Yamaha A-S701 Stereo Amplifier Review

[holbob]

So the DAC measurement include the amp right? No directly comparable maybe to other DAC measurements on the forum.

No pre outs so it is comparable if using the digital inputs.

 

[Spoofer]

Amazon has the A-s301 for $315, with the 10% discount they are giving you ,for some reason...I think it's a steal at that price and the best deal on the internet. 60 wpm with many nice features. Hell, I might by one for a bedroom set-up.

 

[Kevinfc]

At first glance I thought this was something out of the 80’s that I had in my dorm room.

 

[Verig]

700 series is a very nice no-nonsense option. Plenty of power and looks good. It's too bad the price of the next step has climbed absurdly because those 1000's are a treat. Used to be much closer in price.

 

[kelesh]

At first glance I thought this was something out of the 80’s that I had in my dorm room.

I think it's great that Yamaha is making silver ones as well as black. Too many black boxes in the last 30 years, it gets boring.

 

[Doodski]

I think it's great that Yamaha is making silver ones as well as black. Too many black boxes in the last 30 years, it gets boring.

Yamaha used to offer a titanium finish too. It made the silver appear bland.
Here is a sample of the titanium finish. >>>

 

[natna]

This is nice A/B class amp, that cost 550euros in 2020 and went to almost 750 euros the last 3-4 years. Now it's 640euros in Greece.
I kept an eye for this, but I finally went for a class D one.

I like the looks and the form factor.
It sure has power!
Nice flat responce in CD Direct mode.
I don't have any problem with tone control. I actually like it (but loudness is a no go for me)
Ok SINAD...
DAC and phono is almost crap as expected.

In my opinion the Linear power supply is somewhat poorly implemented. There's some shielding, but it's really inadequate.
The biggest problem for me is Crosstalk. No way I ignore it!

Spoiler

I finally went for a SMSL D-6s + Topping PA5 II+ combo and I'm happy. I still miss more inputs or tone controls but you can't have it all.
(Since I like class A/B warmer "dirtier" sound, in the future I'll go for a medium priced dual mono - LM3886 kit)

 

[Randolf]

Nice review of an all time classic Yamaha symetric class A/B amplifier layout. The power amplifier was introduced in 1993 in the AX-570 and is still used with minor modificatons/refinements in A-S701 (2014) as well as in the corresponding Receiver R-N803D (2017) and the latest Receivers R-N800A and R-N1000A (2023). The biggest difference over time happened in the preamp stage, mechanical motorised switches and potentiometer had been replaced with electronic switches and volume controls together with removing the classic Yamaha REC-OUT selector and adding digital inputs and subwoofer output. The Receivers add Yamaha Musiccast streaming, DAB+, FM, YPOA room correction for a little extra money. All are solid build devices designed to last for decades. The audible perfomance of all is decent and very similar/identical. I own a AX-590 from 1997 and an R-N803D from 2018 and cannot distinguish the sound in a direct A/B comparison, both are still in perfect shape and proably will last several more years. Only the YPAO room correction of the Receivers is rather disappointing to me since it simply cannot compete with DiracLive. The headphone output is just basic since it is a high impedance output simply powered by the main amplifier via a 470 Ohm resistor instead of using an lower impedance voltage devider or dedicated headphone amp. Service Manuals for all except the very lastet 2 Receivers are available on the Internet. The Receivers have a nice little extra functionality which allows you to tune the volume independently for each speaker pair (+/- 10db), together with the musicast app which allows you to remotely switch between the 2 speaker pairs this makes it very easy to A/B compare loudspeakers of different sensitivity.

 

[kelesh]

Yamaha used to offer a titanium finish too. It made the silver appear bland.
Here is a sample of the titanium finish. >>>
View attachment 376370

Yes, I still have a couple of JVC boxes from the 90s in titanium. It's neat.

 

[Doodski]

Yes, I still have a couple of JVC boxes from the 90s in titanium. It's neat.

In a nice listening room, proper illumination and maybe a couple of candles too and then the titanium finish looks like way more expensive than it is.

 

[LugsyTL47]

And you have checked that the level was matched within 0.1dB, I guess. Otherwise, the A/B test is pointless.

Having perfect A/B test conditions doesn't account for the fact people hear with their eyes. We had a demo room years ago, would be 2 or 3 indentical 2ch setups depending on inventory. If we ran a "blind" test and told listeners only the amps were different, ever amp had a different sound from listener feedback. It was same feedback with sources and even same speakers if veiled.

 

[restorer-john]

In a nice listening room, proper illumination and maybe a couple of candles too and then the titanium finish looks like way more expensive than it is.

You loved Titanium didn't you. Over here, it only sold when Yamaha Australia killed the colour and blew it all out super cheap- like half price or less. Even then, we were stuck with odd pieces. Any colour as long as it was black in the early 90s sold here.

 

[Doodski]

You loved Titanium didn't you. Over here, it only sold when Yamaha Australia killed the colour and blew it all out super cheap- like half price or less. Even then, we were stuck with odd pieces. Any colour as long as it was black in the early 90s sold here.

Man alive! We where selling titanium like it was hot cakes. The customers liked it and some customers bought because they came in for a CD and walked out with a titanium system with speakers. My workmates where buying it too.

 

[laudio]

Ran into a Yamaha RX-S70 stack a few weeks ago on a thrift run and would have picked it up except for the display issues. Titanium finish was somewhat nice, will say that.

Yamaha has always made good stuff - the recent R-N600/800/1000/2000 lineup is pretty interesting but am too far down the rabbit hole into other gear to buy one new and try it. Quite certain they would do the job for anyone else looking to buy one integrated and be satisfied however.

Will always keep a Yamaha CA-810 around though, a true beauty.

 

[norman bates]

I wonder how this would compare to the similarly priced rotel a11 tribute mkii thing.....

 

[Jimster480]

Overall this isn't the worst performance I have seen. It seems like it would be mostly "fine" in many scenarios.

 

[restorer-john]

Interesting comments from members of an "objective" forum. It appears there is a real love of the appearance of vintage gear irrespective of overall performance, which I believe is just fair now we have the DAC measurements.

If you compare this Yamaha objectively with what is readily available today for a front end, say a Buckeye 502 (200 watts into 8 ohms) combined with a number of Topping DACs for less than $1k, both of which receive excellent reviews from Amir, then looks do play a large part in our decision making.

Just saying.

The Yamaha A-S701 is a comprehensively featured, attractive, well finished and built integrated amplifer with plenty of power at a bargain price, assembled in Yamaha's purpose built and owned Malaysian factory that has been producing the ToP-ART designs this is based on, for over 30 years.

It has a phono stage, an inbuilt D/A converter, facility for headphones and two independently switched sets of speakers, subwoofer out, as well as multiple digital and analogue inputs and outputs. It has tone controls, balance and adjustable loudness. The entire thing comes with a remote control to operate all the major functions. It has decades long proven reliability, runs very cool, is backed by a large worldwide service network, with a full range of reasonably priced spare parts outside of warranty and decent service inside warranty.

It also retains a good proportion of its purchase price should anyone ever wish to trade up or sell.

No contest.

 

[Ajax]

No-one has ever said it shouldn't. Objective audio performance is only one factor in the purchase decision. Aesthetics is another important one, as are feature set, brand reputation, pre and post sales support etc etc. In fact, for me - audio performance is the least interesting - as long as it is good enough. (Normally blue/green sections of the chart)

Hi Tony,

No doubt why forums exit, if we all agreed on what was important there would be little to discuss.

As an engineer (civil) in a previous life my own priorities are measurements and feature set as I keep all my gear in a ventilated cupboard. I manage it via my iPhone using an old SONOS Connect with digital out into a Benchmark DAC & Buckeye Hypex Amp. Sounds unbelievably good.

However, I'm firmly in Archimago's camp that the front end (Power amps and DACs) are now good enough and the pursuit of higher and higher SINAID is futile, although I wouldn't but anything that didn't get an excellent rating from Amir. There is a lot of inexpensive SOTA gear now to choose from and I see no reason to except mediocracy.

Just for the record my previous comments were more of an observation than a criticism - each to their own.

 

[dougi]

The Yamaha A-S701 is a comprehensively featured, attractive, well finished and built integrated amplifer with plenty of power at a bargain price, assembled in Yamaha's purpose built and owned Malaysian factory that has been producing the ToP-ART designs this is based on, for over 30 years.

It has a phono stage, an inbuilt D/A converter, facility for headphones and two independently switched sets of speakers, subwoofer out, as well as multiple digital and analogue inputs and outputs. It has tone controls, balance and adjustable loudness. The entire thing comes with a remote control to operate all the major functions. It has decades long proven reliability, runs very cool, is backed by a large worldwide service network, with a full range of reasonably priced spare parts outside of warranty and decent service inside warranty.

It also retains a good proportion of its purchase price should anyone ever wish to trade up or sell.

No contest.

On sale at some Oz retailers at a hefty discount at the moment too. ($1095 vs $1499 RRP)

 

[kkeretic]

Amazon has the A-s301 for $315, with the 10% discount they are giving you ,for some reason...I think it's a steal at that price and the best deal on the internet. 60 wpm with many nice features. Hell, I might by one for a bedroom set-up.

I bought my A-S301 about three months ago for 429€ at the local store and Amazon IT/DE listed it for 290-350€ a few days later . Regarding the sound IMHO it is as perfect as amp could be for smaller rooms and paired with some reasonable speakers within the amps power class. People talk all this A-Sx01 line is basically the same thing except for power. I am using it paired with the Wiim Pro Plus, miniDSP 2x4 HD, Dali Zensor 5 speakers and SVS SB-1000 sub on miniDSP. Measured with UMIC-1 and compared with my 25 years old Fase Performance 3.5 audiophile grade amp, the charts/results are practically overlapping. It works very nice and cool, looks nice, it is well priced. The A-S701 seemed to be overkill for my needs, even A-S501, considering the A-S301 is now fixed at less than half the volume and there is still room for lowering the volume in Wiim. And now I'm really happy to see the A-S701 did well in the review. So now I'm somehow even happier with my A-S301 .