Arcam has recently revamped its entire flagship FMJ range. First seen at Munich's High End show, the line-up has something for everyone in terms of both specification and price.

At the very top of the CD player range, is the subject of this review; the FMJ CD37, an SACD-compatible disc spinner that reflects all of Arcam's CD player know-how in one box.

Arcam's decision to include SACD compatibility is intriguing, as the format hasn't quite been the success story Sony hoped for, but Arcam's brand manager Geoff Meads points out that SACD disc sales are buoyant outside of the UK and reminds us that it is, of course, an audiophile format and this is an audiophile product. Point taken.

Familiar Arcam design

The new range-topping machine has benefited from a lot of the development work seen in Arcam's DVD players. It also directly replaces two models; the DiVA CD192 and the FMJ CD36, taking the top spot in digital audio.

It's turned out in the usual Arcam 'FMJ' style, with a smart dot-matrix display that's a little different in style from recent Arcam CD players as it displays text when SACDs are loaded (the manual claims it also displays CD Text, though we couldn't persuade it to).

It still occupies the same amount of panel space as the old ones, though and the button layout is the same, too. And yes, Arcam stays in our good books for including both track skip and fast forward/back buttons!

Basic functions

Functions beyond the basic transport controls do require the remote control, which is Arcam's new CR90 model, a multi-function learning remote capable of controlling multitudinous components including those from other manufacturers.

That said, there aren't many functions on the CD37 – layer change on SACDs (in the unlikely event you ever find a reason to do so!), display mode switching and the usual track programming functions are about all.

Looking under the lid, nothing immediately jumps out as unusual, though there are some interesting features. The transport itself looks indistinguishable from a normal CD one and the output circuit, with its high-quality op-amps and passive components, could be from any respectable digital audio player.

Arcam has picked one of the latest DAC chips, a Wolfson 8741 part which handles both PCM (CD) and DSD (SACD) datastreams, with very impressive specifications.