Review on Integrated stereo amplifier YAMAHA A-S301, black by Agata Buczkowska  (B ᠌

As I've had the A-S500 for a while, I'll use it as a reference point. As I mentioned up there, the new series has noticeably lesser quality; after all, the lineup is identical to the A-S501/701, so it's probably the same in those gadgets as well (well, I think, except for the internal partition). Even though it's an entry-level Hi-Fi gadget, I was shocked to see that the very first wipe with alcohol left matte divorces all over my remote control. Very audible clicks can be heard when switching INPUT between the COAXIAL and OPTICAL positions of the acoustics connected to the A-S500 via the A-S301 in REC OUT (once, 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, and it clicked, proving that the protection in the I used RMAA on the Asus Xonar D1 sound card to measure the digital-to-analog converter (DAC; in this case, 501/701 refers to PCM 5101A). As a first observation, I noticed that the via analog approach significantly worsens the signal qualities by introducing a number of unwanted harmonics, the 50 Hz one being particularly pronounced. As my primary setup is currently a tablet connected to the COAXIAL input of the amplifier through an HDMI-Coaxial converter (at 16/44, since 16/48 and 24/48 yields wrong readings), I measured it at that setting. So: The decibel reading is -94. - 94 dB DR (dynamic range) with a total harmonic distortion of 0.03% Total Harmonic Distortion Plus Noise (THD+N): 0.007% - Distortion in intermodulation plus noise, 0.02% - 81 dB Interchannel Dispersion All of this testifies to the DAC's accurate datasheet implementation of high quality. At 16/44, the sound is nearly as nice as mine, objectively speaking. card, both objectively and subjectively - I had previously stopped using the sound card for music because the DAC sounded good enough. In overall, I think it's a great tool.