Accuphase DP-560

Silence is golden
Why it definitely makes sense these days to spend your money on an
excellent CD player. And why it should come from Accuphase, provided yourbudget allows you to do so. With their brand-new DP-560 the Japanese top
their artistry of optimally reading out CDs: true strength lies in calmness.

Today every butcher and baker swears by the »unmatched« sound quality of vinyl,
every candlemaker claims that streamed music sounds at least as good as from CD,and so-called HiRes files keep the good old compact disc at arm’s length anyway.
The CD is treated like some kind of dinosaur which is actually not needed any morebeside the turntable and the streaming client. What sort of, to put it mildly, outlandish
nonsense is this!
What truly matters Despite all the euphoria about the renaissance of the record andthe certainly wonderful possibilities of various streaming and HiRes download
services: by far the greatest and thus also most valuable collection of music is foundon countless CDs. And if we look at who’s coming out of the closet as vinyl junkie
now, we are but surrounded by believers who just seem to have no clue of theanalog religion: most of these new vinyl worshippers find the record so »hip«because their friends do so, too. With all the missionary endeavors in the trade
journals, all our »confessional letters« for the once endangered black disc, the latest
fashion doesn’t care two figs about them in reality. Perhaps flared trousers will soonbe »in« again. Or are they already?
And streaming, has it marginalized the CD completely? Personally, I plead by allmeans in favor of a peaceful coexistence of all media, but am afraid that streaming
might seriously jeopardize the CD. And this for a simple reason: both media are
based on digital technology and therefore use an identical terminology. A digital word
size of 16 bits – as it is used as standard by the CD – is not an issue in the modern
streaming world, where 24 would also be much appreciated. And the sampling rate of
44.1 kHz, carved in stone for the CD, is easily surpassed many times over by thenew digital media.
New skins for old wine Those who will now confine themselves, for instance, to thetwo core data of »bit and sampling rate« and ennoble them by declaring them to be
the only saving quality criterion, might overlook or, more precisely, overhear somecrucial points. It is, of course, beyond debate that the resolution of a recording has aparticular importance; on the other hand it would be just as naive to determine thequality of a wine based on its acidity alone.

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Accuphase, the bulwark, the fortress, the new DP-560. At a first and superficialglance, it looks confusingly similar to its predecessor. But leaving the – in the best
Accuphase tradition – neat and tidy front panel untouched except for some extra
features on the display, is typical of the manufacture from Yokohama. They’d rather
convince with tangible technical advancements and not just cosmetic gimmicks.
Although the listing of certain fat, expensive and frequently employed parts will hardly
reveal anything about the acoustic yield, we’re now going to unscrew the massive
cover lid of the 560 and look inside the machine. What has actually changed
compared to the predecessor, can we spot any significant, relevant modifications atall? You bet. Not only has the DP-560 been equipped with an entirely new drive, thepower supply and also the input and output sections were largely modified. Yet thestructures, one could almost say: the genes of the CD players from Accuphase haveremained the same. Thus no less than four converter circuits fed in parallel take careof the digital signal, aiming to keep distortions on the lowest level and eliminate anyartefacts. Personally, I can’t remember looking at the published measured values ofCD players. In general, they don’t reveal anything or at best only very little. The DP560 is different, the gathered data are amazing and show how precisely, howpainstakingly the designers implement their components. At 119 and 116 dB thesignal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range achieve outstanding values. In bothdisciplines Accuphase has raised the bar by one dB. Which is great, but a gain of astaggering 9 dB with the crosstalk damping – where the record climbed to an
awesome 117 dB – commands our respect. But seriously, between ourselves: is thisreally audible? Can we actually sense the huge efforts made by the engineers infaraway Nippon? Of course, and it’s even easy to do.
A pleading for the CD. So let’s not hinge the reproduction of a CD on the utilized
format alone, but evaluate the performance as a whole: then it will suddenly make adifference again if the digital data stream is transferred under exactly specified
conditions or exposed more or less unprotected to any potential troublemakers. How
clean is the home WLAN, how susceptible the job of digital and analog moduleswhich translate a streaming signal into music? Streaming, this is also always a gamewith quite a few unknowns.
Those who want to be rather safe than sorry and hear the latest perfection from a
digital medium, will not really get around a CD player like the Accuphase which wascustom-built for this purpose. After all it’s got a drive rotating inside that works inperfect harmony even with slightly warped discs (totally flat is the exception anyway)
and efficiently avoids the wind noises that come naturally with high rotational speeds.
Since all sound relevant factors were taken into consideration, these are the details
which together lead to an extraordinary listening pleasure. Hey, this is high end after
my fancy.
Most CDs were carving out a sad existence at the Pfeiffers’ home, piled up in some
sort of cubbyhole; every now and then I took one out, but due to such convenientservices like Tidal, those trips into the real sound archive became increasingly rare.
However, with the arrival of the DP-560 this has changed. Silver discs which had
been slumbering unplayed in the batches for umpteen years now experienced theirsecond springtide, many of them even their acoustical breakthrough, their »raisond’être«. I’m now listening to many CDs from A to Z, the habitual play check of tracks
has remained the exception henceforth. This is how people must feel after retrieving
a treasure.

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The fact that the DP-560 can also play back Super Audio CDs is a »nice-to-have«,but not a »must«. In my stock I’ve also accumulated many SACDs over time, yet I
avoid listening to formats for formats sake, I favor music instead. And there is suchan awful lot of it to be found on the good, not at all old CD that I’m downright thankful
for Accuphase creating this miracle machine. It’s not even the most expensive offerfrom the Japanese: another integrated player and a discrete drive/converter combo
rank above it. These, too, will surpass their predecessors with the latest and bestever generation of Accuphase players. Personally I’ve found my luck now with theDP-560. Probably forever.
Joachim Pfeiffer

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