Hi Peeps

I am thinking about venturing into the world of seperates at long last. I am hoping to buy an Arcam Diva 72 cd player, Arcam Diva A75+ amp and diva 61T Tuner and run a set of B&W 601 S3 speakers. Have any of you lot outhere had any experience with this set up? Or had any problems with the afore mentioned goodies? Any alternative set ups in the £1000 to £1500 pound region? It is going into a 2.5m by 3.5m room if thats any help.

Thanks in advance

Martin

 

I've had Arcam CD players for over 12 years, and apart from a duff Black Box DAC (replaced straight away, not repaired), I've had no probs at all.

The setup hasn't changed in the last 9 years or so (Delta 170.2 transport/Black Box 5 DAC), and when I went looking for a replacement, various dealers told me I'd need to spend £2K+ to match the quality, let alone beat it. They were right and I held onto the kit.

You could look at the new Exposure CD player - read great things about it. I use Exposure Amps, and again no probs in 10+ years. Mind, they cost over £4.5K, so should be reliable.

Cheers

Mike

 

I had all the Arcam setup too - can't recommend them enough.

 

Strongly suggest you audition it, and try for a home set up/audition b4 buying.
I was looking this time last year. I didn't rate the B&W speakers. I preferred the CD92 cd player, but the system that really took my fancy was the Cyrus set up.
Their Cd player with the new 4DAC chip added, a preamp/smart power amp set up, and the 70 series speakers on their dedicated stands. Awesome.
Not cheap, but worth an audition, and can be bought in cheaper bits, then uprated by dealer or by buying extra power supplies/smart power amps etc. Even the cd player comes without the 4 dac chip, which can be retro-fitted by dealer. Externally, the whole lot are identical. The sound was mind blowing.
No, I didn't get it. My wife spent our savings on a property for renovation in France:
www.cyrus.co.uk
Have a look, and above all, a listen You WILL NOT be disappointed.
Edited to say: If you didn't already know, speaker cables, connecting leads, and even the stands/rack, can make an incredible difference to the sound, and your enjoyment of it. A good dealer will advise on decent speaker cable, interconnects etc, and should stock more than one brand. Don't take any notice of what you read in HiFi mags, or treat it as a guide, different brands of cabling give different responses wityh different manufacturers systems.
Your ears are the only true guide. And if YOU like the sound, the rest doesn't matter. Ditto if you don't!!!!!! For heaven's sake don't do what a mate of mine did: he bought the latest mag recommendation, hated it after 6 months, and sold it on at a large loss!
PS: a good dealer will not discount the seperates, but WILL cut you a fair bit of slack on the cabling etc.
Best of luck. Enjoy.
Alcazar

[Edited by alcazar - 1/4/2003 12:30:44 PM]

 

I've got new Arcam Amp & CD player - great.
Also got Quad 11L speakers - These are absolutely fantastic an look great too. Check the mags, they rate them as good as speakers costing £1000 (quads are £370).

didn't get the arcam tuner as denon(which I got) do one as good for less than half the price (TU-260L II). Only worth the arcam tuner so it 'fits' in lookswise with the rest of the sys. I've got a phillips cd-recorder so 2 black 2 silver(arcams).

Also, consider Rotel amp/cd too as they're good.

[Edited by Dracoro - 1/4/2003 6:41:32 PM]