Arcam Factory Tour
by Doug Schneider

Arcam is modest, surprisingly so. From their management to their marketing, from their products to their factory, modesty is consistent throughout Arcam. Compared to the hype that can spew forth from some companies, if you didn’t know better, you could be fooled into thinking that all of this Arcam-inherent modesty is intended to downplay themselves for some reason. Founder and chairman John Dawson emphasizes the word "value" whenever he speaks. CEO Charlie Brennan likes to refer to Arcam's lineup of electronics as "honest" products. These are hardly the superlatives that some other companies like to bestow upon themselves.

But Arcam isn’t trying to downplay themselves. This surprising, almost refreshing attitude is just the way it is with Arcam, and it comes from a complete understanding of their products and knowing exactly where they fit in the marketplace. Arcam is a company that understands what it wants to be and knows exactly how to get there. Arcam’s admirable, down-to-earth approach to audio, and now video, is inherent in the company, and it’s directly attributable to founder and chairman John Dawson.

From the ground up

Arcam is located in beautiful Cambridge, England, home of the prestigious University of Cambridge. The beginning of the company dates back to 1973 when Cambridge Ph.D. candidates John Dawson and Chris Evans started their operation by buying and selling audio equipment as well as refurbishing professional gear (Chris Evans left the company in the early ‘80s). It was this early association with the pro market that was responsible for the Arcam name, which, when the company was formed, stood for Amplification & Recording, Cambridge. The company was made a legal entity in 1976.

In 1976, Dawson and Evans decided to focus on the consumer audio market (the professional refurbishing finished off in 1977). Their first product was the A60 integrated amplifier. It was a modest (there’s that word again) 30Wpc unit that sold for 99 British pounds. Dressed in basic black, the relatively simple-looking unit had a definite audiophile purity. The A60 stayed in production for some 12 years. The current model, the DiVA A65, which was released in September of 2000, retails for $799 USD. It is considered the modern-day equivalent to that first amplifier in terms of its position in the marketplace. Technology, though, doesn't stand still, and the A65 as well as other amplifiers in Arcam's current product range represent a large leap forward in terms of technology.

Arcam learned a lot by releasing that first product, the first thing being that they didn’t charge enough for it. They were new to the hi-fi business and didn’t factor in things like marketing, distribution margins, etc. So the price went up a little bit, but the company never strayed from its original intent. Arcam has always been about producing something above the cheap, so-so-sounding units that permeate the mass market. But they’re not about producing all-out statement pieces that may offer great sound but are often inconvenient and, most importantly, out of the reach of the bulk of the market. Arcam products are intended to be attainable. This is why the words "value" and "honesty" mean so much.

The company also learned that to do anything in a substantial way, they needed a decent facility. At the time, there weren’t suitable factories in the Cambridge area. With a desire to stay where they were, they set out to build a factory from the ground up. By 1980, their factory was open. Today it is more than two times the size of the original with a lot more employees and with much greater sales volume. This "ground up" philosophy that built the first factory is one they apply to their products too.

Products

Today Arcam has two main product lines: DiVA, which stands for Digitally integrated Video and Audio, and FMJ, which means Full Metal Jacket. The Alpha series is now discontinued.

The DiVA series is the most affordable and consists of the company’s integrated amplifiers, power amps, CD players, and, most recently, DVD players (read Wes Phillips’ review of the DiVA DV88 DVD player in Home Theater & Sound). The DiVA series is attractively designed with a built-in upgrade path that I’ll explain in a bit.

The FMJ series came about because of the desire (and need) to produce a product that was a little more upscale. For many years, Arcam produced products were attractive, but they had things like plastic faceplates. The obvious reason for this was to keep the prices lower. However, with advancements in manufacturing, not to mention the pressing need to produce something that would appeal to a slightly more upscale customer, coming out with an all-metal product was a natural progression. The FMJ line not only sports an all-metal chassis and faceplate (don’t worry, the DiVA series, which came after FMJ, does too), but it also has improved build quality, sports greater technology in its design, and, most importantly, has improved sound quality over all other lines Arcam has offered. In short, it’s the best that they produce. Still, as good as it is, the modest folks at Arcam won’t tell you that it’s the best you can buy! But they will tell you that they believe it is the very best you can buy near its price.

A key thing in both of these product lines is the upgradability that’s built in. Sometimes that includes the ability to upgrade one product into another. For example, a DiVA CD72 CD player can be upgraded to a DiVA CD92 for only the difference in retail cost. The integrated amplifiers are a little different. In that case you can add on an external amplifier and still retain all the original unit's functionality. The idea here, obviously, is to protect the consumer’s investment and to give a clear upgrade path for sonic improvement.

From the ground up -- part 2

Arcam built their first product, the A60, themselves -- no small feat for a fledgling manufacturer. Arcam designs and builds all their current-day amplifier products too, but what most people don’t know is how Arcam approached both CD player and DVD player design and how both differ from many others.

Back in 1985, the company decided they needed to get into the CD-player market. Whether to get into the market or not seems like an obvious decision; however, how you get in is another story. Back in those days almost all the Japanese companies produced their own players from scratch -- no surprise -- and most other companies didn’t. The majority of high-end companies picked up low-cost Phillips machines (sometimes from stores!) and modified them. Most often it was just part of the chassis that got changed, like the faceplate, and other times it was just the name badge. These players were easy to identify because they all seemed to come with the same flimsy Phillips remote control. Usually the modifications the company made were to the analog circuitry, and the result was a player that was somewhat better than the low-cost, off-the-shelf player -- usually. However, using a stock player greatly limited what the company could do. And worse than that, it left them at the mercy of Phillips, who could stop production of a player at any time. Warranty repairs and product consistency could become a nightmare.

Arcam had built a factory from the ground up, so why couldn’t they build a CD player that way too? That’s exactly what they did. They purchased all the necessary licenses and designed their own player from scratch. They still used some Phillips parts, such as DAC chips, transport mechanisms, and digital filters, but the design was all Arcam, and inside they could do much more than if they were modifying an existing player. In fact, for this player, they even created their own display! The result was the Delta 70, which sold for 500 pounds. Arcam followed that up with the first domestic digital-to-analog converter, the Black Box, which retailed for 250 pounds. They took the road less traveled, but it paid off. Today the company is praised for their CD players. And they have proudly capped off that legacy with the FMJ CD23, an all-out player (in Arcam terms) that incorporates a digital-to-analog section based on the highly praised dCS Ring DAC technology.

When it came time to build a DVD player just a couple of years ago, the same thing happened. Arcam dove in head first, which is really rare in DVD-player manufacturing because of the extremely high cost of getting into the DVD game. Licensing for CD technology was about $25,000. Arcam says that it’s more than ten times that for DVD! And the royalties that you must pay on every DVD player are many times higher as well. In addition, the level of engineering needed for a DVD player is in another league altogether. You don’t just need audio engineers, but video engineers too.

Their first DVD player was the DiVA DV88. It was released earlier this year and priced at $1600. This is certainly not inexpensive when you figure that you can go out and buy a DVD player for a couple hundred bucks (or less), but the DiVA DV88 wasn’t designed to be a "me too" product. Arcam hired some whizzy engineers, attempting to up the ante for DVD playback by creating a player that offers a superior picture and sound and upgradability. For someone wanting something better, Arcam figures they have the ideal DVD players. Following the DV88 came the progressive-scan version called the DV88p (you can also upgrade a DV88 to a DV88p). Pushing the envelope even further, they’ve just released the $2500 FMJ FM27 DVD player. They say it has improved picture and sound over the DV88 and figure it will rival anything available.

It’s a high-stakes game for a specialist manufacturer, but both Dawson and Brennan feel that they can still offer the customer value. It’s also possible, by having this "ground up" approach, that they may be able to advance DVD playback in such a way that one day other companies will be coming to them.

Factory

On a non-rush-hour day, one can make it from the heart of Cambridge to the factory on the outskirts of town in just under half an hour. It’s a two-story, 25,000-square-foot building where all the key production takes place and 120 Arcam employees work -- with just over 20 in research and development alone.

Product assembly, testing, storage, and shipping are done on the main floor, and the offices and listening room are on the top. Of course, not everything is done here since Arcam outsources some of the manufacturing. And sometimes they’re closely involved with those that they do the outsourcing to. For example, just down the street is the transformer manufacturer, of which Arcam owns a majority share. As transformers are needed, a electrically powered Arcam truck whirs down to pick the shipment up. It’s a cost-effective and convenient way to work. In all, Arcam has churned out more than half a million products from this location.

Arcam’s Geoff Meads and Steve Reichert led us through the assembly line where, at the time of my visit, they were making DiVA T51 AM/FM tuners. It’s a large, spacious, brightly lit area where everyone (including me) wears white coats to guard against static.

At the front of the factory is the board-testing area. There are various machines called ATEs (Automated Test Equipment) that do a whole barrage of tests on newly created circuit boards. The boards either advance down the assembly line or stop at this point, depending on their test results.

Those that pass are placed on a conveyor belt and slowly pulled down the line, where they go through the various stages of assembly, each stage being done by a different worker. First it’s fitted to a partially completed chassis, and then the chassis is completed with connectors and all. The faceplate and top are put on, and then the unit is moved off the belt and put onto a rolling rack. When enough are on the rack, the rack is taken a short distance to the testing area. Following testing, the boards are packed and made ready for shipping. Similar to many companies, Arcam works with batches, meaning that they produce a set amount of a certain product at any given time.

The assembly line at a glance.	Preparing the chassis of a DiVA T51.
Attaching and wiring to the circuit board.	Completing the back panel.
Completing the front panel, attaching the top and completing production.	Final inspection and full testing before shipment.

If a large number of products are needed, the main assembly line can hold up the production of other units, so the factory has a smaller line that can make small runs of products as needed. It was here that I talked to June (right), who has been building amplifiers at Arcam for some 15 years. Obviously, that translates into a lot of products made under her skilled hands. Since Arcam is very popular in Britain, I asked June if she knows anyone who has a product that she’s built. Most certainly she does, and she told me that the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher owns an Alpha 9 integrated amplifier that she made!

Geoff Meads explains how the boards are tested in the ATE.

Technician Sarah runs a DVD board through the ATE.

June builds yet another amplifier.

Sound

No tour would be complete without a demo. We entered the listening room, and at first glance we couldn’t see anything that would make the room appear designed for sound. However, a closer inspection (and an explanation from Geoff Meads) proved otherwise. It was designed by an acoustical engineer. The ceiling is sloped to help limit standing-wave problems. The walls are made of different materials to help deal with reflections. Large carpets are suspended outward a bit from the walls at the top and then tacked it directly to the wall at the bottom to help absorb certain frequencies. There are other features, but they're all inconspicuous because the room is designed to be "normal," not a dedicated listening room. Chalk it up to that Arcam modesty again.

Steve Reichert ran the demo with the purpose of showing what buyers get at either end of the Arcam product line. He used ProAc Response 2.5 loudspeakers and AudioQuest cabling for all the demonstrations.

He started with a DiVA A65 integrated amplifier and a DiVA CD72 CD player. They definitely sounded good. He then substituted a more powerful DiVA A75 integrated amplifier. The sound became a tad more refined and a little bit more controlled with the increased power. Then he added in the DiVA P75 power amplifier in what Arcam calls a passively biamped system. This also demonstrates one of those upgrade paths Arcam designs into their products, providing you have biampable speakers. What happens is that you still use the entire A75 integrated amplifier by using the speaker outputs on the amps to drive the high-frequency drivers on the speaker. The P75 is connected via the preamplifier outputs and it then powers the woofer modules. In this instance you get substantially better bass performance. You also get a tad bit more refinement as the A75 is relieved from trying to reproduce the taxing bass frequencies.

Next he switched the system by replacing the A75/P75 with the new slick DiVA A85 integrated amplifier. He also substituted in the DiVA CD92 CD player that has Ring DAC technology. I could hear more detail and further refinement to the sound. For the finale, he replaced the CD92 with the FMJ CD23.

At $2199, this CD player is Arcam's most expensive, but it definitely delivers the goods to match the price. It, too, has the dCS Ring DAC technology in addition to improvements in the analog stage and power supply over the DiVA CD92. The chassis is made from a metal called Sontech. This material was originally produced for Lexus cars. It is essentially two sheets of metal bonded together with another soft, adhesive material in the middle. The result is an extremely dead-sounding piece of metal that is impervious to high-ringing vibrations. Geoff Meads demonstrated this by hitting a regular metal chassis with a fork. A loud ringing sound resulted. Then he hit a Sontech chassis with the fork, it made the same "thuck" sound as a Lexus does when you slam the door. Sontech is also used in smaller pieces in some of the DiVA products, but it’s only the FMJ series that gets the full treatment. The FMJ CD23 player sounded so impressive in this final upgrade that I’m dying to try one in my own system.

End of the day

It’s nice to find a company that takes a low-key approach and lets its products speak for themselves. And it seems to be a successful formula. After all, Arcam now outsells the Japanese brands in some product areas in their own country -- no small feat. Arcam's largest export market is now the United States, which has enjoyed massive growth in the last few years under the sole distributorship of Audiophile Systems. This is followed by Canada with Arcam’s long-standing distributor relationship with Emerald Audio Resources. Japan ranks sixth, but Arcam is hoping for even more growth there.

Whatever the uncertain future holds for audio and video, you can be certain that the modest and unassuming Arcam will be there, and that their philosophy of building things from the ground up will be instrumental in their success.

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To find out more about Arcam, visit www.arcam.co.uk.