Yamaha A-S501 Integrated Amplifier - Black

Ordered this Yamaha A-S501 Integrated Amplifier - Black as my Denon RCDN8 had given up the ghost after only 3 years and I cannot live without my music. Ordered in the evening and Amazon delivered next day for only and extra £6. Brilliant. Had an Arcam amp, Marantz CD, Denon Tuner, Sony Minidisk, Technics Tape deck for 20 years and sounded superb through my Mordaunt Short floors tanders, but streamed a lot using my squeezebox, so CD, tuner and tape were not used much and kit was taking up a lot of room so decided to get rid and replace with the aforementioned Denon. Big mistake. Don;t get me wrong the Denon RCDN8 really was very good indeed sonically, felt solid, and was nice and compact, but constantly had problems losing wifi/signal when streaming and was shall we say was a bit glitchy. I've always had a soft spot for Yamaha hi-fi, they are always built solidly, look good and most importantly of course sound good. Out of the box, wow, it's meaty, feels really well built, nice solid push on/off switch, ample connections, built-in DAC and I personally like it's looks, it's a bit retro i.e. how amps looked years ago, big and rectangular. I hooked in my squeezebox, via coaxial digital lead, as I suspected that the DAC in the amp would be better than the one in the squeezebox and fired up the AS501 and played both internet radio and mp3s. Very, very impressed and pleased with the sound that came out of my floor standing Mordaunt Short speakers, crisp and clean vocals with a terrific sound stage and enough bass to make the most of my speakers and played everything I through at it with aplomb. Maybe not bassy enough for some peoples tastes or types of music, but to my ears, a delight to hear things I never heard in tracks played on the Denon and that I have not heard since my wonderful old Arcam. After a couple of days, I got a Yamaha CDS300 CD player, after deliberating between it and a Marantz 6005 or a cheaper 5005. Fired it up and put in a Churches CD and it sounded exactly as I hoped it would with the AS501 amp, awesome. Nice and pacy, detailed and a delight to listen to. At the price I paid for this Yamaha amp, £189, it is an absolute bargain and no doubt would give some much more costly amps a pretty good run for their money. I can say that I would recommend this amp to anyone and hopefully it will last as long as my Arcam did. Great bit of kit Yamaha

I bought this amp to replace an ageing Sony amp that has served me well for 25 plus years and still exhibits no problems but I thought it was high time I got a new one. First, this amp is built like a tank. It is solid and very heavy. It is also beautifully finished with a brushed aluminium front. No plastic on this beauty apart from the switches. It has all the inputs I need and connections for 2 pairs of speakers although I only need to use one pair. My old Sony amp has a warm, rich sound whereas this new Yamaha is leaner and more detailed. There is no trace of top end harshness however and the bass is well defined but not overpowering. I usually turn down the bass a bit anyway and turn up the treble so I don't use the source direct or loudness buttons either. I am not a metal fan. There is a sub-woofer output for those who like shaking walls when listening to music. The sound stage is well defined and imaging is very good for the low cost of this unit. Much better than my previous amp/speaker combo. I believe this model has now been superceded by a new amp in Yamaha's range so this amp is available at a reduced price. I can recommend it to anyone who is looking for good sound quality for not a lot of money.

The amplifier was dispatched within a couple of days of ordering, and pleased to see source is based close to home, should there be a future problem. But that would be very unlucky, for it quickly became clear that the product is extremely well made, and even comes with a decent product manual. It replaces my 38 year old lovely Technics SU-8077 amp, and is of almost the same size, so fitted into existing space well. I loved the bare wire speaker connections, a better design than my previous. I listened to Roger Waters "Amused to Death" (standard version) as my test record. I'm SURE I could hear even more!! It sounds absolutely superb. After a few hours of use, there is barely any heat detectable from the casing. I miss the LED output Watt meters of the Technics.The remote control actually turns the volume knob on the Yamaha, and marking this with a gold line did help give visual reference of how far the volume knob was turned. I liked that this amp also has the "Pure Direct Straight DC" sound switching. I'm less convinced by the variable loudness control, though it's not something I use much. I think a simple boost button for bass preferable, if ever that need arises. Overall, I am delighted to have found the Yamaha A-S501 a superb amplifier and a worthy living room replacement. It's a quality product and represents quite amazing value. It sounds superb to my ears, and with a good remote control, I can now sit back even more comfortably.

I purchased the Yamaha A-S501 Integrated Amplifier about three months ago with a very specific and limited purpose in mind. Over the years my music collection has gone from record to CD and now to FLAC. Instead of housing my collection in racks it is now neatly stored on a single hard drive (backed up, obviously). My entire CD collection has been ripped to FLAC and now I buy downloads over physical discs if I can. Storage is not the only issue that prompted the move to digital music. Ecologically the footprint of the audio file is insignificant in comparison with a physical item. Sites like Bandcamp enable artists to distribute a wealth of music cheaply and easily and most labels now have an option to buy music in lossless digital formats. I use a Mid-2010 iMac running Audirvana+ software and use a fibre optic cable to connect the iMac and Amp. In playing FLAC files on the iMac through Audirvana+ via the optic cable the audio reaches the amp in the most pure, unfiltered (unaltered), state possible. The 501 uses a Ti-Burr-Brown PCM 5102 DAC to convert the digital signal to an analogue one. Once through the amp the audio finds it’s voice through a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 685 S2. This review is ONLY written in the light of this. I make no judgment on the way the unit handles vinyl, CDs, cassettes or multi channel DVD / Bluray audio. If you have a computer or other 2 channel digital set up this review may be of interest. If not then it probably won’t be of much use to you. - Sorry. The unadulterated audio stream from the Mac was what made me settle on the A-S501. The one feature it has, and which most of it’s competitors lack, is the option to use the ’Pure Direct’ pathway which bypasses the amplifiers internal filters and outputs the audio in as pure an audio stream as possible. With the advent of digital recordings being made available at studio master quality (24bit) it seems ridiculous to do anything but try to reproduce the audio in it’s purest form. So how does it sound? Fantastic. The sound stage produced with this set up is broad and the music expansive. Listening to HD Nils Frahm albums or Max Richter is quite breath taking. The space between instruments and the sound detail as notes dissolve is quite staggering. At the pure, unhurried end of the musical style spectrum the amp handles the files precisely and allows the listener to become immersed in the audio experience. To me the whole point of audio equipment is to reproduce the sound of the original without colouring it or intruding on the listening experience and this is exactly what the A-S501 does. Many perceived amplifier issues seem to stem not from the unit itself but from the mastering of the piece of music under consideration. The Arctic Monkeys are notorious for producing ‘hot’ (over loud) albums whilst some elctro albums seem to have a slightly base heavy production that overpowers the rest of the instrumentation. The separate Bass and Treble knobs allow for easy sound correction whether it be as a result of the production or of the acoustics in the listening room. I have the ‘Loudness’ filter set one level up as I find this sounds about right to counter the dreadful production of CDs in the late Eighties / early Nineties. While many bands have had their back catalogue successfully re-mastered (Talking heads come to mind) many that have not sound a little flat or under produced. Personally I feel the early Pixies material suffers from it’s original mastering in the digital age. By turning the ‘Pure Direct’ mode off the loudness setting compensates for the historical sound of the track’s production by boosting the Bass frequencies a little (obviously this is only a personal preference, I’m sure Frank, Kim and the boys would say their stuff sounds just fine as it is). Whether listening to Zbigniew Preisner, Sonic Youth, Nils Økland, Alva Noto, Lamb, Champion Jack Dupree or Motörhead the Yamaha A-S501 Integrated Amplifier produces a transparent listening experience and, to me at least, is a joy to listen to. I am very pleased with this amp. I particularly like the way it integrates with a digital feed. Lossless digital music files are the future. The days of the physical format are numbered and Yamaha obviously had half an eye on this development when designing this unit. If you are thinking of organising your music digitally the A-S501 is certainly worth considering, especially as the sound quality and features are exceptional for the price.

Overall it is a good amplifier. Not perfect but seems good for the money. I bought it together with Klipsch RP-160 and the speakers arrived first. I first tested them with the amp I had at the time, an old Cyrus one. The speakers produced a very entertaining room-filling sound although it is a 2x45 watt amp. Then Yamaha arrived, I connected the speakers and tested again. At first, the sound was empty compared to the previous amp, lows sounded very flat even completely missing in some recordings. The good part is that Yamaha had a much clearer, detailed sound and a much bigger soundstage. I was about to sell the amp and go for something else but I decided to go with a subwoofer to try to solve the situation with the bass, so I ordered Klipsch R-112. I ordered the Klipsch because I wanted a sub with tight and fast bass which would not override the sound and destroy the detail from speakers. This move was the most important finally. When the sub arrived and first heard it I realized how much difference a good sub it brings a sound system. This is because I kept the detail and soundstage of Yamaha and added a very clear bass from Klipsch and it sounded like completely new system. Now the sound has almost everything: detail, depth and punch. There are a few reviewers who describe the sound as clinical, flat or non-exciting. I understand them and this is partly true, but the amp has some good characteristics, and if you fill the gaps properly, you can get a very good sound for a relatively small budget. In a few words, my opinion is that this is a good amp, but buy it if you also plan to use a good subwoofer or you don't care much about bass.

Fantastic at this price range. I have paired this with the Elac B6 2.0 and it is fantastic, Out of curiosity i tryed a set of 2006 sony MHC midi system speakers and even they sound good, but i highly suggest you invest in a set of booksheif speakers to get the most from this unit. Comes with remote, runs 170 watts max at 6ohms and 240 watts max at 4ohms. Be sure to check the impedance of your speakers and set the switch on the back of this unit to match. My only issue is the volume knob is not marked so its hard to reference your volume hight. But this is easly overcome with white or black tape for the silver option. The volume knob can be removed and replace with one which is marked. Overall great amp and yes i also had the Marantz Pm6006 uk edition, it was to harsh for me after i had heared this unit i sold it on. This unit creats a very believable natural sound, which can make almost any decent speaker sound fantastic. Highly recommended for those looking for an upgrade, has more than enough ear bleeding power for a standard home. I hope this was helpfull with your decision making. FANTASTIC!

Ive had several well known brand amps over the past 24 months. At first they all sound great but slowly you hear the weakness in these budget amps and thats power. Now you don’t need a lot of power to sound great but its got to be constant for extended listening just feel how hot they get just after a couple of hours. Yamaha are well known for solid power amps back to the 70’s and the s501 doesn’t disappoint. Play it all day it barely gets warm. The sound is powerful but controlled natural and detailed this obviously will depend what you connect it to add a cheap nasty cd player you will get nasty sound but saying that if you use the onboard DAC and just use the cd player as a transport this will improve sound greatly I think the only let down for some would be no Bluetooth but that is so easy fixed Yamaha provide their own adapter though very hard to come by but dont this put you off

Already having owned the much praised AS500 I knew it was a safe bet to buy its successor. The welcome addition of on-board DAC allowed me to use the digital coaxial input which was missing from the 500. Still as substantial and solid feeling, apparently redesigned internally ,the sound is better than the previous model, retaining the openess and detail of the 500 but improving on it, allowing my speakers to open up even more. Some say the sound is a bit too clinical for them but it's all subjective and this suits me after trying smoother amplifiers (some a lot more expensive) over the years.Yes, the bass could perhaps be a tad firmer for hard rock if you're splitting hairs but I'm happy with the sound and, at the price, Hendrix still sounds good. Less demanding music such as Capercaillie etc. really shines through the 501. The small orange-red indicator leds are rather hard to see in daylight but, apart from that, I can't really fault this amplifier especially at the current price. I don't really use the remote control as the unit is close at hand but it would be welcome if the amplifier was further away. With the retro styling, large size and weight of the AS501, be prepared to accommodate this fine sounding amplifier on something sturdy and you won't be disappointed.