Ok now to the listening impressions of the restored AU D11 II. Ready to hear it?
Ok little about my set up. My listening space is in the basement, about 20x30ft, with wood panels all around, curtains, wood floor, large area rug in front of the speakers. Curtains on the side. It moderately lively. I'd say acoustically fairly neutral.
Speakers: Polk LSi 15, 8-9 ft apart, toe in.
CD/SACD: Yamaha CD-S2000
Turntable: Yamaha PF-800 with Denon 103R
Comparison Amp: Yamaha A-S2100 (160W
@4ohms, MOSFET, XLR inputs, circa 2015)
Cables: Speaker Morrow Audio SP-4
Interconnects: Morrow Audio MA-4 to both Yamaha (XLR) and Sansui AU D11 II (RCA). I.E. the Yamaha CD player is connected to both the Yamaha Amp and Sansui using the same grade interconnects.
Power: Audioquest YRG to both amps.
The Sansui, smacks the Yamaha silly, no contest. End of story.
To spare you the obvious superlatives. It was a bit of shock to me. I mean the Yamaha was my prized amp...high end, $3500 modern Integrated, with glossy brochures, amazing construction, great retro look. It got rave reviews from the likes of Steve Huff (no endorsement here) and others. I mean, the Yamaha is no slouch. It has amazing, deep, powerful low end, great soundstage and presentation.
The Sansui has got greater clarity and details, easily betters the Yamaha by a fair margin. The soundstage is wider than the Yamaha, extending beyond the speakers by a foot or two. There is an distinct improvement in high frequency clarity and dynamics. The top end sparkles without being shrill. This also may be due to Yamaha presentation prefers to have a softer high end, as they call "Natural Sound".
And then, the dynamics of how complex passages are presented. The Yamaha tends to spit out all of it with in one blob when the music gets really complex with multiple instrumentation layers (Think AR Rahman). On the AU D11 II, the separation of layers is remarkable. If you close your eyes you can choose to focus on any musical layer you want and it's clear and vibrant. (Daft Punk, Random access memories - Contact) (DSTOM - Money)
Then there is the power, damn! At 130W into 8ohms, and God only knows how many into 4ohms (Polk LSi15). At 9 o'clock dial, about -34dB it's gets plenty loud, way more than I like to listen at.
In the battle of the bass, both amps go toe to toe. I would call it a draw here. The classic Sansui low end is there, where as the Yamaha is fantastic at the low end. Maybe the Yamaha is better by a faint smidge.
Overall Sansui AU D11 II is more engaging, more enjoyable and just creates this 3D soundstage with amazing clarity and musicality that makes your favorite music jump out at you.
Now did the restoration make a difference? Was is worth it? Oh yes absolutely! I owned and heard this amplifier before and it was a great amp, sounded fantastic. But now it's at a whole new level. And this is not confirmation bias in play...
So, what does this mean, will the Yamaha have to find a new home? No, it's staying, it is still a great amp, perhaps a different presentation philosophy to the Sansui. It has lots of connectivity options with pre and main outs, which is great for my home theatre duty. It also has a remote
Some of the music I used to to my comparisons
1) Dark side of the moon SACD
2) Brothers in Arms (180gm) double vinyl pressing
3) Daft Punk Random access memories - Vinyl.
4) Introducing AR Rahman CD - if you aren't familiar with him; he is the Grammy/Oscar winning Indian composer who became popular for the Slumdog Millionaire sound track. this 2CD collection (available on spotify and Amazon) has some of his earlier work from Tamil language movies. This collection is one of the best sounding compilation that I have cone across. The music is mind blowing and the recording and mastering is impeccable. This is my go to audition CD. And I don't even understand the language!!!!! Some of the most amazing compositions from one of the most gifted composer of this generation. This was the CD that sealed the deal for the Sansui over Yamaha .
