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Yamaha A-1 Vintage Amplifier Review

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amirm

amirm

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It would be interesting if you measure the Yamaha A-S801 maybe the equivalent of this A-1, and compare both, the 801 include a delta sigma DAC with USB input.
It is a lot of money at $900 for me to buy it....
 

restorer-john

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It is a lot of money at $900 for me to buy it....

Why not borrow one from a dealer who sells Yamaha near you? All you'd have to say was "kindly loaned by Bingo's HiFi, Seattle for testing" and publish the test results, warts and all.
 
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amirm

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Why not borrow one from a dealer who sells Yamaha near you? All you'd have to say was "kindly loaned by Bingo's HiFi, Seattle for testing" and publish the test results, warts and all.
Who stocks this kind of thing anymore? Just looked and our nearest big box store doesn't.
 

restorer-john

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Who stocks this kind of thing anymore?

Apparently this operation can get hold of them.... ;)

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Surely Yamaha would lend you one, on appro, to test for future 2ch installs etc? Get the rep over, play a round of golf, you know, one hand washes the other etc...
 
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amirm

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Apparently this operation can get hold of them.... ;)
It "can" but I can't screw my own company. :)

But yes, I can ask for a review unit from local rep and get it. But then if it reviews poorly, Yamaha could beat the hell out of them potentially not giving them the representation in the future. They are one of our best reps so I prefer to not do that them.

At this point, the only option is that I buy it through my company. Problem is I get stuck with it if it doesn't measure right just like the expensive AVR I bought the same way.
 

Labjr

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I liked Harmon-Kardon amplifiers in the mid 80's. I had an HK870 amplifier and thought it sounded pretty good. However, I'm not sure how it measured.
 

GrimSurfer

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It "can" but I can't screw my own company. :)

But yes, I can ask for a review unit from local rep and get it. But then if it reviews poorly, Yamaha could beat the hell out of them potentially not giving them the representation in the future. They are one of our best reps so I prefer to not do that them.

Glad to hear that you're playing the long game, @amirm. Burning bridges never pays in the long run and many of us here wouldn't wish to see you put yourself (or others) in jeopardy for something as insignificant as this.
 
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GrimSurfer

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I liked Harmon-Kardon amplifiers in the mid 80's. I had an HK870 amplifier and thought it sounded pretty good. However, I'm not sure how it measured.

The specs suggest low noise (-98 dB) but high distortion (-63 dB) but I haven't seen any independent measurements to confirm any of this.
 

restorer-john

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The specs suggest low noise (-98 dB) but high distortion (-63 dB) but I haven't seen any independent measurements to confirm any of this.

They were very conservatively rated THD specs back then.

In my storeroom, I have (from the 1984/5 year), a PM-620, PM-640, 2x PM-650s and 2x PM-660s. The THD I measured at the time was below the residual of my gear (<0.002%-0.004%) even though they rated from 0.15% to 0.02% on the PM-660. I gave up trying to fault them. Even the little PM-640 is a jewel of an amplifier. My favourite is the PM-650. It doesn't suffer from the dry joint/thermal issues of the bigger brother from a vertically mounted VA stage.

Those amplifiers from Harman Kardon were lovely products, and over the years, I have collected a small number of them. Apart from silver oxide corrosion on the selector switches (they need to be pulled down and cleaned) and indicator bulb replacements, they are very reliable and sound magnificent.
 

Ceburaska

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In my storeroom, I have (from the 1984/5 year), a PM-620, PM-640, 2x PM-650s and 2x PM-660s.

Those amplifiers from Harman Kardon were lovely products, and over the years, I have collected a small number of them.
Masterful understatement there.
I am waiting for you to appear on one of those hoarder reality shows.
 

restorer-john

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I am waiting for you to appear on one of those hoarder reality shows.

Audiophile Pickers? Where they climb into my storage shed and offer some silly price for a pair of NS1000Ms or a partially dismantled GAS Ampzilla? I can imagine. Hopefully, I'm dead and gone... :)

Love it that you have a classic little CD-104. What a solid little beast eh? A bit like a fox-terrier if you ask me- compact, meaty and feisty. (like some girlfriends I've had)
 
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Ceburaska

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Audiophile Pickers? Where they climb into my storage shed and offer some silly price for a pair of NS1000ms or a partially dismantled GAS Ampzilla? I can imagine. Hopefully, I'm dead and gone... :)
Forget about flying to Japan for the World Cup, I’d be on a plane to Oz before you could blink. I’m not greedy, just a couple of HK amps from every year of the 1980s would do. And another pair of 1000Ms. And as much Sony ES as can fit in one TEU.
 

Ceburaska

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Love it that you have a classic little CD-104. What a solid little beast eh? A bit like a fox-terrier if you ask me- compact, meaty and feisty. (like some girlfriends I've had)
It’s actually rather good, although the tray is a little creaky on eject. But plays very well.
I’ll admit I only really got it to match the colour and dimensions of the Technics C01 system, plus to get an indestructible CDM1 in case my Sony player ever dies.
 

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anmpr1

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Have you seen this series? By the time I got into HiFi the Sansui brand had been trashed. The TU-X1 was quite a beast!
I enjoy his videos. He is usually doing something interesting on interesting gear. I remember one time how he's breaking down a high end Pioneer Series 20 tuner. My god! The thinking of the men who designed it was so off the wall. It's like they were saying, "We're going to make something state of the art, but will be laughing at you from our graves if you ever try and repair it!" But the reviewer kept plugging along and finally got it going. I would have deep sixed it from the get go.
 

anmpr1

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Don't forget, all the Quad gear initially came with European spec DIN connectors for inputs and outputs on the preamps and inputs on the power amps. ...It was only in later years (through the 34 and 405-2 years) where they changed over to RCAs. What changes to sensitivities they made, if any, I'm not sure.
Yes. I remember visiting London in the late '70s. I walked into a hi-fi store and bought a 33/405 combination sight unseen, and had them ship it to my US address. I'd only seen the front, but it was what I wanted. In fact, the store didn't even have them in stock. Back ordered. Must have been very popular.

Once the pair arrived (about two months later) I unboxed them, looked at the back and thought, "What the heck is this? Did Quad go Mark Levinson on me!" I spent the next two weeks driving around (no mail order Internet back then) trying to find DIN to RCA connectors.

I really liked the form factor, but these machines were definitely not set up, or designed for US audiophiles.
 

cistercian

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As I recall (and memory is not the best arbiter of fact), Yamaha was generally sold via dealers sans the usual "Pioneer" discount. Example: a Pioneer SA-9500 v2 integrated amplifier had a 'list' at $450.00, but mail order price was about $300.00. It had similar specs to this Yamaha... maybe better. Pioneer's massive SX-1250 receiver sported a $900.00 list, but mail order was about $550.00. Brick and mortars hated that, and by necessity gravitated to lines without this sort of discounting mentality. Eventually Pioneer became persona non grata.

The Yamaha dealer in my area sold SAE (a line of separates originally designed, I think, by Jim Bongiorno), Bang and Olufsen, and Tandberg. They even sold the Ira Gale/Sao Win turntable, along with Ira's speakers. You couldn't buy those brands at a discount. If you entered their store and admitted you owned a Pioneer, or were thinking about one, they'd laugh in your face (OK--maybe they'd be more subtle about it). They'd tell you how Yamaha was the 'real' high-end of Japanese electronics. Of course Yamaha 'sounded' better. They'd convince you of that.

Later, you might pick up one of the 'underground' hi-fi magazines. There, Yamaha would usually play second violin to some obscure American boutique manufacturer; a manufacturer that might not be in business a month later, after you spent a thousand dollars on his amp that just blew up, and took out your speakers. Then you'd wished you'd bought the Yamaha. Or Pioneer.

Even with all the politics and BS, gear from those days had a certain 'class' that you just don't find much anymore. My current amp runs circles around any of that era's stuff. But I'd like it even more if it looked as nice as some of the Yamaha (or Pioneer) electronics from those days.

I have an ancient Pioneer SX727 tuner/amp. It is a very high quality piece I got for free. I recapped it and used it for years.
It needs recapped again...but I won't bother. I like my ridiculous new system much more! Corrected for inflation it would
be about 2000 dollars today. One thing about the old 70s tuners that were good ones...they have fantastic FM receivers.
The AM BCB in most of them was pedestrian...but the FM tuners were excellent. They are sensitive, selective, and don't
overload when connected to a rooftop antenna. They blow modern receiver on a chip digital radios away...there is just
no comparison. Of course, I don't listen to FM anymore so that does not matter to me. But if you like to...try one out.
So much better than the crap made today. My pioneer has a mitsumi tuner in it. Multiple stages of tuned RF amplification
in a classic super-hetrodyne architecture. Fantastic!

Much more power/dollar is easy now thanks to class D and switching power supplies. But the new tuners suck.
Control feel and potentiometer quality are better in the old stuff too. Also no SMD devices make service a breeze.
Unless you need long ago discontinued transistors or a power transformer. Pots are not out there either...and they fail.

I love the old stuff a bunch. But they are fading into memory as they fail in unfixable ways. If nothing else, this test
shows how nice the old stuff was. But it was expensive too.
 

georgeT

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amirm I know we are all bugging you to review something from the A-S line but that's because it remains the only amplifier line that offers close to 100W at low distortion specification.
Denon comes close on power but are always rated at high distortion levels. Onkyo and Marantz have moderate distortion levels and moderate power ratings leaving us with Yamaha's A-S line.
 

eliash

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I have believed for years that the reason a lot of people didn't like CD when it came out was the high output of the CD player (the pre-CD standard was usually 150mV) clipping the input, as it would here.

That was the time, when I first used attenuator cables with resitor-dividers in the RCA-plugs...owned a Yamaha A-960 for 35y.
Upgraded it a bit over the years, e.g. lower impedance input circuitry (10K Alps pot) and gained some 10dB of S/N since the double JFETs in the input were much better, than the resistor noise from the 100K volume pot...bought it for 1000DM in 1982 (510€) and sold it for 200€ around 2015...
 
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