Accuphase amplifier choice


Hello All,

I have decided to upgrade my Parasound A21 amplifier looking for a more refined sound. The following are the amplifiers that I have in my mind:

Accuphase A-48s
Accuphase P-4600
Coda No. 8 (meterless)
Coda 16.0 (meterless)

Currently I am leaning largely to Accuphase. My dealer says that the Class A 48s will sound better with my ProAc D48R. But I am worried that I will lose dynamics since the Accuphase is only 50W into 8 Ohms. But it doubles all the way into 1 ohm.

The P-4600 is a higher wattage amp and I think it should be able to drive the D48R with ease because it doubles down to 2 ohm load. So I am not concerned with it's ability to drive the ProAcs.

I do have some feedback on the P-4600 from another thread here and appreciate it. But now looking for some comparisons.

Has anyone compared/experienced the Accuphase Vs Coda amplifiers? Any feedback is appreciated.

milpai

Hello All - I've been following this thread with great interest. Always been aware of Accuphase, but always thought of myself as a Luxman guy - I own a class-A 550 AX II integrated and it's my headphone rig. The end of the OP was... "Has anyone compared/experienced the Accuphase Vs Coda amplifiers? Any feedback is appreciated." I'd be interested in pulling that thread some more if anyone has something to offer as I've got a Coda S5.5. Best amplifier I've personally owned - coupled with Aric Audio Motherload XL and high efficiency Spatial Audio M3 Sapphire's - but always thinking of chasing down a few more percent gain. Any thoughts on an Accuphase amplifier vs. my Coda would be interesting to hear. Thanks in advance and again, this has been a very interesting thread. 

@milpai : Here are 2 more pieces of information to further muddy the waters...

1. A few years ago I have heard the Accuphase E600 class A integrated driving a pair of Sonus Faber Amati Futura in a ~35-40 sq. meters room with high ceiling. These are some rather demanding speakers, the sound was pretty loud and I didn't have the impression that the amplifier was struggling. On the contrary, I really loved the sound!

2. I have directly compared the same Accuphase E600 to a cheaper E370 class AB integrated. The speakers were not difficult to drive: Sonus Faber Olympica Nova 2 and my Spendor SP2/3R2. The E600 was more mature and organized sounding with better contour and clarity in the bass, but the E370 was more open and joyful sounding, more "musical" dare I say. As a consequence, I bought my current class AB E470 instead of the more expensive class A E650 I was being offered. I'm not sure to what degree these findings would apply to the separate power amplifiers. These is a;so a review of the E470 along with the DC 37 dac on the positive-feedback website and the reviewer also states his personal preference for the E470 when compared to the E600 (saying that the E600 has better bass contour and the E470 has a more cohesive sound)..

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@lalitk Thank for the PM. I have responded.

@arafiq , Thank you for letting me know. And I know that you are in Texas which is much warmer than Ohio. So heat should have been a bigger concern for you than me. And yes, we did discuss about Accuphase amps on your system.

@donquichotte actually you are helping here by your experience of the E-650 with Sonus Faber Amati Futura. Did you see the measurements of this speaker in Stereophile and John Atkin's comment:

My estimate of the Amati Futura's voltage sensitivity on this axis was 88.1dB(B)/2.83V/m, a little lower than the specified 90dB though still slightly above average. However, the Sonus Faber's plot of impedance magnitude and phase (fig.1) indicates that the speaker is a fairly difficult load for the partnering amplifier to drive

That confirms that if the E-650 could drive such a difficult load then the A-48S should be more than capable of driving my ProAcs.

As other Accuphase owners have mentioned here - both these amplifiers are capable. I am Thankful to all the Accuphase owners on this thread who have jumped in to help me make a decision 🙏🏼