Today I have unboxed and connected my new YAMAHA A-S501. I have "upgraded" from Marantz PM6002. The only reason for an upgrade was because the PM6002 doesn't have a designated subwoofer output. I have recently bought a good quality B&W ASW608 woofer and I really want to keep it.
When I demoed the Yamaha in a store, it sounded OK and it was hard to tell any major differences because of different room acoustics etc, speakers were also sligthly different (MA BR2, and I have the BX2's).
The only weird thing which I noticed whilst demoeing was bubbling sound when adjusting bass whilst playing the beginning of "Host Of Seraphim" by Dead Can Dance. The song starts with a sustained constant bass synth wave sound. When I adjusted bass levels whils this bass wave played, I could hear clicking/bubbling in the speakers. It didn't happen with other tracks I played on that day.
When I got back home I tried doing the same thing on the Marantz and there was no clicking/bubbling.
When I started listening to the music at home, I have noticed that treble adjustment is weak. On the Marantz I would have to turn it to max only with very unclear sounding tracks or speech. With this one, I am keeping it at max most of the time and there is hardly any difference between the max and 3 o'clock position. When turned to max I cannot hear the same sharp, mettalic sounding, clear high frequencies which I was able to hear on the Marantz set-up.
Same thing with the bass. Songs are lacking that punch I was used to with my previous amp. Today I played Marilyn Manson's Deep Six which is a heavy rock song which is supposed to shake the floor. I kept adjusting bass and treble, and couldn't get it to sound the way it should. Only when I turned on the X-Fi on my PC's sound card on, the song started sounding dynamic and gained some punch. I have listened to several other songs which I am familiar with and all of them were lacking a punch, bass, and treble, even with everything maxed out. It clearly sounds worse than Marantz.
Marantz amp has a "loudness" button which I used to keep switched on most of the time. It used to make everyhing sound so much better. Yamaha doesn't have that - it has a loudness knob instead.
Apart from the poor sound, I am shocked by how bad the remote control is. It looks so cheap and is very uncomfortable. Volume controls are positioned in the most awkward position possible - in the lower part of the remote. It makes me go mad.
Another thing is, the amp is gigantic, as big as an AV receiver. I don't understand why. I used to think that the Marantz was large, but this is just too damn big and heavy.
On top of all that, it gets very very warm, on the edge of HOT. Marantz used to be always cold. With this one I could smell the components in my room. I keep a CD player on top of it, and did the same with the PM6002 for four years, and the amp would never go any near the temperature that this one reached on day 1 of use, with rather low ambient temperature.
I think I am going to return it. I will keep it for a few days, hoping it will burn-in and start sounding better.
Tomorrow I will hook up the Marntz again and try connecting subwoofer to the Marantz's REC OUT or REMOTE CONTROL to see if it works this way. If it does, I will return the shitty sounding gigantic YAMAHA to the store and ask for a refund.
When I demoed the Yamaha in a store, it sounded OK and it was hard to tell any major differences because of different room acoustics etc, speakers were also sligthly different (MA BR2, and I have the BX2's).
The only weird thing which I noticed whilst demoeing was bubbling sound when adjusting bass whilst playing the beginning of "Host Of Seraphim" by Dead Can Dance. The song starts with a sustained constant bass synth wave sound. When I adjusted bass levels whils this bass wave played, I could hear clicking/bubbling in the speakers. It didn't happen with other tracks I played on that day.
When I got back home I tried doing the same thing on the Marantz and there was no clicking/bubbling.
When I started listening to the music at home, I have noticed that treble adjustment is weak. On the Marantz I would have to turn it to max only with very unclear sounding tracks or speech. With this one, I am keeping it at max most of the time and there is hardly any difference between the max and 3 o'clock position. When turned to max I cannot hear the same sharp, mettalic sounding, clear high frequencies which I was able to hear on the Marantz set-up.
Same thing with the bass. Songs are lacking that punch I was used to with my previous amp. Today I played Marilyn Manson's Deep Six which is a heavy rock song which is supposed to shake the floor. I kept adjusting bass and treble, and couldn't get it to sound the way it should. Only when I turned on the X-Fi on my PC's sound card on, the song started sounding dynamic and gained some punch. I have listened to several other songs which I am familiar with and all of them were lacking a punch, bass, and treble, even with everything maxed out. It clearly sounds worse than Marantz.
Marantz amp has a "loudness" button which I used to keep switched on most of the time. It used to make everyhing sound so much better. Yamaha doesn't have that - it has a loudness knob instead.
Apart from the poor sound, I am shocked by how bad the remote control is. It looks so cheap and is very uncomfortable. Volume controls are positioned in the most awkward position possible - in the lower part of the remote. It makes me go mad.
Another thing is, the amp is gigantic, as big as an AV receiver. I don't understand why. I used to think that the Marantz was large, but this is just too damn big and heavy.
On top of all that, it gets very very warm, on the edge of HOT. Marantz used to be always cold. With this one I could smell the components in my room. I keep a CD player on top of it, and did the same with the PM6002 for four years, and the amp would never go any near the temperature that this one reached on day 1 of use, with rather low ambient temperature.
I think I am going to return it. I will keep it for a few days, hoping it will burn-in and start sounding better.
Tomorrow I will hook up the Marntz again and try connecting subwoofer to the Marantz's REC OUT or REMOTE CONTROL to see if it works this way. If it does, I will return the shitty sounding gigantic YAMAHA to the store and ask for a refund.
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