Hi Fi Equipment Characteristics

[Adrian]

Recently I had the pleasure of demoing a Arcam Alpha 8 se CD player. It had a number of characteristics which I thought were interesting and I thought it would be "only right" to share them with "ye all".

Firstly the CD tray is deeply moulded and whilst made of plastic it is sturdy (Sony CDM 14 transport) This I feel is very important because apart from the power switch, it is the part of the CD player which the user interacts with the most. If one gets to see sturdy engineering here then it gives one a sense of confidence that the designers are "off on the right foot". Sadly this is something severely lacking in many modern CD players up to a grand or more.

Secondly, I have yet to see a CD player read a disc and display the CD info as fast as the the Alpha 8. From closing the tray to displaying the number of tracks is about 2 seconds. Yep.. I kid you not.... this CD player does NOT pussyfoot around. Some CD players labor in spinning a disc / grinding away for 30 seconds just to read the contents. Some transports will get around to reading the disc contents when they get around to it, which is undetermined as to when they will get around to it, as things are just too uncertain as to when it will get around to it, hopefully it will be gotten around to it sometime today but that is still to be determined as to when it will be gotten around to it. Not so with the Arcam Alpha.... The Alpha is a machine that wants to get down to business FAST. It knows it's master is waiting and it has to deliver.

Thirdly, whilst launched in the mid 1990's, the Alpha series had a interesting design feature, each model number could be upgraded to a higher model number, so a 7 could become a 8 or a 9. This was achieved as all models had standard components, but the DAC section was housed on a seperate board. BY changing the badge at the front and the DAC module board a user could have their player upgraded. The "king of the hill" being the Alpha 9 which utilised a DAC module from dCS called the "Ring DAC".

Other nice touches include a dimmable display and several push buttons on the front facia.

Negatives..... well there is a slight transformer hum, but only barely audible whilst no music is playing and one is in close proximity to the player, which could be allowed given there is about 20 years on the clock at this stage!




https://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/1 ... index.html

[Fran]

The Arcam FMJ were always a nice series....

[markof]

Recently I had the pleasure of demoing a Arcam Alpha 8 se CD player. It had a number of characteristics which I thought were interesting and I thought it would be "only right" to share them with "ye all".

Firstly the CD tray is deeply moulded and whilst made of plastic it is sturdy (Sony CDM 14 transport) This I feel is very important because apart from the power switch, it is the part of the CD player which the user interacts with the most. If one gets to see sturdy engineering here then it gives one a sense of confidence that the designers are "off on the right foot". Sadly this is something severely lacking in many modern CD players up to a grand or more.

Secondly, I have yet to see a CD player read a disc and display the CD info as fast as the the Alpha 8. From closing the tray to displaying the number of tracks is about 2 seconds. Yep.. I kid you not.... this CD player does NOT pussyfoot around. Some CD players labor in spinning a disc / grinding away for 30 seconds just to read the contents. Some transports will get around to reading the disc contents when they get around to it, which is undetermined as to when they will get around to it, as things are just too uncertain as to when it will get around to it, hopefully it will be gotten around to it sometime today but that is still to be determined as to when it will be gotten around to it. Not so with the Arcam Alpha.... The Alpha is a machine that wants to get down to business FAST. It knows it's master is waiting and it has to deliver.

Thirdly, whilst launched in the mid 1990's, the Alpha series had a interesting design feature, each model number could be upgraded to a higher model number, so a 7 could become a 8 or a 9. This was achieved as all models had standard components, but the DAC section was housed on a seperate board. BY changing the badge at the front and the DAC module board a user could have their player upgraded. The "king of the hill" being the Alpha 9 which utilised a DAC module from dCS called the "Ring DAC".

Other nice touches include a dimmable display and several push buttons on the front facia.

Negatives..... well there is a slight transformer hum, but only barely audible whilst no music is playing and one is in close proximity to the player, which could be allowed given there is about 20 years on the clock at this stage!




https://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/1 ... index.html

I own an alpha 9 CD player, bought back in the mid 90's along with Alpha 10 integrated and power amps and Castle Harlech speakers.
The CD player is still doing service in my present system. It's amazing reliable and sounds fine. I never knew the dac came from dCS.

Mark

[tweber]

Had an Arcam Alpha(80's model) in my Naim system when I bought it first and it was really nice - very analogue sounding if that's not a contradiction. Unfortunately it kept breaking belts so changed it for a Sony, still in my system and sounds great too but would go for an early Arcam again no problem if one came my way.