Review in hifi & records magazine (Germany), issue 03/2007
CD Player Accuphase DP-500
The Incorruptible by Wilfried Kress
The CD player DP-67 from Accuphase has been calling the tune for more than three years and the new DP-500 is certainly going to continue this recipe for success.
If there is currently something like a trend to be noticed in the hi-fi scene, then it's the one back to normality. People are in fact fed up with promises and the battle over formats, surround sound, the whole multi-caboodle and all kinds of suspense.
They want to know again where they are standing and simply want to listen to good music. Upon all the confusion in the past years, reliable authorities are now required,
i.e. manufacturers one can count on and from which one could expect good service even in ten years time. From a situation like this a renowned company like
Accuphase can only take profit, and there is no denying the fact that the Japanese are having the right touch with respect to their model policy. Without question, for
Accuphase things are going very well these days.
Another aspect of the longed-for normality is turning one's mind back to twochannel stereo. Evidently, there is no space available for multi-channel technology in a music lover's living room, just like in the old days when "Quadro" was once an issue. And since CD has obviously escaped as winner from the format race between
SACD and DVD-Audio, you'd just have to add one and one together in order to realise why good two-channel CD players are the talk of the day. No matter what else may be coming across from the industry - one cannot go wrong with a pure-bred,
high-quality CD player. Even more so, as such a player would be a save and practical investment for any music lover who owns a large CD collection, which ought to be preserved nevertheless.
However time is proceeding ever so quickly and eventually does force some changes, which means that the days of pure CD transports are definitely counted.
This market is now dominated by the PC industry which has other standards and criteria to be set. One is wistfully thinking back to the times when laser optics had been mounted onto a stable die-cast platform. Yet all wailing wouldn't help much because those who want to design and build a first-rate CD player cannot afford any negligence. There are in fact two options only, either to get a run-of-the-mill PC drive under control or building a proprietary transport - provided one is capable of doing so.
Accuphase has chosen the second option. This deserves my respect and I'm convinced that money has been well invested; the more since a home-made transport is certainly not heaven-sent. Also, with its own transport Accuphase is becoming more independent in view of the sometimes annoying supply of spare parts.
Just imagine your attempts in getting hold of a spare laser optics for a no-name PC
drive in about ten or fifteen years time &.
With the new DP-500 this should not pose any problem as Accuphase would have to risk its impeccable reputation, in particular with respect to its after-sale service.
More important however are the sonic properties of a CD transport, even though the definite proof of its relevance upon the final sonic results has yet to be established, and some "information scientists" would deny that anyway. As far as I'm concerned, I would, before and now, regard the transport something like the
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