Look (Part III)
Not impressed yet that Internet experts do not know their engineering SI units but Accuphase do? Well, how about this gem, this is a screen cap of their PDF brochure.
Note the words guaranteed specs, and measured according to the JEITA standard CP-2402A. The statement is subtle, but these few words revealed just how proud they are with their products, how confident they are with their QA and QC. So much so they are happy to stand behind every product they make with a performance guarantee.
And they know what they are doing. The most important thing in measurements is reference and specifications. Measurements without these two as qualifiers are absolutely meaningless, Accuphase provided both.
How many times have you read on the Internet that “if something is different, then it is measurable"? Unfortunately these people are playing lab coat engineers. It’s flawed to assume measurements is perfect. You have to back up your measurements with at least the following:
- Why you measure the quantity this way
- Is there already a industry standard for performing this measurement (There can be lots of details in this, including defining the noise threshold, the range of acceptable values, false positives, etc)
- Is the measuring instrument calibrated
- Is the measured result corrected
- Has the entire series of measures been quality checked
There are so many what ifs and gotchas involved in measuring, a statement like “if something is different, then it can be measured” is hardly a tautology.
The why is too hard to explain for now, wait for this in an Audiophile Myth post instead.
Of the Accuphase literature I have read so far, AFAIK they have crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s when it comes to the measured specifications. Obviously I cannot vouch for the accuracy of their measurements, but looking at the correctness of the paper work alone, consider me very impressed.
Personally I cannot do a better job. As a matter of fact, forget about better, I cannot match their quality of work.
You get the idea now why Internet discussion tend to go around in circles and never end. That is because the goal posts keep changing. The whole idea of science and engineering disciplines is to stop the goal posts form moving. The difference between science and pseudo science hangs by a thread. Yes I am constantly being self aware that I must not end up preaching pseudo science, so back to the review we go.
What Accuphase has done so far, is above and beyond any audiophile company that I’m aware of. This is what makes a premium brand and how it separates from the middle of the pack manufacturer out there.
Ironically the letter J in JEITA probably means Japanese, meaning I still have absolutely no clue whatsoever what the specification actually is. But honestly that do not bother me now. I had quickly glanced (bare witness?) at the English manual of their C-3850 specifications page, cannot spot any mistake. In that defining moment I realised I have morphed into the Accuphase fanboy.
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