Review in STEREOPLAY magazine (Germany), July 2005
Accuphase Integrated Amplifier E-213
Silent Running by Dalibor Beric
An Accuphase amplifier of the E-200 series has ever since been the "dream machine" of many audiophile music lovers. The new E-213 is now the culmination of the virtues this series of integrated amplifiers had to offer.
Silence can be very impressive. It will move you when you are to realise how little one can hear during a calm night in the desert. And it is nevertheless remarkable as to how ones ears are becoming more and more sensitive. In such a silence the ear will switch to a very fine perception: you are inclined to hear single grains of sand rubbing against each other.
Something very similar can be experienced after having switched on the
Accuphase E-213 because this amplifier is to convey nothing but silence. No mechanical transformer hum, no noise but simply silence. Initially one tends to believe that is not at all switched on. Well, any owner of an Accuphase will smile here because he's surely familiar with this fascinating fact. And we from Stereoplay did savour this silence the last time when we tested the E-308 in November 2004.
Certainly, achieving this stunning silence requires more than a carefully designed circuitry. Although the E-213 is - in the tradition of Accuphase outstandingly equipped with respect to parts and components on the boards, the new circuit topology dubbed MCS plays a most important role here. The amplifier stages are in fact doubled and power transistors in parallel configuration are taking care of the music signal whilst decreasing noise and augmenting linearity. Like in the big brother E-308 this proprietary circuitry principle has been employed in the preamplifier section as well as in the input stage of the power amplifier. In the pre-amp of the E-213 however Accuphase have employed highest-quality op-amps whereby in the E-308 this part of the circuitry has been elaborately composed of single transistors. No small wonder though if one considers the difference in retail prices.
On the other side you'll appreciate the pleasing "tactile feel" the E-213 is able to convey, because, after all, this amp is nevertheless meant to be the entry level to the wonderful world of Accuphase: just experience yourself how smoothly the potentiometer can be turned and you may then joyfully listen to the full "click" of the input selector when switching to another source! It goes without saying that both can be comfortably operated also via the supplied remote control right from the cosy armchair in your listening room.
There is something new in the E-213 namely that it features an input for an external pre-amplifier. Accordingly labelled "EXT-PRE" a handy rotary switch at the front panel allows you to use the E-213 as a pure power amplifier only. In a surround system, for example, where the E-213 would be connected to the outputs of a multichannel preamplifier. All this without the risk of degrading the overall sonic qualities of the existing stereo system.
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As everybody knows, the more recent (integrated) amps from Accuphase come with a modular-built input section, i.e. there are various so-called option boards available to meet the individual needs of music lovers. This applies to the E-213 also.
You can make your choice among the high-level input boards Line-9 or Line-10, the phono-modules AD-9 or AD-19 or the digital converter board DAC-10.
The latter may not only be useful for DVB-tuners with digital outputs but also for the
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