rythm, musicality
reliable, 5 years no problems
Price

The metal case is thin. Damping material on the inside will reduce vibration (diy)

Very nice sounding amp together with the cd72 creates a rich and pleasant sound.
I am using this together with a P75 to bi-amp my Amphion Argon 1.
In use for more then 5 years now and still enjoying this set that is good with all kinds of music.
Finding the right cable is very rewarding, i found the van den Hul d102 a very good match. For speaker cable, i fell in love with kimber's 8tc a long time ago.
Very nice system at a fair price.

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Harman Kardon 680
denon Pma 2000
Bryston Bst4

Low-level detailed Tight punchy bass, accurate mids & highs treble & bass controls build quality & ability to be used as a preamp

Right channel weakness slightly harsh at higher volume

Used almost 1 yr. Very pleased w/ amp. Am currently driving Triangle Antals. Low level detail better than any previous amplification. Sound becomes a little harsh at "insane" volume. Excellent bass articulation as well as accurate mids & highs.Handy, functional remote. Regardless of speakers used, right channel is not balanced w/ left. I must adjust balance regardless of speaker or listener location. Not serious, but annoying. In summary, an excellent integrated or preamp.

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NAD amps & integrated Rotel integrated McCormick Amp

nice detailed sound (with magic), very nice remote, nice built quality.

absolutely none at this price. Thank to Arcam for this product.

Sound is detailed and very powerful, even at low volumes. No background noise or hiss. Comparable to Creek 5350SE that I owned for more thana year. Altough just 50W/, sounds more powerful than Creek 5350SE (85W/c), NAD C370 (110W/c) and SANSUI AU-G99X (160w/c). I find tone controls absolutely necessary (that's why I had to get rid of the Creek) and they have them. Comes with a civilized remote unlike the other crappy ones that come with more expensive high-end products. Sometimes they go for around $500-600 at Ebay, this is a perfect deal. Much better sound than NAD C370 at a similar price. Believe me, 50W/c is more than enough for a living room. They easily power my full-range Dynaudio's with 4 drivers.

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Creek 5350SE, Sansui AU-G99X, Onkyo TX-8511

Really everything about it is a strength. For the price, there isn't anything better.

For $1000? I don't think so. It does everything a $1,000 integrated should, and plenty more.

I am going to start off my saying that the A75 is, hands down, one of the best values in the world of entry-level high end audio. Worth the $999 retail? Absolutely. Worth $500 (what I paid on Ebay)? Burning in hell for eternity would be the only adequate punishment if I had missed that bargain. I upgraded from a Harman Kardon receiver, the AVR110, and the difference is night and day. But I've also been obsessed with audio for quite some time, so you can imagine how many different speakers, components, and wire I've heard in my gradual search for the ultimate yet affordable stereo system. The A75 has so many qualities of great sound reproduction that I really don't know where to start... SOUNDSTAGE: Although the depth and width are average (this obviously changes dramatically depending on speakers), the amazing thing about the A75 is its ability to locate the musicians within their playing space. If you listen to classical, for example, the A75 paints a clear picture of ambience, letting the listener imagine the place in which the music was originally played/recorded. Each instrument has its own air and space, and I can clearly separate the locations of the musicians. DETAIL: Fantastic. I hear subtle details that I never heard in my recordings, and I'm literally rediscovering my entire disc collection. Things I never even knew existed previously are now an integral and vital part of each track. You really are presented with the utmost inner detail of every disc. HIGHS, MIDS, LOWS: Highs are beautifully clean and airy. Weather it's the sizzling shimmer of a cymbal or the highest peak of a singer, the A75 presents massive detail without adding harshness or fatigue. One great thing about every disc with the A75 is that the louder I turn it up the more engaging the music becomes, not the more fatiguing. The mids are fantastic as well, powerful, transparent and full of body. Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and Diana Krall...all the great voices shoot threw my chest. Depending on the type of recording, I either feel like I'm at a concert or like the singer is in the room with me. Bass has become SIGNIFICANTLY deeper, tighter, more noticeable, and more engaging. The A75's bass isn't exactly forceful and definitely won't reach dynamic depths, but it's punchy and accurate. LOOKS: Very good-looking. Not cluttered at all, stays completely simplistic and stylish, yet offers you a multitude of options. BUILD QUALITY: Very good. It doesn't really compare to some of the competition, the Musical Fidelity's stunning chrome tank lineup for example (A3.2, A300, and A3), but those are around $500 more retail, so you get what you pay for. But internal/external build is very good, all metal, quality parts...gold plated binding posts and connection terminals. I love the BFA connectors that accommodate spades of any size, banana's, whatever. The power cord is also detachable for upgrades, which I also love, but have come to expect. The A75 packs a solid 50 watts per channel, and the sound is so clean and has virtually zero distortion (0.01% THD), the thing really just makes every disc come alive. One sign of every great component/speaker is that it is engaging at low volume levels--you don't have to make the neighbors call the police to have fun with your music--the A75 definitely has that feature. I highly recommend the A75 for all those that want great audio at an affordable price. It wipes Nad's C370 out of the water in my opinion, and is even betters the Musical Fidelity's in many ways, although in the end has more disadvantages when compared to those units. MY SYSTEM: -Arcam A75 Integrated amp -Harman Kardon Fl8370 CD player (I'm planning on upgrading within the next year either to the Arcam CD23 or the Naim CD5) -Wharfedale Emerald 97 speakers (I'm planning on upgrading within the next year to either Thiel or JM Lab) -Kimber KCAG interconnects and 8tc biwire cable.

Similar Products Used:

NAD, Musical Fidelity, Harman Kardon, Nakamichi, other Arcam, etc.

Sound quality and design.

None worth mentioning.

I own a Arcam A75 amplifier hooked to a Arcam CD72 CD player and OPERA Superpavarotti loudspeakers (www.operaloudspeakers.com) + Sennheiser HD600 headphones. I upgraded from a cheap set not even worth mentioning here. It took me some time to find the right combination, I even brought back a set of Chario speakers that sounded very disappointing once placed at home. The OPERA loudspeakers are the most natural sounding speakers I've heard up to now, and the Arcam is completely up to the task to drive them. Extremely clear and well defined in the mid- and high- tones with a deep dry penetrating bass. The whole set offers a rich and enchanting sound that overwhelms me every time I turn it on. Although the speakers especially excel with acoustic music, the Arcam manages any type of music perfectly, so do the Sennheiser headphones. I agree with other reviews that the Amplifier needs a few weeks of use to offer it's best sound.

Dynamic range Clarity

If you have huge drive units and enjoy ear busting volumes you may find the amp slightly short of power.

This amplifier has had much bad press, in one month's issue of "What Hi-Fi" it was given a reasonably poor review, which is very unjust, I own the product and beleive me, it is excellent, the dynamics are captured excellently, the clarity and drive of the sound are virtually unrivaled, compared with other similar product, the high's are high without being tinny and the low's are very solid and authoritative. May i add that one must not trust star ratings in magazines (and yes, i understand that i have given the amp a star rating but only because the site requested it, trust your own ears only), because the A65+ amplifier was given an excellent review but not the A75, and the owners of this amp will all tell you that the A75 produces a superior sound to the A65+. In short - buy it. Now. By the way the 339 refers to £339

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Rotel RA-02 Arcam A65+ Technics SU-A600

facilities only

lack of power and definition

i tried this as well as the A65 while looking for a bedroom set and found it disappointing as well as i had an alpha 5 in the past. the amp lacked power and sounded rough when it was pushed. i eventually bought the cyrus 5 after trying out creek, rega and roksan as well as rotel. the cyrus had better transparency and definition when partnered with my jm labs.

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cyrus, rega, creek, roksan

This is an amendement to my previous review, posted in April. I stated that the A75 can be upgraded to the A85, this is in fact not the case. The upgrade for the A75 is to add a separate power amplifier, Arcam's P75, for bi-amping with the A75. This means using the A75 for driving the treble and the A75 power amp for driving the bass. This is an upgrade which I am considering for the near future.

The UK hi-fi press has very mixed views on this amp but I would say Arcam are on to a real winner here. Gone is the slightly laid-back sound of previous models, this amp really shines when you've run it in for a while. I'm so happy with this unit, it really is a cracking piece of kit, extremely well-made and sounds even better now it's been run in for several months. Highly recommended! Would also strongly advise partnering with Arcam's CD72 CD player.

Very detailed, warm, incredible tone

remote doesn't turn on/off

Last year i started on my quest to build a "nice" sound system in the low-high-end range of the scale. My first purchase was a pair of Paradigm Reference 60's, after much research this was the right speaker for me, i had a pair of Monitor 7's and was pleased to stay in the Paradigm line-up. My next phase of course was to look for a decent amp, this was to prove a more difficult and confusing task. I tested my speakers first of all on an older(80's) class a Technics amp, i wasn't expecting fireworks.....but the old amp did OK, next i found an even older Kenwood 175 watt power amp built like a tank and in perfect condition. It did have power like no other.....the 60's loved being driven by that big beast, but in the end it just did'nt make the "finesse" grade. Next came a Luxman 60 watter......it didn't even get as high a grade as the Technics. Up to that point i had been messing around with all this second hand stuff and knew that the Paradigms should sound sweeter than they did, the high end with all those amps was brutal.....sibilancecscscscscsc. Then one day i went into a stereo shop and came out with a brand new NAD c350, i hooked it up and it certainly was the best thing so far in my quest. After listening for a few months however, i got annoyed and fatigued....again the sibilance monster was there. Finally i said "enough!", i ordered an Arcam A75, which is what i wanted from the start, it cost me twice what the Nad did and worth every penny. Finally my Reference 60's started to sing! The detail in vocals and instruments was astounding, the controlled bass, the quickness, and the "blackness" around the music was all so revealing after the first 10 minutes of listening. I love this amp. I guess my main piece of advice for those in the market is to be careful how you match up your amp-speaker combination. If you buy a good pair of speakers, don't go cheap on the amp...or cd player for that matter, you'll only get the performance of your cheapest piece of gear.

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Nad c350

Clean sound, crisp, easy to use, bi-amplification capabilities

remote doesn't turn unit on/off....could use a little more power.

Going back to two channel was the purpose of my October searches. I was not happy with the home theater sound. It all got moved, and I started over. First finding speakers in Columbus, I was happy with the sound from the Paradigm line. I was leaning on the 100's, when I found a pair of demo/broken in ADP 90's, which have a built in 175 w/ amp.
Arcam is quietly displayed at Audio Craft, but it is so elegant. My non-musical wife has now enjoyed music more than ever in her life. Her quote sums it up, "Never has music sounded so good at low levels". I think the bi-amplifcation is what has made my set-up so pleasing with me. The Integrated A75 at 50 w and the Alpha 8P at 50 w don't have to be pushed, as the Paradigms offer assistance in the bottom ends. I knew everything could be played loud, as I pumped up Marillion's remastered BRAVE to 12 O'Clock.

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I have matched it up with an older Arcam Alpha 8P, which is probably why this works so well. ($399)