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A little puzzled by my newly acquired Yamaha A-S801

Picked up a Yamaha A S801 integrated, sounds clear and ’light’ if that makes sense. Nothing else in system has changed, same speakers, Epos Elan 10 and refurbished JR149s.

What’s bothering me is two-fold: 1. LOW frequencies seem a little pale (yes I know both speakers have limited extension, but did not hear this same effect on older 60 watt Rotel that is now defunct and irreparable) and,2. interestingly, 9 o’clock on volume control knob gives roughly the same volume level to my ears as the previously mentioned 60 watt only Rotel RA 1060.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Source is CD Onkyo C7030, virtually same whether or not I’m using ’CD DIRECT’ or PURE SOUND’ setting. Thoughts?

(Should mention I tried a Rotel A11 MK2 earlier, did not like at all and bore no resemblance in my system to the Rotel of old)

sifter

Showing 1 response by panzrwagn

panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
621 posts
 

Under $1000 it's tough to find solid low end bass. I would try an NAD 368 if you are OK with a Class D amp or Marantz PM 7000N for a more traditional Class AB. It has a very nice large toroidal power supply and the overall build is a step up. 

Both are streaming amps with decent DACs and decent phono stages. The Marantz also offers great bass management when if and when you want to add a subwoofer, the NAD does not. 

From there, it's a pretty big step up to get over 100W/ch - you'd be looking at 2X the price.

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