Arcam SA20 Integrated Amp Review

READ OUR REVIEW: http://bit.ly/2U0Hb0T

SHOP THIS AMP:

Arcam SA20 Integrated Amp: http://bit.ly/2BJq38J

The exterior of the SA20 is clean and simple. At first glance, you might not think this amp packs power but under the hood, the amp has quite the beefy power supply as it weighs just over 20 pounds.

The gold-plated connectors are a nice touch at this price point and we were also able to easily connect our large spade lugs to the binding posts, which is always a plus.

You should not be lacking for inputs with its combination of eight, covering analog, digital, and phono. Arcam includes a headphone jack on the front panel along with an AUX input with a mini plug. Every input selection is just a simple button push on the front. In addition, there is a preamp out for driving a second power amp if you wish to run another room, or biamp your main speakers.

A really nice feature of the SA20 is the home theater bypass input. Basically, this allows you to get the best of both worlds: a great home theater and a pure two channel audio system.

If your home theater receiver or processor has preamp outs for the left and right, you’ll connect your left and right speakers to the SA20 and select those inputs to be the bypass input. When you engage the bypass input for home theater use, the signal passes straight through to your speakers and all of your volume is controlled by your home theater rig. When you want to relax and just listen in stereo, the signals only go through the pure sound of the Arcam SA20.

Arcam is serious about their sound, which is why the DAC used in the Arcam SA20 is an impressive choice, and is generally found in much more expensive components. Just connect up that old CD player with its digital outs and be prepared to hear details in your music that you have never experienced.

The biggest audio feature of the SA20 is its Class G amplifier circuit. The quickest way to explain Class G is this: when the amp runs at lower or moderate levels, it’s using Class A and then switches over to Class AB when extra power is needed. For a deeper dive into how Class G works, check out our SA20 written review on AudioAdvice.com.

In terms of performance, this is a very warm and sweet-sounding amp that will please most speakers out there. Huge soundstage, dynamics so incredible you’ll feel as if you are in the same room as the drums, and very little strain even at loud listening levels are our biggest testing takeaways. You’ll be able to listen to it for hours without any fatigue and likely hear many new subtle nuances in your music that you didn't know existed before.

Overall, this little amp is going to help lots of people upgrade their stereo systems. While it does not have a streamer built in, like some of its competition, it makes up for it in sound. If you are looking for an upgrade to your two-channel listening and want something built well from a company that has been making great sounding amps for decades, put the SA20 on your list!

MUSIC: Ryan Little - http://bit.ly/2FS7OSR