This is the top of the integrated amplifier market, where the design goal stops being a compromise between cost and performance and becomes simply performance. Two amplifiers in our range sit at this level, both from Accuphase, and both run in pure Class A.
If you have arrived here from the brackets below, the question you are probably asking is whether an integrated amplifier at this price can genuinely compete with separate preamplifier and power amplifier combinations. The answer is yes, and the reason is that a single chassis removes an entire set of interconnects, connectors and impedance mismatches from the signal path.
The choice between these two is narrower than the price gap suggests, and it comes down to how demanding your speakers and your room actually are.
Accuphase E-700
Accuphase
The E-700 is a pure Class A integrated amplifier rated at 35 watts per channel into 8 ohms. As with the Luxman L-100 in the bracket below, that number tells you almost nothing useful on its own, and the figures that follow it tell you everything.
Power doubles to 70 watts into 4 ohms and doubles again to 140 watts into 2 ohms. Very few amplifiers at any price double cleanly twice. It demonstrates a power supply and output stage with enormous current reserves, and it means the E-700 treats a speaker whose impedance dips to 2 ohms as an ordinary load rather than an emergency. This is why it escapes the restriction that normally comes with Class A operation. You get the crossover distortion free midrange of Class A without needing unusually sensitive speakers to make it work.
The damping factor is 1000, total harmonic distortion is 0.03 percent into 8 ohms, and the signal to noise ratio is 121dB. Idle power consumption of 178 watts is the honest cost of Class A operation, and it tells you the amplifier is doing exactly what it claims. It will run warm, which is normal and expected.
What this amplifier is for is a resolving system where you have stopped upgrading speakers and want to hear everything they can do. Against the Accuphase E-4000 below it, you trade a great deal of rated power for Class A operation and a significantly lower noise floor. Against the Luxman L-509Z you trade the Luxman tonal warmth for Accuphase neutrality and control. If you have heard Class A and understood why people pursue it, this is the amplifier that removes the usual reason not to.
Accuphase E-800S
Accuphase
The E-800S is the flagship integrated amplifier in our range and it extends the E-700 argument from a higher starting point. Fifty watts per channel into 8 ohms, doubling to 100 into 4 and doubling again to 200 into 2 ohms, all in pure Class A operation.
That second doubling is the specification to understand. An amplifier that delivers 200 watts into a 2 ohm load is treating an impedance that would shut down many designs as an ordinary working condition. Combined with a damping factor of 1000 and a signal to noise ratio of 122dB, the highest figure of any integrated amplifier we sell, it describes an amplifier that is simply not troubled by the loudspeaker connected to it.
The physical difference from the E-700 tells the same story. The chassis grows to 35.7 kilograms against 24.9, and the depth increases by nearly three inches. That additional mass is power supply and heatsinking, which is what Class A operation at this output demands. Idle consumption of 190 watts is the honest running cost.
Where it separates from the E-700 is headroom at the extremes. On large scale orchestral material played at realistic levels, or on speakers that are both inefficient and impedance hostile, the E-800S stays composed in passages where the E-700 is working hard. In a normally sized room with speakers of ordinary sensitivity, at the volumes most people actually listen at, you may never reach that point. That is the honest summary, and it is why the E-700 remains the right choice for most systems that can justify either.
Where to go from here
These two amplifiers are the end of the integrated road in our range, so there is no further bracket to point you toward. What is worth saying instead is where the remaining gains live once you are here.
At this level the amplifier has stopped being the limiting factor in almost every system. If you own either of these and still feel something is missing, the answer is no longer a bigger amplifier. It is the loudspeakers, the room itself, and the quality of the signal arriving at the input. Room treatment and speaker positioning routinely produce larger audible changes than any amplifier upgrade at this price, and they cost a fraction as much.
The one genuine step beyond an integrated amplifier is separating the preamplifier and power amplifier into different chassis, which removes the shared power supply and the physical proximity between the small signal and high current stages. That is a real gain, and it is also a considerably more expensive and more complicated system. If you want to talk that through against what you already own, call us.
Other price points
Every amplifier listed here is one we stock and sell. Specifications are the manufacturer published figures. Current pricing is on each product page. If you want help matching one to your speakers and your room, call or email us and we will talk it through.