Well defined, musical, open.

Lacks "oomph" but unless you want really loud music (and I mean loud) it's really not a problem.

I bought this to try the "Arcam sound" at home. I'd listened to Arcam products before and thought they were very musical and defined the musical stage in a manner that suited my needs. In spite of it's 35 watts at 8 ohm it drives my speakers (Avance Epsilon 910, 4 ohm, 86db) rather easily it seems. I'm actually very surprised at how well it performed playing anything from Rammstein through Koxbox to 16 Horsepower. It's strength lies evidently in the acoustic / vocal area since it lacks some real oomph. I would recommend this fun little amp to anyone starting out in the "enthusiast" area of hi-fi. At the price it's going for used it's a real steal.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 840BX-2

arcam sound

be-wire

for that mony it's very good amp with nice arcam sound

overall sound quality from a 35w intergrated amp,flexibility

get's a little strained when pushed hard

This little Arcam is pretty good as the heart of a small system.I bought the Arcam for my music only system in my den ,I was so impressed how Arcam can make 35w sound so good ,I decided to use all Arcam for my main system in the living room,replacing my Yamaha/Dynaco set up.I would'nt use the Alpha1 as a stand alone in a larger set up,so I actually use it as the pre-amp,with the Alpha10p for the bass/midrange,and an Alpha8p for the treble bi-amping a pair of Paradigm monitor7's.Speaker's are linked with twin runs of Mit Terminator 3's,all interconnect's are monster M1000i.My system sound's very musical,even sound's better than the set up's from the dealer.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaco,Yamaha,Denon,Harman/Kardon,Nad,Sony,Rotel,etc...