Packing in audio and imaging technology from its range of super high-end AV receivers, Arcam has created a brand new Solo Movie. The promise of this one-shot black box is to bring the power and performance of more serious separate component systems together in a more user-friendly package.
The powerful Arcam Solo Movie is the third generation of its Solo boxes, and incorporates all the HiFi and home cinema tech the British company has packed into its £4,000 top-of-the-range kit.
That means the Solo Movie is rocking five 60W Class G amplifiers, dedicated subwoofer outputs, full DTS HD-Master and Dolby True HD decoders, Bluetooth aptX support and 4K video upscaling. It's also sporting a disc drive capable of playing Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, DVD, CD and SACD formats.
It's also network-capable too, allowing you to chuck pretty much any source you care to choose through this mighty 5.1 setup.
There's a whole lot of tech in this box, and a whole lot of power going through it too. You can tell the instant you try and lift it up. Make sure you've got a reinforced stand for this thing to sit on…
Because of the audio heritage of Arcam the Solo Movie has been tuned to deliver the best musical reproduction possible. The idea being to tune for music first and Hollywood audio will follow if you get that right. We have a frame of reference for what a violin or piano should sound like, less so what Hulk smashing up New York would.
Solo Music
And if the Movie side of things is of less interest to you then Arcam has also created a new Solo Music.
The brushed aluminium box looks pretty much identical to the Movie version, but because it's been designed purely for stereo playback (who wants the orchestra surrounding you, after all?) there are only a pair of those same high-end Class G amplifiers in place.
But they're rated at 80W each and capable of powering any speaker on the planet, well, according to the Arcam hyperbole anyways.
Without the three extra amps, and the power bricks they need, the Music is the less-expensive Solo sibling, though neither is what you'd call cheap.
The Arcam Solo Movie is retailing for £2,000 and the Music for £1,500. Both will go on sale some time in December this year.
