ARCAM Radia 4+

The arcam ST5 sounds great. The app is awful can not control the volume. I bought the unit in 2023 and next to no app updates. Clearly the people who work there never listen to music using their lousy app.

I was excited to unpack my newly purchased ARCAM ST5 and start the setup. I opened the app and turned on the ST5 and there it appeared on the app screen. A simple matter to add the Wi-fi ID and I was in business. After a day of playing music using the app I firmly came to the conclusion that the app worked but definitely was quirky and needed much improvement. The app provided access to Qobuz but with many shortcomings chief of which was horrendous search functionality which took several steps to complete. Apple api provided a great search facility that most music apps adopt, for some reason, Harmon, have either resisted using it, or have mangled it in ways that make it absolutely painful to use.

The display is very basic, giving no ability to customize it. Listing albums gives title only but no artist I’ neither does it provide information on audio quality which you’d think was an essential when the purpose was to operate a high quality audio device were sound quality is the main purpose. Having used ROON for a couple of years, the while look and feel of the ARCAM app is like finding yourself having to ride a bicycle when your used to the luxury car you get with ROON.

A key missing pice for me is the ability to change the app to display in dark mode to help me see the test better. This of course is a standard feature of most music streaming app but is a major omission from this app.

I noticed really ponderous navigation on long lists, like artist listings in the QOBUZ liked lists. If you have liked a large number of artists, tracks, or albums, forget trying to navigate them using the app - it is almost useless with some very quirky ideas of what constitutes alphabetical order.

All in all, the app works, but it does so like apps did ten years ago. It needs lots of work.

Hopefully, QOBUZ, will add connect functionality from its own app soon, as has TIDAL and Spotify, rather than the basic AirPlay connection.

On a plus side, the App does handle internet radio fairly well. , and had no trouble recognizing and streaming content from a 4 TB. SSD drive using the USB function.

Amazon Music control was so limited in the content it provided that it provided access to that I didn’t give it any serious try. In summary, for a free app, that integrates well with the ST5, it can be made to work, but it is really basic and understandably it’s nowhere near as functional or pretty, as a paid subscription offering.