Anthem 225 vs Yamaha A-S2000

Just stumbled on this thread - I did audition the Yamaha amp for a week prior to purchasing my Anthem 225. The Yamaha is a beautiful amplifier for sure, but the Anthem is effortless in power, and just sounds more organic in my humble opinion, as well as having a more refined top-end. I just feel the value of this Anthem is off scale. But the Yammy sure is a nice one, I don't think you could go wrong with either one.

Well, I guess only fools cannot change their perception of things! I had been thinking about my initial Yamaha audition when I purchased my Anthem 225. It had me thinking for months...well, I gave it another go and must admit that finally, it does sound more refined in every parameter - so I sold the Anthem and purchased the Yammy. The Anthem is still a fantastic amp for the money, but overall, it is more of your basic amplifier and a very well executed one at that. The Yamaha has a better phonostage built-in, a better headphone stage, much better tone and volume controls, and sounds stellar even when compared to much higher priced units. One final thing, the Yamaha actually sounds subjectively just as powerfull as the Anthem's whopping 225 watts per channel.

The Anthem 225 is a really good amp BUT for less money you can get a MUCH better amp with the Bada Purer 3.3se with the Jan 6189 tubes !...

Sorry to be blunt about this, but I once owned a Bada product and the thing broke down after 2 months - I could hardly get any service on it and sold it for audiophile peanuts. Sounded ok, but not great. I suggest you open your Bada up and have a look inside. Then have a look inside the Anthem 225, the parts quality, and if you know a bit about amp construction - the layout, the overall execution - as one review said it best - this is no flimsy integrated. Better get a good solid state OR a good tube amp instead of a compromised hybrid design like the Bader.

As owner of an Anthem, I'll put in my vote for taht one.