Arcam's ST60 streamer (£1,199) is the British brand's debut dedicated network player. As such, it seems that the Cambridge-based hi-fi manufacturer is taking no chances when it comes to compatibility, as well as performance.

Firstly, lift the hood, and you'll find the ESS9038 32-bit/192kHz stereo DAC from the ESS SABRE line. This highly-regarded chip enables the Arcam ST60 to unpack MQA, as well as supporting AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, and WAV, along with compressed legacy formats.

Furthermore, the Arcam streaming premiere is Roon Ready and works as a Roon Endpoint which means users get to control their Tidal, Qobuz and NAS audio library from the neat interface (subscription required, of course).

Digital input includes USB 2.0, a brace of coax (up to 192kHz/32bit) and optical (up to 96kHz/32bit) ports, and both wired and wireless flavours of Ethernet. Additionally, the ST60 rear sports Balanced XLR and single-ended RCA analogue outputs, as well as coaxial and optical digital outputs.

This all adds up to the Arcam streamer unleashing a world of audio streaming possibilities from all of the major services – including Deezer, Napster, Qobuz, Spotify, and TIDAL. Moreover, the ST60 also plays nice with AirPlay 2 and Google Cast and handles UPnP sources. That means, no matter what OS your smart devices use, they'll be able to squirt tunes over to the admirable Arcam.

Naturally, there's an app and Arcam's MusicLife app hands you control of music stored on supported devices and network drives and is free to download from the App Store and the Google Play Store.

Nick Clarke, Senior Director, Global Engineering Luxury Audio, told StereoNET:

Arcam's experience with digital audio goes deep. We have been making CD players for almost 30 years, and the ST60 design journey saw the team apply this extensive experience into creating a truly high-performance digital music source. Of course, Arcam is also rightly recognised for its excellence with amplification, and the ST60 is the perfect partner for our amplifiers, old and new.

Finally, the ST60 also delivers full I/P RS232 control, including Control4 and Crestron, making it the latest go-to Arcam model for custom install blueprints.

The Arcam ST60 will be available in the UK from Q4 2020 priced £1,199.

See Arcam for More Information