Yamaha A-S501 2-Channel Integrated, 85W Stereo Amplifier, Black $764.24 (RRP $999) Delivered @ Amazon AU

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Gills on 02/06/2023 - 13:44 amazon.com.au (287 clicks)
Last edited 02/06/2023 - 14:13 by 1 other user

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Been looking for something like this for a few months now. Looking to use it with my ceiling speakers, I have two speakers in the alfresco and two speakers inside the living room.

Anyone has used this, any thoughts or is there something better than this(Preferably cheaper than this)?

ToP-ART (Total Purity Audio Reproduction Technology) and high quality parts; I/O (input to output) Direct Symmetrical Design
120W x 2 (max), 85W x 2 (RMS) high power output; Custom-made power transformer / 12,000uF block capacitors / Aluminium-extruded heat sinks
Simple yet sophisticated design (aluminium front panel and knobs); Auto Power Standby
Pure Direct Mode for Greater Sound Purity; Continuous Variable Loudness Control
Gold-plated speaker terminals and RCA (CD, Phono) and coaxial terminals; Digital audio inputs for TV or Blu-ray Player

Price History at CamelCamelCamel.

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• 

  coxymla on 02/06/2023 - 13:45

  +1

  Get an old AVR off Marketplace? Most of them even support multiple zones if you're not configuring them as 7.1 surround.

  • 

    willyroo on 02/06/2023 - 13:52

    Just sold a Denon AVR890 for 250 bux on MP - ideal for ceiling and alfresco speakers…

    • 

      Gills on 02/06/2023 - 13:58

      Will check this model out. Thanks

  • 

    sallan75 on 02/06/2023 - 13:56

    +3

    Home Theatre receivers sound like ass running in stereo.

  • 

    Gills on 02/06/2023 - 13:57

    All the AVR I see on marketplace have 5.1 or 7.1. Never come across multiple zones.
    Can you please suggest a couple brands/models?
    I appreciate your input

    • 

      sammajohnson on 02/06/2023 - 14:40

      Too many to name. Often the 6th and 7th channels of the 7.1 can be reassigned to a different zone. Other amps have a dedicated output. I’ve got an old Marantz SR5007 that you reassign and has a button on the remote to run the zone without waking up the whole amp.

  • 

    igerstep on 02/06/2023 - 15:37

    +1

    You compromise quality using an AVR for stereo.

• 

  m9 on 02/06/2023 - 13:49

  +3

  Should have grabbed this OP

  • 

    Gills on 02/06/2023 - 13:56

    Oh wow that was great price.

  • 

    hen dawg on 02/06/2023 - 15:18

    Checking Camels that was great price but short lived. Even so, it's been about $720 for some time since March so could well get lower than current price.

• 

  sqheaven on 02/06/2023 - 14:09

  +3

  AVR for movies, stereo amps for music

  • 

    sintro on 02/06/2023 - 15:31

    The Onkyo TX-NR7100 AVR sounds great playing music.

  • 

    zxcvb on 02/06/2023 - 18:43

    +3

    Not to start a debate, but any modern avr with discrete amplifiers are very good for most users. The ones from Denon have superior room correction to boot.

    In my study I have a modern Denon paired with a pair of B&W and they sound excellent. I can't hear any difference between this and a rotel amp. The only amp that was truly special for me and yet within budget was a vintage Cambridge audio amp which had a really warm sound

    I used to believe in this too that stereo amps for music, but unless you are an audiophile with expensive speakers, listening to high quality (good mastering without compression), and high bit rate music with good room acoustics, I would just stick to modern AVRs with discrete amplifiers. You get the added advantage of adding a sub without going speaker level inputs into the sub. Denon and Marantz are my favourites.

    If you still want a stereo amp, Marketplace has heaps of them for a third of your budget.

    • 

      tonyjzx on 02/06/2023 - 20:17

      a $2,000 avr should be very damn good at music

      a $500 one… hmmm

    • 

      sqheaven on 03/06/2023 - 00:28

      I have bought expensive stereo amplifiers, they do sound better and cleaner. The dual monos even better.

      The most budget should go into he speakers. My speakers are mediocre so I never cared to put a very high end amp. I have a Marantz SR7011 and moved away from it.

      AVR's are packed with features, an integrated amplifier is only built for one purpose, that's power amplification. The SR7011 does have a switch to turn everything off and just be a stereo amplifier but the problem lies in bass management. If you do LFE plus Main, then your bass is doubled. The speakers are playing part of the bass that subwoofer is playing. Taking full signal and feeding it to the sub is by far the best way to get the bass.

      I agree that AVR comes with tuning options, you can also do tuning with your DAC Amp setup, my DAC can send full signal on all outputs, the subwoofer can trim it down. Use dirac live to tune.

• 

  resisting the urge on 04/06/2023 - 14:57

  What makes this a good deal is that it is a 10kg unit with a reasonable power supply and large caps.

  Given that all of this is dedicated to driving two channels, with minimal circuit complexity introducing distortion, designed with modern transistors, might make it better than older amps built with this kind of 'minimalist' approach.

  However a modern AVR, with its far better integrated output stages (older ones could not compete on sound quality, and most were very unreliable) can also sound incredibly good and offer better value as others have pointed out. That said, many are built down to a price, with cheap power supplies, so can sound cheap and be nearly as unreliable as a used one built around an old IC!

  So the old rules still apply, in the segment you are considering, compare weight as well specs, there are many out there that claim amazing figures at the price, and the weight is a great indicator of which ones they are.

  I bought a 90-90W Sony like this for $200 that would give this a good competition- but once >10 years old it might need to be re-capped to succeed.