Focal Arche: Anyone compared to other options in its price range?

[ASIN]

Thank you for all who have commented here, I have read all posts before writing this.

The Arche is a really good fit for my Utopia Focal headphones and I did not have any of the problems connecting through USB that others have reported. Then yesterday I had problems with the Arche and wonder if I have a defective model. I tested with my Sony Amp and the problem was not the source or the Utopias. The music started and then stopped after a few seconds, this happened three times, each time I restarted everything. My source was still working so I finally decided to pause the source, turned off the Arche, and plugged the source into my Sony Tazzy amp, this worked perfectly with the Utopia phones as soon as I took the source off pause. I finally left everything off for about half an hour and tried again, starting the Arche first as usual, and everything has worked perfectly since. Has anyone else had this problem? I am just concerned I may have a defective unity

 

[supermj]

Thank you for all who have commented here, I have read all posts before writing this.

The Arche is a really good fit for my Utopia Focal headphones and I did not have any of the problems connecting through USB that others have reported. Then yesterday I had problems with the Arche and wonder if I have a defective model. I tested with my Sony Amp and the problem was not the source or the Utopias. The music started and then stopped after a few seconds, this happened three times, each time I restarted everything. My source was still working so I finally decided to pause the source, turned off the Arche, and plugged the source into my Sony Tazzy amp, this worked perfectly with the Utopia phones as soon as I took the source off pause. I finally left everything off for about half an hour and tried again, starting the Arche first as usual, and everything has worked perfectly since. Has anyone else had this problem? I am just concerned I may have a defective unity

Welcome to the Arche not connecting to the device thread, waiting for that necessary important update.

 

[iamoneagain]

The only time I’ve had issues is if start the music while the Arche is still on sleep mode. If I then wake it up, roon will skip tracks. I have to disconnect the usb cord and plug back again. If I remember to wake the unit up first, never a problem.

So now that I sold my Dave, I’m finding a few albums where I could easily hear what the Dave/mscaler had that the Arche is missing. On Fiona Apple’s latest album I can tell how the drums are not as solid. The mscaler brought this tightness to the drum and bass. Just sounds so real like you were in the same roon. The Arche gives me an engaging recording that is fun to listen to. So you lose that, wow I didn’t music can sound this real but but still get just as much enjoyment.

The thing is the Utopia / Arche is going to sound way better than anything most of your friends would have ever heard. But I guess depends on your friends. The Dave/mscaler takes the realism to another level but you have pay like 10x price new if you got Arche for $1500.

 

[ASIN]

Thanks to this thread (and the Utopia one), I have always woken my Arche up first, so never had an issues with it starting. This was when I was changing from one piece of music to another, it played the first few seconds then died, though the source said it was still playing and the Arche was displaying that the music was arriving. As I said this happened three times yesterday and it is very frustrating. You do not expect it from such a good amp. Am I right that this is just another form of the same problem? If so I guess we are all waiting for a firmware upgrade and have to put up with it for now.

 

[iamoneagain]

Thanks to this thread (and the Utopia one), I have always woken my Arche up first, so never had an issues with it starting. This was when I was changing from one piece of music to another, it played the first few seconds then died, though the source said it was still playing and the Arche was displaying that the music was arriving. As I said this happened three times yesterday and it is very frustrating. You do not expect it from such a good amp. Am I right that this is just another form of the same problem? If so I guess we are all waiting for a firmware upgrade and have to put up with it for now.

What firmware are you on? I just got my unit and don’t have a windows computer so I cannot do the update process. I’m on 01.01.08. It’s hooked up to commercial version of Ropieee, it believe similar to driverless Linux. Not sure if behaves differently hooked to windows or Mac.

 

[ASIN]

My firmware is also 01.01.08 and my source is a Melco N1A EX 6TB HDD, I find a computer to noisy to use with Utopia headphones.

 

[George Chronis]

Just to chime in, if it helps at all: also on 01.01.08 and no problems, but my source is an iPod and soon a Fiio M9. It’s a nightstand unit, so no computer.

 

[iamoneagain]

I have mine hooked to Stack Audio Link II. So I guess there’s technically a RPi inside, but they do a lot of clean up on the usb out. I tested several connections with my Dave and the Link II was clearly the best. Haven’t tried to see how different connections affect the Arche.

 

[NYanakiev]

I tried booting Arche up prior to booting up my PC that Arche is connected to via USB. Had no trouble getting it to work properly this way.
My usual way of dealing with the annoying handshake issue (I am also on the latest firmware) is to unplug and plug the usb cable back in.

 

[iamoneagain]

I started play around with roon upsampling and think it makes up for any of the Arche’s shortcomings. Only tried out linear filter precise 128 dsd and 192k pcm with 7th order so far. I’m preferring the dsd setting. Gets me closer to the realism the mscaler offered. Now can’t really say how it all compares since I really like the tuning of the Arche with Utopia setting. For kicks. I could have tired the Dave/Mscaler into the Arche to see how Arche is just as an amp but wasn’t my intention to keep both and Dave is already gone.

 

[supermj]

I tried booting Arche up prior to booting up my PC that Arche is connected to via USB. Had no trouble getting it to work properly this way.
My usual way of dealing with the annoying handshake issue (I am also on the latest firmware) is to unplug and plug the usb cable back in.

I’ve plugged it in and out about 10 times and it still won’t connect to my pc or my A&K SP1000 or 240 players until I switch the Arche off or put it into standby. When I connect it to the Mac on first go the music on the Mac freezes so I unplug and then plug it back in, then I can see on the Mac that music has started and the Arche is displaying the kHz rate but no sound, that’s when I have to switch it off and then on again for it to connect. Annoyin.

 

[Gadget67]

I’m really sorry to see all of the connectivity issues users are experiencing. I’m currently only using mine with my Sony WM1Z in the Sony charging dock as the source and, as long as I follow a specific power up sequence it’s issue free (except, of course for having to follow a specific sequence). Otherwise it’s been quirky to say the least. I’m assuming (hoping) the long promised software update will solve these problems but I won’t update until I’m sure the update is issue free and won’t brick my device!

 

[NYanakiev]

Had another listening session on the Arche after using the Utopias with my Hugo2Go for a while.

Wow, this thing can sing! It is an awesome pairing with really good synergy.

 

[iamoneagain]

Think I’m going to leave roon upsampling off. Seem a little bit of the magic is gone. Lose a little bit of the jangle that I like for smoother sound. Maybe with different setting I can achieve what I’m after but really happy just feeding it the original sample rate and letting the Arche do it’s thing.

 

[ASIN]

@Gadget67 I think you are right, who will be the first to see if a new firmware update works? It has been on the market long enough that they must be aware of the issue and I would be surprised if they were not working on an update. Such a great amp, with an annoying flaw.