Both are excellent, considering the costs.
I've had the Arcam Alpha 6, and still have an FMJ22. NADs: C320BEE, C325BEE, C326BEE.
The Arcam has a more extended - although a little dry - treble. It is the more transparent of the two, but also lighter in balance. Not "lean," just slightly more ethereal.
The NAD has noticeably more "heft" (more solidity in the midbass) and will deliver highly holographic, up-front, extremely well-focused images, highly musical (bold instead of pastel color palette)and rocks out. It is also excellent at microdynamics and only slightly less good on macrodynamics.
I have always steered my friends towards the NAD, and, by the way, I'm not sure I'd agree it's "grainy" at all, but it would take a speaker with an exceptionally low grain structure, such as Avalons or, astoundingly, a pair of Sound Dynamic RTS 3s, which have nearly the same continuousness of sound as Avalons and that's pretty august company to be in.
An NAD/Sound Dynamics combination is a superb combination, both of them have the same strengths.
I did have a 326BEE on a Black Diamond Racing "The Source" shelf, and I disliked the sound intensely, but later discovered it sounded grainy because I had the shelf on an Finite Elemente Spider Rack. They did not agree. That's about the only time I've heard the NAD sound grainy and the power cord was a Nordost Brahma. For $300-$500, they nearly unbeatable, in my view.
I've had the Arcam Alpha 6, and still have an FMJ22. NADs: C320BEE, C325BEE, C326BEE.
The Arcam has a more extended - although a little dry - treble. It is the more transparent of the two, but also lighter in balance. Not "lean," just slightly more ethereal.
The NAD has noticeably more "heft" (more solidity in the midbass) and will deliver highly holographic, up-front, extremely well-focused images, highly musical (bold instead of pastel color palette)and rocks out. It is also excellent at microdynamics and only slightly less good on macrodynamics.
I have always steered my friends towards the NAD, and, by the way, I'm not sure I'd agree it's "grainy" at all, but it would take a speaker with an exceptionally low grain structure, such as Avalons or, astoundingly, a pair of Sound Dynamic RTS 3s, which have nearly the same continuousness of sound as Avalons and that's pretty august company to be in.
An NAD/Sound Dynamics combination is a superb combination, both of them have the same strengths.
I did have a 326BEE on a Black Diamond Racing "The Source" shelf, and I disliked the sound intensely, but later discovered it sounded grainy because I had the shelf on an Finite Elemente Spider Rack. They did not agree. That's about the only time I've heard the NAD sound grainy and the power cord was a Nordost Brahma. For $300-$500, they nearly unbeatable, in my view.