As noted I am an audio enthusiast and couldn't really consider myself knowledgable about this apparatus to communicate the proper phrasing in reference to the Arcam Alpha 9. But I've been listening to music a long time and know a good sound when I hear it. I bought the 9 several months ago but didn't want to give it a full review until I upgraded my CD player to the Arcam Alpha 7, keeping it in the family I guess. I've found a full sound with nice soundstage and fantastic imaging. I've heard the Arcam Cambridge engineers are wizards and would agree as far as the music goes. It does the sound nicely, but there is one problem these wizards overlooked. Many times I like my music loud and for hours at a time. I've found that the amp overheats when pushed like this at normal room temp. Of course it has an automatic cut off, so I find the music cutting off and on and it heats and cools. It has the power to spare. I'm at between 10 and 11:00 on the volume dial. I now cool it with a quiet minifan lying directly over the grill on a foam cushion. That works and Arcam tells me that the amp is sheilded from the fans motor. It is only needed on those rare occasions when I want to party. That's the only fault I can find. Musically this baby sings.

I have had the Arcam Alpha 9 for a little over 2 months now and it is being used in connection with a Marantz CD-63 Special Edition and Tannoy Mercury M2 speakers.
To simply describe this amp, I don't think anyone will find a better sounding equipment at this price range or even at twice the price. Its bass is not only tight and deep but delivers it with just the right amount of force. However, it is in the high frequency that this amp amazes me. Of course, the Marantz 63SE is famous for delivering excellent high tones (especially vocals), but even if that is the case, this amp certainly does its job of properly bringing out the right touch of high tones.

I like to play my music loud (around 10~11 o'clock) and I think it performs best at around this volume level, but I have not had the overheating experience that has been described here from another user. In terms of the right speaker to use with this equipment, I have not had the chance to experiment with many speakers but I would like to highly recommend using the Tannoy M2s. They are a wonderful match and this speaker delivers amazingly beautiful bass as well and flying trebles when used with the right speaker stands. Also, the M2s play well at loud levels without even the slightest amount of distortion. Amazing speakers!

I also love the convenience coming from the use the supplied remote control. This is a wonderful feature. On top of that, the same remote control can control the major functions of my Marantz CD-63SE as well! One thing I do miss though is perhaps an LED indicator on the front panel telling the user when the amp is being controlled through the remote control. It is difficult to see whether the volume is actually being changed when using the remote.

Anyone thinking of buying an Arcam Alpha 9, I personally think this is a sure bet. Anyone wanting to buy a marginally better sounding amp, prepare to pay tons of money more...

I'd like to expand on the reviews of the Alpha 9 here, by reviewing the pairing of 9 with 9P, a recent purchase of mine (500/400 UK Sterling). I agree wholeheartedly with Mike Hollingsworth, in that (a) partners enjoy involvment in product review, and in addition often lend a useful second opinion. (b) after a couple of hours at the dealers auditioning the 9/9P combo, we switched to the Audiolab 8000S and wondered if it was working correctly. It sounded hideously harsh, thin and insipid. We heard the Audiolab for about 5 minutes because that was all we could stand.
Sonically, the 9/9P pairing is superb. The main thing that came across in the testing was the sheer effortlessness of the amp to deliver all that was asked of it. Never did it lack for power, and the results were detailed, focussed, and left the listener to simply enjoy the music, rather than fuss over why it didn't sound "quite right". The soundstage is deep, as well as wide, and the character of the music is not greatly affected. The amp does not give the 'warm' overtone I was expecting, nor is it transparent. It's hard to describe, but it gives the music 'confidence' (at least in my system).

Treble is clear and precise, midrange is possibly not as forward as it could be, but the bass is taut, accurate, and deep...very deep indeed! I think the Arcam is really suited to Mission speakers - the combination works so well. I have not had this amp past the 11 o'clock position, and it's not all bedtime listening! Perhaps our warm-running 9-only friends ought to audition a 9P from their dealers - I'm sure the difference will knock them into the back of their settees, as well as curing their hot flushes.

Functionally, the Alpha 9 is more versatile than most. It has a host of line inputs, two speaker outputs, two tape loops OR one loop and a processor loop (take note Mr. Hoefer) which neatly brings in my Yamaha surround box that I use *all the time I watch TV*. It has tone and balance controls, which I never use (Arcam, make these a cost option?), but does have a defeat switch which cuts these out of the circuit. Two speaker sets can be supported, and individually switched, though the line source to the 9P does not get cut when the 9's speaker outputs are (you have to deselect the speaker switch on the 9P also), and there are biwire speaker terminals, although my UK model is fitted with 'Euro-compliant' terminals which Arcam distribute plugs for (at cost) if you don't want to bare-bind. The supplied remote control is *cute*, includes listen selection, volume and mute (record-out is selected manually on the fascia and is permanent to tape2/processor), and also does most functions of my CD player, and an Arcam tuner, if you have one.

The only real grumblies I have are that another tape loop would be useful, particularly if like me (and a few others nodoubt), a surround processor is employed, especially with recordable CD, MD etc around as viable mediums, which takes up the second loop, after compact cassette, and the processor circuit has to be switched from the fascia, not via remote, which is *so* inconvenient (still listening, Arcam?) although I'm sure there are sound electro-mechanical/physical reasons for having it this way.

I have not heard a lone 9. I don't care. I love the 9/9P combination. With the quality and richness of sound available from Arcam at this price, there is no need to go beyond.

System so far:
--------------
Micromega Drive 1 CD Player
Micromega DAC
Arcam Alpha 9 Integrated Amp
Arcam Alpha 9P Power Amp
Mission 752
Supra EFF-I (CD to DAC) & Audioquest Topaz 2 interconnect cable
Cable Talk 3 Bi-wire speaker cable

Made it a cinema with:
----------------------
Yamaha DSP-E492 Surround Sound Processor
Mission 75C (Front)
Home-built two-ways (Rear)

Also:
Kenwood KX-3510 Cassette Deck
Mains Filter

n.b. Please don't 'budget' stuff George, one person's budget is another's fortune (I know you gave it a '5' :-) ).

I have owned this amp for two years and have found it to be excellent.It suffers from an over noisy tone control circuit which can be cured by use of the direct feature and now i am beginning to have trouble with channel seperation on the Cd input(problem lies with the channel selector knob)Otherwise it has performed well delivering all that has been asked of it

It played for two weeks and was dead after that...when it came back it worked one week and dead again...
For the 7 months I owned it, I have been able to listen
5 weeks. The sound is not bad, but a little anorexic..
Way to expensive, not that much better as the alfa8.
Compare to Maranz PM78, which gives more for $650..
Or try an Orelle, then you get real Hi-end for $800.

I bought the Arcam alpha 9 some time ago now to replace my old NAD 317, whichI loved, but which had finally failed after many years of faithful service.
I chose the Arcam based on its overall good reviews,
and because the other ones I was looking for were not easily available here in
Singapore. Unfortunately, here in Singapore, it is also not usually possible
to audition the equipment, certainly not at home. Anyway, I bought the Arcam,
perhaps against my own better judgement, and certainly in spite of its ugly
appearance. It is one poor design job, really cheap looking. Unfortunately, it
is not at all cheaply priced.
It was a huge disappointment. Compared to the old NAD, which had a very clean,
analytical sound, the Arcam sounds muddled. The bass falls off
suddenly where the NAD had a wonderful deep clean sound. The treble is tiring
and the midrange is indistinct. The sound did improve somewhat over time; I like
to think it is the components getting run in, although it could be me getting
used to it, I suppose. Also, the tone circuitry is incredibly noisy!
So now I have this ugly poor-sounding piece of plastic, and considering buying
yet another amp. I would definitely not recommend this amp to anybody.

I upgraded from consumer grade Kenwood Reciever which I was very fond of. This amp blows it out of the water. The most noticeable is the stereo separation and soundstage. It might not be a $5000 audiophile product but if you jumping from consumer grade into the audiophile pool I think this is a great place to start. One note: It might take a day or 2 of seriously listening to it before you really start to appreciate what you've got. But once you've become aclimatetized you'll be playing every cd you own.

Very good sound when used in biamp mode with an Alpha 9P. Natural and musical.

The volume control is defective, pushing the sound to the left speaker, forcing me to constantly use the balance control which introduces a lot of hiss. This problem has been mentionned in an earlier review. I adressed the problem at Arcam and am waiting for an answer. I'll let you know if I find a solution.

Stumbled on the Arcam product after trying a whole whack of amps, pre-amps and receivers.
Found the Alpha 9 integrated provided a clean, detailed, unadulterated sound. Most of the other amps that I tried in this price range which also had good reviews provided a so called warming effect, which while pleasant, is readily apparent to be sound modification when compared to the Alpha 9.

The amp really shines and provides good punch with jazz and classical recordings. Female vocals, ala Holly Cole, are as close to being top dead centre in the fourth row at her last concert that you can get (my reference).

I am also a rock music fan and it still cranks, however, while it still is cleaner than the other amps that I tried in this class, it does not produce the intense magic that it does to the other genres mentionned above. Perhaps it is more the generally poorer quality of recording on rock CD's?

Speaking of recording quality, this amp will destroy about 3/4's of your CD collection. Poorly recorded Cd's as compared to well recorded ones seem to end up on the bottom of pile. While these variations were apparent on my other amps, and those which I also tested, recording quality starts to encroach on musical taste. If it were not for the super musicality of this amp on the well recorded CD's, this would otherwise be unfortunate.

Some reviews have been negative on the bass. My initial listening was done with a pair of speakers comprised of home made cabinets, crossovers and the drivers from ancient Phillips studio monitors (hey, I made them) and they were my reference for the other amps tested. They have a good high and mid and the Aplha 9 shined on them. The speakers, however, have little rumble in the bass department. Subsequent play on my B&W DM640's caused a much greater stir in the subsonics. No problem here. Actually there was a problem, but modification of the B&W crossovers (thanks to Frank Van Alstine's Audio Basics newsletter)resolved the boominess. The amp was definitely not at fault. Other amps had also not highlighted the crossover problem to the extent this one did.
The xover fix with the Alpha 9 gives clear tight bass on drums and good rumble on "Way Down Low".

As you can probably tell, I have decided to hang onto the Alpha 9.

The amp also puts my turntables and CD players to shame. These will have to be upgraded, perhaps to the mated Alpa 9 24 bit CD player when it comes out in Winter 1997? (dream on).

I should also mention that I auditionned the Alpha 9 separate amp in bi-amp mode on the B&W DM640's - 300 watts driven into the poor things!

This set up works. There is definitely improved image and reduced distortion. I didn't realize that the distortion existed at that level until I tried this. While I did manage to fool the dealer into thinking that I could actually afford the additional amp and convinced him to lend it to me, I did reluctantly return it after the visitation period expired. I guess that I'd better get a higher paying job.

For a working stiff with champagne tastes and who loves music, this is the most caviar that I could find for $900 Cdn. I got the phono input for another $100 Cdn. The extra amp was available for $750 and will be added at soem point in the future.

Setup:

Arcam Alpha 9 Integrated Amp
Arcam Alpha 7 CD player
Dual 1225 turntable with Shure EC81 cartridge
B&W DM 640 Speakers
Kimber speaker cables, bi-wired to 8' lengths, Radio Shack 24kt spades & bananas
Monster 500 series interconnects all around, 1/2 metre lengths
12 X 16 foot room, carpeted, main level, 8 foot ceiling

This amp sounds quite artificial with my JBL Professional EON speakers, Signet cables and Alpha 9 CD player. I have a 20 year old Pioneer SX 838 receiver that sounds much more musical than this Arcam (that old Pioneer is a great sounding amp to begin with). Paired with PSB Stratus Golds though, the Alpha 9 integrated amp was more realistic sounding than with the JBLs. As with most of Arcam's products though, there are minor signs of external cheapness (IE. the volume knob, the remote, the plastic faceplate). This amp is good for anyone who is starting out in Hi-Fi (like me) and I think it is worth it's price.