Yamaha house sound is precise but sterile. Someone coming from vintage likely will find it flat.
I recently purchased the Onkyo A9010 from Amazon and a week later I'm returning it. By no means is "bad" it just fails in comparison to the 16 year old Yamaha RXV995 that was previously using.
I have opted to spend a little more and I just ordered the new Yamaha S501 from Crutchfield for $549. It will arrive tomorrow. I have high hopes that the Yamaha will perform better than the Onkyo. I like a punchier more powerful bass profile, the Onkyo did not have a subwoofer out so I couldn't go that route if I wanted to. The Yamaha has more power on paper and includes the subwoofer output that I will most likely need.
(...) the Onkyo did not have a subwoofer out so I couldn't go that route if I wanted to. (...)
The wattage on the A-S301 is a little lower than the R-S500 but the build quality is a little more robust in the amp section of the A-S301. (dual heat sinks and slightly larger capacitors) According to Yamaha the circuit design is little more refined in the integrated amps in comparison to the receiver line.I am thinking about buying yamaha R-S500 as it costs the same as A-S301 and has better specs75wpc @8 ohms 20-20khertz as compared to 60wpc for A-S301. Their power ratings are measured the same. They are practically identical in weight--actually the R-S 500 and A-S 500 are nearly identical in weight. What am I missing here? I keep hearing buy the intrgrateds but this R-S 500 is highly regarded.
Since I posted this thread, I have acquired two late 80's NAD receivers a 25 watt and 50 watt of the same series. These are everything I have been searching for, big, fat and warm but also very articulate, I now know what music is supposed to sound like!
Brand new to this site: Just searched for "onkyo a-9105 vs Yamaha-s501" and found this thread. Awesome info everyone has supplied and looks like I am going to order the Yamaha S501 in Silver now. Slipper slope for me, just started collecting Vinyl and bought my first record player. Have a lot of time with Surround sound, etc. but dusted off the old JBL towers and put on some vinyl on an older 5.1 Yamaha amp. Sounds good but I believe the true Stereo Amp will be far better. Thanks again for all the great information and look forward to reading more on this site.Thanks for all the replies, Yamaha seems to be the winner!So I just took the plunge and purchased the Yamaha A-S301 for a couple of reasons. Cost being # 1, I got it at Amazon with an $80 credit for the credit card offer, I do not need an insane amount of watts as most of my listening is near field and headphones and after much, much research it seems that the 301 supposedly is not as bright as the higher counterparts. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen but I also read about Onkyo's being the same, the lower wattage amps are less bright. It kinda makes sense but I am not a technician so I do not know. I primarily have older vintage speakers(Advent,EPI,KLH) so I am hoping the Yamaha brings out the best in them. Now the nervous waiting begins!
It's a problem with the music, as they say garbage in garbage out. The better the system the more revealing it is and its a shame really about so much music falling into the bad category.I have to agree with several posts above. I just returned an A-S701. It sounded pretty good with well recorded material, but many older recordings (and some newer ones) were unlistenable. Very bright and sibilant. Melow jazz sounded great, but many classic rock and even newer rock were shrill. I tried it with my Nucleus through a Modi Multibit and with my Pioneer PL-71 turntable. I tried it with Pioneer HPM 100's and through headphones. All same.