How about Mac and Accuphase

Here is a great story if you are an Accuphase fan. An A'gon member here told me this story over e-mail and I figure I'd share it. Some have regarded Accuphase as the Japanese McIntosh.

"Since I had worked in the industry, when my Accuphase P300 failed, I knew the rep and went directly to the TEAC out repair center in LA. An output transistor had failed. They did not just replace the transistor, but also “matched beta’s”. Basically they made sure that all the output transistors were with an extremely tight tolerance of each other in the Accuphase P300.

A few months later a high end McIntosh dealer was having an “amp clinic” with a MacIntosh tech and testing equipment directly from MacIntosh. When they saw my JapanMac they openly said they had tested many, and the specs were not that great.

They set everything up and tested it, fully confident that they were going to show me how bad the P300 was. As the tech continued to run through the tests he became more and more amazed. Not only could he NOT show me how bad it was, but it more than met every single McIntosh spec. When he was finished he said “you have a really good amp there”. I never mentioned that the output transistors had been hand matched. I left them all with “egg on their faces”."

Accuphase is great stuff, and yes sadly it is overpriced outside of Asia. Why exactly I don't know. I've been given more than one song and dance on this subject.

Anyway, I would say Accuphase beats McIntosh too. But McIntosh is probably better value for the money as the prices here in the US are not nearly as high as Accuphase is. However, if you want the best build and performance, go with Accuphase. Even if it's the entry level stuff.

Nobody ever answered your primary question about converting over to 120, and I have that same question...!!!  

You need to be aware that Accuphase refuses to offer warranty, service or parts for equipment not sourced through the national distributor.So if something goes wrong you would have to send it the country where it was first purchased.They are very loyal to their distributors.Which fits within the overall ethos of the company of doing things to a very high standard.

 

Lots of Accuphase fans talk about how much better it is than McIntosh.  It’s harder to find, making it more exclusive, which I suspect drives a lot of the “it’s better…” comments.  I’ve never owned Accuphase but have no doubt it’s top-notch stuff.  But so are McIntosh and Luxman, which are in a similar price range with their top-end products.  Best advice is to demo and listen to your ears!