Accuphase or Leben for heavy metal

Accuphase E600

Extremely underpowered amps. Metal has a lot of energy so the average power consumption requirement is rather high. Add in transient peaks and you can see the problem. Metalheads don't listen at 90dbA very often (or 100dbA for that matter) so having extra in the tank of the amp will help. The metal genre is actually very demanding on a system. Some call speed of their speakers the ability to reproduce the subtleness of some recordings, I challenge them to try to reproduce some metal songs and keep it's clarity throughout. 

I would consider class A/B to get the power output up to near the 250W/ch 8Ohm range but with a ton of stiffening capacitance and large toroidal transformer. Metal sure can sound compressed as the volume rises and with an amp with a ton of power in reserve will elevate that. 

I agree with @piebaldpython  that you should go A/B and higher wattage. Look for an amp that specifies a certain amount of Class A watts, this will give you good sound for lower volume listening. 

I agree with those above.

The Leben sounds like a simply elegant amp I would love to own and play string quartets and traditional jazz.

Neither, Accuphase or Leben for heavy metal. I suggest SPL from Germany. Their demo at AXPONA was impressive on all genre of music. 
 

@apanhc Just so you know, there's no way to design an amplifier (or loudspeaker) for a certain genre of music. As long as you have the bandwidth and power to reproduce the signal at a lifelike level you're golden, as long as the electronics and speakers actually sound like music (rather than electronics) while doing their job.

If you like to play loud, you might consider more efficient speakers. For example if your speakers were 96dB instead, you'd only need 1/4th the amplifier power to make the same sound pressure and quite often you get greater dynamic contrast and greater detail at the same time.

The greater dynamic contrast has to do with less thermal compression in the voice coils that you get with higher efficiency drivers. The greater detail often has to do with the efficiency as well, since the drivers are often faster.

I like the Accuphase. 
Great detail for some Heavy metal guitar licks. 

@atmasphere Wrote:

@apanhc Just so you know, there's no way to design an amplifier (or loudspeaker) for a certain genre of music. As long as you have the bandwidth and power to reproduce the signal at a lifelike level you're golden, as long as the electronics and speakers actually sound like music (rather than electronics) while doing their job.

If you like to play loud, you might consider more efficient speakers. For example if your speakers were 96dB instead, you'd only need 1/4th the amplifier power to make the same sound pressure and quite often you get greater dynamic contrast and greater detail at the same time.

The greater dynamic contrast has to do with less thermal compression in the voice coils that you get with higher efficiency drivers. The greater detail often has to do with the efficiency as well, since the drivers are often faster.

I agree! 😎

Mike

What speakers do you intend to drive?

Neither ,the AAvic i280 is better then them both .

a cass A technologies and Tesla coil noise cancelling technologies.

the one powerful integrated that does everything well. I heard this against the Accuphase 3000 pass labs, Boulder , and several others a bust hear and around $10 k a Best Buy.

Metalhead here about 50% of the time. The other half jazz, fusion jazz, classic rock, grunge, early American/ bluegrass. For me the right combination is a Cary SLI80HS (80 wpc) and a pair of Volti Razz (96db efficiency or there about). For me a system that does everything really well is important. My room is not that big. I definitely get the energy and dynamics I crave. IMO the key was changing to a horn loaded mid that was non fatiguing and listenable for long periods. The Volti fit that bill in spades. 

The Boulder 866 is exceptional. Power doubles from 8 to 4 ohms. It has complete control over my 4 ohm speakers. Good luck ! 

Thank you all and every one for your comments and inputs. Picture is more clear to me now, so will adjust my plans accordingly.

To the people claiming you want a certain class of amp to play "demanding" metal is wrong. I run @atmasphere class D and a tube phono and pre and am completely satisfied with speed and detail. All amps will work, test a few if you can. Oh and I play death metal to grind to hardcore to classic rock and acoustic. All sound fantastic and I listen at around 76db. Avoid advice from those with sweeping generalizations. 

Neither.

Parasound Halo A21+

300 W x 2 @ 8 ohms

500 W x 2 @ 4 ohms

I also listen to heavy metal and what I found that sounds good is AB 250W amp that is capable of pushing about 40W class A and speakers that are no les than 94db, also big deal is a preamp, less complicated is better. My first system that was producing really great HM was Threshold S550e paired with Threshold FAT10 or Threshold T2 pre and JBL 4367, they  do great job with neutral sound and very dynamic sound, I upgraded from that system  to Pass Labs X250.8 and Pass Labs XP12 pre..... now that's impressive sound !

+1 @lalitk on SPL

Their stuff is powerful, dynamic, clean, holographic while balanced, yet still super nuanced. I’ve got the Elector pre and have to say that I’m enjoying everything from chamber jazz to AC/DC with two different amps used so far. Something about that high voltage rail tech they’ve designed.

Elector pre + Performer s1200 or Elector + s800 (budget option). They also have incredible mono amps. But looks like you want to stay with an integrated and hope I’m not colluding the discussion!

I do need to add, however, that those Piegas are sensitive enough to not need too heavy a wattage amp. You may not need so much wattage to drive them to concert levels, and that current via power supply and capacitance delivery (both in speed and sustained demands) by design is way more important than overall wattage. But wattage does help. My uneducated guess, at least 120 watts per channel would be fine if the amp is down to 2 ohm stable.

Also, are the Piegas floor-standers? And what’s your room size?

@OP  Passlabs X250.8 with an appropriate pre-will work very well on metal. As reflected in many of the comments, you need the ability to play loud with lots of control.

A pair of Parasound JC1s would also be ideal - preferably pre owned. Since they moved to the JC1+ they have gotten very expensive.

Both the Pass and Parasound are biased in to Class A for the first 25 watts so they are pretty refined on acoustic music too.

Metal music is actually one of the least demanding musical genres for amps and speakers. It is heavily compressed during recording and mixing and then heavily limited during mastering. Most metal has very little dynamic range which makes it easier to reproduce than jazz or classical.

Assuming that your speakers have a reasonably benign impedance curve you can get away with fewer watts for metal than you would need for other musical styles. However, I think that with 90 dB speakers both of the amps you mentioned are under powered. I would consider something closer to 100 watts so that the amp will be running in its sweet spot when you listen loud.

You really can't make broad generalizations about Metal, there are so many different subgenres! Even these below get broken down even further. Some types have excellent production while others are compressed and poorly recorded on purpose :)

Though I rarely listen really loud (I use a 45 watt tube amp with efficient speakers with excellent results)

I agree with this ....

@atmasphere Wrote:

@apanhc Just so you know, there's no way to design an amplifier (or loudspeaker) for a certain genre of music. As long as you have the bandwidth and power to reproduce the signal at a lifelike level you're golden, as long as the electronics and speakers actually sound like music (rather than electronics) while doing their job.

If you like to play loud, you might consider more efficient speakers. For example if your speakers were 96dB instead, you'd only need 1/4th the amplifier power to make the same sound pressure and quite often you get greater dynamic contrast and greater detail at the same time.

The greater dynamic contrast has to do with less thermal compression in the voice coils that you get with higher efficiency drivers. The greater detail often has to do with the efficiency as well, since the drivers are often faster.

OP has speakers already. They are 90db 1W/1m in his original post manufacturer is Piega. Might be the Coax line. If so nice speakers. Worth driving well.

I would be searching something near the 250W/ch @ 8ohm or more, 0.1 Farad of capacitance min and 1KVA torridal transformer min. Not saying a nice Luxman won’t fit the bill however moving up the power scale will help tremendously.

My decision (I’m a metalhead too) was to purchase something that can do almost anything very well and leave that component alone for a very, very long time. For me I purchased a Pass Labs X350.5 as a power amp moving away from the Luxman M02’s I purchased in 1987. Once the power is done for me I can focus on preamplification and sources. I have a good smattering of speakers so I am good there for a while too. Used the same process of getting what I need for what I listen to......

Cerwin Vega AT15’s for some dancing fun when company comes over or if I just want to wail on it with say.... METAL!! Stratovarius Visions of Europe. Excellent power metal.

Monitor Bronze used for connecting anything new to the system just to ensure that if something goes wrong (short in a cable) then good chance this will be the failing component, at a low cost.

PSB Stratus Gold I’s because they were a great deal for a rather quality speaker that can lend itself to projects like fully active.

Day to day

For the delicate stuff Maggie 1.7’s with active crossover and subs.

For the main’s Krell Resolution 1’s.

Exchanging gear can get costly so I prefer to make moves that I won't have to make again for a while such as in amps, preamps, turntables, etc. Rule is if I buy something I have to sell something. For speakers it's a bit more fluid but if OP has the Coax line then I would stop there!

Atmasphere frequently comments on "music specific" gear being a silly idea and I agree 100%. Maybe you don’t want mini monitors for metal, but maybe you don’t want those for Mahler either. Or maybe you do. Do you plan to sit 50’ away from your system? No? Does anybody sit there listening to metal at 115 db? Don’t answer that. I’ve spent many decades playing electric guitar too damn loud and now go between 15 watt and 18 watt tube guitar amps and either one can still play REALLY loud although I don’t do that...pedals...gotta have my pile of pedals. My hifi rig uses Klipsch Heresy IIIs (allegedly 99db efficient) and 2 RELs with either a 15 watt Had SEP or a Pass XA-25. I sit 9’ or so away from the speakers and loud (for me anyway) uses maybe 3 watts, although I have no clue. Weirdly, the system won’t play mumblecore or polka so there’s that.

Hi - I don't think I've posted before, but thought I'd chip in here as I've (very nearly) the two amps and listen to quite a bit of metal.

I've three integrated amps: Accuphase E-550, Leben CS600X and Mcintosh 6700 which are rotated between Peak Consult Princess V and Kudos Titan 606 speakers. If I were to pick solely for listening to metal I'd put the Leben and Mcintosh joint second (Leben for normal levels, Mc for louder in big rooms) but the Accuphase quite far ahead of both.

The Accuphase can be beautifully visceral with great texture (lead guitrs) and I've never found it wanting in the drive department.

My comment about the Mcintosh is possibly more to do with their house sound (music tends to pleasantly waft over you vs make your ears bleed) rather than the pros/cons of more watts.