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:

[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..

[Audioman]

That just about sums it up..

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,