Since 1976, Arcam have been one of British audio's success stories. Their first product, the A60 amplifier, became a classic and is still in use all over the world. In recent years, their range has broadened considerably and they are one of the few British companies to have embraced video and multichannel audio from the outset. Their R+D department is extremely creative and they are one of the most influential companies in the industry.

The range encompasses the all-in-one Solo (soon to be joined by a home theatre version). Diva and FMJ ranges both cover audio and A/V products but the FMJ products are their best efforts. A sort of Tesco's Finest for audio.

Our initial interest has been in the Solo and A/V products. We are, after all, completely besotted with the wonders of Naim.

Arcam is now headed by Charlie Brennan, (ex Linn) with the sales side of things run by Paul Darwin, (ex Naim). Founder John Dawson remains closely involved, particularly in R+D. New products are flowing quite rapidly and we get the impression that the gloves are off!

We have been selling Arcam products since February 2006 but apart from a reference to the Solo on this site and to the home theatre products on the Playhaus site, hardly anyone is likely to have noticed.

Whilst the Solo and the home theatre stuff have indeed impressed us, I'm afraid that our experience with the Diva A80 amplifier kind of shut us up. It's hard to believe, I know, that we were dumb-struck but if you can't think of something good to say, then say nothing at all. Particularly if you have just signed up for the brand! Oh stuff it. Let's come clean. We thought it was rubbish although 'underwhelming' is probably more accurate.

The affordable CD73 was OK. No, that's mean. It's extremely good at the price, but run it into an A65 or A80 and, frankly, we would rather listen to a Solo.

So why the sudden desire to get this off our chest(s)? Well Arcam must have noticed something too and they have just replaced the £650 A80 and £420 A65 plus with a single product, namely the A70. It costs £500 and, glory be, it is really (really) good.

At last we have a flexible and musical alternative to the Naim Nait 5i. The A70 works nicely with the CD73 but certainly shows up the benefits of using the £875 CD192. It works well with critical speakers and the new Castle Richmond 7i and ATC SCM11 both give superb results. And it gets better, for us at least, because despite sounding happy with both Naim NAC-A5 and Chord Carnival Silver speaker cables, it really opens up with Nordost Red Dawn interconnects and Flatline Gold speaker cables. Good taste and realism has stopped us going any further!

Despite the menu button on the front panel, the A70 is devoid of tone controls. It does offer level adjustment by input (to allow them to match each other), a phono stage, remote control RS 232 connection, triggers, pre-amp output, two sets of speaker terminals (both switched) etc, etc. A quick peek at the specifications might lead you to think that this is a downgrade from the A80. After all the quoted power has fallen from 65 to 50 watts per channel. Yet it sounds much more powerful. Cleaner and more colourful too. Using it with the CD192 and the ATC SCM11s and Nordost cables it sounds particularly musical and convincing.

To think that Andy Heavens and I laughed when we walked into a room at the CES show in Las Vegas last January to see Arcam electronics fronted by a Nottingham turntable and connected up with Nordost cables. Mind you it was Valhalla, so it was just a tad out of kilter. But prophetic nonetheless.

We now have the FMJ products too and there is definately quality in there. Yes, it is quite different from Naim. And yes, Arcam still compromises in some areas that we regard to be important. On the positive side, the FMJ products image bigger, wider and deeper. They might not propel things forward quite the same as Salisbury's finest, but they don't drag their heels either. It is also true to say that they get along with some loudspeakers (ATCs spring to mind) that don't quite seem to gell with Naim.

On top of that, the Arcam products are available in silver or black - and this can matter!

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