Complete review in AUDIO magazine (Germany), Issue 04/2010
Accuphase Integrated Amplifier E-560
Noblesse Oblige by Lothar Brandt
The biggest and most noble integrated amplifier from the House of Accuphase is cultivating a rather conservative attitude. Because its rated output power is strictly limited by Class-A. A like Accurate or Awesome .
The Duden Dictionary of Foreign Words defines the word accurate as meticulous ,
precise or orderly . When in 1972 the brothers Jiro and Nakaichi Kasuga were searching for an appropriate name that might be internationally approved with respect to their newly established noble company, they came to the term accurate phase , or simply
Accuphase . Now, it goes without saying that correct phasing is a worthwhile goal to strive for in any amplifying circuitry because a focused spatial rendition of instruments and voices as well as precise pulses are without any doubt some audiophile virtues. But the name
Accuphase has ever since been standing for much more, namely for exquisite sound quality in a top price range Accuphase can never be cheap!
And then there is that excellent workmanship by means of the most noble materials with timeless champagne-coloured visual appearance as well as stable value and reliability. Last but not least, there is a standard in service which has already set a benchmark in this country, owing to a distribution policy miles away from the ordinary.
Certainly, this all does cost some money yet is invaluable in the long run.
Accurate in Phase
In this context, the German distributor P.I.A. did not merely hand over the new integrated
E-560. No, P.I.A.'s sales manager Winfried Andres arrived here in our listening room with some measuring equipment in his luggage. Whereupon he was taking care that each component in the chain was in accurate phase, in particular those which need to be connected to the mains with correct polarity of the power cord.
The background: the lower the electrical potential between the component's casing and the protective earth conductor the lower the equalising currents among the components via the employed interconnecting leads. For the phasing procedure the man from P.I.A. is using a power cord with masked earth conductors (never try this yourself, please!) and measures the voltage between the outer edge of an RCA jack and the earth contact of the wall socket. He would then turn the power cord plug by 180° and measure again. The position that yields the lower voltage value is the correct one. For this phasing procedure it is mandatory to have the component to be measured switched on and any interconnect leads detached.
By the way, for a correct communication with other components each input as well as the output signal of the E-560 can be switched to match the absolute phase a consequence à la Accuphase. Befitting the rank of this integrated, we had no other choice
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than to have our reference components Accuphase DP-800/DC-801 cooperating as source. This brilliant digital combination was allowed to feed on some perfect 230 V
provided by the power conditioner PS-1210 from the same maker. Yet there were still more things to do: Mr Andres spared no efforts to position our monitor speakers KEF Reference
207/2 exact to the centimetre in order to have the acoustical phase of the sound from the left and right speakers being accurately equal at the listening position. We opted for the
