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Lives in Jakarta, Indonesia
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Review on Yamaha A-S301BL Integrated Stereo Amplifier - Enhanced Natural Sound | Black by Candra ᠌

Revainrating 4 out of 5

I am completely satisfied, item complies with description.

I have owned the A-S500 for several years, so I will compare with it. As I already wrote above, the quality of the new series is noticeably lower - after all, the line is the same as the A-S501/701, so it's most likely the same in those devices (well, I think, except for the internal partition). When my remote control was covered with matte divorces from the very first wiping with alcohol, I was very surprised that this is possible in a Hi-Fi device, even if it is an entry-level device. At the time of switching INPUT through the COAXIAL and OPTICAL positions in the acoustics connected to the A-S500 connected to the A-S301 in REC OUT, very noticeable clicks are heard (once even when I checked the level of my own noise by unscrewing the volume knob on the A-S500, listening almost closely to the acoustics with my ear, I switched it with the A-S301 remote control, it clicked so that the protection in the A-S500 worked! , but in general for this minus half a point! And the second half a ball for the quality of the remote control coverage. Therefore 4. DAC (here, as in 501/701, stands PCM 5101A) - I measured using RMAA on the Asus Xonar D1 sound card. First of all, I found that the through analog path slightly degrades the signal characteristics, introducing, among other things, a very noticeable harmonic at 50 Hz. Since my main setup is now a tablet connected via an HDMI-Coaxial converter to the COAXIAL input of the amplifier, I measured it (at 16/44, since 16/48 and 24/48 gives incorrect values). So: - noise level: -94 dBA - dynamic range (DR): 94 dBA - harmonic distortion (THD): 0.003% - THD+N (harmonic distortion + noise): 0.007% - intermodulation distortion + noise: 0.02% - Channel Interpenetration: -81 dB All this speaks of the high-quality implementation of the DAC according to the datasheet. Objectively, at 16/44 the sound is almost as good as mine. card, subjectively too - even before the measurements, I had already stopped using the sound card for music, I was satisfied with the sound from the DAC! In general, I recommend the device.

Pros
  • In terms of sound - 5 points. + High-quality powerful amplification (as a result - good sound in the speakers) with low output impedance (the ability to "pump" 3-4 ohm speakers). + High-quality DAC (according to measurements - more on that below). + Developed switching (including 2 audio outputs).
Cons
  • - Slightly inferior in quality to my A-S500, for which I lower the score: the silver coating of the remote control does not withstand alcohol, which is nonsense (even cheap Chinese gadgets do not react to alcohol), the controls are weakly fixed in the zero position, there is no central internal baffle (there is a chance to bend the top panel), clicks when switching INPUT, transmitted to the REC OUT audio output (everything is quiet in their speakers). - Automatic speaker shutdown when headphones are connected (why, if there is a channel switch / mute control within 2 cm) - for someone, maybe this is a plus, but on the A-S500, manual control seems to me personally more logical and correct, but the ball for this I do not reduce (only for the general decrease in the quality of performance compared to my A-S500).