The story of Arcam

Founded in 1976, A&R Cambridge Ltd was born out of the passion and ingenuity of John Dawson, then an engineering student at Cambridge University and an ardent music lover. An active member of the university’s Tape Recording Society, Dawson began building solid-state amplifiers for himself and fellow students, soon becoming so successful that the following year he officially founded the company. The name chosen, “A&R,” an acronym for “Amplification and Recording,” perfectly summed up the young engineer’s interests and philosophy.

The commercial debut came with the A60, an integrated amplifier produced in just fifty units in 1976. Its performance quickly won over public and critics alike: in May 1977, an enthusiastic review by Peter Herring in the British magazine Practical Hi-Fi helped turn Dawson’s small business into a fast-growing enterprise. In an era dominated by Eastern giants and the race for power, the A60 proved that true sound quality depended not on watts but on design care. From that moment on, Arcam-a name adopted a few years later to replace A&R-established itself as one of the most innovative brands on the British Hi-Fi scene. After the T21 tuner came the Delta 70, the first CD player entirely designed and built in the UK, followed by the Black Box, the first commercially available separate DAC.

The company continued to distinguish itself by being ahead of its time: in 1990 it launched the Delta 150, a NICAM tuner capable of extracting high-fidelity audio from the television signal, being the first to realize the potential of broadcast as a Hi-Fi source. Then it was the turn of the Xeta1 AV amplifier in 1995, the first DAB tuner in 1999, and, in 2005, the Solo Music system, which combined elegance and performance in a newly developed lifestyle product. In 2015 Arcam introduced Class G amplification technology, followed by the adoption of DIRAC software for room acoustic correction in home theater systems, once again confirming its pioneering vocation. A history of insights and successes, that of Arcam, built on the clear vision of a brand that, since its origins, has been able to stay one step ahead of the competition, combining technical innovation and passion for music. The present day sees the Radia series, declined in performance and price, with integrated, with and without streamers, separate streamers, and a CD player. The aesthetics are totally new, but very charming and distinctive. Finally, many models of receivers and audio/video processors. A review of the SA45 integrated can be found here.