Hello, I may have a chance to go to

In a nutshell, it is not worth it. Just a few precautions; shipping/return handling of the unit could be problematic, customs - what if you are hit with a charge for an expensive unit being brought into the country?, inability to conduct any kind of trial of the unit in one's system (perhaps not a big consideration for you), warranty and repair work, and cost associated with getting the unit switched over voltage-wise or buying a converter, etc.

Perhaps if you were visiting the Accuphase factory and buying a factory second it might make sense to try. Excepting that I don't see a tremendous amount of upside to the idea, especially when there are fabulous souning DACs for about $1,500 or less which might compete very well.

When I was in Hong Kong I made it a point to visit an entire High End shopping center/zone with several shops adjacent. It was a marvelous experience, but I came home empty-handed for the very reasons I explained above.

Japan with my boyfriend. He is being sent there on business and I am going to look at cd players while I am there (if I go). Japan and the US have different voltage requirements, does a voltage converter work well? Does it change the sound? If they do work, will they work permanently? My boyfriend is about as clueless as I am, so we're both wondeering if it would be worth buying a cd player over there. I am mainly interested in Accuphase, they are so expensive over here that I may be able to find one over there but what good would it do me if I can't play it? Thank you all.
Smw30yahoocom

good heavens!! what a couple you guys are!!! you are going to Japan for the 1st time & all you can think is going shopping for an Accuphase CD player?? :-0
Japan is such a different culture from rest to the world - soak in their culture, their food, their way of living, etc & simply forget about the CD player. I'm with Marakanetz in this regard.
Both Herman & Doug Schroeder make some very good points - it's not worth your effort.
Enjoy Japan & buy the electronics off Audiogon or your local dealer - a demo or scratch-and-dent unit, refurbish, trade-in, etc.

Boy you guys sure like to draw your own conclusions don't you, what a tough crowd. Of course that's not the only thing I would be doing there, it's just one of the things I thought that I could do when he's working, we would save the siteseeing when we could go together. But, it's all moot at this point anyway as I can't get the time off from work, we're really busy now, so he is going by himself. He's not going to have time to go looking for a cdp for me as he'll be very busy while he's there (electrical engineer) and I wouldn't even ask him to do that. I got on line after I heard the news that I couldn't go and saw a few places that sell Accuphase but not sure if I fully trust them. What I can't believe is the price difference between Japan and the U.S. for the same equipment (if it's legit), what a markup. But some of you are right, Accuphase won't touch them if you use a voltage transformer or if you buy overseas. I guess I'll just either purchase over here now that I won't be going, or I'll look for another player. Thanks

Sandra
I see your still in search of a CD player. Did you ever get an opportunity to listen to the Denon DCD-A100? I'm considering purchasing one and would like your thoughts on it. I have the DVD-3800 and it sounds really good with Blu-ray music so I was hoping the DCD-A100 might be as good with SACD. The digital input is a plus for hooking a music server to.

Hi Ig, yes I have listened to the DCD-A100 a few times and I think it is a great sounding player. The first thing I noticed about it is that it is such a musical, non-fatiguing player. It is also very well built, beautiful to look at. The only thing that excludes me buying it (somewhat) is that it doesn't have USB input (asynch.) You need to have spdif or toslink so I would have to buy a converter to hook up to my computer, another piece of equipment . I am still considering the Denon, but am also very interested in the Aesthetix Romulus and the Berkeley Audio II player. The Denon is one of the best players I have heard, I'm wondering if it isn't close enough to the Romulus and Berkeley that it wouldn't matter, but I really have no way of knowing unless I have all three here at the same time. I guess you would just have to take a chance and buy it, but I don't think you'll be disappointed.