Well, I just picked a lemon. I'm sure they quality check the more expensive stuff when it arrives in the UK and the display obviously worked initially so there was no way they could have predicted the fault. Forgiven in light of good quality sound with all the CA stuff I got here.
Without going into another lengthy 'review' and bore you all to death just a few things on each part, all imo only so dont rely to much on it;
The 840A is a powerful, subtle and very refined amplifier. Very structural sound which stays so even at high volume, never looses composure. Nice depth, height and width to soundstage. Focus/transparency is better than any comparatively priced amplifier I've heard and better than some substantially more expensive ones too. If this had a 'fancier' name it would cost twice as much. Not so good are design (it looks agricultural compared to other hifi but at the price something has to give and I'd rather it would be on how it looks than what it sounds like). Slight grain in upper mid and and a little bit of thinning at high treble but again nothing that is wearing. Lower bass is solid and defined, mid bass is relatively dry and well controlled. This probably explaines some review differences. I can imagine some people find it a bit 'hifi' sounding and its not a product that would impress immediately in direct comparison with other more obvious sounding amplifiers but persevere and you will miss the clarity and unforced attack when going back to the afromentioned! Build quality seems fine apart from the display going dead after a short while. Speaker terminals are to close together and feel a bit feeble. Great connectivity and facilities. Its the amplifier the new Arcam FMJ28 should have been but never was.
840C; Highly detailed, transparent player which does pretty much everything well. Always fast and engaging. Can't say to much more on sound. I personally would'nt bother paying more for a cdp. Great facilities with digital ins and advanced Dac section. Dated looks.
DacMagic; great little box with lots of connectivity. Well built but could do with an on/off switch. Filter options are subtle but useful. Sound is very good using a Denon cdp as transport though increased soundstage width/height and some more 'presence' comes at slight cost to focus, punch and a little bit of depth to the stage but hey, you can't have it all at this price and if you have other sources that benefit from a good DAC its a no brainer, simple. The flipside is instrumental timbre and voices are very nice indeed. Dac choice (Wolfson 8740) is fine but I have been informed that the later 8741 is better with both CD and true 24bit material. As always though implementation is just as important as the parts. The new entry level Arcam uses that latter DAC and I found it wanting though their higher priced players are good. So, a great product. I can't say how it compares to a 740cdp but it clearly looses out to the 840 in most respects ie. bass accuracy, noise floor, focus and transparency, not really surprising but I hope this somewhat answers a few questions you had.
Nearly forgot, the amp is heavy with a monstrously large torroid. I had no hum problems but it does run hot, probably heavily biased to class A and clearly needs space above it.
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