It's clear on first listen that Arcam have spent the money on the internals of the Alpha 8 rather than on the plastic fronted exterior. Partnered with Kef Concierto speakers and Arcam alpha 8 bi-amped amplifiers the Alpha 8cd does a fine job of recreating the performance in your living-room. Musicians are defined and a taut if slightly woolly deep bass underpins the sound. Music is naturally reproduced and even with a badly recorded disc never becomes harsh.

On the negative side the players front is lacking in finesse as is the remote control, better looking products are available but many cannot match this player's sound at this price point. However, if sound is more important than looks then there is little competition.

Careful system matching including cables and support will bring the best from this player. It took a £2000 player to significantly improve on this player in my system so therefore provides a good starting point for an audiophile system especially as Arcam's products retain a high second hand value.