I’ve had most of the issues you mention.
Did you check if you needed to press the AMP button to be pressed between sources as it’s behaviour is as per the FMJ models which can be annoying but guess I’ve gotten used to it.
I’m still persevering with my Arcam amplifier - managed to get the chrome-cast working last night and so far switching, whilst not trouble free, so far has been better on the 239 firmware, a couple of reboots but nothing like as bad as on the earlier firmware.
Hadn’t considered using pre/power amplifiers, that’s an interesting thought. Presumably it’d be possible to use Yamaha/Denon decoding and still have Arcam amplification? I came from a Yamaha amplifier a few years ago and had a Denon a few years prior to that and felt the Arcam had better amplification, but tolerated the more basic feature set. Hadn’t thought of getting a hybrid before...
interesting idea!
Will add 12v trigger and analogue tests to my testing regime. Thanks for your insights, it’s useful to keep track as keen to start flagging issues to Arcam to get them addressed.
Other than stability, the main features I’m still waiting on are running two HDMI outputs, MQA decoding & Dirac.
Hopefully there will be new versions of firmware soon...
I have logged a support ticket with Arcam today, I tried the AMP button like you suggested, but it doesn't do anything, if Arcam don't point me to something very straight forward in the setup to fix the issue then my short trip into the world of Arcam is over, I am not going to wait months for a firmware update, I will keep you posted on what they say:
Message to Arcam support:
(Took delivery of the Arcam AV40 yesterday, 2nd 12v trigger not working, Arcam remote requires a factory reset around 10 times a day, switching between HDMI sources results in loss of sound from ALL sources such as Blu-Ray, Sky Q and even the CD via an analogue connection loses sound. The only way to fix the problem is to power cycle the AV40. When watching Sky Q, as soon as you change channel, the sound is lost and you have to carry out the process mentioned above. The AV40 is also very slow at picking up it sources, takes up to 20 seconds to lock on, HDMI switching is very poor which I think is creating the issues outlined above. I cannot continue to power cycle the receiver every time it loses sound, is there something I have missed in the setup ? )