Dear donj,
In fact, when I bought my A-47, the dealer demo the E-600 to push one of the Taoc HI end bookshelf speaker (The one had been chosen by the leading choice for the Stereophile which cost about US$20,000/pair.). Together with the Burmester CD player and Burmester DAC. The overall sound is quite great with details, transparency, clean and very musical interpretation. I am using an old tube Pre which made by my former friend. He improve the AR's SP-3 somewhat about 30 years ago. It still sounds good except the parts are getting older and some times the sound is not balance (one side is bigger, one side with smaller volume.).
The overseas Accuphase selling price are much higher than those in Japan.... But we have not much choice, sometimes, the using of 2nd hand is one of the choice with affordable price.