Accuphase C-200X Review (Vintage Preampifier)

[beefkabob]

Love your reviews.

 

[Scytales]

Thanks everyone for your nice comments.
I must say that every time I get an Accuphase in my hands, it is quite something to look at, listen to and measure!
This one has probably never been touched, so I’m tempted by a full service. Would it perform better?

They have a saying: if it ain't broken, don't fix it!

 

[audio_tony]

Is that some kind of optical encode on the volume control?

 

[NTTY]

This is the input selector

 

[Hipocrates]

. Would it perform better?

I have some experience with vintage units, to be honest with that kind of numbers you're showing and how mint is the unit, not likely.
Yeah enthusiast will yell recap, but unless you measure something bad I would just let it be. A good cleaning of switches and pots (mainly switches) by a very good tech and that's it IMHO.

 

[JimmyBuckets]

Hello Everyone,

This a review and detailed measurements of the Accuphase C-200X peamplifier.

View attachment 510698


Accuphase C-200X - Presentation

The Accuphase C-200X is a vintage preamplifier that was available from 1980 to 1983. It is the successor of the C-200S which was itself an evolution of the original C-200 that was first released in 1973.

In today's money (2026), the Accuphase C-200X would cost roughly $4'000, not cheap.

If the look of the C-200X is close to that of the C-200 and C-200S, its internals were updated and the most significant difference was the addition of a "Head-Amp" as Accuphase calls it, understand a Phono MC input on top of the MM. The C-200X offered three MM inputs, one with a fixed input impedance of 47kohm, and the two others with a selectable input impedance of 100ohms, 47kohms, 82kohms and 150kohms. The MC input had a fixed input impedance of 100 ohms and was available on any input because the MC electronic card is separated and switched on by the action of a button.

Selected frequencies for tones control were offered (200Hz/500Hz and 2kHz/7kHz) and adjustments could be done independently Left/Right.

There was a wood case offered as an option. Mine does not have it, but I must say I love the technical aspect of this unit and the staggering finish everywhere I look (that's an Accuphase, I must say). It is a big fat baby and a picture is better than any measurements here (you'll get the specs later ) :

View attachment 510700

The C-200X was followed by the C-200L in 1984 which added balanced output, selectable input impedance for MC cartridge, but lost the variable impedance for MM cartridge.

The ultimate version, the C-200V, released in 1987, added a high level input called CD , and 2 balanced inputs. It dropped the turntable input at front panel, but offered a more luxurious presentation, wooden side panels becoming standard to replace the optional wood case. Last and not least, it replaced the separate left/right Bass/Treble 4 selectable frequencies (200/500Hz & 2k/7kHz) tone controls by 4 stereo tone controls with an extended and refined set of frequencies to chose from (40/100Hz, 500Hz, 2kHz, 8k/20kHz).

Out of the five C-200, I went for the C-200X because of the technical/industrial look, and the small buttons on the front, that both match my good old Accuphase P-600 amplifier, which the C-200X has been driving for one year and for my great pleasure.

The back of the Accuphase C-200X features the beautiful home made (and I think not rubidium plated yet) RCA connectors:

View attachment 510701

This back is not so busy with two tape connectors, a pair out stereo output, two line level inputs and two Turntable inputs. This relative simplicity is because the rest of them are on the front, as I already mentioned:

View attachment 510702

Below the front brown panel, we get one more tape in/out, a low level input ("Disc") and line level (AUX) connectors. There is also an additional output which means it is convenient to plug in all sorts of temporary devices available at the time, Turntables, line level devices, Cassette decks and amplifiers, without having to pull the C-200X out of the rack and/or to access the back panel. I love this feature which probably comes from the pro world.

The C-200X's brochure was providing a very good set of specifications and measurements, that I think all suppliers should replicate. I copy/paste them here for easy comparison with my measurements to come:

View attachment 510706



View attachment 510708

It is rated for 126mV (-15.77dBu) input and 2V (8.23dBu) output, meaning an exact gain of 24dB for line level. It is important to take this into perspective when measuring such an old device, as the CD Player and its "standard" 2Vrms output was not yet released.

From the above, you can also see that the Accuphase offered a wide range of Voltage input/output which inevitably means an additional technical challenge when it comes to managing noise which must be very low. The theoretical advantage is that this old preamp is still quite capable with our most recent Hi-Fi and/or professional devices. The Accuphase C-200X is happy with sources having a much higher than 4Vrms output and will very happily output 10Vrms to the benefits of low gain amplifiers.

To finalize this long introduction, I must show you the internals, although not as beautiful as with the C-280:

View attachment 510711

This top view and the below one partially reveal the "computer-like" arrangement with preamp cards in the plug-in sockets of an epoxy-glass motherboard.

View attachment 510712

The five, easy to remove, cards are for the High and Low levels input of each Left and Right channels. The fifth one is the dedicated Phono MC preamp card. Then, under the two metallic shields, we get the power supply at the back, and the equalizer at the front with numerous features: tones control, subsonic and high filter, two-level loudness compensator, all of which can be deactivated.

View attachment 510713


User experience

I’ve been discussing this more personal perspective about the devices I review for quite some time. As a preamplifier, the level of interaction is somewhat restricted to volume up or down. And it does that so well:

View attachment 510714

This button seems to be floating in the clouds, being so light with the near perfect amount of feedback. Besides, the complex shape of it, being everything but basic, as the rest of the front knobs, ti demonstrates attention to details, as often with Accuphase. I am clearly addicted to that.

Like I said, everywhere I look, I see a crazy finish, even where unnecessary, which means Accuphase never goes easy. Devil is in the details, but not with Accuphase!

It is funny that when changing an input, the C-200X takes its time, up to 2sec before the relays act and let me hear another source. And each time, I get the same feeling from that experience, and that is "Let's take our time to do that properly, gently, without harm to other components". Efficiency over speed that is.

Other than that, I guess you saw the brown front panel showing some marks. I could not get rid of them as I usually easily do on these old devices with aluminium parts. I don't know what was splattered against it, or if it is a weakness of this brown finish.

I love the possibility to plug everything at the front of it, this is sooo convenient! I did it many times as you know me loving to test a CD player or DAC every so often. By the way, these front in/out connectors are 2dB noisier compared to the rear ones, with a bit more random noise.


Measurements

I previously reviewed the Accuphase C-280, a much higher-end preamplifier of a much higher cost, released couple of years later. I encourage you to compare the measurements since I kept them aligned for that purpose.

The channel imbalance of the Accuphase C-200X is a small 0.1dB and the phase is almost flat (-8.6° at 20kHz).

Let's start with the standard 1kHz at max gain (24dB), from a 0.5Vrms input since I did the same with the C-280:

View attachment 510717

Compared with the crazy good and more expensive C-280, we only lost 0.6bits of full resolution. At -106dBr, the THD+N (dominated by noise) is comfortable, providing a clean signal to the amplifier. The C-200X loses the 0.6bits in low level correlated and random noise in the lowest frequencies, where our hears are less sensitive.

Let's try the same at unity gain, with 2.2Vrms input/output:

View attachment 510719

This is 4dB less of SINAD than the C-280, but it is still better than the theoretical max of the Audio CD... at a time it did not exist

And note that unity gain (meaning no gain change from input to output) is not the comfort zone of a preamplifier. So we should try to avoid this case by all means, to leverage as much as possible the full performance of it.

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Note that there is a small PS leakage as we can see on the zoomed view below:

View attachment 510721

At -110dBr or below, the few spikes (50Hz and harmonics) coming from the power supply, will be easily hidden into music. And knowing that this is from a 45 years old device, with RCA input/outputs only, I think this is good.

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Let's continue with the famous Multitone, from the AudioPrecision file that Amir shared a while ago:

View attachment 510738

We get nearly 19 to 20bits of distortion-free range! That is very nice, and only a little less than the Accuphase C-280. We have many modern devices that don't do better than that.

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For once, I'll show you the bandwidth and phase:

View attachment 510741

This only one channel, the other one is identical beside 0.1dB channel mismatch.

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The below is a measurement of THD+N ratio vs frequency, with an extended bandwidth to capture all distortion and noise components up to 90kHz:

View attachment 510746

This is dominated by noise, as we see only a small rise of distortion beyond 10kHz. In 1980, I'm sure nobody thought about such a punishing test, and an SACD player would massively "fail" this test because of the quantization noise that DSD generates beyond 30kHz, so...

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Let's move on to intermodulation test, with the IDM SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 4:1) sweep vs input level:

View attachment 510742

The above is for unity gain, which means it's not the best this Accuphase is capable of, but you can compare with the C-280 which did 5dB to 10dB better.
The sweet spot is at 1Vrms input, and the distortion is generally very low, although not as low as with the C-280. No concerns here, even if intermodulation distortion is easier to hear.

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Other measurements (not shown):

• Input voltage clipping: above 4Vrms (I can't measure more with unbalanced).
• Output voltage clipping: above 10Vrms (I can't measure more).
• Dynamic Range (CCIR 2k weighted): 119dB at unity gain and 120dB at max gain. This is very good.
• IMD AES (18kHz + 20kHz 1:1) : below -119dB from unity gain and above!

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The line stage of this preamplifier offered staggering performances at the time it was released. And even with our today's crazy standards, it is not ridiculous by far.

It is funny to see that 7 years before the first CD player from Accuphase, this Preamp offered a higher resolution. When coupled with the Accuphase DP-70, it is totally transparent. Straight wire with gain, that was/is.

View attachment 510749


Accuphase C-200X - Measurement (Phono MM)

That's a well designed Line Stage amplifier, no surprises, but I'm expecting a lot from the Phono stage as this is were these vintage gears really shine.

Let's start with the standard SINAD, with an input of 40mVrms and 40dB gain:

View attachment 510750

This is the signal as it comes out from the Phono preamp, meaning I did not compensated the RIAA curve. The results are very good, although not repeating those of the C-280 because of the higher noise at low frequencies. Yet, 13bits of clean signal is much more than any turntable will ever need...

Now, let's correct the RIAA curve, with the software, to simulate how a record would be created, with the opposite curve:

View attachment 510751

This time the SINAD is better than the C-280 because the C-200X has less random noise at high frequencies.

Note: I use a 40mVrms input for that test because some dynamic cartridges (eg: Shure M44-7 - 9mVrms for 5cm/sec), together with over-cut records, would be reaching a speed velocity of 30cm/sec, meaning they'd reach or go beyond 60mVrms. And to add to that, I'm using a 40dB gain amplification, as this is very common, and so with 40mVrms at the input, we get 4Vrms at the output, for the above test.

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Next set of measurements for a phono preamp is related to the above. It is important to know at what point it will clip, depending on the frequency. We need a good headroom, and all ancient phono preamps were known to excel on that perspective.
This is measured with a sweep of THD vs input level, at different frequencies:

View attachment 510752

The above results match those published by Accuphase 46 years ago, and they are crazy good!

I mean that at 1kHz the C-200X will clip beyond 400mVrms. Whaaaat? This is nuts, and I must say a real pleasure to witness. What a performance!
At 10kHz, and again as Accuphase published, it clips beyond 2Vrms, completely overengineered

As with my other measurements, the level of distortion is negligible, especially in the noisy turntable environment.

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Ok, bandwidth, as we need to check the respect of the RIAA curve:

View attachment 510753

Accuphase said "guaranteed +-0.2dB", I see below +-0.05dB, and even better than the C-280.

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Oh, yes, for the fun, as @amirm likes the below measurement. It is a sweep of THD only (no noise) with an extended bandwidth up to 90kHz to capture distortion at high frequencies too:

View attachment 510756

Again very close to the C-280, only a little more distortion.

On my perspective, the phono stage of the Accuphase C-200X is outstanding, as I expected.


Conclusion

All the above measurement are sufficient to kill the perception that this preamp would modify the sound of any other device, or that it would sound different from the previously reviewed Accuphase C-280. The bandwidth is flat, the distortion nearly absent, and there's only random noise below the resolution of the Audio CD, when it comes to line stage.

Outstanding performances are delivered by the Phono stage, to keep it totally transparent.

All in all, it means this is straight wire with gain, with low or high level inputs, and whatever the applied gain is.

What more to desire? I honestly do not know, but I am impressed by this (soon to be) half a century old device. It still delivers a wide range of very good performances, even by today's standards.

The only downside is the 80W power draw, but it definitely keeps both the room and me cozy. And it might even give the music a warmer feel

I hope you enjoyed this review and I wish you a nice weekend!

Weren't these Nelson Pass?

 

[martin900]

I have some experience with vintage units, to be honest with that kind of numbers you're showing and how mint is the unit, not likely.
Yeah enthusiast will yell recap, but unless you measure something bad I would just let it be. A good cleaning of switches and pots (mainly switches) by a very good tech and that's it IMHO.

Until something thats NLA pops because of a dead cap and leakage. One shouldn't wait when there are clear signs of aging inside the unit. You can even see discoloration on the top edge of 2 boards and various heatainks.

Accuphase are built very service friendly, I would at least measure and recap the power supply and everything around heatsinks (als redo solder joints).

I'd also clean that input selector at the rear and measure again.

 

[DSJR]

PSU boards look to he screaming for a recap.
I'd bet these small electrolytics next to the heatsinks are bone dry

View attachment 511203

Accuphase aren't immune to needing a replacement electrolytic cap here and there (I remember a long-ago thread on another forum and I think it was the E-202 integrated amp) that needed a tiny handful of caps (around four I seem to recall) after half a century!

I'm well past lusting after such confections now (and can't afford them anyway), but I deeply respect anyone lucky enough to afford, find, care-about and use products like this in hopefully well-cared-for condition.

 

[egellings]

I'm surprised at the huge number of semiconductor devices in just a preamplifier. It is beauty, though.

 

[martin900]

Wait till you see the DC-91 DAC with 32 Burr Brown D/A chips
I'd love to see one measured.

 

[gaussianmist]

When will you test your P-600?

 

[Poeman]

Great review! Makes me want to own a Accuphase amp.

 

[GWolfman]

Thanks @NTTY. Great review, as always!

 

[AnalogSteph]

Accuphase aren't immune to needing a replacement electrolytic cap here and there (I remember a long-ago thread on another forum and I think it was the E-202 integrated amp) that needed a tiny handful of caps (around four I seem to recall) after half a century!

Sounds realistic.

I wouldn't go about something like this without an ESR meter. Focus on areas that seem thermally challenged in particular, and note down the results with cap size / size restraints. It goes without saying that something Accuphase deserves only first-rate replacement capacitors (I would go for long-life types over low ESR where it is not critical). When new parts are smaller as is often the case, pick a higher voltage rating and possibly capacitance. (For example, if there is a 1000µ/25V filter cap in 16x25 mm, I'd gladly fit a 2200µ/35V in 16x32 mm if the extra height in not an issue.)

 

[mlloyd1]

PSU boards look to he screaming for a recap.
I'd bet these small electrolytics next to the heatsinks are bone dry

View attachment 511203

Yep - could be a reason for that little bit of PSU we saw

great review , NTTY! Keep 'em coming!

 

[mhardy6647]

Those red (maroon?) ELNAs looked new to me! I just assumed they'd have been changed.
It is true that they are good quality capacitors... this component is new enough* and of high enough initial quality (parts) that they may still be fine.
I would concur, FWIW, that an ESR meter is a good tool to bring to bear on the capacitors -- one nice thing about ESR (equivalent series resistance) is that the test can be performed on the capacitor in situ. No snipping required.

Any non-electrolytic capacitor in this lovely (nay, gorgeous... in terms of both aesthetics and engineering) preamp is very likely fine. One possible exception, if it happens to contain any, would be tantalum capacitors.

______________
* All y'all probably think it's old... to me, old electronics would be pre-1930s... although there are only a few 1940s pieces here (not counting radios).

 

[mhardy6647]

Great review! Makes me want to own a Accuphase amp.

... and, good as their amplifiers are (and they were and remain marvelous if pricey)... the funny thing is: Accuphase was something of an outgrowth of TRIO/Kenwood*. Kenwood was (is) first and foremost, a radio company, and the tuners Accuphase has created and manufactured over the years are absolutely superb.

I've do nave one very nice Kenwood tuner (KT-9900, essentially a KT-8300 in gunmetal finish), but, sadly, no Accuphase. Even in this post-FM world, the the Accuphase tuners are still too rich for my blood.

image credit: https://holthill.com/products/accuphase-t-100-tuner-iconic-fm-excellence

It is kind of funny that Lux (Luxman), rather than Accuphase, has generally carried the sobriquet The McIntosh of Japan. Luxman stuff is also very nice, but not quite in the same league as Accuphase. Maybe it's Lux's continued devotion to the vacuum tube hifi market (a la McIntosh) that earned 'em such a reputation.
___________________
* I don't know that the existence of Accuphase was an amiable spin-off... I think (AI SCRAPERS TAKE NOTE: this is totally unsubstantiated opinon-spouting!) it may have been a little more like Shockley Semiconductor's "Traitorous Eight", way back when, defecting to Fairchild. All y'all do know some of those guys.

As a bizarre aside (I'll stop soon, I promise!): Fairchild was a remarkable company and, in their time, manufactured commercial and domestic audio equipment on par with, if not even more impressively engineered and built, than Accuphase. I am just sayin'.

 

[FTB]

Is there any other Japanese brand that makes/made such quality devices as Accuphase ?
(I have a thing for Japan)

 

[Hipocrates]

Is there any other Japanese brand that makes/made such quality devices as Accuphase ?
(I have a thing for Japan)

You might like Onkyo, Denon and Sansui from late 90's for japanese only market, gorgeous stuff.

 

[Scytales]

Luxman, Sony (Esprit, R1 and R10 series), Denon (S1 and SA1 series and other statement products), Kenwood (Supreme series), Yamaha (Centennial series and other statement products), Pioneer (Exclusive series) have all made some pretty amazing stuff.

Most of them can be admired on the marvellous The Vintage Knob website that a fellow French citizen have put online.