Yamaha M-40 vs. Soundcraftsmen A2801 - Keep or trade?

11somekid

11somekid

Part-time Lunatic
I've had my Soundcraftsmen amp for about a year, and works great. It's rated at about 125 wpc and I use them to power my B&W CDM1 SEs which max at around 120w. The A2801 has never been serviced, and has a light hum in the background, but for the $125 I bought it for, I am more than happy with the sound. The only weakness is the inputs are 1/4 jacks, but I got adapters for them.

At my record shop the other day, some of their equipment caught my eye, one of which being this Yamaha M-40. The tag says it works, and is priced at $125. Knowing how well-discussed this series of Yamaha amps were, I knew this was quite a nice price. I haven't auditioned it, but looked to being in great shape, minus a few scratches on top. I don't have the room to keep both, and I think I'd trade my Soundcraftsmen in if I were to get the Yamaha.

Is the quality equal? There's not a lot on Soundcraftsmen out there, let alone my specific amplifier. I love my B&Ws for years but might upgrade to some Klipsches or maybe another B&W (but that's for another thread). I know it's a good deal monetarily, but sound-wise I haven't a clue.
 
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If it works, for $125 you can't really go wrong. That's a lot of amp for the money, and that'd be an easy resell if you decided you didn't like it. But condition, function, and previous repair work are all factors.

I am a Yamaha fan anyways. My M45 has been extremely reliable, and my C4 and CA-810 are keepers too.
 
Both are nice amps.

I'm not home now but I own a soundcraftsmen amp that might be the same as yours. They made several variants of that amp which have small changes. It's a nice amp, well made, fairly easy to work on.

The M60 is a whole different animal. More refined modern design. Flashy looker with those knight rider meters ;) Personally I like their looks over the traditional analog meters. It's also a much more complex amp vs the SC. Also appears to use 8 outputs per ch vs the SC 4 outputs per ch. The M60 would likely drive demanding speakers a bit better if that's a case with you?

Only concerning thing is allot of folks report the Mxx series amps needing some cap work at this point. Not the end of the world or anything. Especially at that price. Just very helpful if you have someone who can service the amp if needed. My SC was easy to recap.

I owned an M80 amp a while back and it sounded great. My SC similar to yours also sounds great.

Maybe the store would let you demo the M60 at home if you put the $ down? Decide for yourself what you prefer.
 
I'd jump on the Yamaha and see what you think. I've been running Yamaha with B&W for a long time and feel they make an excellent pairing. That's also a really good price and you'd be able to double your money easy on eBay if you decided to sell. I got something like $400 each for the last two I sold though they were deglued and had a few caps replaced.
The maintenance issues with the M-60 people mentioned about are due to corrosive glue used when building the amp. Having gone through three M60/65 now, I've noted that these typically don't have a lot of glue, and the caps you have to remove to get at the glue are likely going to test low so may as well change them out while you're in there. Sounds like with the hum you're experiencing on the Soundcraftsmen, you're going to need to do maintenance on either amp you decide to stick with.
 
Well, I'm a bonehead. I got the model wrong, it's a M-40, not 60; I will edit accordingly.

Also, apparently the shops boss is out until Monday and the kid at the counter said I'd have to ask him about auditioning them. So now they are less watts (120W) and lack the shiny meters. Is it still good?
 
I had a Yamaha M-40, and one of my regrets is selling it when I did. It was my test amp, and it could drive very nicely most speakers. The amp I replaced it with couldn’t come close to competing with it, and same with the amp that followed it. It drove my ESS AMT 1 pedestal speakers without any issues. These are 4 ohm Speakers and need a good high current amp to sound good.

Still a deal at $125! Very solid clean sounding amp.
 
That's more similar to my M-45, and still a good deal at that price if it's working. They are solid amps.
 
This open circuit in my M-45 occurred one day with a pop and bang through the speakers. However, after repair, it has performed fantastically. I have had it almost 20 years. Yamaha M-45 OpenResistor.jpg
 
11somekid said:
I got the model wrong, it's a M-40.... So now they are less watts (120W). Is it still good?
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You would have to be listening at such a loud level to the point of possible ear damage if you realized the full 120W let alone 160W let alone in a dorm room.

Do some research and you'll be amazed and enlightened as to how many watts one actually uses when listening to music.

Don't let WPC be the deciding factor in purchasing, talk to the owner on Monday and see if he/she will let you demo it per @PPstereo suggestion in post #4
 
Picked it up Tuesday, and did an A/B comparison between both amps. The Yamaha is definitely better, especially with vocals. The Soundcraftsman was definitely rich, but it gave out the sound all in one. The Yamaha made the sound more separated, with each element of a song feeling like a different speaker. It also eliminated any hum I had; even at high volumes, the speakers give no ambient hum/buzz. I am absolutely floored by this thing. Probably the last amp I'll buy until I can get into true audiophile prices!
 
I recently picked up a Soundcraftsmen A2502, the model with the colored LED meters. I decided to pair it with a Precision Fidelity C8 tube hybrid preamp and was very impressed with the dynamic depth and clarity this pairing made. I briefly had an M40 about 8 years ago, but when a friend needed a power amp I sold it to him cheap. It would be interesting to do a comparison with different preamps and see what the results are, because that is often one of the main determining factors.
 
silvernutsaq said:
I recently picked up a Soundcraftsmen A2502, the model with the colored LED meters. I decided to pair it with a Precision Fidelity C8 tube hybrid preamp and was very impressed with the dynamic depth and clarity this pairing made. I briefly had an M40 about 8 years ago, but when a friend needed a power amp I sold it to him cheap. It would be interesting to do a comparison with different preamps and see what the results are, because that is often one of the main determining factors.
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The 2502 seems to have a bit more going on, compared to my 2801. Mine was definitely used professionally, complete with rack rash and 1/4" outputs. It probably wasn't in too good of shape either, needed new caps and such. Would love to hear some of their other amps, but I don't think my 2801 is a best representation of their amps.
 
11somekid said:
The 2502 seems to have a bit more going on, compared to my 2801. Mine was definitely used professionally, complete with rack rash and 1/4" outputs. It probably wasn't in too good of shape either, needed new caps and such. Would love to hear some of their other amps, but I don't think my 2801 is a best representation of their amps.
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Well perhaps not, though the point I was trying to make is sometimes it's not completely the amp where you get the representation of the sound. I wasn't overly impressed with my M-40, and I can't remember if I paired it with a Spec 1 or B&K CS 117 pre. With the right preamp you could get an outstanding match.
 
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