Arcam Diva A85 has no Personality, New Amp Needed!

Page 7 - Seeking answers? Join the What HiFi community: the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products.

kusum65

New member
Aug 8, 2007
68
0
0
Visit site
I was looking for a new amp when i bought my Arcam 192. Went down to sevenoaks to audition the Arcam A90, its partner amp and thought it was very nice. Then i tried the Rotel 1062 and it ust took my breath away. The clarity and precision was something i hadnt heard before and i bought it on the spot. They come up on e bay for around £350. The build is amazing.
 
maxflinn:ra-1062 , with my rx6s ? hmmmmm...rubs chin ...

Hi maxflinn

One of my clients uses Silver RX6's with an RA-1062, Marantz CD17 KI MK2, VDH Integration Hybrid and generic speaker cable. He is very happy.
emotion-2.gif


All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
kusum65:I was looking for a new amp when i bought my Arcam 192. Went down to sevenoaks to audition the Arcam A90, its partner amp and thought it was very nice. Then i tried the Rotel 1062 and it ust took my breath away. The clarity and precision was something i hadnt heard before and i bought it on the spot. They come up on e bay for around £350. The build is amazing.

Sounds promising :)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Didn't realise the chord chameleon I listened to earlier was on of the more high-end interconnects! Brought out the detail and treble much better - just wasn't too over whelmed with the bass control. Is there anything better than this at a similar price, or less if possible :p - looking for something that produces a dymnamic

I think I've gone of the deep-end so will probably end up investing a couple of hundred extra quid in interconnects and speaker cabling if I really have to.
 
APatel8:Interconnects:
Chord Crimson Plus Black Rhodium PreludeChord Cobra 3Van Den Hul's The Integration Hybrid
Speaker Cable:
Chord Carnival SilverscreenChord Odyssey 2QED Revelation Ok, so for cabling, narrowed down to the options above. Given requirements, can people help narrow down? I should be testing some chord odyssey with my current system soon. Also as I said, used the Chord Cameleon interconnect to test today and there was a big improvement - more detail and seperation at the top end, however it seemed to suffer from a bit of bass distortion (this could have been because of the speaker cabling however).

Hi APatel8

Interconnect - VDH Integration Hybrid - FWIW the Integration Hybrid has been my overall reference interconnect for ten years.
emotion-1.gif


Speaker cable - generic cable - FWIW i use and mostly sell this speaker cable priced around £3/m. The next speaker cable i use/sell is at £100/m! I use this generic speaker cable with for eg. nearly 30k worth of Chord Electronics amplification, Monitor Audio Platinum 300AV speaker package etc. Ignore this speaker cable at your peril!
emotion-2.gif


All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 
maxflinn:APatel8:
maxflinn:ra-1062 , with my rx6s ? hmmmmm...rubs chin ...

They were suggested for my RS8's though?

strangely enough , im going to buy either an a32 or a85 , plus a power amp
emotion-1.gif
...

ricks appraisal of the rotel is noted though , just in case
emotion-5.gif


similar speakers so would probably match up well ...

Hi maxflinn

I would choose the RA-1062.
emotion-5.gif
emotion-2.gif


All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 
plastic penguin:MUSICRAFT:APatel8:

maxflinn:ra-1062 , with my rx6s ? hmmmmm...rubs chin ...

They were suggested for my RS8's though?

Hi APatel8

The RA-1062 works well with the Silver RX6's too.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Rick

How does the RA 1520 compare?

Hi plastic penguin

The RA-1520 is not as good as the RA-1062.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
MUSICRAFT:APatel8:Interconnects:
Chord Crimson Plus Black Rhodium PreludeChord Cobra 3Van Den Hul's The Integration Hybrid
Speaker Cable:
Chord Carnival SilverscreenChord Odyssey 2QED Revelation Ok, so for cabling, narrowed down to the options above. Given requirements, can people help narrow down? I should be testing some chord odyssey with my current system soon. Also as I said, used the Chord Cameleon interconnect to test today and there was a big improvement - more detail and seperation at the top end, however it seemed to suffer from a bit of bass distortion (this could have been because of the speaker cabling however).

Hi APatel8

Interconnect - VDH Integration Hybrid - FWIW the Integration Hybrid has been my overall reference interconnect for ten years.
emotion-1.gif


Speaker cable - generic cable - FWIW i use and mostly sell this speaker cable priced around £3/m. The next speaker cable i use/sell is at £100/m! I use this generic speaker cable with for eg. nearly 30k worth of Chord Electronics amplification, Monitor Audio Platinum 300AV speaker package etc. Ignore this speaker cable at your peril!
emotion-2.gif


All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Hi Rick,

Interconnect is way out of my budget.. max I really want to spend is £80 at the moment. Will take the speaker cable advice into account though :)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
It sounds like your system doesn't have the bass control with the Chameleon simply revealing this. That's why I suggested the cheaper Crimson Plus as it'll probably reveal the bass more pleasingly, ie less.
 
igglebert:It sounds like your system doesn't have the bass control with the Chameleon simply revealing this. That's why I suggested the cheaper Crimson Plus as it'll probably reveal the bass more pleasingly, ie less.

I can personally recommend the the Merlin Chopin. Works a treat with budget Arcams and has the transparency to bring the languid Arcs alive.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
igglebert:It sounds like your system doesn't have the bass control with the Chameleon simply revealing this. That's why I suggested the cheaper Crimson Plus as it'll probably reveal the bass more pleasingly, ie less.

Hmm at a 1/3 of the price, I'd be concerned that it would overall lack - guess it's worth a punt though!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
plastic penguin:
igglebert:It sounds like your system doesn't have the bass control with the Chameleon simply revealing this. That's why I suggested the cheaper Crimson Plus as it'll probably reveal the bass more pleasingly, ie less.

I can personally recommend the the Merlin Chopin. Works a treat with budget Arcams and has the transparency to bring the languid Arcs alive.

Arcam is going up for sale soon :) - going to try and get a Rotel RA 1062.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I understand your view here but with these things it's about getting the overall presentation right. The Crimson was great and I understand that the plus is a decent step up. It might just do the trick. There's loads out there to try so see if your dealer will lend a few to experiment with. My mate and I found that our next preferred cable over the CSP is the Nordost Baldur but it's not cheap. I think he actually preferred a QED Qunex 2 over the CSP.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Alright guys,

Just thought I'd update this thread. Have managed to get a Chord Chameleon Silver Plus interconnect for £42 and have just got a Rotel RA-1062 amp for £270 to replace the Arcam and the shoddy interconnect I had (Silver High Breed Synergy 2 in fact). Hopefully it makes a difference to the sound.

Will eventually be replacing the speaker cable with Chord Odyssey 2 I think, but I think the amp/interconnect had to be changed first.

Thanks for the advice as always.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I did not like the Silver Anniversary, I bought it due to rave reviews.

I found thats the cable was too weak in the bass department, high frequencies emphasised too much for my liking.

Believe me the upgrade to the Chord Odyssey 2 will be a new lease of life for your system, all areas of music are more refined and seperated.
 

Crocodile

New member
Jan 15, 2009
38
0
0
Visit site
APatel8:

tell you when I've got the kit :D

Well?
emotion-5.gif


Rick, could you recommend another IC for use with an RA-1062/RS6 combo with similar properties to the VDH Integration Hybrid, but a little less expensive? I currently run Squeezebox 3 > Beresford Caiman > Chord Crimson > RA-1062 > 4mm Vandamme copper shotgun > RS6 & the sound can occasionally be a little harsh with old rock tracks.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I'm completely amazed. The Rotel RA-1062 sounds absolutely perfect! It's exactly what I wanted. The sound is more 'in your face' and the music has come to LIFE finally. At even very low volume the sound is brilliant, where as on the Arcam I had to keep pushing it higher to get some oomph. Very happy, and have ended up paying £50 less for this.

Also replaced the interconnect as I said earlier in the thread, now using chord chameleon silver plus.

I think I will also replaced my QED Silver Anniversary with Chord Odyssey 2 shortly!
 
APatel8:
I'm completely amazed. The Rotel RA-1062 sounds absolutely perfect! It's exactly what I wanted. The sound is more 'in your face' and the music has come to LIFE finally. At even very low volume the sound is brilliant, where as on the Arcam I had to keep pushing it higher to get some oomph. Very happy, and have ended up paying £50 less for this.

Also replaced the interconnect as I said earlier in the thread, now using chord chameleon silver plus.

I think I will also replaced my QED Silver Anniversary with Chord Odyssey 2 shortly!

Hi APatel8

I am pleased to read that you are also happy with the the RA-1062. The A85 is ok however there is a rightness about the RA-1062 which imo the A85 just does not have. Hence why in the 92 demos i did of the A85 versus the RA-1062, 90 of my clients chose the RA-1062 regardless of associated components used and in the process saved themselves some money.

The RA-1062's balance is very well judged without tipping over the edge and becoming bright.
emotion-1.gif


Btw, i will again suggest you consider using generic speaker cable as this will do the trick nicely with your RA-1062 and RS8 speakers.
emotion-5.gif
emotion-2.gif


All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts