Yamaha A-S501 or A-S801

I don't think so. Take a look at Schiit.

 

Man, I'll never get used to that name.

 

Speaking of picking a unique name ...

 

Yes? I don't get what you mean.

 

The sounding of the name ...

 

If you can, go for the 100 WPC model. You'll never need to change your amp again.

 

If I had any extra expendable income, I'd have to buy a Schiit phono preamp and a Shinola turntable.

 

Here is the ultimate turntable ...



Linear tracking - the same way the vinyl is cut.

 

Sweet! A man can dream...

 

A participant of the classical music thread on this forum has this turntable ...

 

If I grab the Elac B5's that will be the end for the foreseeable future on my 2 channel setup. I am pretty sure those B5's will sound better than what I have even on the Luxman L-205. They are $275 used here in Canada so about $220 USD

 

It looks like there are many Yammy fans here. For now, I am still sitting on the fence ...

 

Well, this thread is all over the place, so I'll toss in my newly acquired Yamaha A -S 1000 Integrated. It's a back-to-basics 2-channel amp with no digital, optical or DAC features. I guess it's the budget version of the A-S 2000/3000 without the VU meters. Sounds very, very good.

 

I do not believe the A-S 2000/3000 have any onboard DAC either and cannot imagine Yamaha can charge hundreds extra just for the VU meters if everything else being equal ...

 

Yes, there are likely other differences between them, but I think the basic design elements are shared between these top 3. The 1000 is plenty nice for my needs.

 

OK, I went ahead and bought some 24" stands for these, moved my usual speakers and positioned these in their place.

Problem solved. Beautiful midrange and imaging. Was driving me nuts not hearing what everyone else was.

 

That's quite the 180.

 

Setup wrong, and the best stuff in the world will suck.

 

Sitting in the sweet spot was what my ears needed. Lesson learned.

 

Not in production anymore though. Has been replaced by the A-S1100, which actually has VU meters and sadly a bigger price-tag than the 1000 had.

 

No headphone socket?

 

The whole point of the WXC-50 is to connect to an amplifier which would already have one. As for why not on the WXA, I couldn’t tell you, but presumably if you wanted to listen through headphones then most people would more likely simply connect them to their smart phone which would deliver the same features.

 

Hmm true. Nice to have one on the WXA though.

 

I've been following this thread and considering the 701, 801, or A-S1100. Got to have silver though. The WXC-50 with a 1100 seems like a great match to take advantage of all the musiccast goodness.

Just a suggestion for those trying to decide between the 701 and 801: a USB to SPDIF converter (mine is a FiiO e10) will allow you to listen to computer audio on the 701. If you don't have or plan on acquiring DSD files, then why spend the extra money on the 801.

 

Also, the headphone port on some Mac computers doubles as an optical output, and can pass some high sample rates:

Play high sample rate digital audio on Mac computers

I’ve never tried it with my 701, but it might be a good rainy/snowy day project...