Those already familiar with the world of hi-fi will be no stranger to Arcam. It’s a firm favourite of mine, and offers consistently fantastic bits of kit. To my eyes it’s flawless right though the range; be it the hugely popular and highly-reviewed A19 amplifier or its slightly bigger brother, the A29. It’s time to introduce a new more powerful sibling to the ever growing Arcam family…
The Arcam FMJ A39 is a 120 Watts per channel “Class G” amplifier, an amplification system more commonly found in its AV range. “Class G” offers incredible amounts of power without wasting any of the electricity. Think of it as the audio-equivalent of a hybrid car; using one power source for efficiency, and switching across as and when needed. The end results are greater efficiency and transparency, with less wasted heat energy. Arcam claim that, as it’s expensive to engineer and hard to perfect, it is seldom seen in home equipment.
At first glance the A39 is a relatively unassuming shell. It has Arcam’s signature black steel and aluminium outer case, a little more sturdy than its smaller brothers, with the familiar green LED display up front.
Around the back are 6 line-level inputs, a built-in moving magnet phono-stage, a line-level record out, and a variable pre-out. Alas it has no digital inputs, which is not a massive issue but something I would have liked to see either way.
Taking into consideration the sheer power of the A39 I opted for some of the larger speakers I had at my disposal, the Tannoy XT8F. This is a beautiful pair of speakers, which can be difficult to drive on some of the lesser powered amplifiers. I finished the system with the Arcam CDS27 CD player/streamer.
I wanted something with plenty of grunt that would really show what the A39 is capable of, so i played a copy of Family Crest, Beneath the Brine. This is an absolute powerhouse of a song that just keeps pushing and pushing. I can’t recommend it enough as a demo track.
Being such a powerful amp the A39 has a huge soundstage that far exceeds the limits of our demo room. To be honest it wouldn’t be outfaced by a giant stately home. The A39 lapped up every lyric and note in the whole song; there wasn’t a beat out of place, nor a note that wasn’t heard. It was, as expected, incredible! I must admit that there was some minor tinkering involved. I first set the unit up with some QED XT40 copper cable and was a little overwhelmed with the sheer grunt. Precious detail and clarity was lost. After a suggestion from my colleague Hal, I opted for some QED Silver Genesis, which calmed everything down and introduced details I was missing first time round… Thanks Hal!
This certainly appears to be an amplifier that’s designed for a big stage. An amp that’s extremely comfortable with dynamic, large scale music. But do be careful, system pairing is so vital.
Why not pop down to one of our stores for a demo to hear for yourself. It gets another seal of approval from me. Well done Arcam for adding yet another impressive notch to that belt.
To find out more about the Arcam A39, click here.
Author: Garrett, Plymouth store
