Yamaha`s A-S501 & 701 anyone?

[DanielTura]

I`ve read the review of the new A-S501 and im realy currious against its predecesor(wouldve loved a more detailed review)

I`d allso love to know how the 701 compares tho the 501 or the older 700

Anyone heard these new amps and care to share theyr impresions?(I for one have no way to audition them)

Acording to WHF it falls short in terms of sq to marantz`s pm6005 question is by how much(they said a bit but fells like negative review..maybe the reviewer expected more and was somewhat disspointed)

 

[Vladimir]

Aww poor Yamaha. A negative review again on WHF but a nice unboxing video on youtube. You can really apreciate the build quality, although the silver ones are more presentable IMO.

 

[DanielTura]

I have to say that I for one am not completly satisfied with how WHF reviews some of the components i wish they go into more detail(side by side comparisons , measurements , tehnical specs(and by that i dont mean what i can read in the manual or the developer website i mean opening the damn thing and telling us whats inside) wouldnt hurt).

I mean audio equips should be the main focus of a Hi-Fi magazine am i wrong here?

 

[matthewpiano]

WHFS&V is more of a general entertainment electronics title these days and in order to maintain its market leading readership it has to be fairly broad in scope. If it was more specialist it would probably struggle to exist.

 

[audiokid]

Would be interested to hear these two amps also. According to Harbeth, any competently designed amp should sound the same as any other, and DACs are at such a good level these days that this all in one should be perfect for any Harbeth speaker.

What's not to like? Ample power, tone controls, loudness for late night listening, decent DAC and looks well made, too. Feed it some lossless files and surely it sounds no different to any other well made system with some easy load sepakers like Harbeth?

 

[DanielTura]

According to Harbeth, any competently designed amp should sound the same as any other, and DACs are at such a good level these days that this all in one should be perfect for any Harbeth speaker.

Well thats not entirely true , agree sources dont make a huge difference they are a component tho..and most componets tend to shift tonality one way or another(even if just slightly) , but amplifiers will behave differntly depending on the load in adition to shifting tonality..best way to review is to blind test if you cant be objective(alot of people tent to get biased by the price.."its expensive it must sound good right?"..not allways.

PS.Does anyone know the power of the A-S500(or the A-S700 or both ) mains transofrmer?(im pretty sure the A-S501/701 use the same ones)

 

[drummerman]

Would be interested to hear these two amps also. According to Harbeth, any competently designed amp should sound the same as any other ...

Yes, how many times have we heard that and yet, most of us know that is just not the case.

So a Naim is bandwidth limited and has a low electrical damping factor (some would also say its pre-amp stage is way to sensitive thus making source input signals clip continuously ... see thread 'how far to turn up your amplifier' ). - Whatever may be the case, its engineered deliberately that way. The fact the company is seemingly doing well and has been doing so for a long time proofs that many like that 'unique' Naim sound, whatever the reason.

Naim is only one example. It is relatively easy for a half decent amplifier designer to make a 'text book' product which doesn't deviate to much from neutrality and measures well, there are plenty out there. Problem is, some people seem to find these (neutral) products boring or bland. (Naim's don't measure badly by the way)

Amplifiers imho do not all sound the same.

regards

 

[nopiano]

I find it curious that a few selective quotes from a Harbeths forum in a couple of threads here, and they somehow have an understanding that has passed us all by.

Amplifiers have always sounded different to each other, and will still do until long after I am pushing up the daisies!

I am a bit surprised that a company that I assumed had some integrity and enginerrng expertise should counter the loony/audiofool tendency with something almost as bonkers. Shows how desperate they must be, but great for believers that a cheap digital source and amp is all they will need with their very expensive Harbeth speakers.

 

[DanielTura]

I know it sounds bonkers but it is possible.Sources nowdays allready have a ridiculosly low THD so do a few inexpensive amplifiers...if those speakers are sensitive and stable (impedance wise) enough , a more expensive amp will not give much of a performance boost..so it is possible to drive them(i doubt that they that much of an easy load since they are 6ohm nominal , and might dip alot lower..havent seen the measurements)im talking about about a "theoretical speaker" like i said i have no idea how harbeths behave or measure..but if u can afford Harbeths u can probably afford a higher perfoming amplifier aswell.

 

[Vladimir]

I find it curious that a few selective quotes from a Harbeths forum in a couple of threads here, and they somehow have an understanding that has passed us all by.

Amplifiers have always sounded different to each other, and will still do until long after I am pushing up the daisies!

I am a bit surprised that a company that I assumed had some integrity and enginerrng expertise should counter the loony/audiofool tendency with something almost as bonkers. Shows how desperate they must be, but great for believers that a cheap digital source and amp is all they will need with their very expensive Harbeth speakers.

All amps should sound the same, like a wire with a knob, without adding or removing from the signal they amplify. The frequency response from the input should match the FR of the output. If they don't sound the same, they are:

1) Underpowered for their application. Every amplifier designer should have his ultimate goal to come as close as possible to an amplifier ignorant of speaker load and audibly indistinguishable matching input to output frequency response. If that goal is achieved, two amplifiers will sound the same when level matched to 0.1dB regardless of price and build quality.

2) Audiophoolery and salesmanship.

That is the public position of Alan A. Shaw, chief designer at and owner of Harbeth Audio. He represents the BBC engineer, high-fidelity-or-peril, objective scientific aproach that is the exact oposite of PRaT, musicality and just listen paradigm of Linn & Naim industries. The general opinion seems to be that Harbeth is far from desperate market wise.

Regarding cheap digital source being as good as expensive ones, that is also the position of Philips and Sony engineers, who created the technology. People who took that technology and brough it to market in the form of gazillion electronic gadgets that all sound different, they would of course disagree. People who create the technology (engineers) and people who create a product range and distribution system (marketeers) are not the same.

If you ask a farmer about the quality of his apples, he will give you his opinion. If you ask a tradesman about the quality of his apples, of course they are absolutely the best there is for the price, they even punch above their weight!

 

[DanielTura]

@Vladimir

Can you shed some light on what this "excitement" I keep hearing about.

Im guessing speed & transient response..but im not sure anymore.

 

[Vladimir]

Daniel, maybe this recent thread will shed some light on the matter. *good*

 

[Jota180]

I have to say that I for one am not completly satisfied with how WHF reviews some of the components i wish they go into more detail(side by side comparisons , measurements , tehnical specs(and by that i dont mean what i can read in the manual or the developer website i mean opening the damn thing and telling us whats inside) wouldnt hurt).

I mean audio equips should be the main focus of a Hi-Fi magazine am i wrong here?

It's a bit bizarre how they sell these technical devices. Buy a serious camera and you need to know the technical side and there are set standards manufacturers comply with. With hifi we tend to get flowery marketing spiel.

I'd like to see more technical reviews with measurments done.

 

[audiokid]

Don't get me wrong, I also believe there are differences in amplifiers. Going from Naim to Luxman and then Croft brought a different sound, although I agree the differences are probably so small but it's hard to tell after seconds or minutes of swapping over.

I wish they did sound they same, and would be interested if my Devialet could be replaced by a £350 Yamaha with a built in DAC. I guess not, but would like to remain open minded until I hear them side by side one day!

 

[DanielTura]

Think i started this thread a lil` too close to the launch of the new amps...anyone got to hear them yet?

Allso whats with the marketing strat of specifing filter caps...since they have little to do with sq...(and if u know u have alot of A/C noise in your system there are fiters most of witch are inexpensive..unless theyr "audio grade" then they are)