A-S801BL Natural Sound Integrated Stereo Amplifier (Black)

This review is for Yamaha A-S801 model. Got it yesterday, and LOVE it. What a difference! This Yamaha is meant to replace my old TEAC AH-300, which was purchased 15 years ago as part of the TEAC mini-system. Came highly recommended by What Hi-Fi magazine at the time, and considered entry-level audiophile quality. I used it with Mission 700 speakers, also highly recommended by What Hi-Fi. Speakers are still the same, but the difference is stunning! Now, TEAC was much less powerful, at 35W per channel at 8Ohms, whereis Yamaha produces 100W at the same level. But if you would assume it got "louder" you would be wrong. The difference is not in loudness, it is in the detail. Yamaha opened a whole new sound-stage, several new dimensions in the music field. Everything sounds different now! Music got volume, and same old speakers produce quality I did not know they were capable of. To say I am "please" is not to say anything. Night and day. Highly recommended for all true music lovers! UPDATE: After a month of use I love this amp even more. In fact, I have updated my entire system, and tried different connections, so there is some new info I wanted to share. First of all, in addition to my good old Mission 700s I got two new floorstanding speakers, Dali Zensor 7, and a sub, B&W ASW610. Missions now serve as a back speakers, Dalis are in the front. Second, I have tried three types of sources for music: CD player (Marantz CD 6005, which has raving reviews), internet stream from Tidal (comes via USB cable from my computer) and playing CD's on the computer drive (also connected via the same USB cable). Here are the results: 1) Best sound by FAR comes from using computer drive for CDs via USB cable. 2.) Almost as good, but not quite, is streaming from Tidal (FLAC files, lossless quality) using Yamaha Steinberg USB driver and USB cable. 3) CD player, when connected via analogue cables, is inferior to the above. Why? Simple answer is - DA conversion. Not only Yamaha has a great DA converter (what they say here is true - SABRE Premier Audio DAC from ESS Technology, Inc is one of the best on the market today), but when you transfer data via USB cable it virtually eliminates jitter. And jitter is the MAJOR source of problems. Simply put, when you send raw data via USB it makes no difference what the source is - as long as data is not compressed, it is all the same. Problems begin when DA begins the conversion from Digital to Analogue. Most cheap CD players to poor job; computers do even worse job. SO when you get analogue out, it carries crappy signal and amp simply amplifies it. Amp itself cannot "clean up" the analogue signal; it can make it worse, but not better. The best it can do is to preserve it. For internal converter situation is different. Yamaha uses internal master clock, which "times" data correctly for the DA, and then DA transfers data from digital to analogue with beauty and clarity which is truly amazing. Can it be done by the CD player? Perhaps, if you spend 10000 dollars on the machine, it will have the same result. Do you want to? Its not that signal coming from a CD player via analogue connection is "bad", its just that it is not as good, not for a true audiophile. For anyone who wants to experience truly amazing sound, I would highly advise to AVOID analogue connections (RCA) at all costs. Simply forget about them. What about digital coax and optical? Well, it is better, but still there is a problem. If you use them, you do take advantage of Yamaha's SABRE DA converter, which is, again, great. BUT, you do not have advantage of using the internal master clock. Digital signal transferred via optical or digital coax has its own timing, which may be jittery. Now here it depends on the source: if you are using high quality CD player, timing may be precise and quality just as good. If not, - you will have problems. Question is - why bother, if your computer can work better and most likely will not cost you extra? In conclusion, I will highly recommend not just any model, but Yamaha A-S 801. This is the only model with built in USB DA converter, and the value of this small addition is ENORMOUS: when connected via USB it truly gives you the quality of 10 000 dollar CD player. I am not even mentioning the advantages of streaming, with its instant access to millions of CDs at a click of a mouse. Good job, Yamaha!

After many years with surround sound, a move has forced me to simplify to two channels to fit the available space. I chose the Yamaha A-S801 integrated amplifier because it reminds me of the stereo amplifiers I admired in the 1970s, except that it includes optical and coaxial digital inputs and a USB DAC. Yamaha A-S801 provides old school class AB power that sounds smooth, clean, and powerful, and effortlessly drives my speakers to high volume. It is flexible enough to provide all the inputs and outputs I need. It is easy to configure and control. It is not permanently limited to an internal tuner, surround decoders, DSP, center and surround amplifier channels, complex menus and on-screen displays, or streaming device interface and services. I chose an external HD radio tuner. Optical digital input allows connecting my TV for PCM digital audio and my TV provides HDMI switching for Blu-ray player and digital video devices. The internal USB DAC allows me to choose any computer Operating System and streaming services. I connect a turntable and an external Bluetooth receiver. The variable loudness control is useful. A fixed loudness button would be useless. I wish it had tape monitor / signal processor loops and preamplifier outputs. I let my wife pick the color. This will likely be the last amplifier I will ever need.

After a month of routine listening to LP's and digital files I must say that I'm very satisfied and impressed with the natural sound and unbelievable clarity of my new Yamaha! I have my A S801 connected to a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's and a Rhythmik L12 sub. The music comes through with remarkable clarity. It imparts little-to-no false coloration of the sound. The Pure Direct function gives an excellent representation of the recorded music with a purity that is well beyond the price of the amplifier. The 801 is so blissfully transparent that it inspired me to re-rip all of my cd's into a lossless 16 bit WAV format to give the Yamaha every opportunity to display everything in the recordings (I haven't owned a household cd player in a long time). I'm not a hardcore audiophile, and I can't put the purity and balance of the music played this way into a technical prose that will do it justice, but I'm constantly pushing the volume up to let the incredible sound consume me. It feels wonderful. I appreciate that the included remote has a Pure Direct button so I can leave the bass and/or treble controls a touch elevated and toggle Pure Direct on or off from my seat and enjoy picking out the differences. I'm so impressed with the A S801 that I'll definitely be looking further up the Yamaha ladder for any future amplifier upgrades (A S1100??). The sound quality of the A S801 is an incredible bargain! And kudos to IQ Audio for the "open box" option. My amplifier looked like it'd never been touched and shaved nearly 25% off the price. Minor gripes regarding the A S801 are limited to; 1) Stepped vs. ramped volume control. At lower volumes the steps are rather evident. 2) No dedicated line level out for a subwoofer. Not a big deal. I've employed a "Y" splitter to connect to my sub's rca's as to maintain its onboard eq (crossover, phase, slope) and it works great. 3) The built-in phono stage is predictably lackluster. How awesome do you expect an integrated amp to be for under $1k? In Pure Direct mode, My AT LP120, w/ the stock AT95E cartridge, sounds much harsher through the Yamaha's phono stage than it did through the charming (albeit oxidized) Sansui 2000A this 801 is replacing. The soundscape is shallow, lacking depth and detail and has a harshness that prevents any desire to "turn it up". Clicking out of Pure Direct, and dialing the bass and treble controls to nearly 2 o' clock, brings a much fuller dynamic with far better contrast, less top end shrill, and richer tone all-around. A much more satisfying experience but a dedicated phono preamp is now on my short list- and a nicer cartridge. Hi-fi is a slippery slope! The built-in DAC is incredible and well worth the price of entry alone. Adding a quality phono preamp for vinyl playback will no doubt prove worthwhile and likely sway my tendencies back to spinning records instead of clicking files. All in all the A S801 is a fantastic amplifier for critical 2 channel listening at a bargain price. 100% recommended!

This is a great sounding amplifier and you get a lot for the money with a good DAC, power and it’s very clear! My only reason for returning it was that to me the low end was a little more pumped up and didn’t sound balanced. I think that’s just Yamahas sound signature. It’s not the best looking amp in terms of the cheap plastic knobs either. Still a very good amp. I went with the Cambridge Audio in the end.

I am really enjoying listening to music and my TV with this amp. The operation is seamless. The DAC works very well. The sound of my TV through the optical input is excellent. Ditto for streaming with my Google TV attached to my TV. I have listened to CDs using my Marantz CD 5004 using its DAC, but will hook it up using coax or optical at some point to see if the Yamaha DAC is better. I do not miss the HDMI input of my previous AVR. The phono pre amp works well though I continue to use my Schitt Mani which I bought recently, about a month before I decided to upgrade my AVR entirely. Sightly better but not a night and day difference for me. The remote has a great, solid feel. It lacks control for treble, bass, and balance but, since I almost always use the pure direct feature, that is of minimal importance. While many others think the lack of an led for the volume control on the unit is an issue, I have no problem with that. I set the volume down after use and then control it using the remote. What I would like to have is the ability to set the volume to a default when turning the unit on. It would also be nice if the volume was held constant moving form one input to another. The much lower volume when turning off Pure Direct makes switching for sound comparisons impossible for me. It is likely a sign of how much Pure Direct eliminates from the signal chain. Despite reporting several criticisms, I still rate it highly. The sound, looks, and ease and smoothness of operation make it an easy recommendation. It has a lot of raw power. A third party technical review noted that Yamaha's power rating is sightly short of its actual performance! Both for 8 and 4 ohms. I would take off 1/2 a star if I could to a small extent because of my criticisms but more because nothing is perfect and I may want to upgrade at some point in the future. Who knows?

I am a newbie interested in a good stereo audio solution. For a baseline, I am experienced with some good quality sound. We already have top of the line Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar, surround system. That's a great solution for someone looking for compact Dolby Atmos solution for watching movies. After watching YouTube videos and recommendations, initially, I bought IotaVX SA3 with Triangle BR03 speakers. Whatever tweaks I tried, sources, high-quality streaming services, CD transports, tweaking controls on Iotavx SA3 amplifier, nothing felt like audiophile sound. It may be due to what I had as a baseline with experience of Samsung Atmos soundbar. Iotavx SA3, Triangle BR03 systems sounded thin and nothing like Hi-Fi audio. I went through mad search of different speakers. Also tried ELAC - Debut Reference DBR62. After all the frustration of not being able to find a simple stereo solution that feels like Hi-Fi for me, I called Crutchfield after reading about great customer service from them. That was a godsend advice. If you are like me trying to figure out a system, go ahead and call Crutchfield now. They have some great advisors to listen to your needs, understand what you have and offer a solution. Crutchfield advisor suggested that I need an amp with more power to improve the sound I am looking for. They suggested YAMAHA A-S801. That changed everything. Crutchfield is out of stock for YAMAHA A-S801, and I ended up buying here on Amazon. My first impression after swapping Iotavx SA3 with Yamaha A-S801, wow. Same Triangle BR03 speakers, but changing the amp to Yamaha A-S801 made all the difference. It has full controls treble, bass etc. It also has loudness control. If you listen at low volumes, or have a smaller room, this will fix the loss of details at low volume. This also has a USB input if you want to use computer or phone as a source streamer. Its output power I read is actually more than what it is rated. It has DAC to support 32-bit/384 kHz, so we are future-proofed. Overall, Yamaha A-S801 is fantastic with full clear sound. As a bonus, Crutchfield also suggested Polk Reserve R200 to pair with the amp. I am glad I took their advice. With Yamaha A-S801, Triangle BR03 speakers sounded fine, but Polk R200 took the experience to another league. If you are like me searching for a Hi-Fi sterio solution, here is what I ended up with: Yamaha A-S801 Amp Polk Reserve R200 Bookshelf Speakers Wiim Mini Streamer Have a SONY DVD player for CD transport. I don't use this much. Mostly I stream Amazon HD Music using Wiim Mini. Best of luck in finding your favorite solution.

This is my review about the seller for the most part, will update later with amp feedback. Received the unit it passed visual inspection. Reviewed all physical features and everything checked out (it was listed as renewed, checked out, with slight damage to boxing). I had everything waiting wire wise and hook up was quick and painless. Immediately upon picking it up to put it into its place there was something sticky on top, can't tell if it was an original label or something else, something possibly disgusting. Powered up the amp and everything was working as intended, until I got to the remote. Didn't work, ok let's try new batteries. I take out the old ones, the battery area is full of corrosion, loads of it. Battery corrosion everywhere, it took more time to clean up the remote than it did to unpack the entire system. Batteries should always be removed from any remote that's not going to get used for awhile!!! Once clean and with new batteries it too worked fine. I put on some music to test channels and sit back to review the paperwork. The original order paperwork was still with manual, I now have the complete information of the original purchaser, and yes that includes his address. HORRIBLE form World Wide, just plain horrible. Turn and burn returns, improper inspection, and I bet not even tested...so I have no freaking idea why the original buyer truly returned it. Maybe I should reach out to him and ask since I now have his info? Just plain unacceptable.

All the Yamaha amps are very good, but only the Yamaha A-S801 has the USB DAC output. This integrated amp uses the exceptionally high performance 32-bit, 2-channel SABRE Premier Audio Digital Audio Converter (DAC) from ESS Technology. This is responsible for enabling perfect reproduction of the music stored in your iPhone. The USB DAC is only offered on the A-S801. As Yamaha says: “This function allows for a direct connection to PCs [and iPhones] which opens the door to play back of the highest resolution audio content offered today. The Yamaha-developed USB device controller has its own master clock that eliminates PC jitter. The driver is a low loss, high throughput ASIO 2.3 Yamaha Steinberg USB driver.” If you’d like to listen to your iPhone songs in the highest resolution available, the extra cost to have this USB DAC output is worth every penny. Once you experience perfect resolution playback of your iPhone songs, every other way to run them through a stereo system will sound to you like junk…i.e., inferior resolution…poor stereo separation,…jittery song starts…little skipped parts here and there in your favorite songs….YUCK! Tip #1: you will need a special cable: USB 2.0 Cable Type B to Lightning connecter. (available from Amazon) Tip #2: if you use a Subwoofer in your system be sure to get one that permits selection of frequency cutoff points because the Subwoofer line out on the A-S801 has a cutoff frequency of 100Hz. Wired connections always beat Bluetooth connections, and the USB DAC wired connection on the A-S801 is the pinnacle of audio playback connections for an iPhone or a PC. I love it. Bought two of these magnificent Yamaha amps—put the second one in the kitchen.

Great quality amp that makes almost no hum when there is a pause in the music. I purchased the amp as an upgrade to the one that I was using and I must say that it makes my vinyl sound great as well as my CDs and cassettes. I am yet to try the optical feature and the USB for computer. It also comes with a remote that is really cool as well. All of the tone controlls, bass treble and loudness really enable you to fine tune the signal, I wish that it had a light indicator on the volume control. I must say that to start the amp did sound a bit rigid but after using it for a few days the sound really warmed up. I would recommend this amp to anyone that wants great quality, loves music and wants some of the modern day features like optical input and USB.

I like the improvements made like a light indicator when Amp is on.