A-S2000 Volume & Burn In Questions

[LutherG1]

Just acquired - 2 Q's -

* Noticing that amp gains substantive volume 1030 -1100 but 900 am even 930 volume very low and music no body. Can any other owners comment? Is this an aspect of amp it problem flag?

*Amp I am told has low hours. Does break in matter? If so how many hours and how does sound change?

 

[robgmn]

Maybe you're hearing what they've tried over the years to solve with a loudness button?
(i.e. at low volumes, you need to boost low and high frequencies to give the music "oomph")

 

[LutherG1]

Yes and no. No in that many vintage amps with this power - 90 wpc - have much more volume at 9 am. Direct examples I know are CR 1020 70 or so wpc, CR 2020 105 or so wpc and Sansui 8080. I never use loudness on Sansui even at 830 am. On the others I just keep variable loudness flat. Yes in that the addition of variable loudness vs. tone controls only would have been very welcome on the a-s2000. That said it sounds great. It just needs to get to maybe 10 am to begin to sound good and 11-1130 to kick. I do not notice same with vintage Yamaha - surprising because one calling card on newer Yamaha is that they harken back to vintage. But I am wondering per question if other owners of these amps find same phenomenon.

 

[OMGCat!]

I'm wondering if it's due to the nature of the volume attenuator where they give you more travel at lower volume and then it ramps up quickly as it goes up. On all of my vintage type gear it's pretty darn loud by 9 on the dial if running with modern sources due to how hot the output on things have become. I don't know why it would sound thin though.

 

[LutherG1]

I truly suspect that it IS just the character if volume attenuator. I am just wondering if anybody else who has a-s2000 can confirm. I like the amp allot. It is by no means thin. It images well, has great noise floor and has clean present bass. But I wonder if burn in warms signature more or further deepens the already very good clean bass. Also wondering if any tweaks do - isolation, better power cord, etc.

 

[TudorTurtle]

I have that amp, and yes, the lower end of the dial is not very loud. I like it, as low level listening volume can be adjusted to exactly the right place. Used mostly on weekend mornings listening to news before the tribe is awake.
I have rarely moved volume past 12:00, so your speakers may draw more power than mine.
No change in sound from this amp from start-up to now.

 

[LutherG1]

I have noticed that 1030 is about right for fairly loud listening. And yes - 1200 would be overkill. It's just that 900 is pretty low unlike some other 90 wpc 2 channel amp. I have just accepted this as a characteristic of amp.

 

[Knucklehead]

The fast ramp up volume controls were popular with manufacturers in the 70's. It gave the impression of more power when you turned that dial up just a little. I have the A-S1000 which has very similar innards as the S2000 so I suppose the volume control design for one sufficed for the other as well. Mine ramps up slowly at low volumes and starts getting quite loud by 11:00. I've never gone past that point except to make sure the motorized volume worked as it should. Wonderful sounding amp. It replaced an Acurus A100 amp that I drove with various different preamps, and a Yamaha CX-A5000 processor more recently. I use the S1000 sparingly for tv and I seldom watch movies any more. I usually just watch tv with the Yamaha RX-V773 AVR - it drives the center and surrounds.

 

[mbz]

The volume pot will have a "log" taper so the amp can work with a wider range of speakers/sensitivities and also provide different listening levels.
The volume you hear depends on the amp volume and the speaker spl. If you connected up 106dB altecs then 9oclock would be plenty. A linear
pot would be difficult to set for such spkrs. This way the manufactures get to sell to the 90dB crowd and 100dB.

 

[mbz]

As an example, if the vol pot had detents then starting from zero the detents would correspond to,
0.01W, 0,02W, 0.05W, 0.1W, 0.2W, 0.5W, 1W, 2W 5W, 10W, 20W, 50W,,,

That's for an ideal vol pot, too difficult to manufacture that way so we get an approximation...

 

[Beobloke]

Does break in matter?

No. There might be a few sonic changes right at the beginning as the components warm up properly for the first time, but changes will be minimal

Also wondering if any tweaks do - isolation, better power cord, etc.

Again, no. Don't waste your money. Buy more music!

 

[LutherG1]

OP here - must say I am now head over heels about AS-2000. Not sure how many hours it had but it is opening up and I am probably adjusting too. Just happened to put lots cart on SL 1200mk2. The mc phono stage on the AS-2000 is great. Only other minor tweak was vibrapods under CD player - warms things up a bit. 1030-11 am is typical volume - plenty. Using reasonably efficient Polk Monitor 10 - not fancy speakers but love them. Very happy with this amp - may even solve my swap fetishes.