Accuphase P4500/P4600/A48 are not entry level amps in any sense, rather lower max power brothers of the same family! All above amps use the same fist stage amp circuitry as high power A80/!00/300. As of P4600, it has a bit more class-A-region power range vs P4500, and somewhat higher damping factor.
Accuphase class A amps - going up the food chain from an A-48 to an A-80 or A-300?
Earlier this year I acquired Accuphase separates (C-2450 pre-amp, A-48 amp) and have been very happy with them.
We have a decent resale market in Canada for Accuphase products, and I was able to snag a C-2900 pre-amp at a good price this past weekend. We see mostly integrated amps on the resale market here, and current production separates are much harder to find.
The C-2900 sounds noticeably better than the C-2450, and it got me thinking about moving up from the "entry level" A-48 to either the mid-level A-80 or even the top of the line A-300 monoblocks (though size and expense are almost prohibitive).
Does anyone have any experience or advice about moving up from the A-48 to the A-80 or A-300 monoblocks?
BTW Accuphase pricing in Canada is significantly better than in the US - so much so that Canadian Accuphase dealers are not allowed to post prices online for fear of alerting US customers to how unfair pricing is in the US - and Canadian dealers are not allowed to ship to US customers.
Showing 4 responses by westcoastaudiophile
@toronto416 damping factor increase for heavier SKUs - yes, S/N ratio - not. S/N ratio measured against highest power, thus the same or lil higher noise floor for heavy brother will show higher SNR. Damping factor increase over 200 will not benefit much system with long speaker cable, and high passive spkr crossover components ESR (low freq. driver ckt etc). For example: low freq. driver inductor ESR is in a range of 100..500mOhms, which introduces DF (damping factor) of 80 (if inductor ESR=100mOhms) limit even if amps is oo DF spec. |
@lanx0003 all Accuphase devices I’ve seen have power transformers with taps for 100/117/220/240V AC, which allows to reconfigure it to different country w/o need of autotransformer. |
@lanx0003 "Japanese domestic models typically come with a fixed voltage setting specifically for the Japanese market, which is 100V AC. “ correct, the same units as sold in US/EU are configured for 100V AC internally, and marked accordingly at the rear panel. So far I haven’t seen Accuphase unit which cannot be reconfigured, please let me know if you know such. I listen music mostly at the level below 5W, thus P4500 and A48 sound similar to me. P4500 above 5W level shows some nonlinearity, specific for AB class amp. Peak power of A48 is lower than P4500. Overpowered (not actually used for full range) amp, particularly A class, creates constant stress on house power grid, increases hum noise in other components, and generates a lot of heat. Choosing correct amp and matching it to spkrs is not trivial task. |