Yamaha DSP-A1000

[yettitheman]

From the ancient sands of time... comes the millionth review of the Yamaha DSP-A1000


Build Quality:
Coming from a near twenty year old piece of analogous bliss and state of the art design (when it was new), this receiver has held up exceptionally well over this period of time. It has a solid brush, anodized aluminum faceplate with white silkscreen lettering marking model number and control function designations, as well as a drop-down face plate made out of brushed and anodized aluminum. The chassis is made of zinc-plated stamped steel, while the top cover is zinc plated, with a baked powder paint for added durability and some internal foam dampening for added resonance reduction.

(I will edit to get the internal pictures later... left them on another camera)

Internals:
Well, due to a recent hiccup in this device, I was forced to tear it down and make repairs to bring it back to perfect operating condition. I did well.... but also had about 3 hours of my life sucked away:

Sound Quality:
Overall, this receiver is excellent. There is no hissing or any stray noises at the speakers when the volume is turned up to it's maximum range when no input is playing. There is some slight bleed through on the input selector, but that may have been before I fixed the problems. I will see if there is still bleed through tomorrow. The amplifier itself does not exhibit any 60 cycle hum whatsoever.

Playing Diana Krall, Live in Paris through my Pioneer PD-65, connected to CD in with Straightwire RCA interconnects, hooked to a pair of PSB Century 600 I's was a very nice experience after fixing my baby. At low volumes, all the notes came through crystal clear without any sign of fluffing or weakness. At higher volumes, the sound was in your face, like you were at the concert, with every note ringing through clearly and concisely. Bass was never exaggerated and treble was never harsh and tinny.

Inputs:

As you can see, there is quite a few inputs. I'm too lazy to list them, but the audio/video inputs are all there (except for pre-in/out, coupler, subwoofer, and a few other little ones.)


Overall, this is an excellent receiver. I would love to have the DSP-A1, which is based on this receiver, but has digital input processing capabilities. I would rate this receiver a 9 out of 10, just because it lacks any digital connectivity. But if you don't mind or don't need digital interconnects, then this receiver is certainly one beast you want to give a shot.

 

[Seth=L]

The back looks very clean, the jacks look nice and shiny (Pat would respond "your head is gonna be shiny if you don't leave me alone). Glad to know you are taking the 2.1 approach for now given your space constraints, should work out well.

 

[yettitheman]

LOL @ the Pat joke

and yes, I'm ditching that Onkyo out of my loop.. I like the sound of my Yammie better

 

[davidtwotrees]

Thanx for the review, yettie. Great pics. I've never owned any Yamaha gear. I have worked in some homes for clients, (I'm a small contractor) who have had Yammies and the build quality was excellent(turning the volume knob is our version of kicking the tires, lol......) D2T

 

[Bryce_H]

I'm still running a Yamaha DSP-A3090 in my living room with a Sony DVP-S7000. They both sound great and never had a problem with either one. Some stuff just doesn't die.

 

[yettitheman]

Hey, no problem guys. I've had this for about a six months... maybe a year, and have had it as a separate, then just an amp, then back to a separate

I like it better in it's stock configuration... and I don't use the DSP modes....


The only thing now is a stray crackle... I just wiggle one of the front pots and it goes away.... I did it about a week ago and it hasn't done it since.... probably didn't clean the balance pot as good somehow.... oh well.

When I first got it, the audio was almost inaudible, even with the volume maxed out... but I fixed it

Now.... guess what price I paid for it

 

[yettitheman]

I'm chiming in to say that someone likes using my pictures without permission....

 

[Seth=L]

I'm chiming in to say that someone likes using my pictures without permission....

WUT?

 

[DKqwerty]

Love the DSP-A1000! But my is currently on the fritz. However, I cannot ask for help cause my post count is nil. (Well, now it's one)

Mines shutting itself down. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[croseiv]

Nice innards... Decent sized caps there. Any idea what the rating is?

 

[Boerd]

You took the poor thing apart!!! Pretty good build from what I can see. Have you done any measurements? Can it drive 4 ohm speakers with a 3 ohm min ?

 

[yettitheman]

Nice innards... Decent sized caps there. Any idea what the rating is?

I forget. I know each cap is the size of a Red Bull can It's going to be fun finding those when they die.

 

[yettitheman]

You took the poor thing apart!!! Pretty good build from what I can see. Have you done any measurements? Can it drive 4 ohm speakers with a 3 ohm min ?

Yeah, it isn't as poor as it looks. No measurements, just use and comparison to other equipment. The PSB's I used to have, were not the easiest speakers in the world to power. I estimated those to be around 6 ohm nominal. It was loud enough without distortion to hurt your ears (but not make them bleed). Getting to ear bleeding volume introduced distortion.

As far as a 4 ohm load, I'm not sure I would recommend it.

 

[contynie]

Loud speaker left

Dear guys,i have a dspa1000 week ago from my uncle.He works perfect just one hing left about the input of the main left speaker.It just cant produce a right sound .It is great if you can help ,please post.

 

[ThornStone]

Just wondering if you have ever found a fix for your problem.

There may be a two factor problem but not related fixes for it (just diagnostic).

If I remember vaguely that the main left and right output from the internal pre-amp to the main power amp input are in the back of the unit where you should see two u-hook shunts one for each left and right amp. It is either one of this bar is missing or...

Since I did not know what you meant by problem with sound. I found one instance that a friend had a big A-3090 had one of them missing after moving. That his son used a bungee hook on it during the car ride thought it was a laptop lock down hook, lol.

It is quite a potential that during the move (due to its weight) that it was mishandle or pulled off by accident or even got caught on something.

However, you may have one of those unit denied by Yamaha short of a real world recall or for the problem or degradaton and inferior parts was used for the input selector. And normally it started out just like what you had described if I think what you mean, like your unit; bad sound in one of the channels especially either left or right or just fades in and out in teither channel.

In fact, last I saw a sale sign on ebay - special new unit of the input selector for the DSP-A1000 - was several years ago on a sale site in EU somewhere that the person wanted to recover his cost for it that he didn't know it was such an undertaking to resurrect his pride unit that he ordered the replacement input thinking he'd just pop the hood open, pull out the old malfunction then push the new in like popping video cards into and out of a PC.

But I have not seen one since then. And I have not been able to find the user manual let alone the service manual. But I use the A-2070 or A-3090 as a guide since they were the son and grandson of the A1000. The remote could even be the old Radio Shack 6 in one remote. I have used a weird no name and it worked too at least to turn it on and off.

You can try to have the input selector reset itself (but that is not the real problem - the real problem is the contacts inside the selector which had deteriorated beyond - yes - the lead had worn off) to see if that helps by placing the selector between source before power on, the selector will then turn to the left and then right to adjust itself.

It may not have anything to do with your left or right channels at all. It is known that the input selector will cause irratic prolbems especially that problem that you can wiggle it the input selector and the left and right main channels may or may not return to normal. Yes, even just in stereo mode.

Yamaha knew these first batches of it. And there was speculation that many people suspected that Yamaha purposely do not have user manual or service manual at their sites. It is one of most powerful thing that Yamaha had, and due to their denial in helping end users to fix, they did had the repair program for a short time I heard but they just wanted the problem to not just go away but disappear totally even the words of DSP-A1000 completely.

They had the input selector replaced in all other subsequent manufacturing processes after this engineering and parts source known that such an engineering marvel of the day had become a disgrace and wanted to deny its existence just because someone in Yamaha decided to save a few pennies then (Gold wasn't anywhere near today's price) for such an high end system.

Sigh. Yelp, still waiting for the same part like every person wondering what is happening - the source input selector.

I just don't have the time, just wanting to do my own selector switch one day.

The blinking LED has been confirmed I have heard that mostly resolved by using the remote to un-mute the A-1000 from yet 'another' most stupid design by Yamaha, you'll definitely need the remote to reset the mute that's been told to me.

I am not just ranting, but hope it will help someone out there. Every bit helps.

Then it also happened to a friend of mine had a fully functional TX-500 component series from Yamaha. You guessed it, he disconnected the system before he used the remote to turn off the tuner before he disconnect the remote interlink cable between the integrated amp and the tuner.

Yes, and after he moved it but - forgetting to turn off the tuner but just pulled it power cord from the wall outlet, and now the tuner is dead and won't power on because the tuner was control by the older remote interconnect link between the integrated amp and the tuner, so he has no way of turning it the tuner back on. The tuner somehow got stuck in the sleep state that was what he was told by the service guy. That tuner has been sitting in the dark and historizing itself patiently waiting for the companion integrated amp to turn it off first.

well, if any one know of a trick for the tuner, please share and thank in advance.

 

[gene]

I'm still running a Yamaha DSP-A3090 in my living room with a Sony DVP-S7000. They both sound great and never had a problem with either one. Some stuff just doesn't die.

I had this combo many moons ago and loved it! The DSP-A3090 is a smooth sounding amp and the Sony DVP-S7000 had awesome sound and build quality. I sometimes miss those components.

 

[mtwhickory]

One of most important AV components ever!

I sold these back in the early "90s and have always considered the DSP-A1000 one of the most important and direction-altering components ever made. As I recall, this was the first component (maybe only) to actually go into real venues (Carnegie Hall, etc.) and capture the direct and reflected sound waves and reproduce them on a chip. The Yamaha rep told us that they used an air horn onstage for the sound production and the 3-D effects were captured and reproduced in the circuitry. He also told a story about Dolby Labs contacting Yamaha telling them that per licensing contract they could not change the way Dolby Pro Logic worked. Yamaha set up a presentation for the powers that be at Dolby Labs. Supposedly, the Dolby engineers were so impressed that they gave Yamaha the permission to continue and several bought DSPA-1000s themselves! Even if not true, I consider this piece to be THE most important analog AV component ever made.

 

[Mikkee33]

Yamaha DSP A1000 As A Power Amplifier

Hi, I stumbled upon your link via a Google search. My question do you know if it is possible to use this amp as a dedicated power amp? At the moment I am using a Little Dot MKiii as a pre amp to my Ymaha DSP A5. The reproduction is very good, but reading articles etc I think The DSP 1000 would be a significant jump. I would also like to toy with Biamping 2 DSP- 1000's.

Any advice or input greatly appreciated.

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

Are you looking to use it as a two-channel amp, or more channels?

You can use pretty much any receiver as a two-channel amplifier, and this one looks to be easy to use in that application. On the back panel, there are usually two bars that couple the pre-amp outputs for the main channels to the inputs for those channels. You'd take out those bars and plug your pre-amp outputs into the inputs on the DSP-A1000. Same appears to go for the center channel, so that's three channels. The jacks for the rears look like outputs, not inputs, but I don't know for sure.

 

[yettitheman]

Wow, kind of surprised this is still active For the time being, the A-1000 is retired; the input selector switch is having some slight issues, and instead of making it worse, I've decided to let it just set idly by, waiting for me to dissect the switch. Still gobs of power and as long as I wiggle the switch correctly, it'll stay fine. As soon as you use the remote to change input... time to get up and wiggle it, so not much point in using the remote. I have an idea on how to rebuild the contacts in the selector switch, but since I'm not inclined at the moment to do anything about it, it will come at a later date. Amplifier section still romps though So, not dead, but patiently waiting my hands of labor to bring it back to 100% again. And... chances are if you see these pictures on Ebay or anywhere else... they are lying