The Yamaha A-S2100

index.php
The turntable clearly shows that brown sides would look great on the 2100 silver face. Don't understand why it is not offered as an option.
 
The turntable clearly shows that brown sides would look great on the 2100 silver face. Don't understand why it is not offered as an option.
It's nice you can see your side's, with mine tucked into a rack built into the linen closest I don't see mine. And I think they did offer some light color oak side's on the silver on some early models I seen them but they discontinued them and went to the piano black.
 
I have had my A-S1100 for two years now. It displaced a Exposure 3012-S2 amp in my system. I am off the "merry-go-round" for now. I love this amp and this is after chasing the dragon for 40 years. I am sure anyone who has the 1100 or 2100 should be very happy with either. The big differences between the two are that the 2100 has a discreet headphone amp and an extra input driver board for the balanced input. Also the the the 2100 has the MM/MC phono switch on the front panel instead of the back. The 1100's headphone output works but nothing to write home about. The 2100's headphone amp has good reviews. The one thing that stands out for me is that the MC phono section works really well with my Denon DL-103 cartridge. The MM section is good but does not match my iFI iPhono2 or Musical Surroundings Nova II. But the MC phono is it's own circuit and holds it's own with the MS Nova II and betters the iPhono2 in my system. IMHO. This guy's You Tube video breaks down the differences between the 1000, 2000, 1100, 2100 and 3000 Yamaha amps. If you have an hour to kill it's here

Congrats to anyone who has a A-S1100, 2100 or 3000. Awesome and underrated true HiFi amps.
 
I have had my A-S1100 for two years now. It displaced a Exposure 3012-S2 amp in my system. I am off the "merry-go-round" for now. I love this amp and this is after chasing the dragon for 40 years. I am sure anyone who has the 1100 or 2100 should be very happy with either. The big differences between the two are that the 2100 has a discreet headphone amp and an extra input driver board for the balanced input. Also the the the 2100 has the MM/MC phono switch on the front panel instead of the back. The 1100's headphone output works but nothing to write home about. The 2100's headphone amp has good reviews. The one thing that stands out for me is that the MC phono section works really well with my Denon DL-103 cartridge. The MM section is good but does not match my iFI iPhono2 or Musical Surroundings Nova II. But the MC phono is it's own circuit and holds it's own with the MS Nova II and betters the iPhono2 in my system. IMHO. This guy's You Tube video breaks down the differences between the 1000, 2000, 1100, 2100 and 3000 Yamaha amps. If you have an hour to kill it's here

Congrats to anyone who has a A-S1100, 2100 or 3000. Awesome and underrated true HiFi amps.
Yes really enjoy my 2100,I also have the 1000 it's in the basement work out room with a tape deck and CD player. The 2100 really is nice with my pioneer PL 518 an Ortofon 2m blue with head phones. And the 4 Klipsh.
 
Hi, to all you Yammie lovers - could you please help? I bought an AX596 integrated dirt cheap as a fill in while I was considering what my next amp would be. I was so impressed with it that I still have it 2 years later. I have the opportunity to purchase an a-s2100 also quite cheaply with a 3 year warranty. I know this will result in sonic improvements but, as I will not be able to hear it first, I was wondering if anyone might be able to advise just how much? I will be driving a pair of KEF 104/2s and prefer a warmer but detailed sound.
 
Congrats to anyone who has a A-S1100, 2100 or 3000. Awesome and underrated true HiFi amps.

I think that you could probably add the A-S801 to your list as well. While it lacks a few of the marquis features like pre out/main in, balanced outputs, VU meters, oversized transformers, etc., it is only $900. For that you get clean power (100 watt/ch @ 8 ohms), the option of pure direct signal routing, amazing build quality, and very little coloration. Having said that, I am saving up for when Yamaha refreshes the line--which could be awhile!

as801.jpg as801a.jpg
 
Hi Lee, thanks for your reply. There is a 2100 on Ebay at the moment for £850 or near offer which seems a great buy but it's a 4 hour drive and no shipping available! Do you think the 801 would offer huge sonic improvements over the 596 or would it be more of a sideways step? I guess if you have never heard a 596 it would be difficult for you to comment!
 
Hi thanks for the reply. Since my post I had the unit replaced for another 2100. This unit does the exact same thing except now it's the left channel. Called Yamaha Corp. explained what's going on - Yamaha says it should be quiet on both channels on start up and shut off. Unit being replaced for my third time.I'll let you know how this one goes.wont show up for 4 to 6 weeks. Hope other people will chime in in the meantime.

I had a quad 405 and matching preamp that did that but it was on both channels. I have a s1000 for 10 years and the problem is the input jumps occasionally for no reason.
 
I can't speak for the as1000, I haven't heard it. With my as2100, now powering a set of dynaudio focus 260s - I think my weak link now is the source, blue sound node 2 using node dac, but as I have it at the moment there are constantly songs on tidal making my jaw drop. I am so happy with the sound and I cannot fault the amp. It only gets warm, never hot. An old Cambridge I used to own got very hot quickly by comparison.

I have had my 1000 for about 10 years. Only problem is the input jumps around once on a while lately. I find that if I flip it back and forth to maybe clean the contacts it is fine.
 
This thread helped me decide on my new a-s2100. Just want to say it’s a fantastic amp. Went from tubes to this monster and I have no regrets. Gives me 90% of the goodness my tube gear provided and brings just a ton of stuff to the table the tubes couldn’t. Mostly in terms of bass, detail, top end extension, and of course no tubes.

Currently I’m still using my Cornwalls and the pairing sounds pretty damn good but I’m looking to upgrade. Wondering what you guys are running. Specifically I’ve been looking at Dynaudio, Spendor, Audio Note, and recently added Totem to the list.

So what speakers are you driving with your a-s2100s?
 
This thread helped me decide on my new a-s2100. Just want to say it’s a fantastic amp. Went from tubes to this monster and I have no regrets. Gives me 90% of the goodness my tube gear provided and brings just a ton of stuff to the table the tubes couldn’t. Mostly in terms of bass, detail, top end extension, and of course no tubes.

Currently I’m still using my Cornwalls and the pairing sounds pretty damn good but I’m looking to upgrade. Wondering what you guys are running. Specifically I’ve been looking at Dynaudio, Spendor, Audio Note, and recently added Totem to the list.

So what speakers are you driving with your a-s2100s?

It is tough to answer this without knowing what you are trying to achieve. Cornwalls are not an easy speaker to replace. Especially with a smaller speaker.
 
It is tough to answer this without knowing what you are trying to achieve. Cornwalls are not an easy speaker to replace. Especially with a smaller speaker.
I’m looking for something with a similar big sound and decent bass that does not have the mid colorations of the Cornwalls and a smoother more detailed top end (you could also read that as better top end extension).

My Cornwalls are from 1985. They are from the last production run of 1s and have the tweeter, mid, and crossover of the 1st year of Cornwall 2s. Some refer to them as the Cornwall 1.5

They are tremendously difficult to replace. Since I’m no longer running tubes I’m will to give up some efficiency but still want to avoid really difficult loads. That’s lead me so far to the Dynaudio Special 40s, Audio Note AN-J spe, Spendor A4 and their Classic 2/3, and most recently the Totem Forest or Forest Signature.

Really like the Forest Signatures but wondering if the Yamaha has enough to really drive them. The others have proved to be pretty great matches and I prefer them to the Cornwalls. And that’s no slight on the Cornwalls considering I’m looking at 3K+ speakers in order to get better across the board performance.
 
I’m looking for something with a similar big sound and decent bass that does not have the mid colorations of the Cornwalls and a smoother more detailed top end (you could also read that as better top end extension).

My Cornwalls are from 1985. They are from the last production run of 1s and have the tweeter, mid, and crossover of the 1st year of Cornwall 2s. Some refer to them as the Cornwall 1.5

They are tremendously difficult to replace. Since I’m no longer running tubes I’m will to give up some efficiency but still want to avoid really difficult loads. That’s lead me so far to the Dynaudio Special 40s, Audio Note AN-J spe, Spendor A4 and their Classic 2/3, and most recently the Totem Forest or Forest Signature.

Really like the Forest Signatures but wondering if the Yamaha has enough to really drive them. The others have proved to be pretty great matches and I prefer them to the Cornwalls. And that’s no slight on the Cornwalls considering I’m looking at 3K+ speakers in order to get better across the board performance.

I would say that as much as I like the AN J/SPe that I had for 16 years (upgraded to a higher level E) is that they are mainly designed with Single Ended triodes in mind. Though I have reviewed a class A Pureaudio integrated that is terrific and Sugden worked well on my AN J.

If you evential plan is to go to a SET or certain other tube amps down the road the AN J makes more sense than Dynaudio or Spendor or Totem. The AN J is happy with 5 watts per channel especially in not too large of a room. Of the group you are considering the AN J has efficiency, sensitivity advantages as well as being able to be placed against walls or in corners. Also the J/SPe is silver wired internally - which is a bigger deal to people who want to go with all Audio Note systems. To me - the SPe silver Litz is fine but it is more geared to folks with AN systems where their speaker cables are also SPe and IC cables are silver. The other speakers you are looking at are all probably wired with copper. So when you start pricing things out I tend to advise people to try and keep things apple to apples.

For instance what is the Spendor cabinet made from? What is the internal wiring? So if Totem/Spendor/Dynaudio use copper wiring and the cabinet is made of either chipboard or MDF which are quite cheap to buy as well as to manufacturer then to keep things "fair" you should probably look at the AN J/D or AN J/Lx - The J/D is the least expensive speaker at around $3k and uses chipboard cabinets similar to the Snells. The J/D comes with either paper woofers or Hemp woofers and is only available in Black Ash. The J/Lx though is made with 100% Russian Birch and seamless cabinetry hand made in Austria and comes in over 20 wood finishes. Also comes in paper or Hemp options. There are currently a whopping 10 different versions of the AN J speakers ranging from around $3,000 to $22,000.

I think if you get a chance for a home audition - this will help. The J and other wider baffle higher sensitive speakers IME give you a lot of the bigger horn advantages like dynamics scale and ease of drive and free and easy presentation without horn shout or brashness exhibited by many of those horn. Depending on your space though you could consider other speakers like pureaudio project, Spatial, SoundKaos, Tannoy. I tend to recommend Audio Note more because I own them and they are my comfy shoes speakers - I know I can listen all day everyday to all kinds of music but there are plenty of fine speakers. Speaker shopping is my favorite - so take your time.

Here is the AN J/D with the hemp woofers. The amp here is 4 watts undistorted per channel (10 watt max). Just know that AN tends to be a bit of a cult. A lot of folks enter it and then end up selling all their other gear - so it can wind up being a costly pursuit.

 
I'm back in black!

For those who don't know or remember, I had a silver A-S2100 that was damaged in shipping in the past. It left it's sonic mark on me and I've been itching to get another one ever since. Have this one powering my ADS L1590/2's and it sounds wonderful. My home is susceptible to AC noise but this thing is DEAD silent. An absolute pleasure to listen to.

IMG_20191214_170525.jpg
IMG_20191214_170440.jpg
 
Last edited:
So what speakers are you driving with your a-s2100s?

FWIW, all the speakers you mentioned are fine. I've owned/reviewed about 40 pairs of speakers over the past 50 years and have had the Spendor SP1/2 in the past and now the Dynaudio Focus 110 for the past 3 years (and I have no intention of selling). I could live with either of these, but given your using s-s for amps, I'd recommend you listen to the Dynaudio which can play a bit more dynamic than the Spendors making them a better all around loudspeaker. But if your listening tastes run toward classical,vocal, acoustic, etc., then the Spendors might be more satisfying. Of course, try to audition your choices with your own amp if possible.
 
I'm back in black!

For those who don't know or remember, I had a silver A-S2100 that was damaged in shipping in the past. It left it's sonic mark on me and I've been itching to get another one ever since. Have this one powering my ADS L1590/2's and it sounds wonderful. My home is susceptible to AC noise but this thing is DEAD silent. An absolute pleasure to listen to.

View attachment 1699643
View attachment 1699644

Gorgeous amp!
 
Back
Top Bottom