Quick question for you guys who own these amps. How are you guys cleaning smudges off of the face plate? I haven't had any real luck getting them off yet.
The AS3200 also has piano black sides. (The silver 2200 and 3200 amps also have the piano black sides, and the silver and black 1200 amps both have piano black sides.)
I use one of those soft cloths that is designed to clean eyeglasses. It wipes smudges off fairly easily.
I’ve had my A-S2200 in place for about two months now, and I’m looking at some new speakers. Anyone have any experience with the A-S 1200/2200/3200 driving a pair of the new KLH 5’s? I’ve heard good things about the speakers in general. Raves really. But not much about their paring with the Yamaha amps.
In the US the sides are gloss piano black. The picture w/ black wooden sides was posted by an Australian. Different sides for different sides? My 3200 has glossy sides.
Australia has a few Yamaha products and variations that aren't available in North America - this being one of them. The 3000 level speakers and top-end headphones are other examples. I'd love to know the reason why we haven't had access to those here.
IIRC Andrew Robinson in his YouTube review of the KLH Model 5's said his favourite combination was them and the A-S3200.
Yes, saw that. Not coincidentally, that review was what prompted my question. It seemed a tad over the top? So effusive as to raise an eyebrow. He hasn’t been alone in that enthusiasm either! I was hoping there might be someone on here that could confirm or deny or qualify the enthusiasm of the reviews via personal experience. Seems a good pairing on paper….What about in the living room? Thanks for the reply!
Just saw this info and wanted to share it: SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - Yamaha A-S3200 Integrated Amplifier Measurements
Interesting, I have found when I have all the lights on in the room I have to turn the treble down a hair to compensate for the added brightness.
Thanks, I did saw that, but it's a different type of comparison. The 280 and the 2200 are closer spec'd, thought that would be a more natural parallel, even 280 vs 3200.
That is a nicely detailed set of measurements. I could use a translator for some of it but from what I can comprehend the measurements that Yamaha has shared are largely corroborated. I appreciate that SoundStageNetwork posts they're measurements and leaves it at that w/o treating the scientific testing as a subjective review. Browsing through the list of other equipment they've tested is a rather sexy laundry list of lust-worthy items.
I know why he did it, but too bad he didn't do the A-S2200 (which is probably the sweet spot). I looked hard at the Luxman products when buying the A-S2100 years ago, but went Yammy as I had (have) the ATC SCM 19v2 and thought that might be too much of a good thing crisp detail-wise. (this is for a small room setup where I'm not doing critical listening)
Looks like they separate the measurements from their reviews: SoundStage! Hi-Fi | SoundStageHiFi.com - Yamaha A-S3200 Integrated Amplifier There is an important passage in the review that I want to highlight (below, in italics) because I think it is important for people buying, not just the A-S3200, but the A-S2200, as my experience somewhat mirrors the reviewers. In my case, burn in is taking a bit longer, but I fully agree that after 100 hours it continues to improve daily. I also found the reviewers findings about required warm up for best sound to be a relief, as I hadn't read much about this, but have experienced this myself. Anyway, here is the passage I am referring to: Yamaha had suggested that the A-S3200 would benefit from 100 hours or more of burn in, so I let it burn in for a few weeks before doing any serious listening, including leaving it on for a few extended periods of time when I was out of the room. By the time I installed it in my main system, I figured the A-S3200 had had at least 50 hours of play. After the Yamaha A-S3200 amp had burned in those 50 hours, I connected it to my reference system, including my MartinLogan speakers and reference source components. I was immediately struck by how musical and easy to listen to it was. I don’t know whether it was Yamaha’s suggestion that the A-S3200 needs at least 100 hours of burn-in to sound its best, or if I just grew to admire its sound more over time, but its sound did seem to improve over the next two weeks. It became a bit more coherent, and the slight glare that I at first sometimes heard on the leading edges of percussion and high piano notes, and a slight sibilance with voices, disappeared, leaving only a supersmooth, superquiet, totally balanced sound. Also, even after burn-in, when first turned on and used while still cold, the A-S3200 sounded a little soft and indistinct. It needed a good half-hour of warm-up to perform to its full potential—and it did get quite warm during spirited listening sessions. More than any other component I’ve recently had in my system, the A-S3200 needed an extended period of initial break-in and warming up before each listening session, to sound its best.
A question for 1200/2200/3200 owners - When your amp is on and the room is very quiet, do you notice a quiet hum from the front panel, say if you put your ear almost up against the front middle of the amp? I am getting this and just want to make sure its nothing to worry about.
Well, there is that big toroidal transfomer right in the middle behind the front panel. It's not unusual to have enough distortion on the AC line to cause some mechanical noise, and it's especially an issue with toroid cores since they don't have an air gap, so any DC voltage resulting from unbalanced loads on the AC line can cause high flux currents in the core, and you get some noise. Usually not much of an issue, but can be exacerbated with some applainces that only draw from the positive side of the AC line, like some types of lighting, dimmer switches, hair dryers, etc...
The EI type laminated transformers with air gap in the core can also make noise, but they don't have some of the same issues as toroids with regard to DC on the line. And toroids can be made with an air gap, but that reduces the efficiency a lot, so isn't usually done unless required. The image below shows the typical toroid transformer construction used in most gear. Note the transformer core is made from a continuous strip of iron sheet metal, and that is often the part that makes the noise, the layers moving slightly in relation to each other when large flux currents are flowing. The other noise mechanism is the whole transformer vibrating against its mounting in the chassis.
