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$500 amplifiers to test and review?

Willem

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The Yamaha AS 500 (2x85 real and clean watts) was tested very well: https://www.avhub.com.au/product-reviews/hi-fi/yamaha-a-s500-amplifier-review-test-395710 Distortion and noise levels were vanishingly low, and frequency response under real loads was as flat as could be, and far better than many high end amplifiers. Its near identical successor, the AS 501, has additional digital inputs as well, and sells for 350 euro in Europe. Spending more for use in a small or medium sized room seems a waste of money, even if using expensive speakers. Alan Shaw (Harbeth) used the slightly more powerful AS 701 to demo his Harbeth speakers at a show, just to demonstrate that amplifiers do not need to cost an arm and a leg. In this day and age I cannot imagine ever buying an integrated amplifier without such digital inputs.
If it has to be really cheap and only for analogue sources, the Onkyo A 9010 is the cheapest reputable Japanese amplifier that I could find: only 189 euro.
 
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amirm

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Blumlein 88

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amirm

amirm

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OK, so those of you who are fans of Behringer, should buy the A500 from me so that I am motivated to buy another one! This thing is taking up a lot of space and I have no use for it.
 

sergeauckland

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The A800 is class D and nothing is similar to the A500 design.
I'm particularly interested in the A800, as I have three A500s driving my active B&W801s and I've been very happy with them.

I was originally sceptical of any product that cheap, but following the review by Peter Aczel from 2005, I bought them and they have performed as well as I'd hoped, and in line with his review. My own measurements reflect his, and all three are similar, so there was some consistency.

Having had them for over 5 years, what would I replace them with if one or more failed? I could just buy the same again, but am interested in Class D as performance could be even better, power consumption lower and mechanical transformer noise should be lower, not that they're particularly noisy, but three of them in a rack does generate a little mechanical hum.

Anyway, hope the A800 can be measured some day.

S.
 

JRG1488

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I'm particularly interested in the A800, as I have three A500s driving my active B&W801s and I've been very happy with them.

I was originally sceptical of any product that cheap, but following the review by Peter Aczel from 2005, I bought them and they have performed as well as I'd hoped, and in line with his review. My own measurements reflect his, and all three are similar, so there was some consistency.

Having had them for over 5 years, what would I replace them with if one or more failed? I could just buy the same again, but am interested in Class D as performance could be even better, power consumption lower and mechanical transformer noise should be lower, not that they're particularly noisy, but three of them in a rack does generate a little mechanical hum.

Anyway, hope the A800 can be measured some day.

S.

The crown xls1502 would be a good replacement, slightly better than the a500 especially at low frequencys. The a800 is cheaper and has more power than the crown so it would be interesting to see how the 2 compare.
 
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amirm

amirm

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HammerSandwich

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Seems like good value compared to, say, an official Audio Precision low-pass filter. <mic drop>
 

Biblob

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For the A800 they don't even release the specifications, only the power capabilities.
That isn't a good sign...


Found it:
Distortion: 4 Ohm 150 W @ 1 Khz = <0,08%
Signal-to-noise: >100 db (A-weighted)
400W in 4 Ohm
 
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amirm

amirm

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Seems like good value compared to, say, an official Audio Precision low-pass filter. <mic drop>
Their option to do measurement so that you don't an anechoic chamber (main use most of us would have for it) is another 19,000 euros! They make AP look like good guys. :)
 
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