Hi, it's HandyAndy Tech Tips here, and today I'm going to be reviewing the Yamaha A-S701
Integrated Amplifier. So the first question that you might be asking is: what kind of
features does it have? Well... not many. Do you want DLNA streaming? Well, you're out
of luck. Do you want Bluetooth to connect your phone? No way. In fact, this amplifier
is so basic that it doesn't even have an AM/FM tuner or any kind of display on it at all!
And that kind of indicates that it's not going for the 9.1 channel, home theatre kind of
audience. No, this is a stereo amplifier and it's designed to major on sound alone. In
fact, it's retro in every way, from its feature set to its actual design. As you can see,
(it) has this amazing brushed metal finish on the front; it looks really awesome. And
so does the remote: in fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is one of the best remotes
that I've ever seen on a piece of stereo equipment. It's got a beautiful finish on the top, and
it feels really nice to hold. But returning to the amp for a minute, that 1970s build
quality is there as well. I mean, it weighs 11.2 kilos: yes, you heard that right. There's
hardly any plastic that you can see on the front of the unit at all, and no switch-mode
power supplies either, because when you look inside, you'll find a gigantic custom-made
power transformer, custom-made capacitors and two enormous aluminium heatsinks! So,
let's look at the controls that you get on the front panel. So you've got a power button
(quite self-explanatory), and right next to it is a quarter-inch headphone jack. And then
we've got the all-important speaker selector. Now, as you can see with the terminals there,
this amp either allows you to have a single set of speakers, two separate pairs, or you
can bi-wire a single pair. Now, bi-wiring essentially means that you're sending the
same audio signal twice: once to the high-frequency driver, the tweeter, and once to the low-frequency
woofer. Some people say it improves sound quality, but I'm not so convinced, especially
since you need to use twice the amount of speaker cable. Anyway, now we've got our tone
controls: bass and treble. And these are really interesting. Because not only do they apply
a +10dB boost and -10dB cut, which is quite normal and expected, they do it at 20Hz for
the bass and 20kHz for the treble! This means that you're boosting the super low bass and
super high treble, which should mean that you get a more realistic presentation overall.
And then you've got the balance control, which selects how much sound is coming out of each
speaker. Not necessarily that useful, I suppose, but it's good for testing things. Now, have
you ever tested listening to speakers at a really low volume? Annoying, hey? Well, it's
likely that it wouldn't have sounded any good, because our ears perceive less high and low
frequencies and more midrange in quiet sounds. To counteract this, Yamaha has provided a
loudness control. Now, this is not the same as a volume control. What it does is reduces
the 1kHz component of your music - eg. the midrange - by up to 30dB. Wow, are you serious?
Have we still got more controls to talk about? Well, I suppose this is an interesting one
that you're going to see next, because it is the input selector. As you can see, you
just turn the knob and the LEDs light up depending on which source is selected. And now I have
an excuse to show this awesome photo of the back panel again! So there are all the inputs,
there on the left hand side, and firstly you actually have a phono input. This means that
you can plug your turntable directly into the amp without needing to buy a separate
pre-amp, and it handles the RIAA de-equalization and all of that stuff. Next, you actually
have a special analog CD input, and it's unique because it's integrated with a feature called
CD Direct Amp. This by-passes the tone controls and the loudness control, and the idea is
that it gives you a direct and pure connection to the CD source with less noise and distortion.
Continuing with the inputs, you can plug in a tuner, and then there's a couple of line
inputs, and the last two have a record functionality, which means that the amplifier will output
any source which is currently playing through the record terminals, so you can plug in a
CD recorder, USB recorder, even an old tape deck. Rounding out the list of inputs, we've
got two digital connections, we've got TOSLINK optical and coaxial. And these work with the
amp's in-built 192kHz, 24-bit digital-to-analogue converter, so it's got quite a decent one
in there. Alright, so we've looked at the front panel, we've looked at the back panel,
we've looked at the design and the features, but how does this thing actually sound? Well,
in a word, it sounds fantastic. The tech specs of how much power it gives out are on the
screen now, but it just gives a wonderfully rounded sound. When I plug in my CD changer
through the analogue inputs, and connect some high-quality bookshelf speakers, the sound
it produces is nothing short of outstanding. And now I'm just going to throw some hi-fi
magazine buzzwords into there as well: it has fantastic timing, it has a big, full-bodied
sound. Anyway, it sounds really good, that's all you need to know. So would I recommend
the A-S701 by Yamaha? Absolutely. If you're a bit of a beginner audiophile and you just
want an awesome sounding two channel system to play your favourite songs, then this would
be a great centrepiece for it. And because it's built so well, I'm sure you'll get years
of enjoyment out of this product. Anyway, I'm HandyAndy and thank you so much for watching
this video. Please subscribe if you want more tech videos, and if you're a subscriber of
mine already, then why not leave a comment telling me whether you'd like me to do more
hi-fi videos.