Operation Manual

10
11
The performance of your system can be further enhanced over
that achieved with bi-wiring, by extending the same principal one
stage further to include separate amplification for the low and high
frequency speaker drive units in each loudspeaker box.
YOU WILL NEED
Speakers which have four terminals (connection points for
wires) on the back of each one. That’s eight in total.
If you have four terminals on each speaker they will be marked HF
(High frequency) and LF (Low Frequency).
Two stereo amplifiers
Generally, one of these would be an Arcam integrated amplifier
and the other an Arcam power amplifier.
Loudspeaker cables
Two pairs of loudspeaker cables per loudspeaker or a suitably
terminated cable set (group of bound cables, probably prepared by
your dealer) capable of being used for bi-amping in one length.
Interconnect cables
One pair of high quality interconnect cables.
If one of your amplifiers is an integrated amplifier it is best to use
that one connected to the high frequency (HF) speaker terminals
(and their respective drive units) whilst the power amplifier (out-
board amplifier) is used to drive the low frequency (LF) speaker
terminals (and their respective drive units).
WARNING
Do not make any connections to your amplifier while it is switched
on or connected to the mains supply. Please check all connections
thoroughly, make sure bare wires or cables are not touching the
amplifier in the wrong places (shorts) and you have connected
positive (+) to positive (+) and negative (-) to negative (-) before
attempting to re-connect the mains power supply. Always ensure
that the volume control on your amplifier is set to a minimum
before switching on.
1.
Remove the wire clips or bars which connect the pairs of terminals
together (terminal links) on each of the red and black terminals
on the rear of your loudspeakers.
THIS IS ESSENTIAL OR DAMAGE TO YOUR AMPLIFIERS
MAY RESULT WHICH IS NOT COVERED UNDER
WARRANTY.
2.
Connect the cables as per one of the diagram opposite,
ensuring correct polarity at all times. The positive (+) terminals on
the right loudspeaker must go to the positive (+) terminals on the
right of the amplifier and the negative (-) terminals on the right
loudspeaker must go to the negative (-) terminals on the right of
the amplifier etc. You also need to make a connection from the
PRE AMP OUT sockets of your integrated amplifier, or preamplifier,
to the POWER AMP IN sockets of the power amp.
3.
Use the interconnect cables to connect the PRE-AMP OUT
sockets
9
of the integrated amplifier to the PWR AMP IN sockets
of the power amplifier.
Always switch on the integrated amplifier and allow it to stabilise
(indicator light turns green) before switching on the power
amplifier.
At the end of a listening session the power amplifier should always
be turned off first.
High quality interconnect cables should be used between the
integrated amplifier and power amplifier.
The use of high quality interconnect and speaker cables in your
system is essential to obtain good sound quality.
Contact your dealer for further details.
SHOWN BELOW IS THE BI-AMPING CONFIGURATION
RECOMMENDED FOR THE ALPHA AMPLIFIERS COVERED IN
THIS HANDBOOK
Bi-amping
HOW TO SET UP A BI-AMPED SYSTEM
+ HF –
+ LF –
+ HF –
+ LF –
R
L
+
–
+
–
R
R
L
L
RL
+
–
+
–
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
POWER AMPLIFIER
LEFT
SPEAKER
INTERCONNECT
CABLES
RIGHT
SPEAKER
The power amplifier shares all of the electronic and structural
advantages of its sister integrated amplifier.
It can also be upgraded from stereo mode to three channel
audio by the addition of a ‘PAM’ (Power Amp Module.
This module offers extra terminal connectors together with a
third set of pre-out and power-in phono sockets to turn the
power amplifier into a 3 x 100 watts (RMS per channel into 8
Ohms) amplifier suitable for Home Cinema or Karaoke use.
Contact your dealer for further details.
Circled numbers in the text, e.g.
dn
, refer to the numbers on the
pictures.
If your power amplifier has not been installed for you, you should
read the section entitled ‘Setting up’ before using the ‘User Guide’.
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POWER
Switches the power on and off.
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POWER INDICATOR
This will initially glow orange. After a few seconds, it will
glow green. When the indicator glows orange, the speakers
are disconnected and an internal protection circuit is
activated.
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SP1
Push the button in to select the main (upper) pair of
speakers. Push the button in to select.
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SP2
Selects or de-selects the secondary (lower) pair of speakers.
Push the button in to select.
The SPl & SP2 switches will both connect/disconnect
speakers attached to the 3rd channel option
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if fitted.
Important note: If both switches are turned off the amplifier
will appear not to work, as all speakers will be switched off!
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HEADPHONES SOCKET
Accepts headphones rated between 8 ohms and 2k ohms
fitted with a
1
/
4
” stereo jack plug. If you wish to listen on
headphones only, use SPl and SP2 (if necessary) to mute the
speakers.The headphone socket is always active.
Power amplifier - User Guide
dk dl dm dn
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SP1 SP2
PHONES
P25 POWER AMPLIFIER
POWER
INTRODUCTION
IN USE