My pleasant experience with Yamaha AS500

[Ebenezer]

Hello,

About a couple of months back, i had bought Yamaha AS500 Stereo Amplifier with Wharfedale 10.2. My initial experience was bad and it was sounding too harsh/bright (too much of high freq) even after reducing the Treble knob to 9 o clock position. I bought this amp after reading lot of good reviews i red about it from various forums and website. Some of our forum members have advised me to not to go for this amp. In general in India it does not have good reputation, i dont know for what reason.

The harshness existed for couple of weeks till the amp burned up. After that it works like a breeze. I am very much impressed by its precise, clear sound across frequencies. Now i dont use the bass, treble knobs at all. I always listen with 'Pure Direct' on. When i use 'Pure Direct' button, i get a very nice sound with good low frequency (with the exact note). I guess the harshness was due to the burn up time.

Initially i thought i need to get a sub to get a good bass . Now with Pure Direct button, i dont need a Sub. Now i get a punchy tight bass with power. (85 watts comes in handy here). I also get a natural distribution of sound across all frequencies starting from 40 Hz i guess (that is what WF10.2 spec says. Yamaha spec says with Pure Direct on, it can support upto 10 Hz)

I just thought i would share this information with our forum members as many people reject this amp just because they hear about its bright tone which lasts only for few weeks when it was new. I would recommend this Amp to anyone who looks of precise, natural sound at budget price. I don't know if any other amp at this price range would do this magic. I am also using a Yamaha Ipod Doc (YDS 12) which can be connected to AS 500. I am very much happy with ipod doc as well. I get a clean tone out of my ipod now.

Feel free to share your thoughts. I would be happy hear some thoughts from AS500 owners about their experience

 

[S.P.KRISHNA]

May be other thing have been added for the positive observation. I cannot comment on burning of Amp as I see no scietific basis.
1. The speakers drivers had sufficient usage hours
2. The listeners ears adjudted to the SQ of the Amp
3. The type of music one hears and taste.
Definitely AS 500 had good market at the given price range across the world.

Regards

 

[spirovious]

Hello,
I don't know if any other amp at this price range would do this magic.

How much did you pay?If possible,you can even try pairing to different speakers owned by other HFV members & if will be interesting to check the results.

 

[Flash]

I always felt that Yamaha amps were highly underrated Atleast the current gen.
I guess price to performance ratio Yam's are pretty good.
I like the retro look of the AS family

Are you sure it was not the speakers that were burning in. Wharf's through my own personal experience starts off bright and harsh and slowly settles down with time.
Well it could be the Yam as well if the speakers were already burnt it.

I am always disliked the concept of tone controls Quite a few integrated amps seem to have that feature.
Problem with tone controls is that it does not bump up the enitire freq range
BASS is usually + - 10db 100 hz
TREBLE is usally + - 10db 10 khz

So when adjusting tone controls you are either bumping up or reducing a specific freq either 100hz or 10khz.
I would love to see amps with tone controls do
+ - 10db 20hz to 100khz with the Bass tone control knob
+ - 10db 5khz to 20khz with the treble tone control knob

Well its nice that you like the sound with pure direct or with the tone controls set at zero.

A good review though
As spiro mentioned would like to see how it performs with other speakers.
Infact particularly interested in knowing if they can drive a pair of Floorstanders

 

[pupupuchi28]

I always felt that Yamaha amps were highly underrated Atleast the current gen.
I guess price to performance ratio Yam's are pretty good.
I like the retro look of the AS family

Are you sure it was not the speakers that were burning in. Wharf's through my own personal experience starts off bright and harsh and slowly settles down with time.
Well it could be the Yam as well if the speakers were already burnt it.

I am always disliked the concept of tone controls Quite a few integrated amps seem to have that feature.
Problem with tone controls is that it does not bump up the enitire freq range
BASS is usually + - 10db 100 hz
TREBLE is usally + - 10db 10 khz

So when adjusting tone controls you are either bumping up or reducing a specific freq either 100hz or 10khz.
I would love to see amps with tone controls do
+ - 10db 20hz to 100khz with the Bass tone control knob
+ - 10db 5khz to 20khz with the treble tone control knob

Well its nice that you like the sound with pure direct or with the tone controls set at zero.

A good review though
As spiro mentioned would like to see how it performs with other speakers.
Infact particularly interested in knowing if they can drive a pair of Floorstanders

Agree with you on most of the points. Though the bump is for a range of frequencies with a bell (for e.x 20 hz to 200 hz with peak at 100hz) type surve peaked at the centre frequency (i.e 100 hz). How wide the bell will be is dependent on the amp.
On a different note, if you search for few amps (three/four generations older) you will notice they had variable 'bells' and 'peaks' which was awesome to me. You could have so much flexibility to play according to your taste for sound. But over the years with standardisation of low and high frequency instruments/communication equipments, thay have somehow 'blown to ashes'.
For some reason most of the Indian forums promote Indian brands rather than actually 'critically acclaiming' products. Yamaha certainly has a much larger customer base than percieved by most of us.

My experiance with Yamaha is they do sound too 'detailed' and 'crisp' initially but over the period they become much 'smooth', 'Defined' and 'free flowing'.

Thank for sharing your experiance, it will certainly help prospective buyers to give a thought at Yamaha's lovely range of products.

 

[Flash]

Agree with you on most of the points. Though the bump is for a range of frequencies with a bell (for e.x 20 hz to 200 hz with peak at 100hz) type surve peaked at the centre frequency (i.e 100 hz). How wide the bell will be is dependent on the amp.

Totally Agree and that's why not a fan of Tone controls. You are artificially playing around with frequencies to change the outcome of the the Music reproduction.
A Trumphet should be produced exactly what it should sound like and not like a fart in a 10x10 cubicle hyeah:

I prefer Purist Integrated Amps / Preamps that have a short signal path with no added circuitry in the middle. !!! Personal Preference !!!
Infact thats why a lot of integrated and AVR has Pure Direct modes to combat this issue to bypass unnecessary circuits to produce the best possible sound

 

[GCE]

I too have this amp from 2 days and like to know if your Wharfdale are new or burned up (how many time?); I choose this Yam for his input-output, retro style and specs; I was amazed for his wide stage presentation, as I can't notice the source of the sound of my old B&W, better than other few more expensive amps; I can hear some effects in many songs or film tracks like in a sort of surround, in many different collocation in front stage and higher in vertical than with my old Quad amp, ( who had a narrower and stage and the bass too seems tight; at home now I feel something wrong in middle, perhaps too present and lacking some body;

I hope that is a burning time question...give me some other impression please thanks - this is the only site with a tread like this! to be continued :clapping:

 

[Ebenezer]

@ S.P Krishna: Thanks for your below observation

1. The speakers drivers had sufficient usage hours
2. The listeners ears adjudted to the SQ of the Amp
3. The type of music one hears and taste.

Regarding the first point, I am pretty sure that it is not WF 10.2 that needed sufficient usage hours (it burned up within few hours of usage to my knowledge). I used AS500 with my used speakers as well (Craftel Floor stander & JBL Control pro). Initially it sounded harsh and gradually it became neutral. That is why i thought it was due to Amp burn up time.

To the second point, yes it is true that our ears get adjusted to the sound quality if we prolong to listen to particular setup. But the difference cannot be so huge. It has to be a gradual process right? I keep listening to different setup in my friends' house and different PA system in Church (Crown amp with JBL speakers) etc... So the possibility of my ears getting adjusted to one system is quite less. Morever i am a musician and i do home recordings. So i am sensitive to frequencies though i am not an expert sound engineer. (Recording is just my hobby and i learnt most of it through trial & error)

However i believe third point is very much important and relevant. I mostly listen to Acoustic, Western Pop, Jazz & western classical style of music. So it suits to my taste. I havent tried this setup for indian classical or Rock music. So i cannot comment about that. Moreover i feel the source is really important. My primary source is Computer with M-Audio 2496 Audiophile sound card. It sounds natural when i hear through this sound card. However i feel the need for eq when i listen through my ipod. So the music source plays vital role here.

I have tried AS500 with the following speakers. I bought the amp first and then i took amp for auditions and tried it with different speakers. I can share my experience with those speakers

WF 9.5 floor stander - Sounded great decent highs and good mid & bit elevated lower mids. (I liked that low mid. due to budget constraint i didn't go for it)

WF 10.1 sounded similar to 10.2 but with little less bass

Dali Floor standers: Sounds clean with punchy bass. But the cost of that model was around 90K. So didn't bother to do further research on that.

Overall i feel that AS500 drives floor stander with ease. As most of you have stated rightly, Yamaha AS500 gives detailed, crisp sound with very good stereo image to my ears. As all of is would agree, music/sound is very personal and our taste differs. Some people like warm, smooth sound which is pleasant to ears while others like natural reproduction of recording quality (could be bright at times). I am a person who slightly lean towards brighter side since it provides very good details which would be missing if it is too warm.

BTW, i bought AS500 for 21K. I know it is bit higher than the Group-buy price which was there in our forum some time back. But at that time i didn't have any intention to buy this.

Overall i feel with Yamaha amp you need to be bit choosy while selecting speakers as it sounds too harsh with JBL speakers (JBL speakers in general are on brighter side). Many say that Yamaha amps perform well with Mission speakers. I didn't get a chance to try with any Mission speakers yet.

I compared Yamaha AS500 side by side with Nad 316BEE (both were of same price in that shop) and i liked Yamaha over Nad. I liked Yamaha for its detail which was slightly missing in Nad 316BEE.

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts. Even i have dreamt of having a integrated preamp with graphical eq for different frequency range I dont know if any Integrated Stereo amp comes like that. I have seen some old Technique tape amps having that.

 

[GCE]

I too have this amp from 2 days and like to know if your Wharfdale are new or burned up (how many time?); I choose this Yam for his input-output, retro style and specs; I was amazed for his wide stage presentation, as I can't notice the source of the sound of my old B&W, better than other few more expensive amps; I can hear some effects in many songs or film tracks like in a sort of surround, in many different collocation in front stage and higher in vertical than with my old Quad amp, ( which had a narrower and lower stage) and the bass too seems tight; at home now I feel something wrong in middle, perhaps too present and lacking some body;

I hope that is a burning time question...give me some other impression please thanks - this is the only site with a tread like this! to be continued :clapping:

 

[Flash]

Nice updated Review Ebenezer.

Considering that you have had success driving the Wharf 9.5 as well as Dali's it is safe to say that the Yam AS500 is a worthy contender for an amp in he budget segment.

I now have a reason to go audition them.
A 85W x 2 RMS stereo integrated amp at approx 21k is worth auditioning.

After the recent failure of the Marantz PM6004 in driving difficult speakers Bookshelves and Floorstanders alike.

The Yamaha can definitely fill in the void

 

[rraghuram]

WF 10.1 sounded similar to 10.2 but with little less bass

Hello Ebenezer. Could you let us know what other differences you found in the 10.2 from the 10.1? Is it worth paying a little extra (~5k) for the 10.2, for that bass? Is there any drastic difference in the sound signature between the two?
A Groupbuy is/was running for the 10.2. I am wondering if I should pick up the 10.2, if it is still available or settle for the 10.1 if the sonic difference is not worth the extra cost!

Thanks and have a good one with the AS500. Some of us here at Hyd auditioned some BS with the AS500. It looks and sounds good! Nice weekend.

 

[S.P.KRISHNA]

raguram,

If 10.1 and 10.2 are heard clinically on same Amp , apart from equal HF, 10.1 gives better Mids over 10.2 and 10.2 gives good lows over 10.1.

Regards

 

[Flash]

Hello Ebenezer. Could you let us know what other differences you found in the 10.2 from the 10.1? Is it worth paying a little extra (~5k) for the 10.2, for that bass? Is there any drastic difference in the sound signature between the two?
A Groupbuy is/was running for the 10.2. I am wondering if I should pick up the 10.2, if it is still available or settle for the 10.1 if the sonic difference is not worth the extra cost!

Thanks and have a good one with the AS500. Some of us here at Hyd auditioned some BS with the AS500. It looks and sounds good! Nice weekend.

I had auditioned the 10.1 and 10.2 several months ago.
IMO they both offer varying pros and cons.

I find the 10.2 overall better. The bigger driver and cabinet does come into play. I would pay the 5k difference if I were to choose between the 2.

If the 9.2 is available look at it. I find them better than the 10.2
The front ports in the 9.2 makes placement easier. the 10.1/10.2 are rear ported if placed too close to a back wall, will sound boomy and drown out the mids.

 

[musicbee]

Some of us here at Hyd auditioned some BS with the AS500. It looks and sounds good! Nice weekend.

It was the KEFs and the Polk RTIs. The sound was bright as KEF is also bright but for sure the Yammy is a looker.

We did not inquire the price back then but at 21K it sure is great VFM.

 

[spirovious]

If the 9.2 is available look at it. I find them better than the 10.2
.

+1 to that,I heard 9.2 with Yamaha amp long time back & sound was very sweat with good Bass.

 

[gobble]

How much is that YAM ipod dock?

Friend wants one.

--G0bble

 

[Ebenezer]

Thank you all for your feedback. Regarding WF 10.1 some people say that mid is better in 10.1 compared to 10.2. However i couldn't notice the difference with AS 500 amp. I found that tonally both are same. To me the difference was only in Low Freq being better in 10.2.

@rraguram: It is worth spending 5K extra and buy 10.2 if you dont use subwoofer. If it is for HT setup you will be happy with 10.1 with 5 K savings. In 10.2 i found that it has a good tight bass (without damaging the mid) & ballanced HF especially when i use it with 'Pure direct' button on in AS500.

WF 10.2 is rear ported. Still i found that the bass is not booming if you keep 0.5 to 1 feet distance at the back. I was really impressed with WF 9.5. 9.5 sounded warm compared to 10s. The low mid and Low freq was really good in 9.5.

@gobble: I bough YDS12 yamaha dock in US (through my friend) for $57 (3000 INR). I am pleased with its quality. Now i am able to operate my ipod through AS500 amp's remote. I also feel the quality of sound is slightly better through Dock vs connected through stereo pin. It could be due to the good quality cable that comes along with Yamaha Dock. In Chennai YDS12 cost around 4.5K.

 

[Ebenezer]

I would appreciate if some one can suggest an alternate for AS500 amplifier in this price range. Spec wise i couldn't find a better branded amp in this price range (correct me if i am wrong). This might be useful for people who are planning to buy a budget amp at this price range.

I would like to get some feedback from Marrantz and CA users who have heard Yamaha AS500. So that we can get some feedback as to how Yamaha is compared to Marrantz and CA. I did a demo of one CA (70wpc - i dont remember the model number), it was sounding as good as AS500; but was costing 39K :-( After hearing that i decided that AS500 is value for money product

 

[Ebenezer]

Few months back, i did a audition of Craftel's Retro 1100 amp with Toga BS speakers. It was sounding great for that price. I didn't like the appearance of Toga BS speaker though. I found that the Retro amp is a good improvement over the Craft amp that i was using (SA662). I am mentioning this as this could be a good option for someone on tight budget.

 

[S.P.KRISHNA]

I would like to get some feedback from Marrantz and CA users who have heard Yamaha AS500. [/QUOTE]

At this wattage the other alternative is CA 650 series. 650A costs around 28k and do not have phono stage , sub out and few other feature over 650A. I auditioned both the amps before I picked 650A some months back. Though the power of 650A is 75W at 8 ohms in comparison to AS500 at 85W at 8 ohms in actual listening CA 650A had beaten the AS500 with its raw power and never distorted. Lows of 650A are tight to that of Yamaha. My prolonged audition made me bent towards 650A. The only problem with CA is pairing with speakers.

Regards