If you love classic hi-fi, you’ll love our Hall of Fame
Welcome to our relatively new Hall of Fame, a page dedicated to showcasing the best hi-fi equipment I’ve seen and worked on, in terms of design, construction, and performance. I’ll include links to relevant articles, where they exist.
Accuphase A-75 Class A Power Amplifier
Having finally gotten my grubby little mitts on my new Accuuphase A-75 class A power amplifier, I can confirm that it is easily the best-sounding amplifier I’ve ever heard or owned. You might expect this though, given the $35,000 AUD retail price, matched by its replacement the Accuphase A-80.
Quad 405-2 Power Amplifier
The legend, the bargain, the miniature, the Art Deco Quad 405 and 405-2 power amplifiers are, without doubt, legends of the modern hi-fi era.
I’ve written extensively about these beautiful designs in what have become some of my most popular articles. I still have mine and won’t sell it. The Quad 405-2 absolutely deserves its place in the Hall of Fame.
Perreaux PMF-5150B Power Amplifier
The sublime and stealthy Perreaux PMF-5150B has been the heart of my reference system for 5 years, until only recently, thanks to a tip-off from my friend Jason, who has four of the bloody things!
These 500-watt-per-channel MOSFET power amplifiers are absolutely beautiful, if a bit big and hot running, as you would expect of an amplifier that draws a continuous 300 Watts!
I’ve recently sold the beast to a very happy customer – thanks, Brian, for being so supportive over the years, and I’m so glad you are enjoying this wonderful amplifier!
Read more about this lovely old girl in the Perreaux PMF-5150B sold items listing.
Accuphase DP-90 Precision Compact Disc Player
Sweet baby Jesus, I’ve never seen a CD player this well-built or heard a CD player this good, and I’ve seen and heard a few. I’m so glad I added this Accuphase DP-90 to my system, followed closely by the incomparable Accuphase DC-91.
You can read more about the incredible Accuphase DP-90 compact disc player in my DP-90 repair article.
Accuphase C-280V Precision Class A Preamplifier
If you love gear with stratospheric build quality and performance, you simply cannot go past the Accuphase C-280V precision preamplifier, the very top-of-the-range for this prestigious Japanese engineering-first hi-fi manufacturer, back in 1990.
You can read all about the Accuphase C-280V in my Accuphase C-280V service article.
I owned one of these and can attest to the superlative build and performance, and the back-breaking weight of what is just a preamp after all! Four transformers, 12! filter capacitors and milled and machined aluminium everything, plus a $500 volume potentiometer, add up to a heavy hitter.
This is good for a couple of reasons. Top of the range meant nearly 1,000,000Y and the current top-of-the-range Accuphase replacement is $50,000 AUD. It also means you get a seriously good phono preamp that smacks around $5000 separate phono preamps built right in. The separate Accuphase phono pre you’d need to add to the line level only current top preamp costs another $20,000.
This is outrageously good gear by any measure, and I’m happy I bit the bullet and bought one. My Accuphase C-290 is even better, though!
Accuphase P-360 Power Amplifier
A lesser-known gem from Accuphase, the P-360 is a 200 Watt per-channel beast in a svelte and very attractive 30kg package. This amplifier hails from the golden era of Accuphase, which for me is around 1982 – 1995. Superbly well-built and with amazing sonics, I am so glad to have owned this beauty.
Read all about the overhaul of this beauty in my Accuphase P-360 overhaul article.
