Full review in hifi & records magazine (Germany), Issue 4/2008
Super Audio CD Player Accuphase DP-700

Masterlyby Wilfried KressA dream player for accomplished epicures, built for eternity and at the limits ofthe technically feasible: the Accuphase DP-700.
When during last year's High-End in Munich Yasu Ishizuka was happily
receiving our Editor's Choice Award for the Accuphase DP-78, the chief of theAccuphase European Marketing had himself been carried away by an offer withconsequences to follow: "If you like the DP-78, then you must in any case auditionthe new DP-700". Now, would you reject such an offer? Admittedly, I couldn't say noof course and this is why some time later I got a call from P.I.A.'s product manager
Winfried Andres. He said a brand-new DP-700 has just arrived from Japan and thathe could put it at our disposal for about two weeks, whereupon the player is to hit theroad again. A tight schedule indeed, but we all know necessity is the mother of
invention and therefore we achieved the lab test as well as the photography job
within only two days. Still enough time left for warm-up, listening and comparison.
Unpacking a device in the category of the DP-700 can already be a great
experience. After having put aside remote control and accessories, I removed thepadding parts and heaved the still plastic-covered 27 kg player monument out of theshipping box and put it carefully on the table. I took the cover off…..and there it was:a CD/SACD player, which immediately is to convey the feeling of total quality
throughout without having emitted a single tone yet. And when for the first time theCD tray is moving out with a gentle purr, so that your "mechanical heart" is jumping ofjoy, then you are definitely lost. Even if you don't quite fancy champagne-coloured
front panels and high-gloss rosewood cases. My first impression, which is oh so often
the right and most important one: purchasers of the DP-700 will really get something
exceptional for the money. Very impressive!
Impressive also from a technical point of view, because this player inherited
the ingredients of the big transport/DAC combination DP-800/DC-801, which
Accuphase presented last year. The DP-700 has also got the massive Accuphaseproprietary CD/SACD transport with dual laser, which in Winfried Andres' opinion
takes a big share in the sonic improvement of the top combination: "This transport
has put us a far step ahead." Well, I don't hesitate to believe that, because it was thesame with the DP-500 (issue 3/2007) which also took advantage of the proprietary
CD drive.
Even more so, the digital signal processing has put on some considerable
weight when compared to the DP-78, although the same converter chips by AnalogDevices (AD1955, 24 Bit/192 kHz and DSD) haven been employed in both CD/SACDplayers. OK, in the DP-78 there were just six of them whereas for the DP-700 two
more had been added in order to get altogether eight converters per channel inparallel configuration. Accuphase dubbed this principle "MDS++", which, after thesumming up of the signals, is to achieve an overall cancellation of errors occurring ineach single converter chip.
We all know however that 1-Bit-DSD signal processing cannot do without
noise shaping in order to yield the highest possible dynamic range. Noise shaping isto push the quantisation noise out of the audible range, whereby the noise portions
are not eliminated but only moved out of the way, so to speak. The price to pay forthis measure is that the noise in the highest frequency range is even becomingstronger - and has nevertheless to be filtered still. The good thing is that this filter is as opposed to CD - active far away from the audible range. On the other hand, it isquite difficult to design such a filter which can capture and suppress the "highfrequency mud" up to the highest frequency ranges.
For SACD playback with the DP-700, Accuphase is even using upsampling forthe already doubled DSD sampling rate of 5.6448 MHz, yet the delineated problem
isn't becoming smaller with that. Nevertheless, the engineers at Accuphase found avery clever answer by employing so-called delay devices which, in a time-delay
manner, are to trigger the eight converters progressively by one clock cycle. The
following summing up of the eight converter output signals has been designed toachieve an 8-pole high-cut filter with perfectly linear phase characteristics in order tosuppress the high-frequency noise portions, too. All this is followed by an analogue
filter with Butterworth-characteristics, which is discretely present for both the inverted
and non-inverted path at the balanced outputs. The result of this effort is anabsolutely first-rate signal-to-noise ratio, whereby the DP-700 has set a new
benchmark with respect to lowest distortion.
Our measuring lab went enthusiastic: "The best component we've ever had on thetest bench yet!" As opposed to the DP-78, the DP-700 excelled by 7dB as far as
signal-to-noise ratio was concerned and is thus at the same high level as the CD-onlyplayers from Accuphase. Likewise, distortion values are head and shoulders above
the rest - that's digital technology at it's best.
The comparison with the CD-yardstick Mark Levinson ML 390S was a pure joy
because both feature digital inputs and outputs, which enabled us to directly compare
the transport and converter section of each player. Furthermore, the DP-700 has got
a digital volume control, which nevertheless can be argued for the playback of CDs.
In my humble opinion, a digital volume control, which tends to weaken the resolution,
should have no place in a 16-Bit system. It's because in every day's life I supposethat even the DP-700 will in the first place be fed with CDs.
By the way, the DP-700 comes supplied with a good interconnect in theaccessory kit and therefore I would first go for a better mains power cord. Regrettably,
this lead is of the RCA-variety, yet the DP-700 definitely deserves to be connected inbalanced/XLR mode (it could be considered a great service if the customer had thechoice here).
Let's begin with the sonic description of the DP-700 rendering SACD, because
this is - purely and simply - exemplary. When I compared various hybrid-disks thegain face to face with the CD track was unmistakable with respect to authenticity andrichness of timbre in the music. In particular "critical" material excelled here, like forexample works for solo oboe (Caro Mitis 32003, recorded with Polyhymnia- andMeitner-equipment) which when played as CD sounded a bit compressed and more

nasal via the 390S, whilst the SACD track of this disk played through the Accuphase
had more musical flow and brilliance.
Interestingly, the CD rendition of the same piece sounded smoother with theDP-700, whereby the Levinson put an emphasis on prosaic precision (a character
that could collect some brownie points with other music). Later, we were to encounter
this "fingerprint" of the DP-700 over and over again. It is in fact an extraordinarily
diverse player, which in all its fidelity is constantly striving for harmony. The more
complex and "difficult" the music, the better it could put itself into the limelight. Just
an example: already from CD, a good harpsichord recording (Denon One Point)
sounded simply marvellous, tremendously colourful, yet without getting annoyed by
all that brilliance.
Direct comparisons revealed that an astonishingly big part of this performancecan in any case be attributed to the Accuphase transport (it goes without saying that
this was done under absolutely identical conditions including same power chords andsupports). I was actually prepared for something special going on, but then I waseven more surprised that from a CD - recorded in a dry studio environment - thevoice of a speaker, who was merely reading off a text, could take on such a different
character. The DP-700 gave this voice a tonally nicer touch whereas the transport ofthe 390S (via Accuphase converter) rendered the fine modulations of the speech withsomewhat better articulation.
Owing to our comparisons at the highest level, one is easily and quickly torn
between these poles. There was nothing like the simple "better or worse". To further
emphasise this, let's take two classic hits of Elvis (master-tape copies from CD): therather concise ML 390S was able to convey "Fever" with more "heat" and a driving
groove. On the other hand, when we played "Suspicion", the elegant Accuphase had
The King's voice sounding with a lovely erotic mellowness and alluring charm, so thatyou immediately would ask yourself: why cannot all digitalised music sound sostunningly beautiful? As CD player the DP-700 is like no other able to retain just theright measure of the product "well-balanced nature x beauty", and for this reason thisAccuphase seems like heaven-made for every lover of classical music. Who, I'm
quite sure, would also cherish its unparalleled brilliance when playing back SACDs(just listen to Heifetz' Living Stereo recordings).
Summing Up
The Accuphase DP-700 is a fascinating dream player, shining with exquisite
craftsmanship and technical specifications, which can without any doubt beconsidered the finest available in the digital world of today. Furthermore, it unfolds asonic elegance which by a great deal can clearly be attributed to its outstanding
CD/SACD transport. Yes, such dreams do have a price – how good for all thosemusic lovers who can make their dreams come true.
--- no more ---