ACCUPHASE DP-800, DC-801, C-2410 AND M-6000
AS IT SHOULD BE &.
It has cost me some trouble and effort, but with a lot of pride I want to inform you that for the first in a long time Music Emotion has been given the opportunity to discuss a number of products of the legendary make Accuphase in this one and only Dutch technical magazine. They all are,
apart from the amplifier, only top models of which the M-6000 monoblocs are truly a first'. Over the years I have become accustomed to a lot of things, but the efforts which this Japanese manufacturer has made to put such a range of top products on the market is really magnificent
and asks for much respect. For the first time in my career I had in front of me a set which could not be criticized, constructively, mechanically or electronically. Perfection really exists!
After this extremely positive introduction one would expect to read an article full of superlatives in which everything will be praised sky-high, and where I as reviewer at the end of the testing period am hardly able to stop drooling over this equipment To be fair, as a professional critic, one needs to stand firm in one's shoes and be sober when viewing so much perfection, which enormously increases the acoustic expectation. I am under great pressure, for Accuphase is a legendary brand, and sells very well in high-class circles in spite of the recession. It has a solid worldwide reputation. Hence completely faultless or not???
The starting point
Before I started this review I thought very deeply about how to handle these products and the answer is in fact very simple, i.e. just the same as I treat any other product. I only realized what it was that I had taken on when the importer, music lover and musician to the core, Paul Hattink,
dropped off the products to be tested at my home on a beautiful summer's day!
Paul uses a heavy-duty stationwagon of a well-known French make and that car was full of boxes which contained only one stereo/audio set! When offloading we made use of a heavy-duty trolley, and the large cartons were transported one by one to the back of my house. By the way,
the four internal, detachable and reusable man-made fibre handles on each box of the M-6000
mono end amplifiers are truly ingenious. It is impossible to lose the top of the box when tilting it,
which makes carrying it a lot safer and more pleasant. It would have been good if more manufacturers had come up with this idea! It was literally a feast to unpack the product i.e. the beautifully polished, glossy solid wood upper panels of the DP-800 transport and DC-801
converter, the clear lay-out and excellent quality of the connectors of the C-2410 front amplifier and the almost intimidating perfection, solidity and mass of the M-6000 mono power amplifiers.
The total set, which weighed nearly 200 kgs, then needed to be moved to my subterranean audio studio, which became, due to the high temperature outside, quite a sweaty operation, and both of us were soon completely soaked!
Well, one needs to make sacrifices in order to be allowed to work with weighty high-end products!
My very reliable Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference HD-12 had to be completely removed and of the six platforms only one remained free. Just enough space to place the matching
Accuphase tuner? After all the heavy labour the less stressful part could begin, namely the joining of the connections. The manmade fibre protectors (which keep the connectors dustfree when not in use) were removed and what appeared was of very sound quality. Heavy duty parts,
spaciously arranged, network plugs never crossing with signal cables, all of it grouped neatly and orderly. The imposing loudspeaker connections of the M-6000 monoblocs especially deserve to be mentioned. These are without exaggerating of such dimensions that even a thick tube of the central heating could go in easily! The spades of my Nirvana SX loudspeaker cables seemed all of a sudden miniature parts from Madurodam. The enormous grip of these large buttons was truly fantastic, cannot get loose and are a pleasure to use.
