2. digital
  3. 186940-2364

Thoughts and perceptions on the sound quality of Accuphase Digital Products

Hello Audiogoners - and I have a quick question that came up in a recent conversation I had with a dealer as well as with a friend of mine. High End single box CD / SACD players are seen as being limited these days due to the increase in  streaming, but companies such as  Esoteric, DCS and possibly Vitus to just name a few are still making and developing this technology. My question is ; '' where does Accuphase stand on this subject,,,,, '' Do we look at Accuphase as being a leader in the making and development of high end single box CD / SACD players '' ? I read where for their 50th Anniversary they came out with the DC / DP 1000 separates which is CD / SACD player that is supposed to be really, really good. ( but, at a price )  The DP 750 received great reviews and just came out with the newer version the DP 770. 

I owned the Accuphase DP 720 at one time and it was a very musical player and yet detailed at the same time. Also, Accuphase has lowered their prices here in the US due to somewhat of a change in their distribution here and hopefully it will gain some better traction in sales and at a better price than before. With that said, and being very familiar with Accuphase products ; '' is it time to look at Accuphase Digital products seriously and consider them just as good or even better than the Esoteric , DCS players that are out there now '' ........your thoughts and thank you in advance.  

garebear

Showing 1 response by rms456

rms456
40 posts
 

@chadsort , Accuphase does use off the shelf DAC chips, however quite a few in parallel to cancel out errors as the conversion is completed, plus a few other methods, see here on how this is accomplished. 

@garebear , it's unfortunate that in the US, the price of Accuphase in the past is double that of Japan, tantamount to extortion. At high prices the brand does not gain much traction in the US, however in Europe, Australia, Malaysia and of course Japan, the brand is very well known for many years now. If Hifi shark is visited, Accuphase products are mainly offered from Europe and Japan, the used prices from the US are still over and above new prices anywhere else.

 

I bought my first E-205 amp in 1988, still have it and it works, a testament to reliability. Also E-450 integrated, P-4200 Power, C-2420 Pre, DP-720 SACD, DC-901 DAC & T-1100 tuner, so, very familiar with the sound. The DP-720 and the DC-901 are similar, however the main differences with the DC-901 are positional accuracy and spacing of instruments in the vector space away from the centre image with uncanny accuracy. This is of course with very good recordings of which only a handful really exist! 

I play both CDs, SACD, and digital from a Lumin U1 streamer, power cables are mainly Oyaide Tunami, Furutech silver, signal cables are all Accuphase grey and blue RCA, gray XLR.

I haven't heard Esoteric gear, so difficult to compare SQ. Like Esoteric, Accuphase make their own drive mechanism, not some pressed steel rubbish that looks fine in a computer. Often users of Accuphase sell their equipment, then deeply regret that decision, so I keep all my gear, still used. 

Not a point sonically, but I couldn't live with the design of Esoteric gear, far too rounded, much rather prefer classic traditional audio.

Digital gear from Accuphase is certainly worth the audition. Accuphase amps tend to be matched with B&W gear for some reason, I have used KEF reference instead and enjoy them every day. Feed them good music, and they sing. Compared to Playback Designs MPD-3, Accuphase digital is night and day. The MPD-3 is sitting in a corner, the DA doesn't work any more, garbled audio coming out of it.

FWIW, Damien Plisson founder of Audirvana has an Accuphase E-650 integrated for listening to the software he develops.

 

 

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