Arcam is located right next to the famous Cambridge campus and our story began in a traditional way: two music and electronics-obsessed engineering students met at Cambridge University and founded Amplification and Recording Cambridge in 1972. “). Established in 1972, Arcam has a reputation for delivering the right combination of sound quality and price, making it one of the UK’s leading value for money amplifiers and CD players. The excellent sound, durability and reliability of Arcam hi-fi components are due to the simplicity and original design and suitability of the materials used.
The company started out as a supplier of mixing consoles for recording studios, but that didn’t last long because the pair soon began making hi-fi amplifiers, marking the beginning of a business that, four decades later, is still keeping pace with progress and creating benchmark sound for music and home entertainment. cinemas. Having studied a large number of amplifiers that were commercially successful during this period, the students were quite disappointed. Products from Japanese manufacturers were not very good in terms of sound, and British and American amplifiers, although they provided better sound quality, were quite unreliable. In 1976, Arcam’s first home theater amplifier, the A60, was developed and released. Initially planning to produce just 50 of these amplifiers, the company found that the model was a great success. The A60 is now considered a classic, and around 30,000 amplifiers were sold, many of which are still in successful use today.
During this time we have developed a wealth of experience, not to mention many unique products: in 1988 we released the first digital-to-analogue converter, or DAC, to improve the sound quality of CD players, and in 1999 a high-quality DAB radio tuner for use with hi-fi systems. We even invented our own Dolby S cassette player and released it here in the UK, and were the only hi-fi company capable (and dare) to do so. For almost 30 years we have been developing and creating CD players, and for 40 years – amplifiers, with which our journey began, and since 1995 we have included equipment for home theaters in our scope of activity, earning worldwide recognition as manufacturers of AV electronics with the best sound. We also created our own DVD players for home cinemas, and later we started producing Blu-ray players from scratch in the UK. Using our many years of experience in the production of CD players, we ensure that they reproduce both music and video equally well, providing better playback quality than products from other brands.
Yes, we listen ourselves—we’re a bunch of audiophiles, after all—but we also engage in rigorous, scientific testing and experimentation. We like to say that we “figure out what’s cool”: because the higher the level of our technology, the better results we and our users will get. We at Arcam want you to try something truly worthwhile. That’s why we offer devices that we are confident will bring true joy to music lovers. That’s why we develop products and systems that can make people forget what they’re doing and immerse them in the magic that only the best speakers and video players can provide. However, while we work in the name of great sound, we are not a geeky high-end company out of touch with real life. Of course, we are interested in expanding the capabilities of our most expensive systems – but we are even more enthusiastic about finding the use of what is used in our luxury products in more acceptable and affordable variations. We want people to be able to enjoy music on a variety of devices when they work, travel or play, anywhere and anytime. Our motto is “The best sound for the greatest number of people.”
That’s why we make systems and products that deliver the best sound quality, whether it’s music streaming via Bluetooth from your smartphone or your favorite high-definition concert video you’re watching for the twentieth time. We’ve already demonstrated that conventional technology can do wonders in bringing music and film to life: now we’re looking for new ways to continue to do that in the changing world of the entertainment industry. And we are developing new products so that no matter what innovations appear in the future, we will continue to achieve maximum effect. Arcam follows the philosophy that every product of the company surprises with simplicity, integrity of design and durability, whether we are talking about an amplifier, tuner, entry-level CD player or top-end. In addition, Arcam never forgets what is important to customers.
