Arcam’s best-selling Solo Music and Solo Movie 5.1 have brought serious hi-fi and home cinema to a whole new group of style-conscious consumers, and the new Solo Movie 2.1 delivers that same quality for those who can’t stand the idea of five speakers, or are music lovers first and movie fans second.
Arcam Solo Movie 2.1
It is superb as a serious music system and is a major performance upgrade on the £1000 Solo Stereo. The 2.1 also delivers upscaled DVD pictures from Arcam’s high-end DVD player technology and the stereo movie sound is incredibly detailed and dynamic.
The Zoran Vaddis 888s is one of the world’s most advanced DVD core processors and is used in Solo Movie 2.1, coming straight from Arcam’s £1800 DV139 DVD player. A DVD player’s core processor can be compared to a PC’s CPU, the faster and more accurate the core processor, the better a player’s potential quality.
Two 1080p capable HDMI inputs allow Solo Movie 2.1 to switch set-top boxes and other HDMI sources such as Xbox 360, along with the unit’s internal disc player and radio tuners. Furthermore, analogue video switching is supported as SCART or Component video to allow control of legacy non-HDMI sources such as standard Sky or Sky+ boxes or gaming systems.
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Arcam’s engineers have over 30 years experience in critical audio design and the Solo Movie 2.1 employs these advanced engineering techniques. Unique ‘Mask of Silence’ and ‘Stealth Mat’ technologies for EMC screening are used and sound quality is dramatically improved, even though there is a large amount of circuitry within the unit.
Two linear (non-digital) 50 watts per channel amplifiers, give audiophile quality with real dynamic power no matter what loudspeaker is used. A large toroidal mains transformer and high capacity power supply allows delicate audio signals to be amplified with ultimate clarity. Although Solo Movie 2.1 contains a powerful amplifier section, no fan is needed as the unit contains a massive heat sink with very careful thermal design.
Decoding Dolby Digital, CD-DA, DVD Audio, SACD, Mpeg, MP3, WMA and DivX, it’s a truly universal product for audio that even handles the audiophile favourites, stereo SACD and DVD Audio.