If you love music then you are literally spoilt for choice these days with a multitude of different formats, such as vinyl, CD and streaming, which allows you to listen to your music stored locally on a hard drive or from an Internet subscription service such as Tidal, Qobuz and Spotify.

Streaming has been around for a while now and provides a great deal of convenience in how you listen to your music. When streaming music, you can choose from music stored on a computer or network attached storage device (NAS) - a hard drive accessible on your home network) - the files held on your local network can either be downloads from the Internet such as iTunes or CD rips (copies of a CD held locally on the network hard drive) or an Internet music subscription streaming service such as Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer or Spotify.

Many people want more choice and like to listen and discover new music, or listen to music that hasn't been listened to for a while. This is what Arcam's rPlay music streamer does really well and is simple to set up and use.

Let's take a closer a look at it.

The rPlay can be set up wirelessly or directly connected to the router. Once connected download the DTS PlayFi App for iOS or android. There are fixed outputs for connecting to an integrated amplifier or variable outputs if you want to connect the rPlay to a power amplifier. There is also a digital output for connecting it to a DAC - digital to analogue converter - which can further improve sound quality.

This is a where the fun begins. You first select media server from the app and it searches for the network drives with your music on. Choose the drive and play music - it's that easy. You can then select Tidal HiFi from the app and start browsing through the vast catalogue of music and you can start discovering more music than you ever dreamed of. It sounds very nice indeed and it supports high resolution (Hi-Res) high quality music files up to 24bit/192kHz.

The Arcam rPlay also allows you to stream Spotify, Deezer, Internet radio and will connect to devices with Apple AirPlay.

Another DTS PlayFi feature is multi-room playback. Put another rPlay into another room and control it through the same app, you can even name the room so you know which one you want to control, which is nice. Please have a look at the image below.

We think this little box of tricks sounds very good indeed, it is very easy to set up and use and can be integrated into any 2-channel stereo or multi-channel home cinema system.

Please come and have a listen here in our shop in Swindon and we'll make you a nice cup of tea or coffee, while you listen to a few of your favourite tunes!

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Stefan and Andy

Arcam Hi-Fi products are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Enfield, Oxford, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Southampton,
Swansea, Swindon