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Recommended Component 2024 – Stereophile
"Mighty Impressive Sound," Notes Stereophile
The Alchemy DPA-2 Power Amplifier is all about dynamic musicality, thanks to design that combines Class A circuit topology composed of discrete FETs and a linear power supply using a toroidal transformer. It is a stellar Alchemy product from the wizards on ELAC's design team, led by the legendary designer Peter Madnick of Audio Alchemy and Constellation Audio fame.
The DPA-2's pure analog input stage preserves all the detail and nuance of the most delicate passages. The Class D output stage with switching power supply results in impressive output combined with cool-running efficiency.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the ELAC Alchemy DPA2 by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "Although the Alchemy DPA-2 is a stereo amplifier, JVS auditioned it as a pair of bridged monoblocks, commenting that in this mode they were 'the finest low-priced power amplifiers I've encountered.' 'What caught me off guard, and pleasantly, was the wide range of color I heard from these inherently musical amps,' he added, concluding that 'Peter Madnick has exceeded his goal to provide the kind of real-life transparency and clarity that you would not expect at this price point. 'Maximum power is specified as 325Wpc into 4 ohms in stereo mode—JA measured 339W into 4 ohms and 202W into 8 ohms at 1% THD+N. As a bridged monoblock, the 'powerhouse' DPA-2 delivered 590W into 8 ohms and 550W into 4 ohms.
"Refined Sweetness"
In his CES 2018 post dated January 15, 2018 for Stereophile titled "Impressive Sound from Elac," Jason Victor Serinus notes, "The Alchemy-series electronics also sounded significantly more open and colorful than I've heard on other occasions, thanks in part to the manufacturing and sourcing capabilities of 91-year old Elac, enabling Madnick to up the quality of his components while lowering the price."
Writing about ELAC's CES 2018 system, featuring the Alchemy Alchemy PPA-2 phono preamplifier and DPA-2 power amplifier, Julie Mullins observes in her January 22, 2018 post for The Absolute Sound magazine, "The refined sweetness of Julie Sternberg's violin on the Wilson Audio Recording of the Debussy Violin Concerto soared with remarkable resolution and a degree of timbral accuracy seldom encountered at this price. No upper-octave harshness or glare here."
Flexible Power in a Small Package
The power output of the Alchemy DPA-2 isn't just formidable, it's easily configurable for the needs of every system. Producing 325 watts-per-channel in stereo, the Alchemy amplifier can be easily switched to deliver 650 watts in monaural mode, which is sufficient to drive the most demanding, power-hungry loudspeakers.
The DPA-2 is loaded with must-have features and meticulously designed circuitry that's fully balanced from input to output, starting with user selectable high/low gain settings to match any preamplifier.
It boasts a fully discrete FET input stage with DC servo-controlled output stage, ultra-low-noise DC voltage regulators, a toroidal transformer and linear power supply for the input stage, and a high-efficiency, low-noise switching power supply for the Class D PWM output stage. The output power can be read out on the LCD information screen.
Inputs pairs consist of unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR. Outputs are two pairs of high-quality 5-way binding posts. There is a 12-volt trigger input and pass-through, too.
The Art of Alchemy, Reinvented
Designed ground-up by the ELAC team, the new Alchemy Series gives birth to a marriage of technologies, bringing further advances to a name known for delivering performance and build quality far exceeding its price. Every component incorporates relevant, well-thought-out features and topology that are important to critical listeners, like discrete implementation of power supply, preamplifier, and signal processing to bring you best-in-class sound. With years of experience in award-winning analog and digital products, the Alchemy Series establishes a new standard for value in the world of high-end audio separates.
From its early days right up to the present, the name Alchemy has always been associated with high performance and high value. Audio Alchemy, founded in early 90's, built its reputation on outstanding technical performance not seen at similar price points. It researched and executed improvements of digital audio playback and was instrumental in discovering the effect of Jitter on the recording and playback of digital audio. The company also pioneered a resolution enhancement algorithm, a technology that combined a jitter reduction circuit with a Digital Signal Processor and is still used to this day.
