Yamaha A-S3000 - any experiences?

I've lived with the Yamaha A-S3000 for about 5 days now and can only say it is a truly special piece.  I see the previous comments about the What HiFi review of the 3000 as I read the same review prior to my purchase.  All I can say is their preference in musical reproduction must be very different than mine.  This is absolutely a high end piece with sonics to match.

Arch, where did you purchase yours?

I purchased here on Audiogon weekend before last.  Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

As willand mentions above the tone controls of the Yamaha AS3000 are bypassed in main direct mode.  I use my AS3000 primarily for stereo listening with an Hegel HD11 DAC but I do have the left and right preamp channels of my home theatre receiver (Yamaha RXA3030) connected to the AS3000 main direct input allowing the receiver to have preamp control for movies.  The receiver's amps handle center and surround, the AS3000's amps handle left and right.  Works and sounds great, and keeps me from having to switch out speaker cables every time I go back and forth from stereo mode to movie mode.  But again most of my time is spent listening to the 3000 stereo only.

I'm now a couple of weeks in with the AS3000 and am loving it.  Absolutely no regrets.  I find the review by stevehuffphoto on line to very accurately describe the sound almost point for point with my findings.  Lots of late night listening lately.

That's great because I love the silver version.

Agreed.  There's something really nice about the silver version with the black gloss side panels.  Sound is what really matters but it's a real bonus to have such a nice looking integrated.  I bet the black version is pretty nice in person as well.  I love the meters but I do find I have them off a majority of the time.  I do wish you could turn the lights off with the meters still active.  

Aberyclark I noticed A4L has the A-S1100 in silver which is similar to the A-S2100 but not a balanced design.  Would love to see a comparison of all three.

I have had the Yamaha A-S3000 for two and a half months now and I wanted to report back and post a few comments.  My wife bought me a new Mac mini for my birthday (I'm a lucky guy) and I optimized it for use as a dedicated music server combined with my Hegel HD11 DAC plus a few other tweaks.  I would describe the system as full bodied, holographic, detailed, big.  I tend to roll my eyes a little when I hear someone describe the sound of a solid state amp as "tube sounding" but I gotta tell you the 3000 is the closest thing to power tubes I've ever had with SS.  No, not quite the 3D midrange magic compared to my previous tubes, but playing in the same ball park, and with better bass.  I would love to try the matching CD/SACD player (CD-S3000) even though I don't spin discs much anymore but I really want to hear what it has to offer via USB.  But there's that little matter of I can't even begin to afford the CD player.  Even so, for my tastes, I'm thrilled with how things currently sit.

Skoczylas, unfortunately I do not have any experience with the phono stage in the 3000 nor a table I can use to test.

When I first bought the Yamaha I tried both single ended and balanced and preferred balanced.  It wasn't really a fair comparison though but in any event I have used balanced and haven't looked back.  When I get some time I'll swap single ended back in and do a quick comparison.

I'm not much of a headphone guy but I do listen periodically when noise may be an issue for the wife and daughter and I will say that the internal headphone amp is very good in the 3000, making my Focal Spirit Professionals the week link IMO.  As a side note I would be fine with the Focal headphones but I do find them uncomfortable for extended listening.