Original Arcam One speakers
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 8:32 pm
In the early 1980’s A&R Cambridge decided to expand from just being known for their fine Amplifiers and Pickup cartridges and diversify into other areas. First product was the Arcam One loudspeaker – medium sized, medium-priced – meant to be an affordable alternative to the established brands. As far as I know this was the first time that ‘Arcam’ was used as a brand name.
So here we have it the Arcam One, bought from Hugh Chadwick at Huddersfield HiFi (his son runs the business now, I believe) and much used and abused in the intervening 30+ years.
It is a 2-way design with a foam ridge surrounding the tweeter (completely perished). If you look closely you can see little black stickers under the tweeter and bass domes, this was a short-lived fad in the 80’s and had something to do with magnetic polarisation (or it was to keep the goblins away? – I’m not sure anymore).
At the back, the bass port (a bit unusual in those days). And a selection of input sockets to allow for the possibility of bi-amping. Which opens up all sorts of possibilities for later on as I have never tried that (forgot it was there, actually). I did substitute the metal clips to the tweeter input with solid-core copper cable somewhere along the way, probably thought it sounded better.
In all the time that I’ve had these I have NEVER opened them up to have a look. But being made curious by all the wadding-in, wadding-out discussions at the moment, I felt that the time had come to have a look.
Carefully prising the bass-drivers out, no screws here – real bolts, and we come across the traditional wadding. Sections of soft white padding and yellow foam, still surprisingly clean after several decades (in one of the cabinets anyway).
With that out of that way the crossover and some very serious internal bracing is revealed. Wiring is thick and of good quality. The crossover is neat and simple. There are bitumen(?) pads stapled to the sides and these I’ll leave alone for now. These cabs look to be seriously well-made and it would appear that a lot of care and thought has gone into this design.
So then its; putting them back together and firing them up again to see if there is any noticeable difference. My living-room system, now used primarily for relaxing background sounds when I’m reading or skimming HFS on my tablet, comprises of a Sonos Connect directly running the old stereo NVA A40 via Accuphase AL10 interconnects and then lengths of Supra Classic 4.0 to the Arcams. Oh, and there is a NAD CD524 in there as well.
The sound of the Arcam One’s is warm and friendly, a sort of cuddly blanket of sound that you can wrap yourself in. The only speaker I ever heard that sounded almost identical was a Spendor (the BC1, I think). Imaging has always been a problem with the Arcam’s and all genres of music were portrayed with a veiled/coloured quality that basically meant you could listen to the Sex Pistols and they would be sounding like rather nice, polite boys who you could invite round for tea.
Wadding out and first a bit of Pat Metheny on acoustic baritone guitar (‘One Quiet Night’). Big, big change. The sound is clear, free from the cabinets, with a fresh and resonant quality on the guitar. The speakers sound 20 years younger (wish I could say the same). Then a bit of punchy electronics from the sequencers of John Lakveet’s ‘The Force of Reason’. Yup, a major step up in clarity, detail and imaging. They don’t sound like my old, friendly boxes anymore; no, they’ve become a bit meaner and leaner – but they might possibly be able to work even better. Only negative is that removing the wadding (and this is the third time I’ve done this) tends to get the treble going a touch shrill and ragged at higher volume. Something that I know steel plating solves.
Enough for now. Time to ponder on whether to replace the bitumen pads with some steel plating, and also experiment a bit with tuning/sealing the port.
So here we have it the Arcam One, bought from Hugh Chadwick at Huddersfield HiFi (his son runs the business now, I believe) and much used and abused in the intervening 30+ years.
It is a 2-way design with a foam ridge surrounding the tweeter (completely perished). If you look closely you can see little black stickers under the tweeter and bass domes, this was a short-lived fad in the 80’s and had something to do with magnetic polarisation (or it was to keep the goblins away? – I’m not sure anymore).
At the back, the bass port (a bit unusual in those days). And a selection of input sockets to allow for the possibility of bi-amping. Which opens up all sorts of possibilities for later on as I have never tried that (forgot it was there, actually). I did substitute the metal clips to the tweeter input with solid-core copper cable somewhere along the way, probably thought it sounded better.
In all the time that I’ve had these I have NEVER opened them up to have a look. But being made curious by all the wadding-in, wadding-out discussions at the moment, I felt that the time had come to have a look.
Carefully prising the bass-drivers out, no screws here – real bolts, and we come across the traditional wadding. Sections of soft white padding and yellow foam, still surprisingly clean after several decades (in one of the cabinets anyway).
With that out of that way the crossover and some very serious internal bracing is revealed. Wiring is thick and of good quality. The crossover is neat and simple. There are bitumen(?) pads stapled to the sides and these I’ll leave alone for now. These cabs look to be seriously well-made and it would appear that a lot of care and thought has gone into this design.
So then its; putting them back together and firing them up again to see if there is any noticeable difference. My living-room system, now used primarily for relaxing background sounds when I’m reading or skimming HFS on my tablet, comprises of a Sonos Connect directly running the old stereo NVA A40 via Accuphase AL10 interconnects and then lengths of Supra Classic 4.0 to the Arcams. Oh, and there is a NAD CD524 in there as well.
The sound of the Arcam One’s is warm and friendly, a sort of cuddly blanket of sound that you can wrap yourself in. The only speaker I ever heard that sounded almost identical was a Spendor (the BC1, I think). Imaging has always been a problem with the Arcam’s and all genres of music were portrayed with a veiled/coloured quality that basically meant you could listen to the Sex Pistols and they would be sounding like rather nice, polite boys who you could invite round for tea.
Wadding out and first a bit of Pat Metheny on acoustic baritone guitar (‘One Quiet Night’). Big, big change. The sound is clear, free from the cabinets, with a fresh and resonant quality on the guitar. The speakers sound 20 years younger (wish I could say the same). Then a bit of punchy electronics from the sequencers of John Lakveet’s ‘The Force of Reason’. Yup, a major step up in clarity, detail and imaging. They don’t sound like my old, friendly boxes anymore; no, they’ve become a bit meaner and leaner – but they might possibly be able to work even better. Only negative is that removing the wadding (and this is the third time I’ve done this) tends to get the treble going a touch shrill and ragged at higher volume. Something that I know steel plating solves.
Enough for now. Time to ponder on whether to replace the bitumen pads with some steel plating, and also experiment a bit with tuning/sealing the port.
