Accuphase DG-68

[watchnerd]

it sits on rubber feet that are attached to the stand which has some kind of double isolated top as well as pin feet... no hard connection, but I am thinking I should use some of that gooie stuff and maybe stick it down and see if makes a big difference?

Ah.

Mine are bolted-on, which they really need to be because they're so top heavy. Also on Gaia feet.

 

[watchnerd]

Yes. That's Accuphase and Mcintosh. It's usually well built. It usually performs nicely, but it's overpriced jewelry. They are luxury prestige brands. The same results can be had for alot less coin.

Luxury brands are fun, though.

 

[MDAguy]

Luxury brands are fun, though.

you have a beyond cool setup! Had I not been an idiot and sold all my albums (and I had some great ones on original vinyl) back in the mid 80's... I'd have focused on a turn table setup myself... But to build that collection now would cost as much as my system or more..

In due course, I plan to get a mid-fi turntable ... but first I have to move out of the divorce condo as I like to call it... again, in due course.

 

[watchnerd]

you have a beyond cool setup! Had I not been an idiot and sold all my albums (and I had some great ones on original vinyl) back in the mid 80's... I'd have focused on a turn table setup myself... But to build that collection now would cost as much as my system or more..

In due course, I plan to get a mid-fi turntable ... but first I have to move out of the divorce condo as I like to call it... again, in due course.

Thanks!

I never had a record collection when I was young. I've acquired my collection since 2010 or so.

Reel to reel tapes were all acquired in the last 2 years.

 

[direstraitsfan98]

My DAC (with up sampling and streamer) is a very solid one from dCS, so I’m good with that but if my budget we’re to triple for the amp (not gonna happen anytime soon) ... I’d go with their C3900 preamp and one of their 100w hybrid class A and AB Amps for sure. Meantime the McIntosh stuff is working great for me.View attachment 100074

Beautiful equipment I’m so jealous... how do you feel the mcintosh holds up to the accuphase? In terms of build quality I felt the mcintosh is a little under cooked when stacked up against Accuphase. The knobs feel lower quality and less fluid in movement and I don’t care for the use of felt padding between the knob and the glass face plate, dust gets sucked into it for me. I think the accuphase clearly sits at a higher level in terms of build quality. Also, how do you feel about the astronomically high cost of the accuphase brand in North America compared to its price in Japan and south east Asia? There is a huge amount of greed from the NA distributor as well, if you look at the price of the accuphase units in North America to the price of them in their home market of Japan, there is an artificially cultivated lustre and prestige to the brand that simply isn’t there in Japan. I see right through the distributors bullshit.


Sorry for the rant I just find it annoying and also doubly annoying how snobby some of the local dealers for accuphase can be. If you don’t fit the intended clientele they expect (old white guy) they don’t take you seriously...

All this being said I am in love with the accuphase brand. I actually hopes one day to go entirely the route you did, with an all Accuphase digital front end, DAC, CD transport, and the EQ unit. Instead of the passive speaker and mcintosh amp setup I would be going with ATC actives. Much simpler.

 

[Wes]

It's good that you are able to put up with McIntosh as a budget solution

 

[MDAguy]

Beautiful equipment I’m so jealous... how do you feel the mcintosh holds up to the accuphase? In terms of build quality I felt the mcintosh is a little under cooked when stacked up against Accuphase. The knobs feel lower quality and less fluid in movement and I don’t care for the use of felt padding between the knob and the glass face plate, dust gets sucked into it for me. I think the accuphase clearly sits at a higher level in terms of build quality. Also, how do you feel about the astronomically high cost of the accuphase brand in North America compared to its price in Japan and south east Asia? There is a huge amount of greed from the NA distributor as well, if you look at the price of the accuphase units in North America to the price of them in their home market of Japan, there is an artificially cultivated lustre and prestige to the brand that simply isn’t there in Japan. I see right through the distributors bullshit.

100% agree... frustrating the price increase we in the US pay.. even the EU guys don't pay as much, and across the border in Canada it's about 25% less... From what I am told, the hurdles to import, such as tariffs, and logistics are costly and he "has to" mark it up this much to justify the business but that C3900 preamp is $35000 in the EU, and close to $50K here... that's not even close!

As for build quality, as much as I want my American made stuff to be the best, it's not in the same league .. Where as the McIntosh feels like a Mercedes Benz, the Accuphase feels like a Rolls Royce , even down to the amazing rich wood panels on the sides of the unit ... mind you, my dCS stuff is equally well made, and under the hood the dCS is on par with the Accuphase in terms of layout and isolation, build quality, power supply isolation, etc..

My C1100 Pre-amp is McIntoish's flagship pre-amp, with a two box chassis (power supply and electronics in one box, and input and output analogue, as well as the amplifier section in another box), is pretty darn nice though and I don't want to take away from it, especially as "cheap" as it is relative to the Accuphase (retail is about $14K)..

In a perfect world I'd have all Accuphase, with my Rossini for DAC.. mind you, for SACD I am using the DAC built into the DP-560 (and can use the one in the DG-68 with some minor re-wiring)..

Sorry for the rant I just find it annoying and also doubly annoying how snobby some of the local dealers for accuphase can be. If you don’t fit the intended clientele they expect (old white guy) they don’t take you seriously...

All this being said I am in love with the accuphase brand. I actually hopes one day to go entirely the route you did, with an all Accuphase digital front end, DAC, CD transport, and the EQ unit. Instead of the passive speaker and mcintosh amp setup I would be going with ATC actives. Much simpler.

trust me, after first seeing an piece of Accuphase at my local dealer (it was a used DP 470 CD player) .. I decided I had to have one, but after comparing prices on ebay (Japan direct) and USA, dealer with warranty prices I was frustrated beyond words... I mean it's not like the stuff is cheap in Japan! The worse part is if you do buy a gray market one off ebay, you WILL NOT get any support of any kind, not even repairs from the network in the US... you essentially have to find someone willing to repair it at great expense.

 

[MDAguy]

For anyone interested in a quickly thrown together review... just put this up on YouTube.

 

[dualazmak]

For anyone interested in a quickly thrown together review... just put this up on YouTube.

Looks very nice!

BTW, as I wrote here today,,,

In October-December last year, I have seriously considered to purchase Accuphase DG-68 and/or DF-65. I abandoned that plan, however, when I "discovered" OKTO DAC8PRO and software crossover EKIO in February this year.

Now I could establish all digital 192 kHz 24 bit DSP processing within Windows 10 PC running JRiver (or Roon) very much cost-effectively with EKIO and DAC8PRO without unnecessary AD - DA steps. What I have achieved with EKIO and DAC8PRO (and amps incuding Accuphase E-460) is just same as the extraordinary expensive TRIONNV ALTITUDE32 is doing in 192 kHz 24 bit on its built-in Linux and software/firmware.

 

[GDK]

For anyone interested in a quickly thrown together review... just put this up on YouTube.

Thanks for posting that. Now, I know I don’t exactly NEED something like that, but...

 

[MDAguy]

Looks very nice!

BTW, as I wrote here today,,,

In October-December last year, I have seriously considered to purchase Accuphase DG-68 and/or DF-65. I abandoned that plan, however, when I "discovered" OKTO DAC8PRO and software crossover EKIO in February this year.

Now I could establish all digital 192 kHz 24 bit DSP processing within Windows 10 PC running JRiver (or Roon) very much cost-effectively with EKIO and DAC8PRO without unnecessary AD - DA steps. What I have achieved with EKIO and DAC8PRO (and amps incuding Accuphase E-460) is just same as the extraordinary expensive TRIONNV ALTITUDE32 is doing in 192 kHz 24 bit on its built-in Linux and software/firmware.

oh but you live in Japan, so you get a "discount" on Accuphase.. you essentially pay what the rest of the planet calls "Wholesale"

 

[MDAguy]

Thanks for posting that. Now, I know I don’t exactly NEED something like that, but...

ah, the word "need" when applied in our hobby just makes me cringe ... but I'm guilty as charged on it's use on many accounts!

side note, since doing the video I've played with the EQ separately from the VC (voicing) and it's amazingly powerful... I've now saved several modes that will be used depending on whether I listen to rock, jazz, classical, etc... I know in audiophile land EQ's are anathema, but I like it.

 

[dualazmak]

oh but you live in Japan, so you get a "discount" on Accuphase.. you essentially pay what the rest of the planet calls "Wholesale"

As you may know well, Accuphase is intentionally restricting their export sales less than 30 % of their total business revenue in order to keep existing as an pure Japanese independent sustainable company;
http://www.accuphase.com/company_profile/a2_management_policies_2.pdf

 

[dualazmak]

....
I've now saved several modes that will be used depending on whether I listen to rock, jazz, classical, etc... I know in audiophile land EQ's are anathema, but I like it.

I agree with you,,,, I also can and I am doing the same by easily saving many configurarions of the software crossover EKIO. Now Let's enjoy music!

 

[MDAguy]

As you may know well, Accuphase is intentinally restricting their export sales less than 30 % of their total business revenue in order to be existing as an pure Japanese independent sustainable company;
http://www.accuphase.com/company_profile/a2_management_policies_2.pdf

I absolutely love the Japanese sense of pride ... I fly for an airline, and by far my favorite lay overs are in Japan because as I tell my friends "they just do everything right, no cutting corners, never half asssed"

Yes, back to enjoying my George Benson!

 

[direstraitsfan98]

As you may know well, Accuphase is intentinally restricting their export sales less than 30 % of their total business revenue in order to keep existing as an pure Japanese independent sustainable company;
http://www.accuphase.com/company_profile/a2_management_policies_2.pdf

Would the company not be sustainable if they lowered prices and sold more units?

 

[MDAguy]

Would the company not be sustainable if they lowered prices and sold more units?

Yeah, as a member above noted, Accuphase is dead set on being a low production company and have self limited their outside Japan sales to only 30% of their production, and from what I understand many of their pieces are made in numbers as low as 500 units..

So we find ourselves in a simple situation of "supply = demand" and what the market will bear.

 

[restorer-john]

Accuphase is also extremely financially well off. They have no debt and no shareholders to answer to.

They have no desire to expand.

 

[restorer-john]

Guess which speakers Accuphase uses to assess the sound?

Yamaha NS-1000Ms...

 

[dualazmak]

And we should not forget about their amazing maintenance-repairment policy and operation.

They actually accept maintenance and repair of "any of their products after company's innauguration". They have firm policy on maintenance and repair for any of their products have been marketed through the official route after the inauguration of the company in 1972; actually they accept maintenance and/or repair request of any of their products.
http://www.accuphase.com/

I have Accuphase E-460 integrated amp, and in 2014 they once announced E-460 product recall even for a very very small possibility of one capacitor failure, and they changed the capacitor, of course free of charge, including the transportation.
http://www.accuphase.co.jp/inform.html

I also have two repair and overhaul experiences of that E-460 with reasonable service charge and very nice transportation/packaging system.