COME ON and admit it. Most of the time, when you stream your favorite playlist from Spotify or Tidal, you just toss it to the nearest little Bluetooth speaker you have. Or heaven forbid, just listen to it on your phone. Oh, the humanity.
While getting access to infinitely massive libraries of streaming music has become amazingly easy, listening to that music on a high-quality system still seems to be elusive. However, pairing the new Arcam A25 integrated amplifier with the also-new Arcam ST5 streaming media receiver makes it effortless to get your music from the cloud out to your oft-neglected stereo speakers. Remember those things? Youk now, those gorgeous tall beauties sitting quietly and anxiously waiting to be adored in the corners of your listening room. Get them ready because good things are about to happen.
British manufacturer Arcam is known for elegantly simple, high-quality audio products, most notably the A60 amplifier, released in 1976. Just over a decade later, Arcam released the Delta Black Box DAC, the world’s first stand-alone DAC to work in conjunction with their CD player. In 2016, Arcam launched the Solo Music line, which is currently available as an integrated streamer and amplifier. Today, Arcam has the Radia product line. This includes both the A25 amplifier and the ST5 high-resolution streamer designed to work seamlessly and effortlessly together or apart.
The Radia line follows the stated tenets of Arcam: amazing sound with an inspired British heritage, bringing luxury within reach. I was excited to hear for myself how well these two products lived up to the hype.
The Radia products, while not even close to budget priced, are investable equipment priced to be affordable to a younger audience. You could call it aspirational audio. I call it a fantastic way to draw any audience into a quality audio experience. The A25 costs $1,499, and the ST5 is $799.
All of the newly released Radia products have a beautiful modern industrial chic design aesthetic that begs to be left out in the open instead of hidden away in a gear closet. And as always, amplifiers should
