I heard, their engineers were going for some face to face meetings in Asia ( Samsung maybe?) where the issue would be discussed. Anyway - will post on here if and when I get an update.
Yes, will be interesting to see how this one plays out. My hi-fi dealer was surprised/shocked/alarmed that a major organisation had allowed this to happen.
Well, I got my reply from Arcam's Customer service. Polite, with apologies for the tardiness in the reply But....... It was a polite Blow Off. Saying if someone has a technical issue that they can email Arcam, and that 'Forums have differing opinions, which everybody is entitled to". Paraphrasing here. So, it came across to me that they have no interest in the Actual Customer experience with the CDS50. Bummer, but not surprising. They are NO OPPO. Oh Well, it is what it is. On the positive side, this Player sounds Fantastic. So we live with the idiosyncrasies. Beave
Arcam have form here. Some years ago they introduced an AV amp that decoded DSD. They didn't mention it in their manual or in their blurb but HiFi World picked it up during their measurements and testing.
I found a few classical stations which are enjoyable but frustrating that connections keep on dropping. Seems streaming from computer is more stable though. I don’t know why
Same here! The streaming is hit and miss on my end. KNKX from Seattle streams fine, fab4radio chokes every 20 minutes and the display says ‘unsupported file’. Just goes to show the shift OPPO had to de al with on their players....... Technology going way too fast. Beave
I found this article and am trying if can help. The drop off is extremely annoying as often it requires resetting router and WiFi setup on the CDP. Every now and then all the favourite channels are lost. I don’t know why. Internet radio streams dropping connection - FAQs / Internet Radios and Pure Connect / The Lounge - PURE Help Centre
Every bit helps, in my case the stuttering happens on certain channels, but the ones that run correctly stay up with no issues while the troubled ones exhibit the same dropping issues. So I have to conclude that certain channels have technical issues and it’s NOT the Arcam causing the burps, it’s the channels themselves having issues. When I stream the Fab4radio on my iPad, it mutes the sound every 20 minutes or so, this is probably where the Arcam sees an incompatible data stream and drops the stream. Definitely not a router problem. Remember, if you can stream at least ONE channel with no issues, your Arcam is fine, it’s the channels having the problem. But it also try the trick I discovered for changing streams on a tuned channel; while listening to the channel, hit the stop button on the remote, the sound will mute while the cds50 searches for an ALTERNATE STREAM ON THAT CHANNEL! If it finds one, like on my Knkx station, it will change to that stream and sound will resume, in my case with Knkx it changes fron the default, which is an mp3 stream at 128 kbs to a VBR aac stream. If the station doesn’t have an alternate stream, it will go back to what the default is. If your problem station DOES have an alternate stream you might find that one plays better than their default. Good luck and check back! Beave
