Worth buying a power amp?

[kingnothing83]

Hi,

I currently have an Arcam Alpha 8 integrated amp, and have seen an Alpha 8 power amp for sale. Is it worth buying one? I have Tannoy Mercury F1 custom speakers that can't be bi-wired. Any advice would be great!

Cheers

Simon

 

[nads]

sounds like you have no need of it. why do you want it?

 

[JoelSim]

If you can't biamp, then IMHO opinion, No!

When you get some better speakers then a big yes.

 

[Anonymous]

Get some new speakers and then the 8P - fantastic pairing! I used to have them! Very musical and the addition of the power in a biamp set up makes it all snap into place...using one as a power alone is v good too.

 

[Anonymous]

Bi-amping isn't the only reason to run a power amp guys. It's also for if you need more, erm, power. More power means you can have a more dynamic and expansive sound, better bass and a fuller sound at lower listening levels. Remember that speakers with 4 binding posts are a relatively new phenomenen and, ahem, pretty pointless in the majority of cases. Extra power, however, is necessary for all that I've mentioned and for driving difficult speakers.

 

[kingnothing83]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, sounds like it would be worth me picking one up if i happened to find one for a good price as i may have use for it now and almost certainly would in the future

 

[Andrew Everard]

The 8P has exactly the same power output as the 8 integrated, so I can see no point in adding it with your current speakers. But buying one against a future purchase of biampable speakers may be sensible.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

Don't have any Arcam kit so can't comment directly, but I did add a power amp to my set-up recently for exactly the reasons that Wild Willy outlined and the impact was tremendous!

I can drive my speakers much more effectively now.

Cheers

 

[Thaiman]

Arcam Alpha 8 and 9 are now making a great come back! Since questions after question has been asked in here, the 2nd hand price rise is now noticable. I haven't heard them since mid 90's.... may be i should join the trend.

 

[drummerman]

[quote user="Thaiman"]Arcam Alpha 8 and 9 are now making a great come back![/quote]

 

[d_a_n1979]

[quote user="Thaiman"]
Arcam Alpha 8 and 9 are now making a great come back! Since questions after question has been asked in here, the 2nd hand price rise is now noticable. I haven't heard them since mid 90's.... may be i should join the trend.

[/quote]

They are and the prices on Ebay are reflecting that

I think that people find Arcam a good way in to hi-fi seperates and then go from there. Same with NAD and Marantz.

To a non-audiophile, the Arcam sound is very pleasing and as long as its paired with good speakers, you cant really go wrong.

Looking at Ebay over the last few weeks has seriously tempted me to sell my Arcam Alpha 9 set-up and move across to MF seperates!

 

[Thaiman]

[quote user="d_a_n1979"]To a non-audiophile, the Arcam sound is very pleasing and as long as its paired with good speakers[/quote]

LOL....Dan, Mr. Slim wouldn't be please to read that, non-audiophile!

 

[d_a_n1979]

[quote user="Thaiman"]
[quote user="d_a_n1979"]To a non-audiophile, the Arcam sound is very pleasing and as long as its paired with good speakers[/quote]

LOL....Dan, Mr. Slim wouldn't be please to read that, non-audiophile!
[/quote]

Haha...

What im trying to say is that the Arcam sound is smooth but still bery detailed and powerful so gives a very good impression of seperates. If you were to go straight into a bright system i think it would put alot of people off.. Especially if theyve been sat at home with their Awia system playing away...

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="d_a_n1979"][quote user="Thaiman"]
[quote user="d_a_n1979"]To a non-audiophile, the Arcam sound is very pleasing and as long as its paired with good speakers[/quote]

LOL....Dan, Mr. Slim wouldn't be please to read that, non-audiophile!
[/quote]

Haha...

What im trying to say is that the Arcam sound is smooth but still bery detailed and powerful so gives a very good impression of seperates. If you were to go straight into a bright system i think it would put alot of people off.. Especially if theyve been sat at home with their Awia system playing away...[/quote]

Why do we have to go into a bright system at all, let alone straight in? If I were a millionaire I would still want a warm system, that's my preference. Whether a system is warm or bright has nothing to do with how 'good' it is.

 

[d_a_n1979]

Can somneone chuck me a shovel or a spade, i seem to be digging myself into a bloody big hole lol...

I'm not saying that you will go into a bright system straight away. Im saying that for people who dont know about hifi seperates etc, they may be sold a system thats not suited to their listening and wont realise how much time and effort it takes to demo systems and to find the right seperates that suit them and their music.

 

[kingnothing83]

i know what you're saying Dan dont worry 🙂

I've entered the world of hi-fi from a standing start and really appreciated the advise of people on here when buying my system. I especially appreciated Dan's advice which lead me to buying an absolute mint condition arcam alpha 8 from ebay. I paired this with Tannoy custom f1's, some silver anniversary speaker cable and a decent QED interconnect to my pc and i am very happy with the result!

However, I now want to take it upto the next level (as we all do i'm sure!)

I listen to music at quite low level volume (due to living in a flat and having a good relationship with my neighbours and the fact i work in the hearing industry and dont particularly want to go deaf 🙂), my music is driven from my pc and is in very good bitrate, lowest i have is 320kbps mp3 and about 30% (and climbing) is now lossless flac. Of course its still nice to have some bite for the occasional blast!

I could move my system to the living room but i tend to listen to most of my music when im on my pc anyway so i dont feel the need. This is going quite far off topic now but this question has been on my mind for a while now.

Whats the next logical step to improve my listening experience?

My speakers are positioned about 3 ft in front of me and about 3 ft apart, with about 6" gap beween the wall at the back and a similar distance to the side wall for one of the speakers. Movement is limited due to the small room. So where would you go from here? My thoughts are:

1. Buy a DAC - to bypass my soundcard

2. Buy new speakers (any suggestions?)

3. Buy a new amp (either a totally new one or a arcam 8 poweramp?)

4. Buy stands for speakers (they currently sit on a solidish woodern desk but this would mean a bit of room repositioning)

5. Something i hadn't thought of.

In terms of budget i am happy to spend £300 a year so it can be a work in progress, even if someone says lose the speakers or amp ill not be upset cause im sure these would make great backs for a 5.1 home cinema one day

Cheers

 

[d_a_n1979]

Ah cheers King... Glad i helped!

With regards to your system you'd notice a massive improvement straight away if you put your speakers on good, decent mass-loaded stands. Something like Atacama Nexus 6's or SE24's (you can get both on Ebay) would be very good.

With regards to your budget, again you'd notice a massive difference if you were to upgrade your speakers to M/A BR2's. Theyre not too fussy about positioning so would suit your room set-up as it is and youd have change from your budget to put towards stands and loading (atabites work the best i feel, more so over sand).

If you feel that your music sounds good coming from your PC then dont change unless you really feel it would make a massive difference. Going for an external DAC to me would just be a sideways step and not forwards.

If you were to go for the BR2's you could then, at a late date, add an Arcam Alpha 8P power amp and bi-amp to get greater clarity but again, i dont think you'd notice a massive improvement so it would be best just to bi-wire from the Arcam Alpha 8 integrated amp, using SP1 to power the HF's and SP2 to power the LF's.

 

[kingnothing83]

I do like the idea of stands but arrangement in my room is the biggest problem. Below is a link to my desk where they currently sit on the largest part of the desk. Those Nexus stands are about 24" off the floor, which sounds a little low i think, would be quite a bit below where i sit.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60111123

So would you suggest placing the stands immediately at each side of the desk? In that case they would be around 4ft in front of me and about 5ft apart. Is the lowness on the stands even an issue?

 

[kingnothing83]

Actually on closer inspection it seems they come in various sizes, should i just be looking for close to head height as i sit?

 

[d_a_n1979]

Head-height is idea but the taller the stands the more expensive they are to buy, to fill and they dont always sound good the taller they get!

 

[kingnothing83]

Maybe i'll keep an eye on these then

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=190209162985&Category=96957&_trksid=p3907.m29

Leeds is about a 2 hour drive but i have some friends down there so could make a day of it. Think 24" would be tall enough?

 

[kingnothing83]

Actually with the height of my speakers i think a 26" stand won't be too bad, just a little small. Whats the general consensus on angling speakers up slightly so they point at your head? Maybe just a few degrees? Do the speakers actually attach to the stands or just sit on them? Cheers

 

[d_a_n1979]

I think 24" or 26" would be more than high enough.

You can always toe them in so that the 'sweet spot' is about a foot in front of you, thats how ive got my system set-up and it sounds great.

With regards to attaching speakers, just use blue-tak. It's spot on for the job, a blob on each corner of the bottom of the speakers, pressed down hard onto the stands, superb!

 

[kingnothing83]

Can you beleive someone sold some SE24's on ebay recently for £2, and they were collected from newcastle which is about 10 miles away!! Wish id noticed that, would have been perfect.

Anyway i'll look out for some and then maybe look into speakers as the next step.

Although I have heard great things about the beresford DAC and am really interested by it

 

[kingnothing83]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=120238418729&Category=96957&_trksid=p3907.m29

Are these the se24's?