Been in receipt of one of the new HDA range for a week now (previously had one of the FMJ range). Experience so far is showing this is definitely a step up feature wise and sound compared to previous generation seems more refined presumably as there’s an improved DAC. Keen to get DIRAC in place.
As an idea for anyone else upgrading, you can likely note the speaker distances and sizes and set them up in the interim. I took photos of each menu before unplugging the old unit
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Loving the screen so far and the readability of what’s playing. I was apprehensive about the cosmetics but the AVR is looking great and not at all out of place.
Web management is really nice, great to be able to configure / play / stream through a browser.
Firmware can now be applied without using USB through the web interface which makes the update process a lot easier. The firmware shipped had already been superseded so a sign that updates are coming through quick and fast from what I can see.
All the basic features are mostly working. Including Atmos decoding, Dolby vision pass through etc.
Roon is fully working out the box, AirPlay 2 is working out the box which are nice features to have at last vs the previous line up.
Not been able to use chromecast as of yet, but been advised by Arcam support that it should be working in the next firmware release in the coming 2 or so weeks once it’s through their internal testing (was working in their lab on the next release that’s being tested).
There are a couple of niggles I’ve had selecting sources, but I’m confident they’ll be addressed soon enough.
There seems to be some discontent about how Arcam’s firmware hasn’t been updated regularly / reliability in the past and isn’t yet 100% for the new product line but apparently that this is a brand new platform module based on the Harman acquisition and having spoken at length to their support team could sense there’s been a massive effort to get the new platform perfected and tuned by the R&D team in Cambridge, and with that comes a few iterations of firmware (presume this is likely the case for most manufacturers)?
My FMJ experience was mostly positive so I’m giving Arcam the benefit of the doubt in terms of the firmware, especially as they appear to have a new approach to firmware development and testing going forwards.
For those with the FMJ generation of Arcam receivers was also told by the Arcam support team that there’s a new firmware in the pipeline for those products if it helps. You’ve not been forgotten
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