Arcam CD5 CD Player

I had an old but superb Pioneer CD player and was concerned that its replacement would be inferior. I liked Arcam’s cd players from past experience so took Audio T’s recommendation. This player is excellent. Masses of detail and a lovely broad soundscape with excellent separation of all the musical bits and pieces. My one tiny gripe is that the cd drawer mechanism is rather down market compared to my old Arcam and Pioneer models.

Aracm CD5.......

I bought this CD player to replace my aging Arcam Alpha which had developed an unrepairable fault.The CD5 has terrific sound, it's audibly better and I am not some audiophile, but it's obvious.This CD player can receive updates via a USB stick, I found that I needed to use a USB 3.0 stick as my 2.0 stick did not work. However the update was very quick once it was working.I have two gripes about the player which are not deal breakers for me:- the display could and should be clearer, in bright light or at an angle it can be hard to read and Arcam should fix this: have a look at the Brennan B2 for an example of a crystal clear simple text-based display.- at times it is slow to react, e.g. with the Arcam Alpha you could turn the player on and almost ... MoreI bought this CD player to replace my aging Arcam Alpha which had developed an unrepairable fault.The CD5 has terrific sound, it's audibly better and I am not some audiophile, but it's obvious.This CD player can receive updates via a USB stick, I found that I needed to use a USB 3.0 stick as my 2.0 stick did not work. However the update was very quick once it was working.I have two gripes about the player which are not deal breakers for me:- the display could and should be clearer, in bright light or at an angle it can be hard to read and Arcam should fix this: have a look at the Brennan B2 for an example of a crystal clear simple text-based display.- at times it is slow to react, e.g. with the Arcam Alpha you could turn the player on and almost immediately eject a CD, with this one you have to wait until it's ready.This aside, I really love the sound and I expect that software updates in the future will fix problems and provide further options for configuration.

Arcam CD5

To be honest I don't consider myself as an audiophile but music lover who enjoys music no matter what kind of system is used. I can only say the unit looks splendid, and I'm waiting for A5 integrated amplifier before I turn this unit on. The service from the seller was excellent, and I will always consider this shop for my future purchases.

Arcam CD5 great improvement in sound over CD73

Arcam CD5 great improvement in sound over my old Arcam CD73. Paired up with Arcam SA30 amplifier, Bowers & Wilkins 603 S2 and Atacama Apollo storm .All bought from Richer Sounds Nottingham.

Excellent guidance, service and price.

Really happy with my new Arcam CD5, definitely an upgrade from my Denon I bought back in 1996..!Tom at the Lichfield store was really helpful and patient throughout the process.Collected this morning, plugged in and sounding epic.

Good machine, poor instructions and remote

I had to replace my CD player so I bought the new Arcam CD5. It was easyto set up: just a power cable and the cables to the amplifier. However, the instructions said nothing about the remote. I found the user manual on line and printed it ouit, but there was no mention of it in the insturctions inthe box. The remote control itself is not that easy to use, and it doesn't allow direct choosing of an individual track. SO it is inferior to the previous one. However, the sound of the new machine s=howed an immediate improvement over its predecessor, also an Arcam. It is clear, more analytic but also warmer. I am very pleased with it.

Great sound

I bought this item on the back of top reviews by what hi fi and yourselves and am not disappointed. Handles all genre's of music superbly. Great piece of kit!

Great sound but some surprising issues

The sound from this CD player is very good. I have it paired with a Rega Brio amp and some KEF speakers. However, there are a couple of issues that are pretty inexcusable for a £699 player - it’s not possible to fast-forward nor rewind and CD Text is not available despite the manual specifying that it is. I emailed Arcam and both might become available via a firmware update sometime in the future. Other than that, I am very happy with the sound and look of the CD5

It'll (probably) be great when it's finished...

As it stands the "Overall" rating is 3, but that comes out of a 5 stars for sound quality and 1, maybe 2 for ergonomicsIt sounds wonderful, no doubt about it.So you get it home, and plug it in with little help from the verging-on-useless manual (quite thick, but only to allow it to be useless in lots of languages), and cue up something with segues between tracks... and it doesn't do gapless playback! So you email Arcam support and say "It doesn't do gapless playback, that wasn't a problem in 1984, in 2024, are you joking?" and they send you a software update to cure that. And then you want to fast-forward or wind back in a track and... you can't. So you email Arcam support and say "It doesn't do in-track seek, that wasn't a problem in 1984, in 2024, are you ... MoreAs it stands the "Overall" rating is 3, but that comes out of a 5 stars for sound quality and 1, maybe 2 for ergonomicsIt sounds wonderful, no doubt about it.So you get it home, and plug it in with little help from the verging-on-useless manual (quite thick, but only to allow it to be useless in lots of languages), and cue up something with segues between tracks... and it doesn't do gapless playback! So you email Arcam support and say "It doesn't do gapless playback, that wasn't a problem in 1984, in 2024, are you joking?" and they send you a software update to cure that. And then you want to fast-forward or wind back in a track and... you can't. So you email Arcam support and say "It doesn't do in-track seek, that wasn't a problem in 1984, in 2024, are you joking?" and they say the software team haven't quite finished that bit yet, but it shouldn't be long now.Oh, and the draw is really shallow so it's easy to not quite get a CD in properly, in which case the disc will get stuck most of the way in and there doesn't seem to be any way out of that except force it out which feels a bit unnerving. And if your eyesight's not the best it's rather hard to make out the legends on the buttons on the unit, and because the programmers haven't finished yet the remote is poorly documented and doesn't seem to have any obvious internal logic on how to use it (there are online downloads that are better than the included manual, which are merely inadequate rather than "minimum contractual obligation")So they've released it before it's properly ready, in other words, and you can't blame the manual writers if the programmers haven't finished yet, and you can't blame the programmers if the company have decided they'll release it before they've finished. But if you're prepared to put up with the poor ergonomics and documentation, doing your own software updates from a USB drive and can live without fast-forward/rewind within a track for now (weeks? months? who knows? and Arcam aren't saying right now (Jan 24), it *does* sound wonderful, there's no doubt about it.So it's an A+ for sound and a D- for user-friendliness. I'm keeping mine, for now at least, because of the A+ sound, but if you value all the sorts of easy to use extra features that are a given on something from the likes of Sony, do be aware the CD5 may well be frustrating.

My CD collection has never sounded better

I bought the Arcam CD5 recently and it has greatly enhanced my listening pleasure. My jazz collection in particular has benefited from this purchase, with great horn players like Miles and Coltrane almost sounding as though they are performing in person in my living room! A superb addition to my HiFi system. I am more than delighted with this product.