Forever
Tell me what you are longing for, and I will tell you if you are mature andexperienced enough for maybe the best amplifier the Accuphase engineers
have ever devised. There are more powerful, cheaper and certainly even way
more expensive ones than the A-70. For those who realize what the amplifier
can do, dreams will become true. A case for high fidelity, a statement in amp
building.

Once in a blue moon, the magazines stare into imaginary crystal balls: what does thefuture have in store for us, what products characterize trends, which technologies will
prevail and what threatens to fall into oblivion? However, there’s just a big snag tothose beautiful trend reports: they are not true. Most forecasts of the past decades
turned out to be all wrong. The vinyl record is alive, and how! No, surround could notsupersede stereo and yes: amplifiers using the classic AB operation mode have notyet been fully replaced by the cold or cool digital amps. And some very few, very
elitist ones may even be called class A amplifiers. In those amps a considerable
proportion of quiescent current wants to eliminate any crossover distortions as amatter of principle. A certain Yasumasa Ishizuka who, together with his wife Christina,
has made Accuphase what it is today, ranks among the few prophetes (… in fact, I
really don’t know of any other), who already in the 1980s predicted the future of highfidelity correctly. Back then he was asked if the development of conventional
amplifiers had not yet come to an end. Although the Accuphase components of that
era used to be the measure of all acoustic things, the wise man from Japan said ‘no’and answered correspondingly that they were going to further develop the circuits
and continue to approach the ideal in small steps. This pursuit of the truth would
never end.
A statement against randomness
For whatever reasons, technical specifications, or a comprehensive documentation
thereof, play an inferior role these days – sometimes not even that. Accuphase, thissolid rock in the surf of randomness, makes a clear contra-statement in the form of a
»brochure« which has appeared unchanged in style and language for decades. Can
anyone accommodate more information on four pages? In partly tiny typography theJapanese engineers have meticulously listed how their sophisticated circuits
basically work, which exquisite parts they use and how this can be measured as aresult. In this glossy full color paper nothing is said about sound, catchy phrases arebanned from print. The reading is neither free from assumptions nor of the »lowassumption« type. In any case an opulent picture of profound technical knowledge isconveyed, simply a »confidence-building« measure. This applies, of course, to the A70 stereo power amplifier as well, which replaced the like-sized A-65 class Apowerhouse some years ago. And here a »measured value«, which anyone canunderstand, enlightens how the Japanese define progress and development: the A70 tips the scales at a hefty 1.3 kilograms more than its predecessor. By the way: thespecific weight of the power amp amounts to a respectable 44.3 kilograms. Those
who »undress« it to take a look inside, will get down on their knees in awe. More on
this later.
1Now let’s listen into this power amp for a minute. Upon linking the A-70 to an
excellent preamp, preferably from the same fine address, a special experience isgoing to come by: even if you »creep« into your speakers and with the unit turned on,
without music modulation you won’t hear »a thing«. No sizzling, zero hum, not even a
faint noise. Jaw-dropping. Accuphase guarantees 121 dBs of signal-to-noise ratio,
metrologically the A-70 even achieves an incredible 124 dBs. This superb and by nomeans academic figure is certainly also due to the new task allocation within theamplifier. The gist of the matter: whereas in the previous model the power section still
provided the bulk of the work by contributing 16 to the 28 dBs of overall gain, the A70 turns the job description upside down. The power department now delivers a mere
6 dBs as opposed to 22 dBs in the preamp (A-65: 12 dBs). So altogether we still
have the afore-mentioned 28 dBs, only produced by using different ways. »What’s
the point of it all«? To optimize the S/N ratio: so simple, technically masterful andbeneficial in daily use is the way in which Accuphase designs. The fact that theJapanese painstakingly select all ingredients of their components, shall be mentioned
here for the sake of completeness. This, of course, is also true for the 10 field-effecttransistors (so-called MOS-FETs) working in push-pull mode per channel; in total
Accuphase employs 40 of these.
Cover on: listen and be amazedWith two times 60 watts of power into 8 ohms the A-70 seems to be allegedly modest
in output. But only the performance yield in class A mode is propagated. Apart from
that, this amp can also comfortably pump 574 watts per channel into a near-shortcircuit 1 ohm. Talking about safety: the sophisticated protection circuit which is built
around MOS-Fets reliably prevents damages – even if the speaker wires should
touch each other by mistake. We had reported on the stillness before the power. But
when suddenly, virtually out of »nowhere«, music can be heard in a colorfulness andvividness, absolutely free from artefacts, one may quite justifiably speak of a great
moment. It’s just that everything had to fit perfectly. Trying to run the A-70 with a nonAccuphase preamp delivered indeed very good results, but (alas) not this excellent
one. Considering the fact that Accuphase components are sometimes said toreproduce music in a pure and fine way, but behave a little statically at that, such
estimates were downright absurd. If I had run into such a combination prior to myjournalistic occupation, I might possibly have sticked to my old profession: searchcompleted, goal achieved.
Those who decide to go for an A-70, must hence think about an adequate preamp
sooner or later as well – or own it already, in which case any hesitation or wavering
should be out of the question. »Enrich life through technology« is the Accuphasemotto. What reads as a pithy marketing slogan at first sight, will become more andmore palpable and comprehensible in the course of the involvement, the experienceand the newly gathered knowledge about music and technology. This is what highfidelity is about after all: that technical devices bring performers and their music soclose to us that they do not only reach our ears, but also our hearts.
What a blessing in our frantic, exhausting, burdensome time: that they still do exist,
the really fine things which motivate us to keep going, at least for some hours everyday.

Joachim Pfeiffer2