Arcam Alpha 7SE Review

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Arcam Alpha 7SE
4.4 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.4 out of 5

From 1 rating and 4 reviews

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Monkey Boy.'s Review of Arcam Alpha 7SE CD Player

30th Apr 2001

Overall Rating

3.5 stars
  • Value for money
    2.5 stars
  • Features
    4 stars
  • Sound Quality
    3 stars
Good Points

Clean Treble, Fast.


Bad Points

Warmth in the midrange leading to muffled sound. 2 faulty units. Not as refined as a decent cheap turntable.


General Comments

I like the Arcam Alpha7SE, its clean, crisp & has good bass depth, but it does not enter the realms of proper audiophile quality. The first Arcam I purchased had a transport problem, the second had a noisy power supply and the third and final sample retained a fair ammount of power supply noise (although less than the second sample). The problem with this machine is that its too expensive to consider as being budget hi-fi, and yet its level of perfomance does not justify its price. If I were to buy a moderate ingerated amp with a built in phono stage and then spend £350 (about $420) on a turntable, I would be receiving much greater sound. Im not picking on the Arcam, I'm trying to justify in my own mind spending such amounts of money and receiving sound to which my ears cannot better a £150 turntable and that's even taking into account the high degredation of such devices when plugged into cheap internal phonostages!! CD players are cheaper than ever, with new formats to come along. My advise is to look in the second hand, ex-demo adds as people rush to buy these hyped formats, purchase a player costing £1000+ of no older than two years for the same money!

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