Accuphase or Musical fidelity for Focal Micro Be

Hi all,

Firstly, I would like to wish a "Happy New Year!" to everyone. Secondly, I should apologias for my very late reply. December was extremely busy, both at work and at home (also at the HiFi store). Nevertheless, I am back with great news.

I have bought myself two Accuphase units, i.e. the E-550 amp and the DP-500 cd player. As, Accuphase has just replaced the E-550 amp with the E-560, I've got a great deal from a local dealer for the E-550/DP-500 combo. Not only did I got a substantial discount for each unit, but the dealer also gave me credit for my Musical Fidelity A5 combo and also for a pair of Dali Helicons 300 with the original stands (which I did not used since I've got the Micro Be). Of course, I've bought two demo units but with full warranty.

As you can all imagine I am an extremely happy man now with not much money left in his account. Even with the substantial discount I have received I have still spent twice of what I had planed. My wife made it very clear that this was not a Christmas present, but rather my present for the next few years.

Now, regarding the sound, in my opinion the Accuphase combo together with the Focal Micro Be are a match made in haven. Personally, I find the Accuphase combo and the Focal Utopia speakers very similar in character. By similar I mean that 1) both retrieve tones of details without being thin and/or fatigue, and 2) both can play superbly any type of music.

Since my purchase I have listen to half of my music collection, e.g Metallica/Megadeth, Diana Krall/Norah Jones, Loreena McKennitt, Bill Evens/Chick Corea, Ludovico Einaudi, Bach, etc. and I am yet to find something lacking in the reproduction of every music gender. Everything sounds that way it should, nothing is recessed and/or accentuated. Of course, since the system consists of a 30 watts amp and a pair of monitors it can't reproduce the dynamics of a full orchestra or a big band. However, this is not a limitation for me as I am not listening those genders.

I have to go now as it is very late. I thank you all for posting your advices and/or opinions. Somewhere this week I will answer all your posts. I will also post more details about the auditions prior to my purchase, and of course thoughts about my new system.

Best wishes!

Congratulation.
I have been in the same dilemma, choosing between the Accuphase 450 and the new 560, to drive Focal Electra 936.
In my experience, Accuphase and Focal go together very well.
I was worried about the ability of the new 560 to drive the speakers and future Focal scalas :). so I bought the 450.
Boy, after 50 hours of break in (the first 30 hours were horrid), this is a really great amp - a substantial improvement over the Accu. 213 I had.
I am sure the 550 is more refined.
Do you think the 550 has enough power to drive big speakers in big rooms?

Congratulation to you too Itzoros.

From my experience so far with the E-550 amp, whether or not the E-560 has enough power to drive your speakers depends mostly on the type of music you are listening and on how loud you like to listen to your music. I have found that the E-550 amp never run out of steam when playing rock music, e.g. Metallica, Dream Theatre, Rush, etc.. For some reason this music is recorded much louder than the rest of the music. When listening such music, I find the sound level to be good to almost loud when the meter indicators of my E-550 are around -30 dB (at -20 dB the music is way to loud). Clearly, as this music has almost no dynamic variations, the E-550 will never run out of steam. However, when listening to orchestra music the E-550 can run out of power. In my room, for good levels when listening to orchestra music the meters indicators should be around -20 dB, i.e. you will have 20 dB for dynamic variation, which should be enough in most of the cases. However, this will not be the case anymore if you want to listen at louder volumes.

I should also mentioned that in my experience the room size is not the most important factor. For example, in the dealers room I was able to make the E-550 (driving my Focal Micro Be) to clip by playing Loreen McKennitt (!). That is, the meter indicators went into the red area (above 0 dB) for fractions of a second, when Loreena was rising her voice while her entire band was playing. The dealer's room is approximatively 4.5 x 3.5 meters. At home, on the other hand, were I use the Micro Be speakers together with a REL Stentor 3, this has never happened. My room is 4 x 7 meters and I am listening along the smaller side. I should mentioned that in the dealer's room I was sitting further from the speakers than I do at home, i.e. 3 vs. 2.5 meters.

Finally, I should also tell you that in the dealer's room I have compared my Micros to the Wilson Sophia 2. On paper the Sophias have the same efficiency as the Micros, i.e. 89dB. The E-550 had absolutely no problem to drive the Sophias, the room was filled with well controlled and very low bass. Also, when driving the Sophias clipping did not occur earlier then it did when driving the Micros. However, the E-550 became hotter. Thus, since on paper your future speakers are more efficient than the Sophias. i.e. 92 vs 89 dB, I would say that the E-550\560 amp should have no problem driving them. But, as one can never be sure do not go for the E-560 without actually driving the Scalas with it.

Hope this has helped.

My current speakers are Focal Electra 936 which are 92 DB and go down as low as 2 Ohms (according to unofficial information gave me from Focal ).
I think the major problem for an amp. is the speaker load rather than their efficiency.
With the E 450 I hardly pass the 1 Watt mark in a room size 6 X 7 meters, and the sound is very powerful and big in all kinds of music and the only limitation is the room acoustic.
Since I like the sound of big speakers. I was really worried about the ability of 30W amp to drive those kind of speakers with ease.
Your description of the E550 go out of steam with Loreena McKennitt ( which is one of my first favorite), maybe proved I was right, because when I listening to Mummers Dance or Greensleeves (where she really shouts) the E 450 just cruise around 1 watt and the sound is very loud and relaxed.
I am almost sure the E 560 sounds more refined and controls the bass better than the E450.

The M3 is a great amp, but it gets distortion issues when the selector volume pots get dirty. There's only one guy who services them in the country.

On the other hand, the thing is built like a tank and sounds wonderful. A once every ten-year clean and tune is a small price to pay on this amp.