Arche will cleanly drive the LCD-4 to 118 dB/SPL (or 112 dB/SPL average with double the power available for peaks). That’s hearing damage in under a minute territory. For the HE-1000, it’ll take them to 112 dB/SPL peak (106 dB/SPL average with 2x headroom).
It’s not the first choice I would make for the LCD-4 or HE1000 (at the same time, I can’t see paying what Vioeletric ask for their amps, given other options at that level, either). I personally prefer to have a lot more power on tap with those cans than they actually need/consume. How much of that is psychological vs. audible is another matter.
In fact, as much as I enjoyed the sound of the Arche with the cans I tried it with, I probably wouldn’t buy one at all if I didn’t have at least one Focal headphone to pair with it. Which is pretty much the context in which I posted my impressions.
@GoKalb what is the USB handshake issue? I have no issues with my Nucleus/Arche connected via USB since that update… prior to that update I could not use Roon with the Arche… Getting 384 kHz back seems to something that needs to be resolved!!
If you scroll up in this thread you’ll see more details on it, but in a nutshell seemingly randomly the Arche won’t wake up/show/is usable in windows unless you unplug/plug-in the USB cable. Focal has casually admitted to this issue many months ago (same with the firmware issue), but they feel these issues are not worth their time addressing.
Thanks! Not surprisingly, the instructions to install the original firmware miss an important step - you’ll need to download the firmware installer program…the instructions to update to the the firmware that broke functionality show that step and have the download link. I can confirm that, after re-installing the original firmware, 24 bit 384 khz works again
Any chance anyone has ever used a Naim Power-Line with the Arche?
Is it recommended? Helpful? lol.
(Note - I do think this is unlikely to be a good idea - probably better to spend the money for the power line on getting something better than the Arche; I’m just curious).
I presume the release of Focal Celestee will trigger an update to the firmware for Arche? Hopefully this will fix the other bugs. Is there a Focal website where I can track Arche firmware updates?
Can someone fill in the blanks in the firmware update steps? Step 1, no problem. Steps 2-4 are not self explanatory. Not that I have been able to accomplish steps 2 and 3, but step 4 is particularly confusing. " * Connect the USB-A / USB-B cable between the computer and Arche (with USB-B), unzip the downloaded file and charge the bin file thanks to the Browse button." Charge the bin file thanks to the browse button? WTF? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
The first is the Firmware Update Utility (Windows only). After downloading it, you’ll need to unzip it, since it is packaged as a .ZIP file. In the directory/folder that results form that, you’ll find the “FocalUsbAudioDfu.exe” application. Run it.
The second file is the firmware itself (.BIN) file. Click “Browse”, choose the .BIN file you just downloaded, and then click the “Upgrade” or “Start” button.
When that’s finished (and not before), power the amplifier on and off.
Thanks. That seemed to have worked but I have no way of knowing for sure. Is there any way to confirm whether the update worked. I don’t see anything on the info menu as to what the date of the firmware is. In any event if it did install properly, it did not solve my problem, which is establishing connectivity to an Aurender N100H music server (Linux). The Arche and the Aurender appear to have established a hand shake. I see “USB 48kHz” on the Arche display and “Async (192Khz) FOCAL ARCHE Audio 2.0” on the Aurender display, but the music being played on the Aurender is not passing to the Arche. There is no sound from head phones plugged into the Arche or from a preamp/amp/speakers connected to the Arche (via balanced cables).
As per my prior note you need to download the firmware installer program…so connect arche to computer, start firmware updater, select firmware file, and start the update
So I have now confirmed I have the version v6.CB July 2020 firmware, but no sound out of the Arche when connected to an Aurender N100H. Any other suggestions?
As multiple warnings in this thread indicate, that firmware update breaks key functionality on the arche, that’s why, after 6 months, focal finally made the original firmware available so you can downgrade the firmware to the original. the July update broke the 384khz functionality (arche can only use 192khz with the July update). It seems like, despite many commitments/promises, that Focal will not fix this firmware and USB issue.
