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However, the Arcam’s bigger, easier-going presentation will undoubtedly find favour with many listeners. While fast and fluid, the SA30 doesn’t quite have the rhythmic aptitude of the Naim Uniti Atom, which is the more gifted performer when it comes to tying together a pattern. That pleasing clarity and subtlety is presented on a big, spacious and tonally even canvas – one that puts space between the melodic electric strings and the acoustic strums they sit on top of, without sacrificing their intended interplay. The Arcam’s appetite for vocals is exemplary.
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Salami’s When The Poet Sings is full and clear and detailed: the tender acoustic plucking is lush and convincingly tangible, and his conversational vocal is engagingly dynamic, with all the quirky intricacies that make his storytelling so compelling left intact. As we revel in its versatility – we stream our hi-res library from our Naim server, play Tidal and Spotify streams over Chromecast, and give our reference turntable a spin – we are thrown into the most consistently pleasant of easy listening states. The Arcam has all the sonic smoothness, scale and powerful muscularity we’ve come to expect from Arcam components and their Class G amplification.
It’s not ideal for visualising the track currently playing – watching letters slowly scroll across the display is about as visually painful as modern hi-fi gets – and we miss being able to occasionally glance at on-screen album covers. Even the array of buttons that runs below the small LED screen sticks to standard functions such as menu, input switching, mute and balance. There’s nothing that points to its streaming talents: no sizable screen on which artwork can be displayed, nor are there the increasingly common touch controls or presets. We imagine anyone who relishes orthodox hi-fi design will appreciate the SA30’s aesthetic approach. With a full-width chassis, and circular controls (a volume dial and power button) either side of a compact display, the SA30 embodies Arcam’s established design – conforming to the rest of the HDA component range it belongs to and away from the likes of Arcam’s elegant Solo Uno streaming amplifier. While the SA30 has embraced the modern world of streaming, the aesthetics are in line with traditional hi-fi. The Arcam’s Analogue Direct mode, however, bypasses that, sending the inputted signal straight through to the preamp stage. Naturally, in order to apply such room correction across inputs, the SA30 converts any analogue signals into a digital signal with its analogue-to-digital architecture, allowing it to be digitally processed before being converted back with its DAC. It’s an encouragingly straightforward process, and in our room does noticeably clean up the sound. You’re presented with a target response curve, which you can easily manually adjust before it’s loaded wirelessly onto the SA30.
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Arcam has built support for Dirac Research’s proprietary Dirac Live room correction technology into the SA30, designed to correct the connected speakers’ performance for the system, and reduce unwanted resonant frequencies introduced by the room.Īll you, or your dealer, have to do is download the Dirac Live desktop application (Windows or Mac) onto your computer, follow the procedure (which includes connecting the supplied mic, using it to measure 13 positions around your living room) and the software calculates and corrects the colourations. Plug in a pair of speakers or headphones and away you go. A front-panel 3.5mm output provides headphones listening, too.
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We think that list ensures that pretty much any audio component or TV can be connected to it.Ī pair of pre-outs allow the user to bypass the Arcam’s power amplification for an alternative, while an RS232 connection accommodates integration into a smart home automation system.
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Turning to analogue it has three pairs of RCAs plus compatibility with both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. Digital connectivity features two opticals and coaxials, one USB and an eARC-supporting HDMI.
The Arcam’s streaming abilities may steal the headlines, but it's the physical inputs that can make the SA30 the nucleus of a multi-source system. Not only is hi-res music supported by the Arcam’s 32-bit ESS Sabre ESS9038 DAC, MQA files, including MQA-formatted Tidal Masters, can also be played.