Arcam Integrated Amps


What are your thoughts / experiences with Arcam amps in general? And which models do you recommend for sound quality and build quality / reliability? There are lots of inexpensive used Arcam integrated amps on Ebay. I've been wanting to try one for a while as a back up amp (my main one runs rather warm) but the selection's overwhelming.
greg7
Ditto above. I bought an Arcam Alpha 10 integrated in 1999 and it was just OK, nothing spectacular. No experience with the FMJ series.

Naim, Exposure and Rega are usually better sounding if looking at British gear.
Briefly had an Arcam FMJ A32 in my 2nd system. I found it very fatiguing with silver speaker cables, and even with copper cables not very musically engaging
You can check offerings from, Exposure, MF, Naim, Cambridge, Rega,...generally better voiced than Arcam.

G
This sums it up rather nicely: https://www.whathifi.com/us/features/was-then-ar-cambridge-a60-1976-vs-arcam-a19-2013

The original A60 was most memorable back in the day. Today, I appreciate what Exposure is doing. They seem to play well with most any system.
If my experience is of any value to you:

I recently bought an Arcam SA20, to pair up with my Dynaudio evoke 30 like of speakers. Initailly, it sounded good - perhaps because of being fresh off the bos etc - it had somewhat of a tubish sound, but within a couple of weeks the sound deteriorated quite a bit. Had very little dynamism. 

From a build quality and design standpoint it was BAD. I have owned a couple of Luxmans, a couple of NADs, a Marantz, a Mcintosh and Denons in the past. If the NADs are a 4 on a scale of 0 to 10 with Luxmans being at the top end, the Arcam SA20 was AT best a  low 1. The build quality is POOR, the buttons are made of plastic, they are loss & shaky, and the "click" of the button feels like something from an 80s car stereo. It is just poor design for $1500. 

I sent it back and bought a beautiful Luxman SQ -N150 in its place.