Yamaha A-1 Vintage Amplifier Review

[restorer-john]

From Restorer John's archive, here's a high res scan of the original brochure (Aug/1978)

 

[amirm]

That's it? Are they working for that price?

 

[Davelemi]

Damn! This review is going to drive hipsters to buy more vintage gear. I'll never pick up the old Kenwood receiver I had as a kid at a decent price now.

 

[restorer-john]

The power supply capacitors are top-brand japanese Nichicon. They did not look very fresh to me though even though they were supposed to have been replaced two years ago. Wonder if they used older parts.

Look at my brochure scan, the main filter caps have not been replaced...

 

[GrimSurfer]

Damn! This review is going to drive hipsters to buy more vintage gear. I'll never pick up the old Kenwood receiver I had as a kid at a decent price now.

It seems like they might be just as well off, compared with buying some of the shite on the market today.

 

[MZKM]

That's it? Are they working for that price?

For the most part:
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649349418-yamaha-a1-integrated-amp/
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details...-a1-integrated-amp-with-vampire-binding-post/

 

[restorer-john]

Speaking of beefy, the A-1 is massively heavy on the left side, sporting two independent transformers, one for each channel.

One thing to bear in mind, the two transformers are not for each channel. One winding from each transformer is used to power a common split rail. Note the single pair of main filter caps.

 

[restorer-john]

That's it? Are they working for that price?

Amir, you need to be smart about this. Insider trading and all. When a vintage item tests really well, you can buy up all the cheap ones before you write the review, sit back for a while, then list them one at a time and reap the enormous profit...

 

[GrimSurfer]

Amir, you need to be smart about this. Insider trading and all. When a vintage item tests really well, you can buy up all the cheap ones before you write the review, sit back for a while, then list them one at a time and reap the enormous profit...

PS. Use terms like "dude", "man" or "bro'" in your adverts. Hipsters search for these terms, as they signal authentic analog sound. Much in the same that people swing the term "pro audio" around like a dead cat to explain away poor measured performance.

 

[Tks]

Yes. Or... a 42 year old unit stored in a damp shed and sporting its original filter capacitors has a measured SINAD performance comparable to that of a new Crown XLS 1502.

Makes one laugh...

And should make Crown cry. But what does shame even mean to companies in the modern day if anything beyond PR backlash?

 

[restorer-john]

For the most part:
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649349418-yamaha-a1-integrated-amp/
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details...-a1-integrated-amp-with-vampire-binding-post/

Trouble, is that last one has been messed with. We have no idea who has been in there and how it performs now. For my collection, I always hunt down completely untouched originals. I don't care if they don't work, as long as some idiot hasn't been in there with a bag of random components, a plumber's soldering iron and instructions he found on the internet.

 

[GrimSurfer]

And should make Crown cry. But what does shame even mean to companies in the modern day if anything beyond PR backlash?

Well, to their credit, Crown doesn't specify its products for home audio. And the high levels of distortion aren't going to be apparent in a public setting.

So I have no enmity for Crown whatsoever. I just hope audiophiles will someday understand the differences in requirement and application for PA amps. It's kind of embarrassing.

 

[Mnyb]

So if one restore the powersupply it’s likely to get even better ?

Wonder how it performes drivning real speakers ? There have always been talk that these 70’s Amps performs well on purely resistive lab loads but not on a real speaker with impedance variations weird phase angles and back emf ?

This can of course be nonsense or half truths and part of the audiophile myths I absorbed during my time as an audiophool ( before coming to some sense ) so please correct me if it’s is bs.

Wonder how a power cube measurement would look ?

Off topic a Swedish magazine did an interesting thing in the early nineties they measured some amps with a real speaker.
They purpose built the speaker with extremely robust components and it was never intended for listening, but it had a “typical” impedance curve and was ported to exhibit those aspects to , port resonance etc. .
Some amps did deviate and showed 10x more thd around where e the “speaker” had sharp phase angles.
Sadly I don’t have it anymore.

Kudos to restorer John for keeping old interesting documentation.

Thanks to Amir and the owner of the amp for making this possible.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Off topic a Swedish magazine did an interesting thing in the early nineties they measured some amps with a real speaker.
They purpose built the speaker with extremely robust components and it was never intended for listening, but it had a “typical” impedance curve and was ported to exhibit those aspects to , port resonance etc. .

I'm not sure what a "typical impedance curve" is. They all look a bit different to me, probably because even when common drivers are used, the crossovers and enclosures are different.

 

[amirm]

For the most part:
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649349418-yamaha-a1-integrated-amp/
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details...-a1-integrated-amp-with-vampire-binding-post/

Those are very good prices. The last one is especially good since he addressed the main failing I found in binding posts:

 

[Xulonn]

I don't care if they don't work, as long as some idiot hasn't been in there with a bag of random components, a plumber's soldering iron and instructions he found on the internet.

For you younger members who have never seen a plumber's soldering iron, here's an old one...

 

[GrimSurfer]

For you younger members who have never seen a plumber's soldering iron, here's an old one...

View attachment 37077

At least that one has an audiophile cable connected to it though (from @restorer-john yesterday).

 

[audimus]

This is NAD T777:
View attachment 37066

This is Yamaha A-1:
View attachment 37067

The Yamaha is far cleaner when it comes to distortion products.

What would be far more useful is taking two products with different profiles like this and doing some empirical tests.

1. Can people reliably differentiate between the two in a controlled test?

2. If so, do people prefer one over the other in a statistically significant way?

Until the outcomes of such studies are available, the relevance of these measurements to audibility experience is an open question and largely academic.

 

[gvl]

Amir, you need to be smart about this. Insider trading and all. When a vintage item tests really well, you can buy up all the cheap ones before you write the review, sit back for a while, then list them one at a time and reap the enormous profit...

These vintage Yamahas don't come up cheap very often. Sure, with some luck you can score one at a garage sale for a song but prices at the usual channels like ebay and such aren't exactly appealing.

 

[amirm]

What would be far more useful is taking two products with different profiles like this and doing some empirical tests.

1. Can people reliably differentiate between the two in a controlled test?

2. If so, do people prefer one over the other in a statistically significant way?

Until the outcomes of such studies are available, the relevance of these measurements to audibility experience is an open question and largely academic.

Must we revisit this across every review thread? And how am I supposed to answer your statistical question?

I measure gear and talk about excellence in its design or lack thereof. If they are not material to you no matter what, then for heaven's sake don't read these threads. It takes a lot of work to do these reviews and it is disheartening to see them put down with comments like this.

And what is stopping you all from performing listening tests? What do you need me for?

Lest you think we are talking about impossible things, read this article: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ts-did-show-amplifiers-to-sound-different.23/