Quote:From: "John Dawson"
Subject: Re: Arcam amp - what is it?
Date: 30 January 2002 21:51

It is the original Arcam Alpha amplifier - launched IIRC at the end of
1984 and probably made sometime in 1985.

The idea was to make something that could sell at about
60 - 65 % of the price of our best selling A60 - i.e. £120 rather than
£180 - £200 (it is too long ago for me to remeber the details
exactly).

It was our first heavy use of industrial design - the work was done by
Peter Harries of Cambridge Industrial Design. The case was all
aluminium apart from the moulded front panel.

The power IIRC was 30 WPC into 8 ohms with a complementary bipolar
power amp. To save cost it had a frame transformer, which did colour
the sound slightly for the worse. People either loved or hated the
grey front panel.

It sold OK but did not really hit the spot. In 1986 we launched the
Alpha Plus, with a toroidal transformer and a black painted front
(using the same moulding - the tooling had been very expensive). It
was £10 more and sold at a 50% higher rate.

A couple of years later we retooled it to 430 mm wide (the earlier
models were 400mm - don't ask why!), called it the Alpha 2 and put the
price up £20. It sold 50% more again.

There is a lesson in there somewhere!

You can maybe get a spec from our support staff at support@arcam.co.uk
Probably easiest to give them a mail address, though they may have a
PDF.

HTH.

John Dawson (Arcam)

"Wally" wrote in message
news:aoZ58.5856$UV7.43731148@news-text.cableinet.net...
> Hi.
>
> I've got an Arcam integrated amp that I bought used a few years ago. I have
> no idea what its specs are, or how it rates, quality-wise. For some reason,
> I think it's 40wpc. It has "A&R Cambridge" on the left, and "Arcam Alpha @"
> on the right (that's a Greek alpha symbol). The case is black metal and the
> front panel and knobs are grey plastic. It has a 5-way selector, volume,
> bass, treble and balance. Headphone output, and two sets of speaker outs
> which allow muting or not when headphones are plugged in.
>
> Sound-wise, it reminds me of a NAD 3020 - a bit soft, bass a tad indistinct.
> Modern Arcam kit seems to be well spoken of, but I can't see anything in
> this unit to make me feel that it's in the same league.
>
> What is it? Is it any good? When was it made? Were contemporary reviews
> favourable? Where can I find specs?
>
>
> Wally
>
>
>