I dismissed this marvellous Alpha 6 plus few days ago just in order of replacing it with his big brother alpha 9, but still it's hard to get separated from it!!
When I assembled my hi fi system, I tried more than one competitor in its price range: audiolab 8000A, Musical Fidelity A1 and the most recent Nad 340.
With classic music, I found Audiolab a bit more opened, with a coherent and a bit better staged sound scene, but it played dry compared to arcam. Some instruments were not so definied as Arcam did, and the bass extension was limited compared to the alpha one.
Musical Fidelity A1 was just a bit more defined in low frequences (you can advertise this peculiarity in rock music too), but not so worm ad arcam, and it lacked of a decent phono stage (the one included was really bad compared with the Alpha 6 one), of remote controller and some other features. So your LP's risk to sound just like "boxed" if you don't have separate phono..
Nad 340 cannot drive engaging speackers and lost dinamics and clarity coupled with my tannoy's.
The alpha 6 plus was the best compromise using another arcam brand cd player (alpha 7 SE): it's worm, with large sound stage, good dinamics, detailed and with more than a honest integrated phono ampliphier.
One point better than A1, one step over the others.

Let tha Arcam feed with a good corrent cable and you have a great amplphier for the money.

I dismissed this marvellous Alpha 6 plus today just in order of replacing it with his big brother alpha 9, but still it's hard to get separated from it!!
When I assembled my hi fi system, I tried more than one competitor in its price range: audiolab 8000A, Musical Fidelity A1 and the most recent Nad 340.
With classic music, I found Audiolab a bit more opened, with a coherent and a bit better staged sound scene, but it played dry compared to arcam. Some instruments were not so definied as Arcam did, and the bass extension was limited compared to the alpha one.
Musical Fidelity A1 was just a bit more defined in low frequences (you can advertise this peculiarity in rock music too), but not so worm ad arcam, and it lacked of a decent phono stage (the one included was really bad compared with the Alpha 6 one), of remote controller and some other features. So your LP's risk to sound just like "boxed" if you don't have separate phono..
Nad 340 cannot drive engaging speackers and lost dinamics and clarity coupled with my tannoy's.
The alpha 6 plus was the best compromise using another arcam brand cd player (alpha 7 SE): it's worm, with large sound stage, good dinamics, detailed and with more than a honest integrated phono ampliphier.
One point better than A1, one step over the others.

Let tha Arcam feed with a good corrent cable and you have a great amplphier for the money.

Great dynamics

A very slight coloration imprinted on the music.

I've had this amp for about a year and like it more than ever. It is very musical and get your toes tapping, I have never heard an more involving amp at this price.

I have recently took home a Creek 4330r to audition and it sounded anemic compared to the Arcam. Although the Creek was a little cleaner, more transparent I found it thin and a little boring and it doesn't swing current like the Arcam. The arcam can play tune, it is a very fast amplifier but is by no means the final work in absolute resolution and sound staging.

The Arcam responds very,very well to the addition of a power cord I recommend the XLO type 10, the improvements are big, much more depth, cleaner and the harmonic structure of the music becomes more natural. The Arcam with the XLO is a different amp, it often regarded as having poorly resolved bass but put on the power cord and the bass snaps into focus.

There are other comparable amps with better resolution but I can't find one as musical as the 6.5 plus!

Similar Products Used:

Creek 4330r, Myriad, Cambridge Audio, Audio Lab.

I'm a novice audio fan who loves music. My review (for what it's worth)of my Arcam is very good musical detail with good depth, paired with
my Creek CD42 it does a very respectable job for the money. My only
negative is the bass definition could be better, actually a lot better.
time to upgrade..... A solid three stars for value on the used market.

I have used the Alpha 6 amplifier with an Alpha 5+ CD player using B&W 620i speakers. The amplifier has added a good soundstage and plenty of punch in the bass (much better than the Alpha 5 amp and Marantz - can't remember the model).I am now going to add a Xeta 2 processor to turn into AV.

great musicality and dynamics,
fine detail with my Morel speakers,
can drive almost any speaker you connect to it

nothing

My Arcam is 5 years old now and I don't really feel that I need a new amplifier. It works good and plays music with enthusiasm and grace. I have been using it all the time with a pair of home-made, very hard-driven Morel speakers and the combination works great.