Yeah…except their stuff does not measure well indeed…bells and whistles, not much substance. ASR is a voluntary forum, no one asks you to read it. Amir’s measurements are objective and precise, and separate the wheat from the marketing chaff. It is an indispensable tool to guide those like me, who have some money to spend but do not like to be duped by champagne dials and slick marketing
You have only looked at the E-270. The current generation products are a step up in measured performance. The E-270 is actually one of the top Class AB integrated amps measured here.
Yes, no one should decide, except you, how you spend your money. Yes, pleasing to the eye has a price. A Giacometti statue sells for over $ 100 mil indeed. However, criticism to the approach and info offered by ASR is not warranted. A pic is always offered, for those willing to spend more for looks, and precise measurements allow music listener like me to sort out what to buy to improve my listening experience. One should also always wonder why Accuphase could not design and implement amplifiers and preamps (for $ 5,000) comparable or superior in performance to those offered at 1/10th to 1/5th of the Accuphase price by Hypex, Topping, Gustard, Purifi.You have only looked at the E-270. The current generation products are a step up in measured performance. The E-270 is actually one of the top Class AB integrated amps measured here.
What you pay for Accuphase is infinite repairability/reliability and made in Japan. You have to pay more to manufacture in countries where there is a higher level of costs of living. For many, it is foolish to spend money this way. For others it is voting with your wallet. Accuphase stocks unobtanium components so they can repair gear that has components that have long gone out of production. They do restrict this to properly imported products to support their distributors.
If you want disposable, better measuring gear, you can save money. Nothing wrong with taking that approach.
Accuphase actually has very little marketing…
E-270 measurements
Stereo: Produkt
www.stereo.de
E-280 measurements
Stereo: Produkt
www.stereo.de
www.audiosciencereview.com
Good point. Measurements are indeed not everything; the stuff has to actually work when you want it to.
Accuphase, like any other company and human endeavor, could disappear from the market, or change philosophy about “infinite” support for the owners and “repairability”. In my value scale it is rather more important to achieve a flawless integration between component parts and excellent measurements. The reliability is a difficult to measure quantity except for spectacular failures of a product. There are too many different users and habits to compare. I do not choose Toyotas because Consumers Report calls them the most reliable automobiles.I assume that bolded statement is not directed to me.
1) "ASR" is not synonymous with Amir Majidimehr. There definitely are ASR members that I choose to ignore.
2) I have sent to Amir 8 items to review to date, and I have posted measurements for 6 different electronic products too fragile to ship. I really value the approach to ASR yet I will also provide criticism/feedback/opinions as appropriate.
The most important tool for improving your listening experience is taking your own measurements. It is pretty clear that end-users have seen the value of measuring speakers in their own homes and doing their own room correction. The speaker tests here are a nice way to thin out the chaff from wheat, of course. I would say the same thing is true for electronics.
Accuphase has a very distinct vision which resonates or doesn't with potential customers. Customer service, reliability, repairability, longevity, safety, and country of manufacture are selling points for Accuphase. They are not selling points for everyone. Warehousing spare transistors, capacitors, knobs, doesn't really change costs whether you're dealing with a budget or flagship product -- and your warehouse has to be in a high cost of living environment.
It's probably appropriate to point out my review here:
Where two "blue class" amps that probably would be indistinguishable on the standard test suite do not actually measure identically with music.Measuring the "sound signature" of two different integrated amplifiers.
@KSTR figured out that the left and right channels were swapped during recording! Presumably this must have been the case when listening too! The calculations had been done in stereo. This changes the numbers and shows smaller changes between amps when fed directly but still has a change...
With real music, repeat testing any given amp from day to day shows that the PK Metric is -120 dB -- so I'm not comparing two bad amps. A bad amp could have a lot of variability from one day to the next.
But I can hear differences and I can objectively document that the differences I can measure meet the threshold of audibility.
The only time I had problems with reliability of music equipment it was when I was buying from an audio store that was selling “B-stock” equipment: I had failures in a new Cambridge Audio CD players ( it would not turn on when pressing the power button) , in an Esoteric CD player (it failed after two weeks of use: the output line dropped -40 dB both in RCA and AES/EBU), and in the new Paradigm speakers (the holes for the grilles are offset so they (still) do not mount flush with the speaker edges). The CD players were returned for new units (they both still work flawlessly after 10+ years of use), the Paradigm were too heavy to transport back. It dawned on me they were purposefully collecting new B stock to sell with a 10-15% discount to make the customer feel good. Dishonesty as a business model.
Agree on poor design of the Accuphase, as extensively documented by Amir, and in spite of attempts to quote Philosophy by some other members.
Really, gear should last a long time. I've found it's hit and miss. Everyone has a story, I guess. For longevity sake, it's best not to go proprietary, if possible.
