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Yamaha A-S3000 Integrated Amplifier

Yamaha A-S3000 Integrated Amplifier

Back in the day, Yamaha components were always regarded as a cut or three above the usual imports from Japan such as Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, even Sony. They boasted solid build, superb engineering, very good (or better) sound, and often both technical and aesthetic innovation. Readers of my generation may remember the TC-800G cassette deck, with its cool front panel that sloped back about 45 degrees; the B-6 amplifier shaped like a pyramid; the NS-1000M speakers, reportedly the first to use beryllium tweeters; and the NS-10M studio minimonitor, a favorite of professionals in search of a high-accuracy small speaker (and which attracted a cult among audiophiles as loyal as that of the LS3/5a).

In addition to seeming more serious about performance and sound, Yamaha also had an aura of being, well, classier than the competition. The layout of the controls was a model of ergonomic logic, while both knobs and buttons inspired confidence and were a tactile pleasure to operate—the word “silken” comes to mind.

Although there was nothing ostentatious about Yamaha’s high-fidelity products, they nevertheless projected a distinct image that separated them from the pack, which was all the more surprising since Yamaha was then and is still a large, diversified international company that manufactures everything from hi-fi components to professional audio gear to musical instruments (pianos most famously, but recently the company won Japan’s prestigious Good Design Award for an electronic violin), motorcycles, industrial robots, and even golf products (!). But these last several years its profile on the home-audio scene has been low to missing, which may account for the rather obvious agenda behind the way its new flagship integrated amplifier, the A-S3000, is being promoted. “We’ve missed you, too” announces the sole blurb above a backlighted photograph of the amplifier in the ads, the implication being both that Yamaha has been absent in high-end audio for a while and that audiophiles have missed it. Well, speaking for myself, I can’t say I’ve given Yamaha much thought one way or another for a very long time, but a company spokesperson did inform me that the A-S3000 was definitely “designed to show a renewed commitment to high-end audio.”  

As I’ve already indicated, the aesthetics are redolent of classic styling from the old days, and this extends to function as well. The A-S3000 is part of a new breed of control electronics that run against the—to my mind, misguided—minimalism that has run rampant in high-end audio for at least the last thirty years. When Robert Harley asked me to review the A-S3000, he said, “You’ll love it, Paul, it’s got tone controls.” (One mark, among many, of a good editor is that he knows his writers, and RH certainly has my number here.) In addition to tone controls, the A-S3000 also has balance control, A/B speaker switching, headphone amplifier (with a novel trim feature that allows for a greater physical range of the volume pot), and a built-in phonostage for both mm and mc pickups. Functionally and ergonomically, this new integrated may be retro, but a great deal of very forward thinking has gone into the circuitry, the layout, and the physical construction. In terms of design, engineering, quality of parts, execution, and sophisticated thinking, the A-S3000 can withstand easy comparison to competing integrateds and separates costing multiples of its $6999 suggested retail price.

Yamaha A-S3000 Integrated Amplifier

The technical side and features complement of the A-S3000 are summarized in the sidebar, so let me get directly to the sound, where, I fear, I’m going to get into trouble once again in certain quarters when I report that the sound is exactly what you’d expect from any contemporary solid-state amplifier with pretensions to high-end status: transparent, low in noise and distortion, tonally neutral. But before you trip the trapdoor, give me a moment to say that I pressed the A-S3000 into service during the last three weeks of my evaluation of Harbeth’s Monitor 40.2 loudspeaker (see TAS 269), for which I was using a Pass Labs 10/X150.8 preamp/amp combination, graciously on loan from the manufacturer. I just swapped in the Yamaha—it was already well broken-in—and went on with the business of concluding my evaluation of the speakers, paying little or no attention to the amplifier as such. It’s not that I didn’t notice there were some differences—the Harbeths are extremely accurate—but these were of so low a magnitude as to cause no distraction from the immediate task at hand. Admittedly, I wasn’t concentrating on the amplification, but that is precisely my point: The Yamaha did nothing to draw attention to itself. With any competent or better contemporary solid-state electronics in what I would call the broad middle of the market, which is to say above the budget range and below the stratospherically priced gear, I find this to be far more the rule than the exception.

Once I turned my attention to the A-S3000 itself, here’s what I can report: Its sonics are essentially neutral in the specific sense that it’s difficult to isolate tonal characteristics to which I can reliably attach adjectives. Yamaha’s designers make a big point about how solid-state MOSFET technology, of which this new amp is an example, tends to suggest the warmth of tubes. Well, I’ve rarely encountered a well-executed MOSFET circuit that I’ve found anything to complain about. But while the A-S3000 exhibits absolutely no untoward solid-state effects, I can’t say that for me it evokes the sound of tubes either. For one thing, unlike most tube amplification, no one is likely to find that the A-S3000 saturates tonal colors—“saturation” being a term of great approbation among tube fans—nor is it glowing or liquid or refulgent. Neither is it grayish, lean, thin, bright, mechanical, or electrical sounding. Rather, it’s notably clean, controlled, and composed. Is there a trace of the coolness that some people claim to have found in Yamahas back in the old days? Not that I can discern, but if your tastes lead you to judge any component that doesn’t sound positively warm as therefore cool, you might hear things differently.

There may be an exceedingly mild hint of reserve and restraint, but I surely wouldn’t want to push that too hard. One review I read, of British origin, considered the amplifier smooth but unexciting, and another found it didn’t do rhythm engagingly enough, or whatever words to that effect are current among British reviewers—the all-purpose “pacey” still seems to be the favorite. I have a hard time getting my mind around judgments like that because reviewers who make them seem to me to be asking the component to contribute something to the source rather than reveal what is in it. This particular reviewer was specifically referring to the amp’s performance with rock music, wherein may consist the rub. Do audiophiles who love rock ‘n’ roll, heavy metal, rap, hip-hop, etc., prefer inaccurate reproduction? If that sounds too judgmental, let me substitute “interventionist.” I raise the question because there’s obviously no equivalent in reality to the sound one hears on rock recordings, and maybe the current widespread enthusiasm for tipped-up top ends, presence projections, lean upper-bass, and punchier midbass are perceived as compensating for the sensory tactile and visual deprivations of the home experience compared to the concert experience.

As I hardly ever go to rock concerts, I’m in no position to say, but I can report that I greatly enjoyed my usual rock favorites with the A-S3000. Smooth the Yamaha certainly is, but I found no lessening of excitement vis-à-vis other excellent or better amplification I’m familiar with. All the big numbers from Graceland are powerfully rendered, which hardly surprised me because the amp handled the hammerblows from the Zander/Telarc Mahler sixth symphony with suitable, even spectacular weight, impact, and slam. Was there a bit more crunch, say, from Pass’ X150.8, physically much beefier than the Yamaha but with only 50 more watts per side and partial Class A circuitry? Maybe a little, but I’d really have to stretch the point to suggest that the A-S3000 was left at the post or that it left me disappointed and hankering for something else. In fact, bass response is notably clean, clear, articulate, extraordinarily well-defined and solid. Of course, the Monitor 40.2 presents an easy, responsible load to any amplifier. I can’t judge the amp’s performance on speakers that present haywire impedances, but everything about the design, including its protection circuits, suggests it’s essentially indestructible under any remotely normal domestic applications. (One reviewer used it drive Wilson Alexias, which are not exactly of benign impedance, and reported it didn’t break a sweat.)

 

And my goodness, the thing certainly does have resolution, if that’s your end-all and be-all. In connection with evaluating the Harbeths I hauled out a recording I hadn’t listened to in years, The Sheffield Drum Record direct-to-disc LP. Even after all these decades, this is still a reference-caliber achievement, one of the late great Doug Sax’s technical tours de force when it comes to sonic realism in the timbral and (very nearly) the dynamic senses. Two different drummers perform on two different drum sets with different miking, and so they should sound—immediately and obviously so over any system with pretensions to high fidelity. I played both sides a few times and wrote down my impressions, then checked the liner notes where the differences are described, and was pleased, though hardly surprised to find that what I wrote tallied almost exactly with the notes’ descriptions. And you could really hear the room, could almost sense its size.

Tiny details sometimes lost with other components—like Martha Argerich’s fingernails clicking on the keys in Gaspard de la nuit or Glenn Gould’s humming on many of his recordings—are always clearly in evidence, though by no means exaggerated. And if you care to concentrate on things like pages turning, chairs squeaking, musicians breathing, the A-S3000 will certainly allow you to do so. As for soundstaging, well, inasmuch as its frequency response is dead neutral, the Yamaha imposes no characteristics like “forward,” “distant,” “wide,” “narrow,” etc., on the presentation, at least none that seem to recur from recording to recording. In other words, what’s in the recording is pretty much what you get.

Several of the integrated amplifiers and preamps I’ve been asked to review these past few years have come with built-in phonostages, and this new Yamaha is no exception. If the $7k asking price sounds a bit steep for an integrated amplifier that offers only 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms (albeit exceptionally high-quality watts), the phonostage may help offset the sticker shock. By any standards, this is an outstanding phonostage: extremely low in perceived noise and distortion, very high in transparency and dynamic range, tonally neutral (like the linestage), and notably natural sounding. “Natural sound” is one of Yamaha’s blurb phrases; in the case of this phonostage, I think it’s neither mere advertising puffery nor by any means accidental. This is because Yamaha has done something unusual in choosing a very low value for the load a moving-coil pickup will see (the moving-magnet input is the standard 47k ohm). According to the published specifications the mc section has a fixed 50-ohm load with no provision for selecting alternatives. So relatively low a fixed impedance is rare in my experience of phono preamps; it is usually set at 100 ohms or higher for mc. I personally applaud Yamaha’s decision here because moving-coil pickups almost always sound better—as in flatter in frequency response and thus more neutral—when loaded down. And in this case it provided an almost exact match to my reference Ortofon Windfeld with its internal impedance of 4 ohms, yielding recognizably outstanding results. How it would perform with other mc’s with higher internal impedances I cannot say. More than likely what you’d hear is a presentation that is less crisp way up top, perhaps even a little rolled-off, and maybe a slight loss of hair-trigger attack on transients. But none of this occurred with the Ortofon.


Yamaha A-S3000 Integrated Amplifier

Before I conclude, let me address the tone controls, which have ideal characteristics. The treble turnover frequency is 3.5kHz, the bass 350Hz, both with a range of ±9dB. If these turnovers strike you as too low or too high respectively, bear in mind that the slope is very gradual and maximal boost or cut is available only at the frequency extremes. I can’t imagine a situation in which you’d ever boost or cut to the max. When a recording strikes you as too bright—you’ll notice it right away on violins—a judicious turn to, say, the 11- or 10-o’clock position is all that’s necessary to restore a welcome impression of greater tonal truthfulness. Move it further to the left and the response starts sloping in the presence region above 1kHz (I never find it necessary to boost the treble), which is very helpful when recordings are extremely closely miked. As for the bass control, again, the effects are gradual. With the Harbeths I rarely had to employ it at all at normal listening levels except for recordings that are notoriously shy in the bass, e.g., many of the Szell’s Cleveland recordings, to which a judicious boost helps restore a much-needed warmth, heft, and apparent extension (I say “apparent” extension because a tone control or equalizer can never truly extend the frequency response of a speaker system, merely raise or lower its level, which can produce the psychoacoustic effect of extension). Inasmuch as both controls have similar characteristics you can use them in conjunction as a highly effective tilt control pivoted at a thousand cycles. It’s a pity there’s no loudness circuit, as I’d love to have one designed as usably as these tone controls. However, the bass control can provide loudness compensation at low volume levels—arguably more effectively because it gives you more control over the amount (most loudness circuits are fixed in their boost).

There are some electronic components that immediately announce themselves with a distinctive sound, while others just do their job with a minimum of fuss and bother, preferring to remain in the background as it were. This new Yamaha is obviously one of the latter, which I intend as very high praise indeed. Its operation was flawless throughout the review period and it was fully up to the most demanding source material I threw at it, never betraying any evidence of stress, strain, or effortfulness. If someone asked me to recommend a high-quality preamp and amplifier in a single box free from quirks and idiosyncrasies both sonic and functional, one that is reliable, trouble-free, and does just precisely what it’s designed to do—which is transfer the source with as little alteration as possible to the speakers—the A-S3000 would be very high on any short list.

If this is a harbinger of things to come, there can be no question that Yamaha has come back home—in triumph.

Specs & Pricing

Power output: 100Wpc into 8 ohms, 150Wpc into 4 ohms (20Hz–20kHz) minimum continuous, 0.07% THD; 130Wpc into 8 ohms, 210Wpc into 4 ohms (1kHz, 10% THD)
Frequency response: 5Hz–100kHz (+0/–3dB) 
Phono inputs: mm and mc
Line-level inputs: 2 balanced, 5 RCA, main amp in RCA
Outputs: 1 record-out RCA, 1 preamp out RCA
Dimensions: 17 1/8″ x 7 1/8″ x 18 1/4″
Weight: 54.2 lbs.
Price: $6999

YAMAHA CORPORATION OF AMERICA
6600 Orangethorpe Ave.
Buena Park, CA 90620
(714) 522-9011
usa.yamaha.com

Inside, Outside, and Behind the Box
I haven’t discussed the thinking and engineering behind the A-S3000 because it would amount to little more than quoting or paraphrasing Yamaha’s own literature. The talking points are these: First, quite a lot of expense, effort, and ingenuity has been lavished upon the amp’s physical construction to address issues of damping and isolation from externally induced vibration, including a “highly rigid double structure construction” using lots of copper and featuring an internally isolated inner frame, including placing and positioning of internal parts, components, and power supply (toroidal) “to minimize the length of the signal paths and achieve low impedance.” The amplifier employs MOSFETs in the output stages and floats the entire circuit from ground, which Yamaha claims “removes any negative impact of minute voltage fluctuations or ground noise.”

The A-S3000 is balanced throughout, and in several places uses screw connections instead of solder for lower impedance and reduced signal loss. The four feet are individually adjustable for level and have removable magnetic inserts that access built-in spikes for even greater rigidity. It’s impossible to say for certain how much any of this and/or other design features are responsible for the final sound quality, but perceived noise and distortion are exceptionally low, and clarity, transparency, and stability exceptionally high. The phonostage accepts both mc and mm pickups. Line-level inputs are two balanced and two single-ended, plus CD and tuner. Two sets of speaker terminals are available and there is a built-in headphone amplifier accessible via the front panel. The amp and preamp sections can be operated independently.

The remote handset duplicates all the basic front-panel functions such as volume, mute, source selection, and on/off, but channel balance and tone controls are available only via the front panel. There is no tone-control bypass switch, but when centered the controls are completely out of the system as evidenced by the split-second mute; then they are moved into or out of the high-noon position.

There are a few novel touches that I haven’t seen on other units. For one, next to each pair of XLR jacks is an attenuation switch for gross-level mismatches between balanced and single-ended sources, in addition to a polarity switch. For another, the headphone jack has a trim knob that allows the volume control to operate over a greater physical range from loud to soft. The only thing I really missed is a stereo/mono switch. I suspect the meters are mostly for show, but they do allow for choice between VU and peak, and they are really, really pretty to look at (they can also be switched completely off).

Everything about the unit worked exactly as claimed with no glitches or hitches; there was never a switching transient, and the classic aesthetics are truly beautiful to behold, especially in the silver alternative (the black is too severe for my tastes). To top it all off, in addition to the two-year parts and labor warranty, Yamaha will replace the unit should there be any sort of failure during the first year of ownership. Talk about buying with confidence!

Tags: YAMAHA

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