New Yamaha a-s3000 and a-s2100 integrated amps ??

I have seen some love here.

I always wonder how some of the newer more mainstream gear like this compares with other products popular here.

I've always had good success with Yamaha and would tend to always consider the brand to be a viable option for good sound.

I have a 70's vintage Yamaha receiver I use as a spare as needed and a 90's vintage Yamaha cassette deck I still use in my main system on occasion to play cassette tapes I still have that I recorded many years back as well.

I did not now of the A-S2100. That's news to me. I currently have the A S2000 and it's as good an integrated as any I've owned. I will be reading up on the 2100. I see it retails for over $3000.

I've read lots of good stuff about the A-s2000 and the A-s500, I think the 2100 just came out and has meters. I still use a refurbished Yamaha CA-810 integrated.

I haven't listened to them yet, but would definitely like to do so. They look like absolute winners on paper. And are more affordable than say Accuphase and Luxman.

Foster_9, I also have a a-s2000 and its good but its much better after you coat all the connection wires inside your a-s2000 with QuickSilver Gold contact enhancer.

Unhook all the connectors wires going to your Transformer and amp and pre-amp and coat the tips of the connector pins using a toothpick.

I was thinking about getting a a-s2100 before I tried this tweak to my a-s2000 but now I'm just loving how my a-s2000 is sounding and I think I will just keep my a-s2000 until the a-s2100 go on closeout in 5 or 6 years.

Back in the 80s, I had a Yamaha R-100 reciever, That was the very best sounding reciever to this day I have ever listened to, If any of you can pull it up on the internet, you would see why, The led equilizer was so profound, just one bump of each one worked very good, unlike other equilizers, Man, I miss that reciever!

For anyone that has a a-s2000 and wants to try out my QuickSilver Gold tweak, you have to be VERY CAREFUL when your pulling these connectors off with needle nose pliers because you can bind these medal pins VERY VERY EASY !!...

I bind two pins myself on my pre-amp circuit board so be VERY VERY CAREFUL when doing this tweak !!.....

It takes about 17 days for this stuff to break-in GOOD and sound its best.

My Yamaha a-s2000 now sounds like... I got it CRYO TREATED !!..

My A-S2000 began sounding better than any amp ever made in the future as soon as I aimed it north and put Bolivian coffee grounds on the shelf under it. Uncanny!!!
I tried Colombian and Ethiopian grounds without an overwhelming improvement. What is it about the Bolivian? Has anyone else tried this?

"as soon as I aimed it north and put Bolivian coffee grounds on the shelf under it."

@Macrojack. Now I know you're exaggerating. Everyone knows that it takes at least 1000 hours burn in for the amp to electromagnetically align with the Earth's poles and for the coffee beans to caffeinate the EMI & RFI signals.

These medal connection pins in our gear vibrate a lot and this degrades the sound a little bit!..

Putting QuickSilver Gold contact enhancer on the tips of these medal pins helps dampen these vibrations and in return the sound is cleaner and the artist sounds like they are more...in the room with you!

My Yamaha a-s2000 sounds much better now...it might give the new Yamaha a-s2100 a good run for the money!!

If only those guys at Yamaha knew what tweakers know about getting the most out of their equipment!
They were able to design an excellent integrated amp in the case of the A-S2000 but came up just short of maxing it out by overlooking the miracles achievable through the simple application of HiFiSoundGuy's latest shill able Magic Goo. This fool never let's up with his hyperventilating hyperbole.

Unfortunately I'm not a diy type audiophile except very basic things like cleaning contacts and changing tubes. Mucking around on the inside of a brand new unit with even small quantities of contact enhancer is in my opinion a good way to void a warranty, and with one mistake, destroy the functionality of your unit. Love to hear what you're talking about Hifisoundguy, but I'm not convinced it's worth the risk. Contact enhancers like Quicksilver can and will degrade/deteriorate.

Take a look at the thread:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1293134213&openfrom&1&4#1

I used to use Quicksilver Gold and Walker Extreme SST years ago, and I eventually gave up using contact enhancers even in very small quantities. I only use Kontac contact cleaner these days.

Foster_9

I will find out in a year or two if I have any problems like this with my a-s2000 then.

It's really not hard at all doing this tweak, you just have to be very careful when removing these connectors.

The hardest part is unhooking the back.. top preamp circuit board connectors and then take that circuit board off to get to the other preamp circuit board connectors but its not that hard to do.

Foster_9 I forgot to put some QuickSilver GOLD on five long connectors behind the front face plate...the front preamp circuit board.

All I can say now is WOW...WOW!! This stuff is AMAZING !..
It was like blankets were took off my speakers!

One thing this tweak has showed me is that they are SOME SIGNAL LOSS THROUGH THESE CONNECTORS !!..

Without this stuff on the connectors some of the sound is pushed more back in the background...like the stereo imaging!..

With this stuff on the connectors all the sound is more upfront on the stage making the music...much more enjoyable to listen to!..

I know I have a long ways to go before this stuff breaks-in good but I like what I'm hearing so far!..

Foster_9 If your going to try this tweak on your a-s2000 amp.... ONLY UNHOOK THE CONNECTORS THAT ARE.. "WHITE" IN COLOR, the DARKER colored connectors have ALREADY BEEN "SOLDERED" TO THE "CIRCUIT BOARD" !! ..SO DON'T TRY TO TAKE THE DARKER COLORED CONNECTORS "OFF"!!...

{"MORE PEOPLE OUT THERE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS.. >"VERY IMPORTANT TWEAK"<.. TO GET THE "BEST SOUND" OUT OF OUR GEAR"}

Hifisoundguy, I appreciate your warning. I'm not doing any tweaking of the integrated. The most I may do is try the isolation pads underneath.

This is the funniest threat of ever heard contact cleaner on your wires to make your app sound better my God guys. I would put copper pennies all around the chassis to stop all the RFI interference it's an amazing tweak.

Wadia150, please! make fun of this tweak and enjoy yourself! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

BUT it's not going to be so funny when a High End User here tries this tweak on some mid-fi gear and finds out how GOOD this tweak really is!! He going to say...I spent "A LOT OF MONEY" on my High End gear to get "great sound" and now somebody's found a way to make mid-fi "solid state gear" sound great TOO!!>>>like my High End gear<<<.. FOR ONLY $$$$$$125!! MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD!!!!! MAD....

This would start a WAR here that would last for many years!! PLEASE!!!.. DON'T TRY IT!!!.. It's BEST to keep this TWEAK a SECRET FOREVER !!!!... We are enjoying it and that's all that matters !!.. THANK YOU !...

Just purchased the 2100 a few days ago. Here are my impressions as heard through my Clearwave 72R speakers using the Sony HAP-Z1-es hooked up via the balanced inputs as well as a Well Tempered Simplex/Ortofon Red Cadenza hooked up to the phono MC input. The build quality is outstanding, and the Yamaha is very well designed both internally and externally. It weighs more than 50 pounds, so it has a sturdy power supply. Most importantly, it was pretty apparent, even without proper break-in, that this is a great sounding amp. The tonality is very even and smooth, and it has brought forth some details ( i.e. reverb on an instrument, vocal inflections etc.) that I did not hear before. It also punches lower in the bass and is dynamic, but sounds controlled at the same time. The separation of instruments and clarity are outstanding, and my overall thoughts are that this is like a very good amp/preamp combination. Can't wait to see how much better this can get with break-in, but even now this stands as one of the best buys I have made in audio equipment.

Great feedback Tasos1, I enjoyed reading what you have said here, I am also suprised for you to say this unit is the best bang for the money, I bet it's alot better than costlier intergrateds!

Audiolabyrinth, I do think that a lot of audiophiles will overlook the Yamaha as just another mass market mid-fi product. I can assure you it is not. First and foremost, the sound quality is really unbelievably good, so balanced, smooth and dynamic. I love the MC phono section, which utilizes discreet parts and a step-up transformer. The build quality is excellent- better than most British integrateds, if not quite in Boulder territory. I took a bit of a leap of faith in purchasing this after reading several excellent worldwide reviews (the best one was in a Czech audio magazine), but I'm happy I did!

Tasos1, I would say the Yamaha is not so much overlooked as lacking the snob appeal that is so important to many.

Tasos1,

Excellent review of the Yamaha A-S2100. Your thoughts and descriptions mimic almost exactly what I feel about my new(4 months) Yamaha A-S1000 integrated. As the little brother(48 pounds) to the 2000, 2100, and 3000, this 1000 is no less overbuilt with high quality parts as it's siblings and does not take a back seat in sound quality if only slightly I'm sure.

Those cool meters on the 2100 and 3000 are awesome.

Enjoy,

Bill

Tasos1,

Thanks a lot for your informative review! Are you sure the A-S2100's MC-section has a step-up tranformer? In a different sourse of info I read "The phono amp on the Yamaha A-S2100 is made up of an MC head amp and an equalizer amp which are discretely configured".
Where did you get the info on the step-up? Does operation manual say anything on this?
Thanks again!

The last Yamaha integrated I heard sounded kind of hard and dry. I think it was the SA-2000. Have you guys heard that one and is the S2100 and 3000 smoother/warmer?

Tasos1, How would you compare the sound of the Yamaha A-S2100 compared to the Simaudio I7 you had a few years back?

Anybody know where the is Yamaha A-S2100 made?

I think the series are made in Malaysia.

Bill

I think the series are made in Malaysia.

Too bad. These new Yamahas look like nice amps. One would think at this price level, Yamaha would build them in Japan. Like the upper level stuff from Marantz built at their reference factory in Japan.

No big deal.

I have had the A-S2000 and currently use the A-S2100

Both are great integrated amps. Yes the 2100 is smoother. There is also more bass heft to the 2100. I have had all kinds big name gear to compare and the 2100 is as good or better in many cases to components from Cary etc. Yamaha did an excellent job designing an Integrated that can go head to head with anything under 10k. The A-S2000 is also extremely good considering its quite low price in comparison.

I also had an A-s500 and A-s700 in my workshop system. The 700 was oassable but the 500 was not. Obviously those are much cheaper units and good compared to the big box junk for more $ but not Hifi.

The 2000 is excellent and the 2100 is superb. I powered Dynaudio C1 with the 2100 and it was fantastic. Currently powers Sonus Faber Liuto and has a great tight control on the low end. The only thing I didn't like about Yamaha they have now fixed. If you needed service their warranty depots sucked. Now they offer 10 years on these and anything wrong in the first year means new unit, not refurb like they used to do. 

I have the A S2000 and the matching C S2000 SACD PLayer.  Both are built like a tank and sound great.  I use these daily and can report no issues.

@honeybee2012 

" I have the A S2000 and the matching C S2000 SACD PLayer.  Both are built like a tank and sound great.  I use these daily and can report no issues."

The same can be said of my A-S1000/CD-S1000.  Great build and heft and so far trouble free.  Though I am very pleased with the "lower" S1000 models, if the price was right I would step up to the S2000's or S2100's.

Bill

No need same circuit on 2000 and 1000 the 2000 has a balanced input that's it.  The 2100 is not better than the 2000 it uses mosfets instead of Jfets. Mosfet has more of a tube like sound. Jfets been around longer some think they have more detail. I've heard both amps I got my 2000 for 1699.00 brand new. To change to the 2100 notice I said change not upgrade would be a minimum of 1k or more for a different sound not better your mileage may very. 1k can buy a lot of records maybe you have old speakers there are a lot of good speakers around that price point. The Martin Logan 15 or 35 or SVS ultra prime kef ls50's. You could get a Mac mini and a nice Dac music fidelity v90 and get Audirvana stream tidal and your library. Audirvana At is incredible much bigger upgrade than changing out an amp.  Point is these are bigger upgrades IMHO than changing from a 2000 to a 2100. Heck you can even get a great turntable at that price difference. And putting goo on your innards of your amp won't get you there either. Lmao if you know what I mean. 

Why do audiophile always perceive different as better? This is the case with both the A-S2000 and the 2100. Both are very fine but with slightly different sounds. The A-S2000 is far better based on it's current used market price. They are much more alike than different to justify the massive price difference. I own both and really have no preference other than the minimal convenience the remote provides with the 2100.Both make wonderful music! If you really want to hear a difference, EAT LESS CHEESE!

Same reason as kids like the new  toy better .