A&R Cambridge Arcam Alpha amp

[sburrell]

Hey,

I was just in a nearby charity shop, and they had the aforementioned amp selling for £15. It's pretty old-looking - I'd say early 80s vintage. It had a phono stage, switched/unswitched speakers outs, and all the controls on the front had little blue "bits" sticking out of them. The case is not wooden, but metal. I couldn't find a model no., but it has a serial no.

It's been electrically tested but that's all I could determine. Superficially, it looks like the power LED is missing, and the rubber strips underneath that once acted as feet are gone, but other than that, it looks good. Solid, with a decent heft to it.

Is this a possible candidate for "flipping"? :)

S.

EDIT: found a photo online:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41h62QQAlBL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

[Dingdong]

There's not a whole lot of profit in it. I sold an immaculate one on here for £25 not long ago. On a good day with a following wind you might get £40-50 for a good one.
Nice, simple amps though. The buyer used it instead of his Quad II's and was happy with it.

[sburrell]

Hey Mark,

Guess I'll just leave it where it is then. I'm happy with my own amp.

Ta for the response :)

[hifi_dave]

A good example of 'not everything vintage is good'. That amp was vastly inferior to it's predecessor, the A60, which would be worth having.

[The Grand Wazoo]

It was a bit of a favourite with the hi-fi press for a few years and won awards for it's (aesthetic) design. I always thought it looked & sounded crap. Now it looks badly dated too!

[hifi_dave]

That just about sums it up..:lol:

[Audioman]

That just about sums it up..:lol:

Always puzzled me why they would ditch the A60 for this. Obvious attempt to cut costs. It was perceived as more modern looking at the time but the A60 is a true classic. Unfortunately Arcam have since had a history of alternating between shoddy design / build and the truly excellent.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I think the A60 was about £299 and the Alpha was a true budget model at £120 or so. So I don't think it was really a direct replacement. The £100 - £150 range was where the action was at the time & perhaps that's what they were after, feeling there was more profit to be made in this than the mid-market that the A60 catered for.

[keiths]

I remember seeing one in Laskys in Manchester back in the day.

Thought it looked cheap and ugly even back then.

[Dingdong]

Oi. I bought mine from Lasky's back in the day. I thought it was alright,

[DSJR]

I'm not going to be as cruel as Dave regarding the Alpha amp. The A60 became the Delta 60 and the Alpha was a soft toned and mellifluous? kind of starter product. Probably limited by a small power supply but may come into its own with a modern (digital) source and very efficient speakers. The phon stage removes all the very low bass as it does on the A60 too..

Me? I don't tow the party line here on T-amps as you know, so I'd probably give this a go instead if I needed a cheapo integrated that's easy to work on.. :)

[Dingdong]

From what I remember it was just a few NE5532's and a couple of o/p trannies. About as simple as it gets.
My new MF A1 FBP uses 5532's. Not much has moved on.

[DSJR]

For budget to mid grade audio use, why use super-wideband-fast op-amps? The 5532 is more than good enough to disappear within a circuit I reckon, the final result being due to what's around it AND how it's supplied, if my twin supply Digit Opto is anything to go by.

I have no idea if this has been done by Standac owners, but using the best caps around the audio output, what about good standard medium bandwidth op-amps instead of pushing for the best and most extended ones, which may transmit more "mush" down the line into the amp? Again, an amateurish question, but possibly worth asking?

[hifi_dave]

I think the A60 was about £299 and the Alpha was a true budget model at £120 or so. So I don't think it was really a direct replacement. The £100 - £150 range was where the action was at the time & perhaps that's what they were after, feeling there was more profit to be made in this than the mid-market that the A60 catered for.

I can't remember the pricing - I'll leave that to DSJR but as an A&R dealer at that time, we were sold the Alpha as an A60 replacement.

Thing is, by then, we had the wonderful Creek 4040 at £99, which was within spitting distance of the A60 sound and a lot better than the Alpha. We, literally, couldn't get the 4040 in quick enough to satisfy the demand.

Those were the days..:wheniwasaboy:

[macvisual]

sburrell;

Snap up that £15 A&R Alpha, I'm the guy who sold his Quad 11's in favour of my newly acquired A&R Alpha (same as your photo), I'm getting immense enjoyment from it EVERY day, fabulous.


If anyone can give me a contact tel number of were that used A&R Alpha is for sale I'll buy it, thanks.

[sburrell]

Peter,

I've PMed you...

[YNWaN]

I sold a lot of Alpha's back in the day (not at Laskeys) and remember it more fondly than Hi-Fi Dave. As stated above, it was a starter design, soft at the extremities and therefore reasonably kind to budget sources and speakers (as long as it was used within it's limited power range) - It was OK for the money, but it wasn't difficult to better it.

[hifi_dave]

In comparative dems, we couldn't sell it against the Creek 4040. In fact, we only sold two - the demo one and a stock one, both discounted.

[DSJR]

I think we were selling loads of Creeks at the time as well, but we did sell the odd Alpha as well and of course, to help "finance" our sales director's *free* skiing holiday, we had to sell loads of Cyrus 1 and 2 amps too at the time :steam:

[RobHolt]

we had to sell loads of Cyrus 1 and 2 amps too at the time :steam:

That was easy though, surely?

Other than HFR, the press praised them to the skies and quite rightly so IMO.
Both great little amps then and now.

Always thought the Alpha look horrible, especially following on from the A60.

[DSJR]

No Rob, the Cyrus 1 and 2 stripped the sound bare, the C1 was gutless and harsh when pushed slightly too far and although the C2 was rather better, it took a PSX to properly make it work. Cyrus seem well able to sell what I regard as partly broken products that need a supply upgrade to work to optimum, but I suppose at the time, the upgrade path was affordable and popular.

Me? I loved the mid 90's, because better sounding products came along, such as the Quad 77 integrated and Myryad MI-120, both far more musical and involving over many hours of listening - obviously my opinion :)

[YNWaN]

Yes, the creek did sell better, deservedly so I think.

[RobHolt]

No Rob, the Cyrus 1 and 2 stripped the sound bare, the C1 was gutless and harsh when pushed slightly too far and although the C2 was rather better, it took a PSX to properly make it work. Cyrus seem well able to sell what I regard as partly broken products that need a supply upgrade to work to optimum, but I suppose at the time, the upgrade path was affordable and popular.

Me? I loved the mid 90's, because better sounding products came along, such as the Quad 77 integrated and Myryad MI-120, both far more musical and involving over many hours of listening - obviously my opinion :)

Interesting. I'd actually put a Cyrus 2 (solo) easily on a par with a Naim 72/hi/140. In fact I sold the latter for a Cyrus 2. PSX got it into 72/hi/250 territory. Much better circuit in the Cyrus - cleaner and less thermal drift.
They did go through 7 revisions and I only know the last cast versions.

90s Quad amps passed me by so never got to play with a 77 or the later 9 series. I'm sure I'd like them all though as I don't do this amp musicality thing :)

[macvisual]

Apart from my A&R Alpha amp, I bought an A&R A60 int amp last year and did an A/B test against my Alpha, close call ok, but I found the A60 slightly harder sounding overall.

So the Alpha stays in situ...

[calb]

Apart from my A&R Alpha amp, I bought an A&R A60 int amp last year and did an A/B test against my Alpha, close call ok, but I found the A60 slightly harder sounding overall.

So the Alpha stays in situ...

I'm not surprised. In Hi-Fi Choice nr 44 (from 1986!) both are reviewed and they wrote about the Alpha:
"We were impressed by the sound of this model, our view somewhat at variance with those of A&R themselves, since we rated the Alpha higher than the latest improved A60!"

And they rated the Alpha midband tonal balance as "neutral" while the A60's was rated "slightly hard"

[Mr Kipling]

The A60 was revised late on. Originally the phono circuit was discrete and was later changed to ic, NE 5534 I think. I can't remember other changes being made. Alvin Gold was never a fan of it but was happier with it in its revised form. I think the Alpha was the first product to emerge after the name change to Arcam and was a budget entry amp. In The Audiophile Jimmy Hughes voted it as best budget amp against the Pioneer A400 and another which I can't remember. The Alpha could be plugged in and forgot about whereas the Pioneer was more critical of what it was connected to, but had more potential.

[hifi_dave]

We could never get on with the Alpha, finding it gutless against the A60, hence we only managed to sell the two we bought in as an initial order. Fortunately, Creek came along with the 4040, so we had no need of an Arcam budget amp anymore.

[calb]

I never listened to the Creek but I remember reading reviews of the time. They said the Creek was the most immediate of the two but the Alpha was the most subtle.

[hifi_dave]

So "subtle" and laid back, it fell off the shelf..:rolleyes:

[Martyn Miles]

sburrell;

Snap up that £15 A&R Alpha, I'm the guy who sold his Quad 11's in favour of my newly acquired A&R Alpha (same as your photo), I'm getting immense enjoyment from it EVERY day, fabulous.


If anyone can give me a contact tel number of were that used A&R Alpha is for sale I'll buy it, thanks.

I have sent my Quad 34 off for repairs and connected up my original Alpha amp. to my Harbeth P3ESRs.

The combination really works well.

I honestly didn't expect it to sound anywhere as good as it does...

[Floyddroid]

I know two very good friends who bought A60's on my advice following my own experience with the device and loved them. Both had them re-capped and a nip and tuck with the phono stage. One of the amps made it's way to NEBO3 (North East Bake Off) and caught everyones attention. Re-capped and a spray of pledge they are flippin wonderful. When something is well designed and executed it will stand the test of time. The A&R A60 really is an overlooked diamond. :)

[walpurgis]

I had the same opinion of the A60, as I had of the Audiolab 8000 and the NAD 3020. Personally, I was not keen.

[Martyn Miles]

I ‘dug out’ my Alpha to try it with a pair of LS3/5as I have just built. Running it with an old Rotel RCD - 965BX CD player, I am really surprised how good it sounds.
OK, it could be the CD player and the speakers making the whole system sound good but the Alpha amp. sounds good with lesser components.
By the way, the ‘3/5as are superb. Brand new Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a baffles, with the latest Derek Hughes crossovers. Cabinets are ex. BBC Rogers with XLR connectors.
As I am a big Harbeth P3 ESR fan, these ‘modern’ LS3/5as have really surprised me...