This one’s a keeper!
I’m very grateful to Mike for the opportunity to get into Accuphase.
I’ve been aware of the brand for many years but, for some reason, it just seemed unfashionable to me. My new E370 is big, Japanese, has meters and tone controls – harking back to the 1970s it’s not really in keeping with today’s touchscreen-and-perspex design creations. And, yet, the brand endures for a reason!
I have been in the fortunate position of owning some expensive British, American and German components that worked extremely well in technical terms but whose entertainment somehow faded over time.
It’s because I’ve always missed something that I’m delighted to say my Accuphase delivers.
I’m so very pleased that real instruments sound, well, real; that electronic instruments are suddenly more interesting to listen to; that tiny details I had never noticed in familiar recordings are now present.
It’s competent but natural with it and doesn’t sound like its trying too hard nor thrusting detail at you with artificial brightness. This is all immediately obvious from the moment you turn it on.
Have you heard Infected Mushroom? Never before to my taste, suddenly I’m appreciating the band, their complex rhythms and counterpoints unravelled, deep bass thunderous but not overblown, synthesisers clearly artificial but nevertheless interesting – where, before, I might have switched away from a homogenous wall of sound to another artist using real instruments and less intensity. The E370 encourages me to enjoy it, albeit in moderation.
I’ve owned amps that do natural tone but sound dull; amps that are detailed but dry; amps that have bass but have poor timing. E370 equals excellent timbre, realistic detail and a dull ache in my ankle from all the foot tapping.
The fact that it’s such a luxury product, so smooth and solid and such a pleasure to own, is the icing on the cake.
There is, of course, the obvious downside of cost – I’ve started saving now for my next Accuphase, as alas Mike doesn’t accept kidneys in part-ex – and I vaguely wish for the loudness, mono and phase buttons to be on the remote.
Oh, and Mike should give a free tube of Deep Heat with every sale, my back needed it after lifting my E370 into position!
Peter Earnshaw
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