STEREO AMPLIFIERS
They are the powerhouses at the centre of your system, and these amps are the best of the best
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We find the A15+ to be a musical treat across all genres of music
◼Arcam A15+
£1199
The original A15 was a superb all-rounder, delivering a combination of detail, dynamics and overall balance that we felt was class-leading. This new + version retains that character and remains a well-equipped amplifier that should easily slot into pretty much any price-compatible stereo system. It also takes small but significant steps forward across the board.
As far as the basics of the digital module go, nothing significant has changed. A 24-bit/192kHz compatible ESS ES9018 DAC chip sits at the heart of the A15+. The new model does, however, add HDMI eARC alongside optical and a pair of coaxial inputs, moving-magnet phono input and trio of line-level analogue connections. There’s also a preamplifier output and a 3.5mm headphone socket. Two-way Bluetooth is now version 5.4 with Auracast.
Arcam’s engineers have taken the opportunity to do some housekeeping on the A15’s power-supply circuitry, improving the mains transformer and various components, to cut interference and reduce power-supply impedance. Small touches such as automatically powering down the DAC when the analogue inputs are selected are said to deliver sonic improvements too.
We play Gorecki’s emotionally charged Symphony No.3 and find that the A15+ sounds that bit cleaner and clearer. We can hear more in the way of instrumental textures and the kind of low-level acoustic detail that defines the size of the recording venue. The + version has more expressive dynamics and seems to go from quiet to loud with greater fluency. We don’t note any significant difference in scale or absolute authority, but do find that the newer amplifier is more emphatic in the way it renders crescendos and shifts in musical intensity.