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My Vintage Accuphase System


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Yes, indeed Very impressive" journey of Dean, I have an Accuphase P300X ( my first Accuphse ) coming within the next few week from japan, state working by ebay seller, hope everything working well, more than 40 years! 

Hope i don't follow Dean and load up full of Accuphase :)

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6 hours ago, khai said:

Hope i don't follow Dean and load up full of Accuphase

Trust me, you will be buying a C-200x preamp for it soon enough 😄.
Let me know what you think of the P-300X, I've been thinking of getting one.

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sure , i came from small world of IEMs ( DD, planars, ba, and DAP), then desktop ( SS and tubes, Hp ), and now with simplicity setup AIO devialet expert 140 (class A-B) pro combo with Atomh GT1  , very detail HD setup and technically system to the edge of dry,

AIO system is not perfect, but i don't have to deal with zillions cables and if you're believer : cables is expensive :) i like to add warm source ( Accuphase, Mcintosh and DartZeel) to balance out 

I had demo few Mcintosh and like MC452 but  too much overprice and over kill for my Atomh, and look around reviews P300X fit perfectly and drive full potential out of Atomh with very reasonal price in use market, a little slow ( analogue circuit) VS actual amp (fast transient), but the  warm sound  (tube impression ) may compensate fast /dry of devialet

note: look around forum and i don't see your guys tweat systems to yours taste of listening like:

- treat inside out all connectors with contact enhancer: i use non diluated stabilant 22a

- use ground loop noise isolator

-use high end EMF tape to both end of connectors (cable: usb/speakers/inter/network etc) and around housing of unit: amp/dac/source etc to limit contamination  

-All kind of tweat is fun and well reward at end ( start a little bit here and there from source to end speakers) and can all reverse easly

and if Accuphase can not give me the warm i 'm looking for, i'll order clone DartZeel from Ali ( can not affort retail price of OG) , i had demo clone DartZeel NHB108 at friend system and holy molly sh*t, this amp is something, and if i win lottory , for sure first thing : i'll get NHB108, i hate to go clone and promote this avenue

regards

here is my AIO system: one unit ( devialet ) all from my gaming laptop ( foobar2K and HQplayer) no streaming via network (just tiny flat network cable in devialet and voila : tout est jouer !

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Great system Khai, separates are definately the way to go. AIO can be great but will only get you so far.
IEMs and Headphones can be great for travelling but serious listening can only be done with speakers in a room.

9 hours ago, khai said:

treat inside out all connectors with contact enhancer: i use non diluated stabilant 22a

I have some Audio Spice from Kryna that came with my Kryna DAC.
I have not used it or experimented with it, mostly because it is a collector item (Kryna founder died and production has stopped).

 

9 hours ago, khai said:

a little slow ( analogue circuit) VS actual amp (fast transient)

I am confused  as amplifiers are all analogue circuits. The speed of an amplifier is determined by it's slew rate. Unfortunately Accuphase never specify their slew rate, but rest assured they are as fast as Luxman.

 

9 hours ago, khai said:

- use ground loop noise isolator

Very few systems have ground loops but when they do it can be extremely annoying. Thankfully I haven't personally encountered this issue.

 


McIntosh is consumer audio, it isn't for real audiophiles. Anyone who's been in the trenches knows it's a decor brand, like B&O and OMA.

9 hours ago, khai said:

use high end EMF tape to both end of connectors (cable: usb/speakers/inter/network etc) and around housing of unit: amp/dac/source etc to limit contamination

I don't understand how this would work or where it would go. I'd love to learn.

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Hello Dean, it's not a good threat , but since is yours, we can look foward for few details:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/aliexpress-cables.963919/page-165

from this threat, we start clone cables and evolve to many tweats: contact enhancer/shield/treat/EMF tape/fuse/noise absorber/AV wall adapter/isolator/ground box,...

have time and fun , go there, i learn alots from theirs experiences and test too many thing, it's really fun , time consuming and reward is good too 

we're audio maniac and try anithing to improve whatever we looking for

have fun

here is few tweats was done : fuse upgrade/EMF tape (gray silver) inside wall transformer and both outside of amps, treat inside out stabilant 22 all point to point  and all circuit and tape connectors , OG outlet replaces with berrilium , etc..

this is for my desktop tube amps ( i had two ) and also my SS desktop amps same tweats

ground loop and/or ground box eliminate humm on speakers 

note: old circuit design don't have opamp and chip like upto date design and technology

detail and technicality , precision , image transient is diff from old epoque ( recent is more fatigue after long listening)

but old amps came with distortion and flavor to our ear ( at least mine, and memory from the past with authenticity ) , transient/imagine/technically/details is not at same level

ALL and almost chifi DAC/AMPS( topping/Smsl/schitt/ ...) is very well designed and noise was limit to nulle, but very dry/fatigue/ and sound boring without flavor, for me is like to clean all your vegetables with may product too much sterile and you don't taste vegetables anymore

Balance and Synergy is everything , all came to your taste, your ear and your listening setup

regards

 

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The Accuphase C-270 is arriving on or before the 1st. I am letting go of the C-230 preamplifier.
My primary gripe with the C-230 is being entirely single-ended. The C-230 sure is a beauty but the C-270 is on a class of it's own.
Will have impressions on it compared to the C-240 soon.
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TEAC D-700 arrived today. I still haven't connected it up yet, I'm waiting for the C-270 preamplifier to arrive so I can give it a fair impression via its XLR outputs. This will be going beside my bed, likely into a Stax energiser.DSCF0038.thumb.jpg.0fe4b133561b76025512496c2e774ca7.jpg

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nice piece of art and sound, i know you had Paradigme Founder 40B, but your actual c270/p600 combo is way overpower for Founder 40B, maybe Dynaudio Confidence C1 or Wilson Audio Duette S1 or S2 may do justice to your actual system

regards

imho i do focus on monitor for my actual room and environement  daily use ( and need)  and this is the most important THING of your system and build as you wish piece by piece to the source

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1 hour ago, khai said:

Dynaudio Confidence C1

I heard the Dynaudio at work, they're mediocre at best. I also don't buy American audio products as I find them all to be unreliable.
I will be getting a pair of Osborn Titan Reference speakers towards the end of the gear. I had the pleasure of hearing them at Osborn's home in Melbourne and they beat everything under 400k AUD.

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On 24/4/2023 at 11:16 AM, Gabehcuod said:


McIntosh is consumer audio, it isn't for real audiophiles. Anyone who's been in the trenches knows it's a decor brand, like B&O and OMA.

I don't understand how this would work or where it would go. I'd love to learn.

I understand the sentiment behind the statement, but really it’s all consumer goods, any company that doesn’t take care of business doesn’t stay in business. 
What is a “real audiophile”? Obviously many sub categories can apply.

If McIntosh isn’t for real audiophiles then consider me a very content music lover who doesn’t need or want to belong. 


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

High-end audio is a class of consumer home audio equipment marketed to audiophiles on the basis of high price or quality, and esoteric or novel sound reproduction technologies. The term can refer simply to the price, to the build quality of the components, or to the subjective or objective quality of sound reproduction. 
 

I am not commenting to start a debate, more to celebrate the differences we can enjoy. 

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Dynaudio monitors is very good and sound right with good amps and scale well with match components, my old system is C1 reference combo with MC452 and sound very nice with jazz and classical

Any monitors need to amp well and balance to sound to theirs best, under and over power amps just create distorsion  

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my P300X will be ship to door tomorrow, i'll cleanup , small maintenance treat stabilant 22 and surely adjust bias and dc volts and convert to 115V to canada before light up, 40 years old amp need a nice maintenance even reputate accuphase build like a tank with premium components

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1 hour ago, Godot said:

any company that doesn’t take care of business doesn’t stay in business. 

In general a company that is at every dealer and every show, filling up the magazines and gives you a 30% discount when you walk into the store is what I classify as fleece-fi. There's a lot of companies like McIntosh that are designed to fleece ordinary people. McIntosh aren't even subtle about it, they sell a book, a sign and even a clock. I think it doesn't get more obvious than that. Other fleece-fi brands include Hegel which are made in china and have the internals of a DIY pipe bomb. These companies stay in business because there's always new kids to fleece. Companies like Stax and Sansui went out of business because they actually tried to make good products at reasonable prices. I can understand that it is difficult to accept that you may have been duped but everyone falls for the hype and marketing when they're starting out.

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4 minutes ago, Gabehcuod said:

I can understand that it is difficult to accept that you may have been duped but everyone falls for the hype and marketing when they're starting out.

I respect your right to an opinion, but don’t make assumptions about me ( or anyone’s) decision making process, and don’t make it personal. I’m closer to finishing off than starting out! I don’t accept that I may have been duped, because I haven’t been. And I am fully cognizant that I live in a capitalist society with everything that means, but I am grateful for the opportunity to do my own research and make my own informed choices. 

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On 24/04/2023 at 9:16 AM, Gabehcuod said:

McIntosh is consumer audio, it isn't for real audiophiles. Anyone who's been in the trenches knows it's a decor brand, like B&O and OMA.

 

I was really enjoying your journey through Accuphase but this is really dismissive. If by decor brand then you mean that there is a premium paid for the industrial design then absolutely, these guys have earned that right and you don't need to purchase their product. If you mean they make a bad product then I would disagree. McIntosh and B&O in particular have a long history of providing high quality and good sounding products.

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56 minutes ago, thejt said:

 

If by decor brand then you mean that there is a premium paid for the industrial design then absolutely

I should clarify, when I say decor brand, I mean a brand that makes products for people who want something in their room that's cool to look at. It's simply another thing they can show their friends, but they aren't neurotic about hifi. Sonus faber is similar (Now owned by McIntosh), I remember being offered 40% after demoing a couple of their floor standsers, definitely looks aesthetic but that was about the only thing going for them. On a tangent, Franco Serbin is actually good sonically so goes to show how the original founder actually cared about the hobby instead of making a sale.

 

1 hour ago, thejt said:

 

 If you mean they make a bad product then I would disagree. 

The best analogue to McIntosh is a Hublot watch, still tells the time but with no complications and people will judge you when they see you wearing one.

 

Anyhow this is all my personal opinions, at the end of the day these companies need to collect money from someone to fund their supercar collections. 

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Converted C-270 to 240V and took it to Chris @ Kimil Electronics for service. Bought a bunch of furutech components from Japan. I saved roughly 40% and managed to get better components that aren't locally available. PS-1200V is coming next week, then I'll be taking a break for a while.

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take two days to finish maintenance my P300X and treat ALL connectors stabilant 22, deoxit gold all switch , light on and adjusted dc volts output and Bias , working well and observed humm approx 2 feed from speakers, installed EMT tape approx 1 inch wide to both ends of power cable and installed ground loop noise isolator and cut approx 90% noise , humm still their when i stick my ears to 1 inch of speakers, otherwise all good and sound really nice , surprise about transient and soundstage, not warm compare to tube amps, but nicely cozy warm from accuphase house is perfect math to my Atomh GT HD, with your Osborn Titan, tube amps is prefer too, but Accuphase is nice match with your Osborn, 

note: Do you have humm with your Accuphase P600 ? when not playing music!, i think ALL amps from this epoque 1980 with 2 prong power cord was not ground well to isolate noise, BUT with ground loop noise isolator from Ali cut out 90% of humm IS good enough for me to enjoy the Accuphase P300X it's not details/transient/and holograpic like Devialet but sounstage/impact/smooth and cozy smooth warm similar sound like tubing is perfect :)

LOVE IT! my first Accuphase, just different from Mcintosh and complement well 

note: will open up more after 50H of stabilant 22 treatment, i order new sets of SLO-BLO fuse 6X32mm and this amps will sound nice to my tatse

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8 hours ago, khai said:

i think ALL amps from this epoque 1980 with 2 prong power cord

When I intend to keep a piece for a long time, I always take it to Chris from Kimil Electronics for a full service, recap and cleaning.
I also have him replace the fixed cord with an IEC inlet and replace the inputs and outputs with furutech. A servicing like that will far surpass any amount of tweaks you add.

As much as I love Accuphase this Luxman is just so pretty.

DSCF0258.thumb.jpg.12b96d5774a1978ceaaddc260b422dd3.jpg

I might be picking up a really rough-condition pair of monoblocks soon. If they go for cheap it'll be my first proper restoration project.
Ordinarily, I don't go for this kind of thing, but considering how rare and valuable they are, I think it'll be almost immoral not to bring them back to their former glory.
 

I apologise for my earlier comments, I was taking my frustration from work out on other people.

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Accuphase C-230 preamplifier has sold, I also sold the Stax SR-Lambda Pro with the SRD7Mk2 few weeks back.
The Accuphase PS-1200 power conditioner arrives on Thurday or Friday.
I am going to be Selling the C-240 with the P-400 soon to help fund Accuphase C-280L or C-280V and a mint condition Stax Lambda Signature.
I recently bought the Sansui B-2301 which will arrive in the coming weeks.
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