Arcam Amplifier feet

[clifford]

Hi there

I'm putting together my first system, I'm pretty new to this and dont have much knowledge or experience.

So far I have an Arcam Alpha II amp, a Rotel RT-850AL tuner and my cousin is thoughtfully giving me his old spakers which are B&W DM110i.

Everything is in good working order and nice and clean, however the Arcam amp is missing one rubber foot on the front right meaning it wont sit. At the moment I have put a book under there, which I guess is not ideal.

Can someone clarify to me how important the rubber feet are on an amp if at all? and if so recommend me some replacements? They sit in a long grove spanning the amp that is around 11mm wide so the feet couldnt be any wider than that. I was thinking to take off the other three and then replace them all, but with what?

any help is greatly appreciated. I'm in the UK.

Cheers

 

[andyjm]

Sticky rubber feet are available from the usual component suppliers, Maplin, RS, Farnell, plus all sorts on ebay. Google is your friend.

As a general rule, feet are there to allow air to flow around and into the amp to aid cooling, and to stop it scratching your table.

There are a fair number of 'coupling' and 'isolation' products available which appeal to the snake oil sector of the market. I would suggest you avoid unless you amplifier is microphonic (which is very unlikely).

 

[drummerman]

Well, there are manufacturer that seem to think otherwise, Naim being one with their 'loosely coupled' circuitboards and power inlet sockets, Arcam with their damping compounds on capacitors plus others.

Not sure about it and it is not much understood whether microphony affects solid state (it certainly does valves but even there detractors argue that if that was the case early cruise missiles wouldn't have flown).

Still, why take the risk when you can buy sorbothane or similar feet for relatively little money (in the context of a system which perhaps costs 50 or 100 times of that of the feet.

C'mon, you know you want some.

By the way, I use Fisual adhesive 'isolation' pads under my cyrus components. They are not sorbothane but small/shallow enough to fit perfectly for the boxes to still fit on the cyrus stand shelfs.

They, amongst many others, are available on the bay and cost £8.00 for four, probably cheaper than ordering one from Arcam.

 

[clifford]

thanks guys. the fisual pads look good. i'd have to move them more towards the centre to avoid the groove where the feet sit now.

one more thing, are arcam likely to stock replacement feet for an amp over 20 years old?

 

[drummerman]

No idea but worth an email

 

[clifford]

I've emailed arcam will post their response. Cheers

 

[Vladimir]

Rubber feet are to 1) lift the amp and provide proper convex cooling, and 2) prevent the amp from sliding backwards when you push a button or plug your headphones in it.

Any replacement rubber feet will do. Solid state amps are not turntables or valve amps and are not susceptible to microphonics due to vibrations. At least not the well designed ones.

 

[clifford]

Thanks for the input guys. Arcam never bothered to reply to me, however after speaking to my cousin he suggested that I use a pencil eraser cut to size and it works well.

 

[clifford]

reply from Arcam for posterity:

Hi Cliff,

Sadly not, we no longer carry the original feet for the Alpha 2. At this stage I would advise getting some stick on feet now as there are many sorbothane feet you can now purchase.

Matt Frost

Customer Services Supervisor
Arcam - Bringing movies and music to life
www.arcam.co.uk

 

[drummerman]

Fair enough