Integrated Amplifiers

Arcam’s Radia app, for iOS and Android [pictured below], is an upgrade over its previous MusicLife app, being slicker in design and operation. That said, it’s not as comprehensive as some other controllers, being only good for choosing music and establishing network/Wi-Fi settings. It cannot be used to select the SA45’s various inputs or digital filters, choose a Dirac profile, or adjust any of the hardware settings. After setup, the main page displays icons for Presets, Radio, Qobuz Connect, Spotify, UPnP and USB, plus a small button that takes you through to a settings page covering firmware updates, network set-up/info, Google Cast settings and hardware ‘renaming’. It’s mostly intuitive.

For Internet Radio, Arcam uses the Airable platform, which allows browsing via genre, language and location in addition to lists of ‘popular’ and ‘high quality’ stations. Choices can be marked as favourites, and six can be established as presets. These show up with large icons on the SA45’s display [pictured below],

Album artwork is also displayed in the app when playing from a streaming service, radio station or local content, plus there’s a slider to change volume because the app doesn’t support using the volume keys on the smartphone/tablet itself.