Many amps and preamps have come and gone out of my system. I always felt that preamp is the most important part of a great sounding audio system. A good preamp will let you hear how good your source is and how good your power amp is.

I have head some great preamps before, such as McCormack TLC, VTL(Tube based), Morrison ELAD, Audio Research LS3B. All have stayed in my system for a certain time but I was not satisfied with any of these.
I could not afford a new Accuphase two channel preamp. One day saw this, price was good, condition was brand new, so I bought this, and it has been over six months now, and I am very happy indeed with this Accuphase CX260. It can be used as either 2 or 6 channel home theater preamp, I use it in two-channel configuration, and it sounds just like the source you use with it, CX 260 does not have any of its own sonic signature.

This particular preamp, talk about generous number of inputs, it has total of 10 inputs including balanced inputs as well as on RCA.

At this time, I have a Proton D1200 (Poor man's Accuphase) power amplifier. It sounds terrific.

The Speakers I have is a pair of Infinity IL10, talk about music heaven, silky highs and midrange, and great bass. The overall sound is soooo seductive, leaves you desiring for nothing more.

I am very happy with Accuphase CX260 Preamplifier, I am keeping my eyes open for a Accuphase Power amp.

Sounds great if not compared to similar and as (or even less) expensive gear. Really good with its own P600 multichannel power amplifier. Just don't compare them with others.

In my setup, with my B&W N803 speakers, it sounded too analytical, clinical, almost like digital. Not enough musicality in general. A pity, because it looks nice in every aspect.

Plinius Odeon multichannel amplifier with Accuphase CX-260 preamp : See also my review on Plinius Odeon amp. Starting by the Odeon together with the expensive Accuphase CX-260 pre, we immidiately reached a very high level of performance. Nothing really bad or negative could be said at that moment. It certainly was an important challenge to the Classé combination that I will discuss later on. After deepgoing listening I might say that together they sound very good, but there was some missing link, call it need for coherence. I guess this is due to the very analitical Accuphase preamp that I already disliked a bit somewhere before. Compared to the Belcanto Pre6 to whom The Plinius Odeon was coupled with before, this Accuphase again proved to be far too stressed up, too bright, too less involved. No emotion was felt, it sounded I would even say a bit digital. Conclusion : After all, the combination of the Odeon with the Accuphase pre was not anyone’s favourite present in my house. Nor was it mine. Nor was it my dealers’.

Similar Products Used:

Belcanto Pre6 preamp Plinius Odeon poweramp Teac Esoteric DV-50S Classé CA5200 power + CP500 pre B&W Nautilus N803 See also my review on the Plinius Odeon poweramp.