This review was originally printed in the April 1994 issue of Gramophone. 

Arcam seem never to be very far from these pages; following February's review of their Delta 270 CD player, another piece of equipment from that same Delta range warrants a closer look, this time the 290 Remote Control Integrated Amplifier.

Even without the familiar badge, this amplifier would have Arcam written all over it, with its understated styling and distinctively-shaped buttons. As ever, one has to look hard for anything which could by any stretch of the imagination be called a frill; this is a box whose clear intention is to deliver a signal to a pair of loudspeakers as simply, directly and accurately as possible.

Its front panel controls, therefore, are few in number and obvious in function. Two identical input selector switches determine which signal is heard and which delivered to the tape recording sockets, allowing one source to be recorded while you listen to another. As supplied, the legending is potentially misleading, as the first input is labelled Phono whereas it actually selects the Aux input. The reason for the confusion is the fact that the phono input board is an optional extra on the assumption that many users today simply don't need it. If fitted, the phono option will handle both moving-coil and moving magnet cartridges, but obviously doing this properly, via accurate RIAA equalisation, costs money which for many purchasers will be wasted since the facility will never be used. Fitting the phono module is a job for the dealer, and with it in place the rear-panel Aux sockets become direct line-level outputs from the equalised phono signal.

There are plenty of other inputs available, covering two tape machines, CD, tuner and AV, for which Arcam will happily sell you their Nicam tuner. All are identically specified, with a sensitivity of 175mV and a 50dB overload margin. Both sets of tape machine sockets include recording outputs, both carrying the signal selected by the front-panel Record switch.

Straightforward Bass and Treble controls are included alongside a Balance control, but all three can be bypassed by means of the Direct button when not required. Two pairs of loudspeakers can be connected, switched independently on the front panel, whose complement of controls also includes a Mono switch, the main Power switch with its associated bi-colour LED, a headphones socket and the receiver for the remote control handset. The Power indicator changes colour to show when the speakers are connected after the thump-preventing power-up delay.

The remote receiver is for use with either the 290's dedicated (but optional) remote or the big Arcam System Remote Control handset, which will control all the major functions of an entire Arcam Delta system as well as the Alpha CD player. Only two controls on the amplifier respond to either handset; the large Volume control is motorised, as is the Listen Input selector switch, both choosing to use mechanical rather than electronic control for obvious reasons of signal integrity and reliability. Having said that, controls which actually move by remote control will always appeal to the gadget-minded more than invisible VCAs (voltage-controlled amplifiers) and FET switches. [The 290's volume control will also respond to the volume up/down buttons on remote control handsets supplied with Arcam CD players — IH.]

When using the big handset in conjunction with other Arcam equipment, the input selector responds to commands for other units; for instance, if the CD player is set to Play, its input is automatically selected, and if a new preset is selected on the tuner, the amplifier switches over accordingly. The speed of response of the volume control is just about right, being fast enough to allow excessively loud signals to be reduced quickly but slow enough to allow delicate adjustment.

The rear panel carries all the line-level ins and outs on pairs of gold-plated phono sockets, including connectors for the preamplifier output and power amp input. This arrangement allows the usual possibilities of driving further amplifiers for bi-amped loudspeakers, inserting external devices into the signal chain and so on. While the preamp signal is always present on these sockets, the use of the power amp input sockets has to be selected with an internal slide switch, which of course the user is discouraged from doing. I am not sure why Arcam should have chosen to hide this function away; I should have thought most users could be trusted with an external switch.

The loudspeaker terminals are large 4mm socket/binding posts, and are of the type which guide the wires round the posts and shroud them out of harm's way, ensuring a proper connection. Some binding post arrangements invite trouble, it seems to me, by making it difficult to contain large cables during tightening, or providing holes which are too small for decent cable to fit through, or being fitted too close together to be easily tightened. None of those problems apply here, although the lower set of terminals (Speaker 2) cannot be connected up without lifting the amplifier off the surface it happens to be sitting on since the cables must be inserted from below. Mains is applied to the unit via a three-pin IEC lead.

Internally, the amplifier's construction is of the high quality one has come to expect of Arcam. The right-hand end of the chassis is dominated by the familiar large toroidal transformer, clamped in place by a chunky aluminium extrusion which also appears to act as a heatsink for the transformer.

The other main internal feature is of course the massive heatsink for the output devices, which is arranged in a kind of vertical chimney right through the amplifier; the only grilles in the upper and lower surfaces of the cabinet are at the top and bottom of this chimney, so that all convected air is forced over the cooling fins. It is worth noting that the transistors themselves are mounted in a horizontal line along the heatsink so that they all benefit equally from its effects, avoiding the temperature gradient problems that a chimney arrangement can produce. The impression of quality extends to the PCB itself, whose layout and legending are exemplary, and to the high-grade components on it.

Performance

There is no doubt that the Delta 290 turns in a highly respectable performance in every way, with some aspects showing Arcam's familiar devotion to precision. The quoted frequency response of 5Hz to 20kHz (±05dB) is impressive enough and easily borne out by measurements; what Arcam don't tell you is that you have to get up to 120kHz before the preamp's response is 3dB down. You may not be too concerned what your amplifier is doing above 20kHz, but while such a strong body of opinion asserts that such frequencies are relevant to what we hear it is reassuring to know that the Arcam is capable of dealing with them.

The bass and treble controls are subtle in the extreme, providing only 6dB of boost or cut at 100Hz and the same at 10kHz. This is clearly for gentle correction rather than bold treatment, and I think one can safely assume that this is all an Arcam user is likely to want. It is typical of the attention to detail that the specified response figures for the tone controls are accurate to within half a dB, and that the centre click-stops are similarly precise. There could scarcely be less need for the Direct switch bypassing all this, although I for one prefer to know that the signal is passing through no more circuitry than is strictly necessary, however good that circuitry may be. Minimizing the signal path should always be the aim.

Strangely, the Balance control is less accurately calibrated; on the review sample, its centre detent gave 05dB more gain on the left than on the right, although the Direct switch corrected this slight imbalance.

One specification that concerns me a little is the crosstalk, quoted as –70dB. Not because this is incorrect—it is indeed exactly –70dB-----but because it must require that the signal one is listening to is the only signal present in the amplifier. If, say, a tuner is left connected, and switched on, while one is listening at realistic volumes to a CD, its breakthrough is likely to become audible during quiet passages. Worse still, the same figures apply to crosstalk into the Record outputs, slightly defeating the object of the independent Listen and Record selector switches. Admittedly, crosstalk at –70dB will be around the noise floor of most cassette decks, but those people recording with Dolby S or one of the digital formats should beware. [We should perhaps add that crosstalk at this low level is found in units from a good many manufacturers—IH.]

This is, however, a small point when put in the context of the sound delivered by the Delta 290. One should be used by now to innocuous-looking Arcam boxes producing a disproportionately impressive result, but I was still taken by surprise by its clarity and vivid power. I played an enormous variety of music through it, and it remained accurate, musical and transparent throughout, equally at home with solo piano, chamber music, flatout Stravinsky and rock. It didn't seem to matter how hard I pushed it—the amplifier refused to sacrifice its detail and focus. Although I was operating it for the most part with the tone controls out of circuit, when I did use them they always produced effective yet discreet adjustments which were musical and subtle.

I found this amplifier very exciting, and would warmly recommend it. Its facilities, while not elaborate, are all that should normally be required, and its sonic performance is certainly hard to fault cannot be connected up without lifting the amplifier off the surface it happens to be sitting on since the cables must be inserted from below. Mains is applied to the unit via a threepin IEC lead.

Internally, the amplifier's construction is of the high quality one has come to expect of Arcam. The right-hand end of the chassis is dominated by the familiar large toroidal transformer, clamped in place by a chunky aluminium extrusion which also appears to act as a heatsink for the transformer.

The other main internal feature is of course the massive heatsink for the output devices, which is arranged in a kind of vertical chimney right through the amplifier; the only grilles in the upper and lower surfaces of the cabinet are at the top and bottom of this chimney, so that all convected air is forced over the cooling fins. It is worth noting that the transistors themselves are mounted in a horizontal line along the heatsink so that they all benefit equally from its effects, avoiding the temperature gradient problems that a chimney arrangement can produce. The impression of quality extends to the PCB itself, whose layout and legending are exemplary, and to the high-grade components on it.

Performance

There is no doubt that the Delta 290 turns in a highly respectable performance in every way, with some aspects showing Arcam's familiar devotion to precision. The quoted frequency response of 5Hz to 20kHz (±05dB) is impressive enough and easily borne out by measurements; what Arcam don't tell you is that you have to get up to 120kHz before the preamp's response is 3dB down. You may not be too concerned what your amplifier is doing above 20kHz, but while such a strong body of opinion asserts that such frequencies are relevant to what we hear it is reassuring to know that the Arcam is capable of dealing with them.

The bass and treble controls are subtle in the extreme, providing only 6dB of boost or cut at 100Hz and the same at 10kHz. This is clearly for gentle correction rather than bold treatment, and I think one can safely assume that this is all an Arcam user is likely to want. It is typical of the attention to detail that the specified response figures for the tone controls are accurate to within half a dB, and that the centre click-stops are similarly precise. There could scarcely be less need for the Direct switch bypassing all this, although I for one prefer to know that the signal is passing through no more circuitry than is strictly necessary, however good that circuitry may be. Minimizing the signal path should always be the aim.

Strangely, the Balance control is less accurately calibrated; on the review sample, its centre detent gave 05dB more gain on the left than on the right, although the Direct switch corrected this slight imbalance.

One specification that concerns me a little is the crosstalk, quoted as –70dB. Not because this is incorrect—it is indeed exactly –70dB-----but because it must require that the signal one is listening to is the only signal present in the amplifier. If, say, a tuner is left connected, and switched on, while one is listening at realistic volumes to a CD, its breakthrough is likely to become audible during quiet passages. Worse still, the same figures apply to crosstalk into the Record outputs, slightly defeating the object of the independent Listen and Record selector switches. Admittedly, crosstalk at –70dB will be around the noise floor of most cassette decks, but those people recording with Dolby S or one of the digital formats should beware. [We should perhaps add that crosstalk at this low level is found in units from a good many manufacturers—IH.]

This is, however, a small point when put in the context of the sound delivered by the Delta 290. One should be used by now to innocuous-looking Arcam boxes producing a disproportionately impressive result, but I was still taken by surprise by its clarity and vivid power. I played an enormous variety of music through it, and it remained accurate, musical and transparent throughout, equally at home with solo piano, chamber music, flatout Stravinsky and rock. It didn't seem to matter how hard I pushed it—the amplifier refused to sacrifice its detail and focus. Although I was operating it for the most part with the tone controls out of circuit, when I did use them they always produced effective yet discreet adjustments which were musical and subtle.

I found this amplifier very exciting, and would warmly recommend it. Its facilities, while not elaborate, are all that should normally be required, and its sonic performance is certainly hard to fault.

David Foister