Accuphase A-48 amp sounds (looks) like a Mercedes S-class car, rides.. PASS-L designs tuned to get racing results better, overheating motor, etc..
Class A: Accuphase vs Pass Labs house sound?
I have always been fascinated with Accuphase (Japanese audio in general). I've never heard an Accuphase amp in person. I've heard Pass class a/b amps a few times. I own a FirstWatt j2. One thing I really like about the feature set of Accuphase that it includes a gain level control. I would find that handy since I have 101 efficient (measured at 98db) Zu speakers. Since I run a tube pre, tube hiss can be an issue if I do not keep tabs on the gain when choosing components. No worries with the J2 since the gain is super low. However, I may look to upgrade my amp in the future. Pass 30.8 is something that looks like a nice unit. Also the Accuphase A-48 or A-30.
Just curious if anyone has compared both...sound wise and build wise
Showing 3 responses by westcoastaudiophile
@runwell trying to understand your points: "build quality, accuphase is amongst the top one”; "the sound, accuphase is not the top one” Accuphase has many SKUs, “cheaper” ones are not top performer comparing to other brands reference designs. Wondering which Accuphase model number you are referring your post to? Having 30+ years behind checking/testing sound of different products I found Accuphase is the best comparing to other brands on combined metric: build+reliability+amortization+esthetics. Also, Accuphase amps are able to drive very "difficult” speakers without sound quality impact, which technically can be explained by higher phase margins at realistic load impedance, in very wide frequency range (5Hz..200kHz). |