Oh yes, and this one is also for sale!

Welcome once again folks to the fourth article in as many days. This time we’re looking at the overhaul of my gorgeous Accuphase P-360 power amplifier and what must be my last post in this seven-day posting epic. Writing these articles is involved and time-consuming but very rewarding. I’d forgotten how much I love to write once I get on a roll!

UPDATE: Offers received, thank you for the overwhelming interest in this piece. She is now SOLD!

As you might have noticed if you’ve been following along, I’ve just purchased something a bit silly, though long overdue. For that reason, I have to move some pieces on and this time it’s my current amplifier reference, my just overhauled Accuphase P-360 power amplifier.

Background

As some may know, Liquid Audio has become known for a couple of areas of work in particular – turntables, amplifiers, CD players, and a few key brands including Accuphase, Japan’s premier serious hi-fi equipment manufacturer. If you didn’t know which country/culture is the most serious about hi-fi gear, it’s Japan. Of all the Japanese manufacturers making commercial volumes of equipment, they make the best of it, in my opinion, having worked on and listened to thousands of pieces of hi-fi equipment.

Over the years, I’ve become somewhat of an independent Accuphase specialist. By this I mean that the factory gives me nothing, and I don’t tackle any warranty work, but I can and do work on a wide range of imported Accuphase products that the official repairers are not allowed to, and a bunch of other Accuphase gear that is out of warranty for example, typically a little older.

This gives me the flexibility to import, repair and service Accuphase equipment, offering added value to my customer base. The importer is happy that I’m caring for legacy Accuphase equipment, even though I’m not an ‘official’ repairer, so it all seems to work well and hopefully I’m not treading on any toes.

Actually, without wanting to sound anything other than proud of my endeavours, I know I’ve helped build the profile of the brand here and especially the popularity of their legacy products. Given how much I appreciate this company and their philosophy, and what a pleasure their equipment is to own and operate, this arrangement suits me well. You’ll be seeing many more Accuphase articles that I’ve been sitting on over the coming months.

This article is about the overhaul and sale of my P-360. I’ll add some review elements later, but to retain my reputation for impartial reviews, these are omitted for now. Suffice it to say that this Accuphase P-360 sounds as beautiful and muscular as she looks.

Features

The Accuphase P-30 is a classic class AB bipolar output device power amplifier, conservatively rated at 200 Watts per channel and boasting some nice features not often seen in premium equipment like this. These include a dedicated headphone amplifier, stepped attenuators, balanced and single-ended operation and of course those big, beautiful moving coil power meters.

The P-360 is a more recent design than the P-500 and P-300 series models you see quite a lot of here in Aus, and better too in my opinion. She features the coveted gold power button, indicating that it was part of Accuphase’s then newer, higher-quality tier of equipment. She also features the classic, classy persimmon wood side panels, and they’re perfect by the way!

A top tip for those wanting to build a super-system: You can bridge these amplifiers so that, with a second one, you’ll have 600 Watts RMS per channel and even more authority and grip over any speaker you can connect to them. Madness! Pairs of these are quite popular in Japan for example.

I imported this P-360 last year and have been using and enjoying it immensely since deeply overhauling her immediately after purchase. This thing is a powerhouse, packing a punch and if you read Accuphase’s datasheets, you’ll see that the 200-Watt rating is very conservative. She’ll crank out around 250 Watts per channel before any significant distortion creeps in, but that’s Accuphase for you. They guarantee 200 Watts. Cool. I love this approach.

You can read more about the Accuphase P-360 in the product brochure.

Accuphase P-360 Specifications

Courtesy of HiFi Engine

Power output: 200 watts per channel into 8Ω (stereo), 600 watts into 8Ω (mono)

Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 0.02%

Damping factor: 300

Gain: 28 dB

Input sensitivity: 1.59V

Signal-to-noise ratio: 120dB

Speaker load impedance: 2Ω to 16Ω

Semiconductors: 10 x IC, 32 x FET, 63 x transistors, 77 x diodes

Dimensions: 475 x 180 x 413mm

Weight: 27.4kg

Year: 1991

Overhaul

I should note that this completely factory-original Accuphase P-360 worked perfectly but sounded dull. She was very dusty and needed a deep clean and some TLC at 30+ years of age. As it turned out and based on some of the parts I tested upon removal, this was a timely overhaul too, because some of the smaller electrolytic capacitors were totally dead.

I replaced all small board-mounted electrolytic capacitors in both amplifier modules and most on the front panel board, added a couple of performance enhancing parts, deep cleaned/washed everything, removed and detailed the front panel and meters, and made all the electronic adjustments. She now looks and sounds a million bucks.

Let’s go!

Results

This meticulous and quite involved overhaul includes nearly day of labour, plus parts, a little under $1500 worth of work if I were charging for it. If you followed along, you’ll see why jobs like this usually take the best part of a day. I know that this attention to detail is rare but it’s worth it with equipment of this calibre and where people simply care about those details, and the results.

Owners often neglect to have overhaul work like this done and finding people who will really care for your equipment can be hard. Someone with a clue has to do the work, no escaping that, and that will never cost a couple of hundred bucks, as less diligent folks might suggest. If someone tells you something like this RUN! Mind you, for those scoping around for the cheapest rates on work like this, it’s probably not the sort of gear you should be looking at either.

At least this work doesn’t need to be done again for perhaps another 20 or 30 years!

Sonically, the work transformed this P-360, also noted by friends who heard her before and after. She looks and smells a lot cleaner, too. She sounded much sweeter and more open and lively after the overhaul, and the particularly muscular bass this model displays is now even more pronounced. If you love bass texture and detail, you’ll absolutely love this amplifier. Sound staging, resolution and timbre are also fantastic, as you would expect.

A pre/power amplifier combo is the only way to go if you are looking to seriously improve your system’s performance and currently use an integrated amplifier. This Accuphase P-360, partnered with say a C-270 will obliterate any integrated amplifiers I’ve heard, including Accuphase models. There are simply too many compromises in an integrated, mostly related to space and packaging.

She is For Sale!

As mentioned, I reluctantly need to move her on to make way for my next amplifier, arriving in a couple of days. This end-game piece is another Accuphase model, and details are coming, so stay tuned for that. I will acquire more equipment to work on, document and sell as it builds my experience base and makes for great content, so stay tuned for more of this sort of thing.

Accuphase P-360s is a premium, compact power amplifier capable of driving any speaker and sells for around $3,000 – $4,000 AUD, when you can find one, and 3,000 – 4000 Euro in Europe where they are more common. These prices are typically for un-overhauled units. This unit has been converted to 240V operation and comprehensively overhauled and serviced only a few months ago.

I’m offering this Accuphase P-360 for $4,250. That price includes a 3-month warranty, try getting that on another P-360. If you find a better or fairer deal, please let me know. If you’d like it, I’d love to sell it to you, preferably to a Liquid Audio customer so we can keep her in the family!

As often happens with the equipment I sell, I’ve had some interest prior to listing her today, so if you’d like her, let me know as soon as you can. I’ll respect the order in which I receive enquiries, so don’t stress. There is never any pressure to purchase and I always look after people in terms of the order in which they contact me. Local sale preferred.

UPDATE: SOLD, for considerably more than the asking price. Thank you to her generous new owner!

As always, thank you very much for visiting and please also don’t hesitate to let me know if you’d like me to service, repair, overhaul or restore your lovely Accuphase P-360, P-500, P-800 or any other lovely Accupohase power amplifier, bookings permitting of course.