Accuphase class A amps - going up the food chain from an A-48 to an A-80 or A-300?


Earlier this year I acquired Accuphase separates (C-2450 pre-amp, A-48 amp) and have been very happy with them.  

We have a decent resale market in Canada for Accuphase products, and I was able to snag a C-2900 pre-amp at a good price this past weekend.   We see mostly integrated amps on the resale market here, and current production separates are much harder to find.

The C-2900 sounds noticeably better than the C-2450, and it got me thinking about moving up from the "entry level" A-48 to either the mid-level A-80 or even the top of the line A-300 monoblocks (though size and expense are almost prohibitive).

Does anyone have any experience or advice about moving up from the A-48 to the A-80 or A-300 monoblocks?

BTW Accuphase pricing in Canada is significantly better than in the US - so much so that Canadian Accuphase dealers are not allowed to post prices online for fear of alerting US customers to how unfair pricing is in the US - and Canadian dealers are not allowed to ship to US customers. 

toronto416

@ckr1969 - My ire was directed at the old distributor who I understood was steadfast in their pricing. Is there a new distributor? That is good news! 

It makes sense that a preamp would sound better going up the chain but to me amps are a different cup of tea. Especially Class A amps so assuming you don't need the extra wattage it is entirely possible the A-48 will sound as good and possibly better than the A-80 or A-300.

I think that as you move up from the A-48 to A-80 to A-300 amps you are getting more than just increasing power (45W, 65W, 125W), but also improved performance.  For example increasing damping factor (800, 1000, 1000) and signal-to-noise-ratio (117dB, 123dB, 130dB) impact sound quality.