Arcam BD: New Details

[Jodi]

Arcam's first Blu-Ray Disc Player will make it's first appearance as a prototype at the Winter CES in Las Vegas (January 8 - 11, 2009).
It WILL be an FMJ class player, and it is slated for a $3000 - $3500 price tag.
Not only will it bitstream DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD into an HDMI equipped receiver, it will also internally decode those high-def codecs.
The Arcam will have BD-Live capability.
Unfortunately, it will not do SACD, but it might be able to do DVD-Audio.
Also, you can expect to find Wolfson DACs in it's innards.
It will have "anywhere from 6 to 8 analog outputs" for you multi-channel fans.
We will get to see photos and possible brochures (and, no doubt, much more details about this player) starting January 8 or 9 at www.arcam.co.uk.
The BD player is expected to ship between February and April 2009.

Jodi

[ADRiiAN`]

Wha...wha...whaaat?!

Why $3000?!?!
Explain this high price tag to me?!

[Zvi]

FMJ == Full Metal Jacket? And judging by its price that must be 24K gold plated jacket too...

[Midnightsailor]

Originally Posted by Zvi

FMJ == Full Metal Jacket? And judging by its price that must be 24K gold plated jacket too...

lol

[gekke henkie]

Originally Posted by ADRiiAN`

Explain this high price tag to me?!

Have you ever owned or heard an Arcam, Goldmund, etc. product? If so, and if you're an HiFi enthousiast, you wouldn't have asked the question...

[btf1980]

Originally Posted by gekke henkie

Have you ever owned or heard an Arcam, Goldmund, etc. product? If so, and if you're an HiFi enthousiast, you wouldn't have asked the question...

I've owned Arcam, and i've heard Goldmund, and the price is absurd.

They can get away with it for several reasons.

1. Smaller outfit, so their volume is low compared to CE corps. like Panasonic, Sony, Sharp etc

2. To be frank, the type of person who would buy this most likely views this as a drop in the bucket compared to their entire system, so everything is relative. Remember that. To the guy with a Denon receiver, this might seem crazy. To the guy with Levinson, Halcro, Classe, Krell, McIntosh, SimAudio etc, it's "appropriate".

3. A lot has to be said about branding, so there is a reason why Arcam can charge what they can, and why Panny players are $250. There is not $3000 worth of improvement there regardless of what anyone says. Of course Arcam employs superior DACS, but if you think the Arcam is 3500 bucks because of Wolfson DACS alone, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

4. Let's face it. High end audio/video gear for the most part are veblen goods. If you don't know what a veblen good is, then look it up.

[Jodi]

This Blu-Ray player was conceived and designed with one thing in mind: visual and sonic perfection. Perfection over ALL other designs, no matter how mass-produced (Sony, Panny.....) or esoteric (Goldmund or even Pioneer Elite) they are.
But one thing is certain: the Arcam will ANNIHILATE every BD player on the planet.......until Ayre Acoustics finally comes out with it's first BD player that will easily cost thousands more than the Arc........and I DON'T think Ayre is going to step up to the plate.

Jodi

FMJ: For Musical Joy (and home theater joy)

[gekke henkie]

@btf1980:
Thanks! (I was too lazy and your explanation is much better then I could've done)

[dazzM]

I was the proud owner of an Arcam DV88 dvd player back around 2000. It was at the time probably one of the best dvd players on the market. That cost me £1000 at the time. Also, it was very good for audio cd playback, not many dvd players can make that claim.

I can only imagine that this upcoming player will be of reference standard.

[Woody]

I have owned 3 Arcam pieces and used to sell Arcam.

$3500 is too much, sight unseen.

Arcam used to provide an "audiophile" product at a bargain price. Now they supply a similar product, but no longer give the "bargain" they used too.

Sad IMO.

[btf1980]

Originally Posted by Jodi

But one thing is certain: the Arcam will ANNIHILATE every BD player on the planet.......until Ayre Acoustics finally comes out with it's first BD player that will easily cost thousands more than the Arc........and I DON'T think Ayre is going to step up to the plate.

I don't think so. At this stage, nothing "annihilates" anything. This isn't exotic hifi. People are still correlating expense with performance....tsk..tsk. This is a player that no one has seen, yet you have made it a forgone conclusion that it will be better than anything else, and the only thing that would be better would be a blu-ray player by Ayre simply because that will cost thousands too!! Nice. I suppose the $17,000 Goldmund player is the best player in the world. it has to be....it's $17,0000!!!

Blue diodes are cheap now. DACs don't cost thousands of dollars. The most expensive thing on blu-ray players is actually their body/housing case. The mark-up on this player, and players of this ilk is insane. You'd be surprised at what some esoteric, expensive players and a Panasonic player have in common, very surprised. Sometimes all you need to do is literally slap a shiny case on something, ramble a few nothings about DACs, charge $4K for it, and people will line up.

Did any of you ever wonder why a $300 player like the Panasonic DMP-BD30 had the same -10dB LFE bug on PCM tracks as the much more expensive players from Denon and Marantz? It was almost like they were the same or similar players or something.

[Midnightsailor]

I'll stick with my trusty ol' PS3.

[jcs913]

High-end audio is one thing when an imperfect CD is played on it. The upsampling on high-end audio is better and you will hear the difference. But when it comes to BD, the disc is already perfect and the transport will not noticable make a difference in PQ. For people using analog outs, the Arcam will be the best AQ on the market. For the rest of us using HDMI for audio and video, the 1's and 0's can't be upsampled...