Arcam Solo Upgrade Help

[admin_exported]

Hello Everyone,

First post - woo hoo!

I'm looking for some advice on improving my CD set up please.

I have a Solo and Totem Hawk speakers facing longways in a room circa 12'x26'. I intend to fit new speaker cable, using Totem Tress, but can only bi-wire at present - Totem actually advised to tri-wire (!) 2 cables to the bass and a single to the tweeter, so need to make sure I use banana plugs that will take 3 wires at the Solo end! Guess this is because Tress is only 1.8mm2. Not sure if I'll notice the difference but at least I'll have cables ready for when I bi-amp and I only need 1.3m lengths.

I'm considering getting a P85 to bi-amp to the bass units, as a relatively cheap upgrade. Is this going to improve the sound markedly? Will the amp match the Solo amp well?

The guy I bought the Hawks from is one of them serious audiophile nuts ;o) and raved about Exposure amps - especially with the Hawks, but my wife doesn't like the look of them (!) so I guess I have to stick to Arcam to match the Solo.

Do you think my proposed changes will give me a worthwhile and good value upgrade for this set up?

All advice, and especially experience of similar, much appreciated

Simon

 

[d_a_n1979]

Adding the P85 power amp will work wonders in the system IMO and will give you greater clarity and a more fuller soundstage.

If you cant find a P85 then try the P90 as well; both will work well.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the Quick reply Dan - and the confirmation that I'm not going off in the wrong direction!

Any other comments from people (for or against!) or experience still appreciated.

The Tress cable is on order and I have my eye on a P85 and Chord Chorus 2, 0.4m long interconnect. Maybe a Blok 400 to put things on too. The intention is to end up with the power amp below the Solo, and then the rDock and Bose Soundock Portable on top.

The only other thing that confuses me now is that the Hawks are rated at 30-120w @ 6ohms impedance, the Solo output is 75w @ 4ohms (thought I'd read it was only 50w somewhere?), and the P85 is 85w @ 8ohms. Should I worry about matching these different impedances? Is there a way to calculate the wattage and impedance for the system as a whole?

Oh, and one more thing whilst I have such good advice to hand - my Hawks have nice shiny WBT terminals to plug into, but the Solo and P85 have screw down BFA type - should I still use a well terminated banana plug into these, or just wrap the wire (the Totem Tress is silvered) under the terminals and screw it down? I'm guessing I won't really notice the difference but want to use the considered best method.

Maybe I should upgrade the mains lead that came with the Solo (and the P85 one when I get it?) too?

No more questions - well for now anyways!

Speak to me guys,

Simon