Problem with Arcam Alpha 8SE CD Player

[Les Adams]

I am having a problem with my newly acquired Arcam Alpha 8SE CD player and I was wondering if anybody else has had a similar problem with this, or any other machine that may give me a clue as to what might be causing it.

Every now and then, for no apparent reason, it jumps to the beginning of the next track as though the "next track" button has been pressed. It has done it several times on different cd's and it is not caused by vibration as it did it twice last night when I was listening at very low level. If I skip back and play the same track again, it plays it perfectly to the end as normal. It has happened at the beginning, middle and end of a disc, so there is no pattern there.

I suspected that it might be interference from my Sky digital box that was sitting on top of it, but I have moved it to its own shelf further down the rack and the problem still happens.

I am going to call Arcam to ask their advice, but has anybody experienced this problem?

Les.
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Equipment list:

Garrard 401 turntable
SME 3009S2imp non-det shell arm
Shure V15Vxmr cartridge
Arcam 8SE CD player
Denon AVR 3801 A/V receiver
Denon DVD1500 DVD player
Quad 405-2 power amp
Meridian A500 front speakers / Silverlink Aero bi-wire cables
JBL control centre speaker
Gale Satellite rear speakers
Supra interconnects.

[Les Adams]

I have now spoken to Arcam. They say it is probably the "clock" chip. Standard service charge for this machine is 120 pounds plus VAT. Not such an Ebay bargain after all.

[Mr Peabody]

I'm not sure how much 120 pounds would be in U.S. dollars or how much you bought it for but cheer up in the end you have a very nice player. You might see how much it costs to upgrade it to an Alpha 9 while it's in there. The Alpha's are able to be upgraded by just replacing a card inside of the unit. The Alpha 9 was a pretty good improvement over the 8. I don't think I've compared it to the SE.

[Les Adams]

Well Mr. Peabody, there is bad news, but there might be some good news also!

The good news is that I may have found the problem..HEAT!

The 8SE was originally at the top of the rack, directly above the Quad 405-2 power amp which gets VERY hot! I had noticed that the CD player only started playing up after the first hour or so of use and it too was getting hot from the rising heat. When I first moved the CD player down (as I said I had done in my original post), the problem still happened straight away, but that was immediately after I had moved it and the player was still hot.

I have just finished a mammoth 5 hr high volume listening session (my wife was at work today!) and the 8SE performed faultlessly. Obviously only time will tell and it may be a fault that is in its early stages and it may return. It may also of course be an intermittent fault that just did not happen today, but might the next time I use it. I don't even know if it is possible for heat to cause such a problem. We shall see what happens.

I have been buying loads of CDs on Ebay and they should start arriving in the next couple of days and I plan a few more lengthy sessions early next week, so I will hold off sending it to Arcam for at least a couple of week, unless of course it starts playing up again meanwhile.

The bad news is that Arcam no longer have the boards to upgrade to a 9 as was my intention when I bought the unit. However, I am finding the 8SE so good that it is hard to imagine something better. My entire CD collection sounds better - every disc I've played so far does anyway. I also now have some HDCD discs and they are quite stunning, even the remasters of "The Doors" sound amazing.

I must say I am disappointed that Arcam can no longer perform the upgrade; it is not as though the machine is that old. Still, cest la vie!

Has anybody else has experienced or heard of malfunctions caused by heat?



Les.

[RGA]

I'm surprised you can;t do the upgrade either -- that is pretyt poor of Arcam in my view since that was the big advertising claim on those machines. The Arcam 7 and 8 were the other units I was considering at the time.

So long as the transport can play you can always add an external DAC. One of the reasons I bought the Cambridge was because of the robust transport which was the same as their dedicated DiscMagic Trasport. One day I shall get a DAC if i can ever afford the $1,500.00US price tag for the entry level unit.

[Les Adams]

I hadn't really thought about what you say was their advertising angle for these machines and you are quite right. It was supposed to be a major advantage over the competition. This is my second Arcam (I had / still have a Delta 70.3) so I think I will write a snotty letter to them. As I say, it is not as though it is that old. They sold them saying you could upgrade later, only to be told now that you can't! It's a poor show. As it happens, I bought this 8SE second hand, but had I paid the original price of 550+ pounds three years ago, I would be even more miffed!

I don't suppose it will get me anywhere, but it will get it off my chest. I will wait and see if there is a fault or not then deal with the matter.

[Mr Peabody]

I hope it hangs in there for you. It makes sense that heat could have been the problem since the players are software based and heat is bad for computers.

I had to send my Arcam FMJ 3 channel amp off to them for repair. I just turned it on one morning and heard a strange noise and started smelling that burning electronics smoke. If the estimate is too high I guess I might look for something different.

[Mr Peabody]

I hope it hangs in there for you. It makes sense that heat could have been the problem since the players are software based and heat is bad for computers.

I had to send my Arcam FMJ 3 channel amp off to them for repair. I just turned it on one morning and heard a strange noise and started smelling that burning electronics smoke. If the estimate is too high I guess I might look for something different.

[RGA]

I hadn't really thought about what you say was their advertising angle for these machines and you are quite right. It was supposed to be a major advantage over the competition. This is my second Arcam (I had / still have a Delta 70.3) so I think I will write a snotty letter to them. As I say, it is not as though it is that old. They sold them saying you could upgrade later, only to be told now that you can't! It's a poor show. As it happens, I bought this 8SE second hand, but had I paid the original price of 550+ pounds three years ago, I would be even more miffed!

I don't suppose it will get me anywhere, but it will get it off my chest. I will wait and see if there is a fault or not then deal with the matter.

Well this is a surprise to me because when i bought my Arcam Delta 290 it was the same deal with their amplifier -- buy the line version and then later if you try vinyl you could have them install the phono board (i wonder if they will even do that -- I bet not). And the cd players you could buy the Alpha 7 which had the same body and ocnstruction as the alpha 9 and then later when you had the money you could upgrade. The dealer was supposed to be able to do it because it was just a card they stuck in I believe.

Really though I have felt Arcam has went more mainstream and is less good than the Delta days (though I obviously liked the Alpha 7, 8 and 9 but their build quality and price performance leaves much to be desired lately. I don't like companies who sell people on the idea of something like internal upgradeability and then do not follow through. i understand it maybe 10 years later they don't but what 4 year later they don't?

[Les Adams]

It seems we are in agreement. I do not think 3 years is a long time to wait to do an upgrade. The Alpha 9 was considerably more money than the 7 and 8SE so it was a very good selling point at the time. Unfortunately some people who bought these models and are (like me) wanting to upgrade are in for a shock.

I will write to Arcam and post a copy of my letter and their reply here.

[Les Adams]

Arcam 8SE "fault" update:

I have now clocked up almost 12 hours of listening to the CD player since I relocated it further down the rack and it has performed without fault.

I therefore conclude that it was caused by heat rising from the other equipment.