I have the Yamaha A-S1000 and i be having for awhile now, and I have positive and negative things to say about it.
Let's start with the negative first. The remote control, has a nice brushed aluminum front but the rest is really cheap plastic and i don't understand why they haven’t done it all in aluminum. Its relay controlled, and maybe the RD department at Yamaha took it just too far and went over the edge. When you use the treble or bass settings, the relay kicks in and cuts out the sound for just a second. I know i know its a minor thing, no it's a micro micro micro minor thing, but i thought i had to find find some negative thing, and trust me i had to look hard in order to find some, because i don't believe things can be without faults cause we as humans has different preferences and so on and it's only the manufacturer that writes only positive reviews. Anyway way way OT, now to the good stuff.
I was surfing around reading reviews watching youtube reviews and one reviewer on youtube ‘new record day’ reviewed a A-S2100 and he said something about being PO when listing to the RIAA or Phono or whatever you call the turntable input, he was PO because how many other manufacturers got away with producing so terrible phonostages and i totally get it, because the phono stage in this yamaha is unbelievably good. You can listen to this amp for countless hours without ever getting tired.
One reviewer in What hifi said something about it being to laid back, and i totally disagree, i would more use words like smooth and incredible musical.
I used some more or less basic stuff like a Rega Planar 3 with a Ortofon MC1 Turbo and the speakers are the Pioneer SP FS 52.
Listening to U2 album Boy which is mastered by John Dent at Sound Clinic who is an epic skilled mastering tech, you are able separate every instrument and really feel that rehearsal space vibe 4 dudes in a room rocking out. If you really gives it some volume it still sounds great, those Pioneer speakers maybe be easy to drive, and i have had countless of other amps on it, and they never really sounded good and i couldn’t understand why people where so glad for them until i got the yamaha now the Pioneers really sings!
The more demanding Beethoven's Symphony no 1 and 2 it handles like a dream, you are able to feel the room, in which the orchestra sits in, and feel every violin bow being played over the violin.
I bought mine second hand and i got with the CD-S1000 which is a SACD and it was a fairly good deal, and i can safely say that this is the last amp i ever gonna own.