Problems with Arcam Gear/U.S. Distributor

All, thanks for your help. I was finally able to speak with ASL and they are working on resolving the issue. It appears to be a problem with the p80 as the AVR300 and manufactured stereo/mini cable are working fine.

I am doing the same with my AVR300 to trigger a Citation 5.1 amp. I soldered the ring to the base on the amp side of the cable and it works fine. It is a little bit of a pain. If you clump the solder then it won't fit in the jack.

That is exactly why I bought Anthem because the support is 2nd to none.

Splicing a mini plug to use as a trigger is fairly easy.
Just make sure you strip back plenty of wire on the mini-plug. The wires are so fine that unless you have quite a bit to wrap around they are likely to break.

Many pre/pros also require that you dictate when the trigger is in use. THis is very useful for setting up elaborate systems. Check the menu of the pre/pro to see settings for trigger outputs.

Also double check to see that you haven't connected to the trigger INPUT of the pre/pro.

Good luck!

A comment about the distributor ASL - I have a lot of Arcam gear, purchased mostly from a local dealer and a little on Agon. I had a modification performed through the local dealer that didn't come out right, and was very slow (the repair shops fault, not the dealers) to be finished. I sent an e-mail to ASL complaining about the slow service of the repair shop and copied my local dealer. Never heard anything back from ASL. When it turned out the DAC had been damaged by accident during the modification and would have to be shipped back to England for repair of the DAC (factory repair only for the dcs DAC), I sent another complaint to ASL about the "Factory Authorized Service Facility". The guy at ASL came up with a replacement DAC and promptly shipped it to the repair shop. Maybe saved me a couple of months waiting for a DAC repair.

What's funny, ASL never acknowledged my message or that they had shipped the new DAC to the repair shop. My local dealer found out while he was following up.

So, while I wouldn't consider the service from ASL to be all warm and fuzzy personal stuff, in the end, they have supported the gear very well.

Also - Arcam's factory technical support, accessed from the website, has been very prompt and effective for me. Answered multiple questions the next day and right to the point. This is how you do this - no, you can't do that, etc. Even answered my follow up questions the same day. Very helpful and probably a good way to get your questions answered.

Jim S.

My brother sent a CDP back for repair and it took forever to finally get back to him. Fortunately the local dealer stepped up and provided a loaner until the unit was returned.