Steven Toy
Accuphase newbie
In 2010 I visited Atelier de l'Audiophile, a hi-fi dealership in Montpellier, France where I heard a system that has basically been my reference ever since. It was a dCS Puccini CD player into valve pre and power amplifiers produced in-house driving a pair of Tannoy Kensington SEs.
http://www.hifi-atelier-audiophile.com/
My views on the large vintage Tannoys had hitherto been mixed. I'd expected great things from them, given the hype but was decidedly underwhelmed. These slender beasts were, however, in a different league and were exactly what I was looking for... They sounded much more tactile and immediate than their bigger brothers and could still pack a punch in the low bass.
The dCS player dug out musical info I'd not heard before in a most enjoyable way and the amplification was on a par with the Tube Distinctions grounded grid pre and Copper power amps that I had at the time and still have to this day. Mine is no 2 of 8 ever built thus far.
https://tubedistinctions.co.uk/project/the-copper-amps/
I couldn't afford Kensingtons so I settled very happily for Turnberry SEs which I kept for more than 10 years until May last year when I received an email from Anthony of Tube Distinctions. He was offering to sell me a pair of Kensington GRs that he'd acquired a year earlier from an elderly gentleman who had passed away. My wife Natasha saw a rather perplexed look on my face as I read the email. She asked me what was wrong.
I hadn't worked for several months due to Covid lockdowns, the resulting lack of business and concluded that now was not the time to be dropping a few grand on a new pair of loudspeakers. My wife had other ideas as she sat at her work desk here at home on her computer with her mouse and fingers clicking merrily and rapidly on her keyboard...
"You have wanted those speakers for years and if you miss this opportunity you'll regret it for a long time. I've just checked our accounts and we can afford it."
Wow! I did want this particular pair because they were built at the Coatbridge factory before it closed and were therefore the real.deal! They should therefore hold their value if I take good care of them, although I'm not planning on parting with them. I've still had to run them in, though, because the old fella hardly used them.
I also bought some new tables to place the equipment on, the P-Revue with the PEEK spacing option from Musicworks. They are both a sonic and visual improvement on the previous ReVo, also from Musicworks. The sonics improve further by placing either discs or sheets of a composite material of acrylic, PEEK and graphite named Acouplex under components.
A year on, it is the 9th year of waiting for the Lakewest MDAC 2 and I'm basically giving up on it ever materialising. Let's say no more about that...
A few years back I had the chance to hear the Accuphase DP410 CD player and I concluded that it was actually a more enjoyable listen than the dCS Puccini I heard back in 2010. It was a hefty over-engineered beast in a lovely Japanese 1970s retro style. Its successor, the DP450 arrived last week after a three-month wait for it to be built hy hand and shipped from Japan.
https://www.techweekmag.com/news/hi-fi/accuphase-dp-45/
Despite the level of engineering and vibration control, the Accuphase player/DAC still benefits from improved isolation so an Acouplex IP1 platform sits between the shelf and its feet.
https://www.musicworks-hifi.com/news/2019/07/acouplex/
I still prefer CD to streaming/HDD storage purely for sound quality reasons but the Accuphase is versatile enough to accommodate any streaming device I may choose to throw at it in the not-too-distant future. For me, streaming serves the sole purpose of allowing me to listen to lots of music before buying on CD anything new or previously unheard that I like.
Apart from the streamer, some more Acouplex, including a dedicated table for the CD player when it becomes available, this system is largely complete. A 12-year mission is accomplished! I don't have enough vinyl to justify a turntable and new vinyl costs the earth. The CD player sounds very 'analogue' anyway.
The power amplifier pictured is brand new. It's no 8! I'm borrowing it while mine goes under the knife (soldering iron). Anthony is bringing it up to the same specification. It is to be a hybrid amp with solid state rectification. This improves the power supply affording better dynamics and quicker transients according to my ears.
There is also a Trilogy 911 headphone amplifier to drive a pair of HifiMan Anandas.
http://www.hifi-atelier-audiophile.com/
My views on the large vintage Tannoys had hitherto been mixed. I'd expected great things from them, given the hype but was decidedly underwhelmed. These slender beasts were, however, in a different league and were exactly what I was looking for... They sounded much more tactile and immediate than their bigger brothers and could still pack a punch in the low bass.
The dCS player dug out musical info I'd not heard before in a most enjoyable way and the amplification was on a par with the Tube Distinctions grounded grid pre and Copper power amps that I had at the time and still have to this day. Mine is no 2 of 8 ever built thus far.
https://tubedistinctions.co.uk/project/the-copper-amps/
I couldn't afford Kensingtons so I settled very happily for Turnberry SEs which I kept for more than 10 years until May last year when I received an email from Anthony of Tube Distinctions. He was offering to sell me a pair of Kensington GRs that he'd acquired a year earlier from an elderly gentleman who had passed away. My wife Natasha saw a rather perplexed look on my face as I read the email. She asked me what was wrong.
I hadn't worked for several months due to Covid lockdowns, the resulting lack of business and concluded that now was not the time to be dropping a few grand on a new pair of loudspeakers. My wife had other ideas as she sat at her work desk here at home on her computer with her mouse and fingers clicking merrily and rapidly on her keyboard...
"You have wanted those speakers for years and if you miss this opportunity you'll regret it for a long time. I've just checked our accounts and we can afford it."
Wow! I did want this particular pair because they were built at the Coatbridge factory before it closed and were therefore the real.deal! They should therefore hold their value if I take good care of them, although I'm not planning on parting with them. I've still had to run them in, though, because the old fella hardly used them.
I also bought some new tables to place the equipment on, the P-Revue with the PEEK spacing option from Musicworks. They are both a sonic and visual improvement on the previous ReVo, also from Musicworks. The sonics improve further by placing either discs or sheets of a composite material of acrylic, PEEK and graphite named Acouplex under components.
A year on, it is the 9th year of waiting for the Lakewest MDAC 2 and I'm basically giving up on it ever materialising. Let's say no more about that...
A few years back I had the chance to hear the Accuphase DP410 CD player and I concluded that it was actually a more enjoyable listen than the dCS Puccini I heard back in 2010. It was a hefty over-engineered beast in a lovely Japanese 1970s retro style. Its successor, the DP450 arrived last week after a three-month wait for it to be built hy hand and shipped from Japan.
https://www.techweekmag.com/news/hi-fi/accuphase-dp-45/
Despite the level of engineering and vibration control, the Accuphase player/DAC still benefits from improved isolation so an Acouplex IP1 platform sits between the shelf and its feet.
https://www.musicworks-hifi.com/news/2019/07/acouplex/
I still prefer CD to streaming/HDD storage purely for sound quality reasons but the Accuphase is versatile enough to accommodate any streaming device I may choose to throw at it in the not-too-distant future. For me, streaming serves the sole purpose of allowing me to listen to lots of music before buying on CD anything new or previously unheard that I like.
Apart from the streamer, some more Acouplex, including a dedicated table for the CD player when it becomes available, this system is largely complete. A 12-year mission is accomplished! I don't have enough vinyl to justify a turntable and new vinyl costs the earth. The CD player sounds very 'analogue' anyway.
The power amplifier pictured is brand new. It's no 8! I'm borrowing it while mine goes under the knife (soldering iron). Anthony is bringing it up to the same specification. It is to be a hybrid amp with solid state rectification. This improves the power supply affording better dynamics and quicker transients according to my ears.
There is also a Trilogy 911 headphone amplifier to drive a pair of HifiMan Anandas.
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