Any time you use a Y-splitter you’ll create a voltage divider between the source and the two-devices at the Y-end of things.
This means that, unless both of those devices have the same input impedance, they’ll get an unequal signal level. As long as at least one of those devices has variable volume/attenutation, you can adjust for this (hard to do properly by ear, however). If not, then they will likely play at mismatched levels and that’ll shift your effective frequency response.
Thanks for the information Ian and this is very helpful. Since I’m using the sub more for adding fullness to my room, I usually keep it fairly low - definitely lower than my speakers.
What are your thoughts of using the RCA outs of the Arche for the sub and then the balanced for the speakers? Same considerations just different aspects?
Cheers
The XLR outputs will have higher signal level than the RCA outputs, so you’d still likely need to adjust levels on either the speakers or the sub (unless they just happened to be perfectly calibrated for those respective input levels vis-a-vis each other).
I’m out. Maybe I made a mistake , maybe not.
I received a refund from headphones.com on the arche and back to the drawing board for me. I sincerely want to thank Taron for putting up with my stream of emails and taking care of me as a customer. They are A++
I ended up going from Arche balanced out to my CMS sub and then from sub to CMS 50 speakers. So, keeping the signal path as clean as possible.
One side note, I’m very disappointed that the speakers do not turn off when you insert the headphones, they continue to play so I need to power off my speakers when I want to listen to headphones.
Would be nice if Focal made this an option in the menu.
I know these are first world problems but I have spent the greater part of my Saturday looking for alternatives and have not found anything form factor wise that competes with arche. I think a few too many bourbons that night made me send a drunken email which started the whole return process 
The euterpes dac is not the best and it has that big power brick
The wa6 probably won’t be powerful enough
The wa6se is big and bulky. I measured and it is actually too big for my space.
The spl is more expensive
At this point I have come to the conclusion that I will skip using the USB and hook up my turntable to one output and the roon eone streamer to the other via coax. . I will use this in my main system and find something else for the bedroom. Right now the mojo that I got from headphones.com will do the trick for the bedroom
I hope Taron will give me one more chance with this. Frankly, Im somewhat embarrassed to ask for a redo. I’m never this wishy washy I will only exchange if there is a manufacturers defect. I figured my voucher is now gone so I have emailed focal for a new one. Hopefully they can honor it.
To all - have a wonderful weekend and thanks for all the help on this board and thanks again to headphones.com.
Ok. Order placed and I will get it tomorrow!
Looking forward to a redo.
One question I have - in the little plastic bag are the 4 rubber feet , the Allen key and a plastic rectangular piece. What is that plastic piece for?
That plastic rectangular piece is to position the headphone stand and lines up the fixing screws to the Arche, it does show you this in the manual. The 4 rubber feet just sits under the spike feet on the Arche, they do not stick on which i thought would do.
Hey Thanks! It’s perplexing that they didn’t have stock rubber feet or make them to with adhesive
I think the foot pads are just gratuitously weird in order to make the amp feel more premium. They’re supposed to make us think of speaker spikes, but they’re mostly just annoying.
Just in case there is interest in my experience with the Focal Arche, I ended up trading it for a different DAC less than a week after owning it.
The Arche is an amazing piece of hardware and for someone that will use it exclusively with headphones - it’s main purpose - then it’s probably perfect for you.
For me, my desktop DAC also serves as a preamp that I connect to my Focal CMS speakers and sub and that is what I listen to for most of the day from various digital sources. I listen with headphones on occasion, so it’s important that it can drive that as well.
There are two things about the Focal Arche that became a negative for me - enough that I had to find something else.
The main negative is that the mains output (XLR/RCA outputs are always active), I had expected them to be muted when I connected my headphones (this is how all my previous DAC/preamp units worked), so it didn’t even occur to me that this was not “just the way it was”. Having to manually turn off my speakers and sub when I wanted to listen with headphones, just was not practical.
The other negative, was that the unit gets very, very hot. So hot that I could not keep my hand on the top for more than 30 seconds before it would get uncomfortable. My desk has a pair if 2U shelves and I keep all my equipment in these areas, so with the Arche getting so hot, it heated up the nearby electronics and just wasn’t right for the long-term. IF I kept it on the desktop, out in the open, perhaps even used the supplied headphone stand, it might not have mattered all that much. But for my use, this became a deal breaker as well.
Finally, there are a few little items that I was fully aware of before, and considered they were not all that big of a deal, but Focal really should think about them as they consider their next iteration of the Arche.
The pointy metal feet really don’t make sense. My desk is made out of wood, so the pointy feet would scratch it up to death. The included pads don’t stick so it’s a bit of a puzzle game trying to line them up and they don’t stay put when you move the unit (like inserting headphones and you need some leverage). They should use rubber or soft feet that are friendly to all surfaces and don’t scratch.
Where is the remote? For this price class of a unit, there should be a remote included. I had the Arche within an arms length most of the time, so it was not a big deal. But most remotes have a “mute” button which is very useful when you are trying to have meetings throughout the day and you want to mute the audio. If the unit doesn’t have a dedicated mute button on it, the remote usually fills this need.
Finally, the other user improvement should be how the inputs are changed. If I want to go from USB to COAX, I have to click the knob, go to “input” (click again) and then rotate to select my input. It’s buried 2 levels into the menu - why not just have buttons for the inputs on the front and I can just pick it and quickly switch. Or have a dedicated input knob that rotates through them? Like volume, switching inputs is probably the 2nd most frequent thing you do with a DAC and it should be right on the front.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! I think the Focal Arche is a great piece of equipment and for the right person, it’s probably the perfect equipment for them. It just was not for me.
I also wanted others to be aware of the shortcomings that I had not thought to seek out or learn about as I had, wrongly, made assumptions that all DACs had basic similarities for base functions.
Thanks - E
Does anyone know how to make the Arche connect to a device, whether it’s a DAP or a computer without having to switch it on and off a couple of times to make it work ?
Regarding connecting it to a computer via USB, it’s a known handshake issue…Focal US Support has promised to have this fixed in the promised firmware update that was supposed to be released last month …in reality, who knows if, and when, Focal actually can be bothered to fix this.
Just took receipt of this and I am having this issue. Just happy it’s a known issue - they should fix it eventually, hopefully.
This happens on whether it’s USB or Toslink, will not accept the signal on first switch on. Analogue (RCA) is not affected as i remember.
I know we shouldn’t have to do this but I bought a Sabrent HB-UM43 USB hub which has switches on the USB ports on the hub for my desk. Cost £11. I have it plugged into that and when this issue happens I flick the switch for the port off and on and it instantly starts working again.
Decent work around until they sort out the issue with firmware fix.
I asked SCV (Focal distributor for the UK) if they were aware of the problem on the starting up of the Arche and this is what they said… “I see, thank you for confirming. We (and Focal) are aware of the power-cycling issue, often the device and Arche have to turned off to establish audio output, this also seems to be the case if the device goes into a sleep mode.
We’ve been talking to them about it so it is definitely being investigated. As to when a firmware fix might become available I do not have any ETA at this time. I’m sure as soon as there is news of one there will be an announcement on the forums.” Good, it seems they’re onto it.
Hello XeNoF50, Isn’t this the same as unplugging the USB plug and then plugging it back in again ? I have couple of hubs similar which i’ve brought recently and they don’t do their magic like yours.
Yes this is the same as turning it off and on. I am too lazy to get up behind my pc or the amp to do it. I made a point to get one which has a switch on the hub itself individually controlling each USB port as I thought that would physically sever the connection.
According to Focal the Arche is 1 wpc.