Arcam Delta 70 CD Player

The Arcam Delta 70 compact disc player has been designed to provide the best possible sound quality from compact disc digital audio. Together with the Arcam Delta 90 integrated amplifier, Arcam Delta 80 AM/FM tuner and the range of Arcam loudspeakers, the Delta 70 makes up the first complete CD based hi-fi system to be both designed and manufactured in Great Britain.
Most specialist hi-fi companies merely ‘badge engineer’ or modify mass produced CD players and are restricted to using their normal plastic chassis and standard circuit boards. From the outset, A&R Cambridge Limited realised that this approach was simply not good enough to produce a CD player to the standard demanded of an Arcam product. A&R therefore went to the trouble and expense of procuring a full CD manufacturing licence. This gave our designers the opportunity to engineer the Delta 70 to a superior mechanical and electronic standard, incorporating much of the experience gained in producing some of the world’s most acclaimed hi-fi amplifiers. Consequently, not only does the Delta 70 sound better, it is also visually more appealing and much easier to use than other CD players on the market.
Careful ergonomic design has simplified the operation of the Delta 70 to the extent that anyone can play a compact disc on it within a few seconds of first encountering the player. This is in marked contrast to many otherwise admirable CD players, whose complex control layout and over-elaborate displays frequently give rise to continued ‘techno fear’, even amongst the most experienced users, let alone normal music lovers.
The controls on the front panel of the Delta 70 are divided into two groups. On the upper level they comprise just those needed to load, play and stop a compact disc. On the lower level we have included the pause button (conveniently located directly underneath the main stop button} and all the commonly needed programming functions. These include 3 speed search facilities and the previous and next track selection buttons, which will also access index points within a track. An easy to program memory is provided; this is capable of memorising the order of play of up to 20 different tracks. To make operations even easier and more convenient the Delta 70 can be remote controlled using our optional infra-red remote control.
The displays on the Delta 70 have also been kept deliberately simple. An attractive and easy to read 4 digit fluorescent display provides readout of track and index numbers. It can also be used to indicate the total playing time of the disc and the elapsed time of each track as it is played.
Typical of the care and attention that our designers have taken is the location of the status indicator LEDs, which are provided for the power, pause, and time/track functions. These are located just where they are needed, above the appropriate buttons, rather than buried elsewhere on the fascia.
The Delta 70’s audio outputs are comprehensive, with both direct and variable outputs being provided. The latter is controlled via a low impedance ALPS potentiometer and is designed to feed a high quality power amplifier directly, without the loss of quality associated with a conventional preamplifier. A headphones socket with adjustable output level is also included. This is driven from its own high quality amplifier, which has sufficient gain and power to drive almost any pair of moving coil headphones. Finally, a digital output socket is fitted, for use with outboard D/ A systems and for future applications such as CD-ROM and CD-I.
Good music, properly reproduced on a good hi-fi system, should be satisfying, emotionally involving and should make one want to go on listening to more and more. The Compact Disc medium was first introduced in 1984 as offering ‘perfect sound forever’. The latter part of this promise is for all practical purposes true enough. Unfortunately, the sound quality of most players was, and still is, quite unsatisfactory to the discerning listener. Reports of a hard, relentless sound, with compressed dynamics and 2-dimensional ‘cardboard’ imagery were all too common. These effects rapidly led to dissatisfaction, listener fatigue and the desire to listen to fewer discs, not more!
Playing a well recorded compact disc through a properly set up system using the Arcam Delta 70 is, by comparison, a revelation. The hardness disappears and the sound becomes smooth but detailed. Clean, deep bass is audible, and the sound stage fills out both in width and depth. Instruments are properly located in space. Suddenly one is listening to music again!
The reason why this level of performance is usually only achieved by small, specialist companies such as A&R Cambridge Limited. is primarily because technology alone does not make a good sound. The engineers in our tightly knit team are all enthusiasts and they have many years’ experience of listening to music, both real and reproduced, to add to their considerable design skills. It is the combination of their overall experience, allied to the new technology, which results in Arcam hi-fi equipment reproducing music in such a natural, balanced and pleasing manner.
Great care has been taken with every aspect of design and construction of the Arcam Delta 70 to ensure excellent reliability and serviceability. All components are operated well within their ratings. The main printed circuit boards are constructed from fibreglass for extra strength and the attractive case is built from aluminium for strength and rigidity. Every unit is rigorously quality controlled at all stages of production, both for performance and appearance, tested using advanced computer controlled Automatic Test Equipment and finally ‘soak tested’ and auditioned before despatch to ensure ultimate reliability.
To recover as much information from the disc as possible, the Delta 70 uses a swing arm single-beam laser pickup. This produces an inherently more accurate signal from the disc than the 3-beam system used in most players. The disc playing mechanism is mounted on a fully floating sub-chassis to isolate it from external vibration. Allied to this is a 64K DRAM-based adaptive error correction system, which is one of the most comprehensive ever employed in a domestic CD player. Taken together, these features ensure the greatest possible integrity of recovered digital signal.
The digital signal is then processed using twin linear phase 120 element finite impulse response digital filters. These ultra stable low noise filters keep the audio band remarkably flat but dramatically attenuate the unwanted high frequency components of the audio signal. They are followed by dual 16 bit precision DACs, operating in the classic four times oversampling mode at a frequency of 176. 4 kHz. To enhance their timing linearity (and hence sound quality) the DACs are fed from a unique, A&R designed precision master oscillator.
Great care has been taken with all aspects of the DAC and post-DAC filter and output circuitry to preserve this hard-won sound quality. Audiophile quality components been used throughout these stages, which have been assigned no less than five fully stabilised, critically decoupled power supplies. Integral with the output stages is a three pole linear phase output filter which removes unwanted digital ‘hash’. The circuitry is of an all-discrete transistor, direct . coupled, class A design. which totally eliminates sound degrading interstage coupling capacitors from the signal path.

Playback system
16 bit compact disc digital audio. using 4 x oversampling, dual DACs and class A direct coupled, discrete transistor analogue filter and output stages.
Frequency Response: ± 0.1 dB 10 Hz - 10 kHz, - 0.6 dB at 20 kHz
Channel Balance: ± 0.1 dB
Channel Phase Balance: ± 0.5°
Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.007% at 1 kHz, 0 dB
Signal To Noise Ratio: 101 dB unweighted. 105 dB CCIR/ARM weighted
Dynamic Range: 96 dB
Channel Separation: 100 dB at 1 kHz
Wow and flutter: quartz precision control
Output Level: 2 Vrms at MSB (0 dB)
Output Impedance: 120 ohms
Minimum Load Impedance: 5 kOhm
Output Level: 2 Vrms maximum at MSB (0 dB)
Output Impedance: 1.25 kOhm maximum
Output Level: 7 Vrms maximum at MSB (0 dB)
Output Impedance: 250 ohms
Power supply: 240V AC 50 to 60 Hz
Dimensions: 430 (W) x 270 (D) x 90 (H) mm
Weight: 4.5 kg

Turnaround

Orders will usually dispatched within 2 working days of receiving cleared payment.

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