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There many Accuphase owners here? Are they really better?

fazman

fazman

Active Member
Read a lot recently about some vintage Accuphase amps and tuners. From what I'm reading it sounds like good stuff.
Now I've always had stuff from Sansui, Marantz, Yamaha and Pioneer and for the most part loved most of it but I've never owned any Accuphase equipment.
The units I'm looking at purchasing are the E-202 integrated amp and the T-101 tuner.
The problem at least for me is that in order to aquire them both I'll have to buck up a little more than what I'm use to.
If I were to get this pair they would have to dethrone my stand by Sansui 9090db. For some reason I really love this receiver and haven't found too much out there that can sonically match it. Many are close though...
Not that I'm looking for a comparison of the both as that would be hard to do unless you owned both units but do the Accuphase stuff really set themselves apart sonically from lets say the better vintage offerings from Marantz, Sansui etc...
OR... are we really splitting hairs here and is it just a matter of pride of ownership of something that is considered a little more... let's say esoteric?

I'd love to get some opinions from some of you in the "know" about this company.

Cheers.
 
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Accuphase is great, think of it this way, they competed with McIntosh early on :). Very good build quality, very good gear in general. I would like to own some one day.
 
softmachine said:
Accuphase is great, think of it this way, they competed with McIntosh early on :). Very good build quality, very good gear in general. I would like to own some one day.
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thanks softmachine. Actually I've heard the same thing before too, somewhere but I don't know where. :scratch2:
I've also heard people say that McIntosh gear isn't really much better than some of the Pioneer offerings so there you have it :smoke:
 
I have an Accuphase T-109V tuner. This is the "King" of the shootouts at fmtunerinfo.com.

Build and sound quality are impeccable.

Best,

Paul :thmbsp:
 
I love Accuphase gear, and the sound. My only complaint for the vintage ones is their insistence on using those damn axial electrolytic caps, which had a much shorter lifespan than the radial ones everyone else used. And since most of the radial caps of the 70's era machines have long since passed by their best days, the axial ones in the Accuphase gear are certainly shot (I've had several that literally fell into pieces once desoldered). Point being is that a piece of gear is only as good as the maintenance that has been performed on it...if it's 30+ years old, it needs attention before you'll hear what the manufacturer intended.
 
EchoWars said:
I love Accuphase gear, and the sound. My only complaint for the vintage ones is their insistence on using those damn axial electrolytic caps, which had a much shorter lifespan than the radial ones everyone else used. And since most of the radial caps of the 70's era machines have long since passed by their best days, the axial ones in the Accuphase gear are certainly shot (I've had several that literally fell into pieces once desoldered). Point being is that a piece of gear is only as good as the maintenance that has been performed on it...if it's 30+ years old, it needs attention before you'll hear what the manufacturer intended.
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Thanks for the input...
I'm wondering if the integrated amp I'm speaking of is easy to work on? I'm mean at least compared to some other common monster receivers. And no I wouldn't do the work myself :D
If I were to get it then from your response I'm understanding that it will most definitely need a complete recapp?

Is your experience with the Accuphase stuff more of the vintage variety or with some of their more recent stuff?
 
I don't know much about the new stuff except that it is beautiful, and I can't afford it. The old stuff, like the E-202, almost certainly should have a full recap done if you want it to sound right and have a bit of reliability.
 
Wasn't Accuphase founded by former Kenwood Engineers? To lazy to do an Internet search. I am sure it's on Wikipedia.
My Kenwood KA 8006 dethroned my Sansui 9090. Can't say enough good things about the Kenwood.
 
For engineering, build quality and sound it is excellent stuff and seemed to maintain consistent and continued high quality units unlike most companies that early on tried to establish itself as a high quality company and then seemed to compromise with later units. I've always considered it as close to McIntosh as any company. Yes some companies have does as well but not consistently.
 
I have the P-300, C-200, T-100 stack and a T-109V. Accuphase was intended to compete with McIntosh, and is built to win that competition. They make only first-class stuff, and always have. As Glenn said, the vintage stuff needs a complete overhaul to sound correct (I've heard others' E-202s before and after), but once that's done (it ain't cheap), the sound is state-of-the-art for the time it was made. By this, I mean it's competitive with Levinson or Audio Research or whatever of the same era, IMHO.

I recall vividly going into the first store in my area that carried the newly arrived Accuphase, and they were ABing the above stack against a variety of competitors, including Kenwood, Sansui, Yamaha and Marantz. The Accuphase emerged as the clear favorite. Sadly, I couldn't even afford the cheap stuff then, and the Accuphase was 50% more, so it was just a dream... I finally got my stack 30 years later, and it still needs restoring.

Hmmm... Glenn, you got some space on that bench of yours?
 
I own a P-300 (newly re-capped) and it beats every other amp (tube or SS, Int. or stand-alone) that I've ever owned or even heard at my favorite dealer. It's the one component that I will NEVER sell or replace.
It isn't the most expensive piece that I've bought but it is the best sounding. In fact I have more money collecting dust (very annoying) but I can't deny what my ears tell me. I think you would be VERY happy with ANY Accuphase product.
 
I recently reclaimed an old E-202, the same one that I once foolishly sold some 20 odd years before and can say that even as it is in need of some work, it is a keeper for sure. I had spent some years in audio retail and for a while, I was taking home a new amp, source, etc every couple of months. I have owned a lot of nice mid -fi gear such as the better efforts from Carver, Denon, Rotel, Sansui, Luxman, Nikko, etc and really only ever regretted letting the Accuphase go.
There might be better out there and but IMO, it's the right one for me. I do feel even to this day that this company remained true to it's corporate mission statement, unlike most of the competition of it's day.
 
Have to agree, it's first rate stuff.

Rotoplooker said:
I recently reclaimed an old E-202, the same one that I once foolishly sold some 20 odd years before and can say that even as it is in need of some work, it is a keeper for sure. I had spent some years in audio retail and for a while, I was taking home a new amp, source, etc every couple of months. I have owned a lot of nice mid -fi gear such as the better efforts from Carver, Denon, Rotel, Sansui, Luxman, Nikko, etc and really only ever regretted letting the Accuphase go.
There might be better out there and but IMO, it's the right one for me. I do feel even to this day that this company remained true to it's corporate mission statement, unlike most of the competition of it's day.
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I did the same thing in my younger days when I worked for Tech HiFi and MSL (their high-end store), and I have to agree that up to the limits of it's power output their amps and preamps sounded as good as anybody's. We used to A-B it against the best of Kenwood's Lab series, and the then current Luxman Lab Reference series, as well as customers' and trade-in equipment from Mark Levinson and Threshold. It could hold it's own in any company, except in those days I don't recall them making an amp with more than 100W output. The big iron could drive really bizarre, inefficient low impedance loads better, but I don't remember anything in it's day that was better built and detailed, or better sounding. The best sounding setup we had in the store at the time was a pair of Infinity RS4.5s with the Accuphase stack driving the top end, and the Kenwood L-09II monoblocs on the bottom. When I was selling them, Accuphase was calling itself Kensonic Labs, and seemed to have some kind of advanced R&D relationship with Kenwood, which was mentioned in some of their sales literature at the time.
 
Wow!!! You guys are amazing! :yes:
When someone wants info on something you guys always deliver is spades. Thanks so much for this.
If I can put the deal together I'll update.

Again thanks everyone for your input. Much appreciated.

Cheers.
 
I have a Sansui AU-719 integrated and it sounds great,but it does not compare to the Accuphase gear. IMO
 
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