New Arcam Solo Music and Solo Movie London preview

It has been almost ten years since Arcam launched the original Solo Music and Solo Movie and yesterday I was able to get up close and personal with the third generation of these compact systems at their London preview.

During that decade Arcam has been busy and over the last couple of years their R&D department has started from the ground-up to come up with their latest high-performance Hi-Fi and Home Cinema ranges into the new Solos.

The all new Solo Music and Movie bring Arcam’s Class G amplification and (in the case of the Solo Movie) high-end video quality thanks to using a mixture of their high-end components and all new tech.

On both the Movie and Music Arcam stuck with their ‘music first’ philosophy. During the demonstration it was pointed out that without the blockbuster soundtracks the films loose most of their impact. So, get the sound right you pretty much get Hollywood right.

Arcam Solo Movie 2015

The Solo Movie will play nice with Blu-ray, DVD, CD and SACD and has a total power output of 250 watts which can be put out through your 5.1 speaker system – 5 x 60W at 8 ohms or 5 x 75W at 4 ohms.

Around the back of the vibration reducing cabinet you get one HDMI output and four HDMI (1.4) inputs, plus a couple of digital inputs.

You even get Bluetooth aptX built-in so that you can squirt audio to the Movie wirelessly. There’s of course Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet to hook up to your home network.

The audio from the Solo Movie through the four small Arcam Muso speakers, buddied with a centre and Solo sub was very impressive and the image quality is nothing short of breathtaking. The Solo Movie will go up to 4K2K.

Arcam Solo Music 2015

The Solo Music shares much of the Movie’s DNA and will happily spin CD and SACD and has a total output power of 160 watts (all channels into 8 ohms) in to a pair of speakers.

It uses the same cabinet construction as the Solo Movie and similar array of connections and feature set, including Bluetooth and a DAB/DAB+/FM tuner.

Solo Music and Solo Movie prices and availability

Both the Solo Music and Solo Movie will be available by the end of the month with the Solo Music going for a RRP of £1,500.00 whilst the Solo Movie will have a price tag of £2,000.00 RRP.

Solo Music key features:

- 2x 80WPC (both channels driven - 8ohms) Class G amplifier
 - SACD/CD playback
 - Dedicated subwoofer output
 - 4 HDMI 1.4b inputs for TV sound, games console and set top boxes etc
 - FM/DAB/DAB+ tuner
 - SPDIF, Optical, RCA and 3.5 mm input
 - Built-in Bluetooth/aptX receiver
 - UPnP audio streaming with MusicLife app
 - Multi page/learning remote control supplied
 (also available MusicLife IOS control app)
 - RS232 & IR input for whole house control systems

Solo Movie key features:

- 5x 60WPC (all channels driven – 8 ohms) Class G amplifier
 - 3D/BD/DVD playback on the Solo Movie
 - DTS HD-Master and Dolby True HD decoder
 - 4K video upscaling from 1080P.
 - UPnP video streaming