Interview in STEREO magazine (Germany), Issue 01/2013

with Shigemasa Saito of Accuphase

Living his dream
By Matthias Böde
Accuphase is considered one of the finest high-end brands worldwide. AndShigemasa Saito plays a major role in that. Since the foundation of Accuphasehis name is closely connected with the noble maker from Yokohama. He told
STEREO how his dream came true.
The times are long ago when Shigemasa Saito was looking with fascinationfrom Japan to overseas. In 1958 he began the work as young engineer with amanufacturer that was later to be called Kenwood. There he occupied himself inparticular with valve amplifiers and for this reason also travelled the U.S.A. in order tostudy the secrets behind the then predominant brands, such as Marantz, McIntosh orFisher. To follow suit all these archetypes or to even outperform them was to induce apassion in the man who henceforth asked to be called “Jim” and furthermore had hisbusiness card displaying this name, too.
And he was not alone. Also Jiro Kasuga, who founded the enterprise in hisname already in 1946, aspired to higher things. The corporate dream was toestablish a Japanese high-end business which ought to be on par with the big
players of the trade. The project started in 1972 when Kasuga left Kenwood andfounded Kensonic. Right from the start Jim Saito was a member of the management
and at the same time head of the technical department.
Accuphase – that was “sounding” appropriate
The name of the manufacturer has remained the same until today yet became
generally known in our country as Accuphase. “Kensonic” was apparently “sounding”
too sober and arguably would not have conveyed what Kasuga and Saito had inmind, namely to build the world’s best audio components. Then, on the occasion of
Kensonic’s 10th anniversary, they ultimately switched to Accuphase which stands for“accurate phase”, meaning a stable time response over the entire frequency range.
The accurate phase, so to speak, is to express the highest technological standards towhich the company has stuck to this date and in combination with impeccable
craftsmanship and sonic excellence has constituted the outstanding reputation of
Accuphase.
“Actually, no restrictions were given to us engineers whereupon we could
develop whatever we considered the optimum”, recalls Saito-San. “Likewise, costs
were initially no object at all as long as we could achieve the ambitious aim”, headded. The result was the well-renowned 100-series consisting of tuner T-100,preamplifier C-200 and power amplifier P-300, which today are regarded as
milestones in hi-fi history and with which the lovers of classical music have setthemselves an early benchmark. However prices were in the same way out of theordinary, and Yasumasa Ishizuka, already head of Accuphase’s European distribution
network at that time, was anxiously asking himself: “How am I going to explain themto my esteemed customers?”
Nevertheless, those customers living in the quality-minded country of Bosch,
Leica or Mercedes have all understood and eventually well received the high-end
concept behind Accuphase. For instance, they appreciated that a volume knob is stillturning as smooth as the famed spoon in the honey pot even after many years ofoperation. Or to perceive the almost erotic click of a relay which was coming alongwith many functions in the components from Yokohama.
You get what you pay for! Perhaps the Accuphase approach was even more
“German” than everything that was made at and delivered from domestic
workbenches nearly 40 years ago. The Federal Republic of Germany is indeed oneof the most important export markets for Accuphase, whereby it is quite a surprise tolearn that approximately 70% of the production is sold in Japan.
Certainly, one doesn’t get very far if things are concentrated merely on the outside
appearance. Therefore Accuphase was and still is constantly searching for the best
possible technological solutions provided by bordering industries, such ascommunication and medical engineering, as well as the implementation of electronic
components of the highest quality. Also: the Japanese were among the first to focus
on the development of fully complementary circuitries, e.g. the balanced design ofpush-pull power amplifiers with two “hot” terminal posts.
Measured data in focus?
And of course, the engineers at Accuphase have been paying great attention todetails right from the beginning. Sloppy work was in no way an issue. A nice example
is given by the so-called “wire wrap” method in which the bare conductor of aconnection lead is wound around the solder pin on a circuit board before solder wasadded. By means of this elaborate work possible cold solder joints could be avoided
in the long run. This may be one of the reasons why components from this maker are
lasting so long. Furthermore, Accuphase puts an emphasis on the fact that evenoldest devices can still be serviced and repaired.
While other hi-fi manufactures would often tend to have a lesser esteem
towards measuring data or perhaps would rather consider them a by-product (whichmay not necessarily be a drawback), Nippon’s audio industry put them into focus andat the same time extracted a part of the hi-fi fascination from these data. Harmonic
distortion, signal-to-noise ratio, frequency response – they all have been perceived
by the audio community in quite a different manner. Here, too, Accuphase may beregarded as the spearhead: whether in its product information or in our test lab,components made by Accuphase are generally shining with optimum values.
Whereupon Saito-San would emphasise that specifications are in no way ends
in themselves but rather the result of diligent developments. After the basic design
the work continues on the auditive side. For example, the sonically best transistor fora specific application can only be determined by the discriminating ear and it issimply impossible to design outstandingly sounding components on the desk andwith the help of a PC. In this respect the attitude of Saito-San seems to coincide withthose of other high-end luminaries.
Teamwork was and is essential for Accuphase. Although the company has
ever since been putting the effort on electronic devices only, i.e. ignoring record

players or loudspeakers, there is no “mastermind” to tell the team where to go. It’s all
going through a team consensus which is so typical for Japan. Among the nearly 90
employees of Kensonic there are 35 engineers after all – a ratio that can hardly be
encountered anywhere else.
Strong power of development
This issue is of particular interest for us: if so many engineers and designers are
involved in the development, then how can someone generate a continuous soundphilosophy as can be observed, or better still, auditioned in components fromAccuphase, which all are standing out regarding impulsivity as fast as a lightning in
combination with great distinctness and sensible fine dynamics? “Our engineers
acquire their know-how in all electronic sectors”, explains Saito-San the principle of akind of internal rotation within the engineering department. There is no such thing likethe dedicated expert for pre- and power amplifiers or perhaps a single nerd working
on CD output stages. According to Saito-San, there are always several insiders
responsible for the devices and functional circuits and all following the same line.
If necessary, the sheer manpower would come out with a genuine statement,
which in fact occurred in 1986 when Accuphase presented the ultimate CD transportand D/A converter combination DC-80/DP-90 to the astonished hi-fi world. Not really
happy with the sound of earlier CD players it took the engineering team about fouryears of hard work until it could launch a combination that was to become thebenchmark of CD rendition for many years. And only recently the Japanese came outwith the MC pickup cartridge MC-5, which, although developed in cooperation with
the Japanese pickup specialist ZYX, is clearly demonstrating the sonic fingerprint ofAccuphase.
“It’s important to always seek new challenges and to overcome boundaries”,
says Saito-San and this might suggest the secret of the success of Accuphase. ABritish hi-fi magazine once wrote that Accuphase components are arguably “overengineered”, whereupon Saito-San replies with sardonic laugh: “We are investing alot of time, money and brains in order to progress. And then we read this allegation!
The truth is that one can actually never do too much.”
What will be the next objectives, a superlative streaming device perhaps?
Saito-San denies and refers to the possibility people have these days to play musicfrom computers via USB. A pure streaming concept has not been taken intoconsideration. How about SACD? This system will be furthermore maintained, notleast because it’s so popular in Japan. Generally, one tends to stay ratherconservative. How about the dream of Saito-San? It has long since come true.....