Accuphase A50V v.s. Lamm M1.1

I have owned the M1.1's and now own the A-50V. The Lamms are wonderful amps, very musical and produce bass with authority. They do run rather warm and in my opinion were not the quietest amps when operating. Conversely the A50V is very musical as well, has a depth and sense of space that compares well with the Lamms. I believe the A50V to be a very involving amp, that probably touches the heart more than the head. Most important to me is it is dead quiet, and doesn't run nearly as hot as the Lamm's. Either way you have a great set-up, it really boils down to your listening preference and what fits your listening environment best.

Slagletj thanks for the reply. Have you ever owned any "lower end" Accuphase amplifiers (from the "P" series)? How do they compare to the A50V? Similar character? Or is it not even close? In your opinion, are the Accuphase amplifiers better than the Lamm's?

Also - can you elaborate on what you said about the Lamm's not being the quietest amps?

While I have not listened to the Lamm I do own an A-50V. The amp is rated at 50W into 8 ohms but will double-down to 400W into one ohm and in bridged mode 800W into two ohms. That’s a lot of headroom. I have not heard this amp in bridged mode, but many say that it's very hard to beat two A-50V's bridged. I have my A-50V driving my Nautilus 802 and routinely get the power meters over 100 with no problem whatsoever. The 802 demands current and has an impedance curve that dips below three ohms in one place (the speaker should have been rate 4 ohm IMO) - the amp hasn't even blinked. What I like.... detail, air, bass, and midrange purity to die for. This amp definably goes for the heart. It is very musical, but in all the right ways - it's not warm or romantic at all - just perfect. I narrowed my amp choice down to the JRDG 8TiHC, Boulder 1060 or the A-50V. I believe I made the right choice.

Cheers,
Dan

bwhite: at the risk of repetition repetition: the accuphase a-50v, even at its rated output of 50w/ channel into 8 ohms, will outperform amps at 4-5 times its rated output (per ftc rule), including , IMO, the whole of the accuphase p series. slagleti is right on the mark in noting the tube-like musicality of the a-50v, without noise, high heat or retubing. in my experience, the only other amps that come close to, or match, such performance are the jrdg 8ti and the boulder 2060. -cfb

Had a pair of A-50v's bridged and driving Eidolons and felt it was a beautiful synergy. The Eidolons like power, and the 50's never even blinked, even at high spls'. Auditioned the Lamms driving a pair of Kharma Exquisites 1-b's, and that too was wonderful. Thought the nod went to the 50's as far as bass and dynamics and overall musical involvement, but this must tempered with the fact that the speakers were different.

I have never owned the "p" series of Accuphase, I have always been a sucker for pure class "a" from a sound reproduction standpoint. The noise I referred to from the Lamms was not one reproduced through the speaker, but simply the "noise" of the amp itself as it ran (hum). For "most" it probably isn't an issue, but I like dead quiet which the Accuphase A-50V has. In my opinion a single A50V vs the Lamms in Mono setup, I give it a very even score sound quality wise, but again give the accuphase the edge on quietness, and heat production. I have not heard the A50V in bridged mode, but if it improves at all what it does as a single unit, I would then most definitely give the edge to Accuphase. On another note the build quality , asthetics, and user touches (binding posts) are clearly in the Accuphase camp. Lamm simply doesn't compare in this respect. I run the A50V w/ the C-290V pre and DP75V with Kharma CE 1.0's and have never been happier with a system.

Hey everyone, thank you so much for the comments! I am quite impressed to learn how the Accuphase held up against the Lamm's in your comparisons. I've never read anything negative about the Lamm's and it seems that with the Accuphase A50V, they have met their match! That's fantastic, but now I have to save up some (more) dough!