YAMAHA A-S1000 - good buy?

[Xytech]

Hey All,

I have a chance to pick one of these up for $1k Australian - they usually, as far as I am aware, retail for about $2.5k. I'm just wondering:

Firstly, at that price, is it a good buy? It comes with warranty until 2013.

Secondly, how do you think it would go with classical music/music generally? (i.e not using it for a home theatre system or anything like that). I would be upgrading from my Pioneer VSX-520 and wouldn't like to do so unless there will be a significant/noticable difference. The speakers I am using are reasonably high end - three way floorstanders (m-t-m) with passive side woofers. (they are from a now defunct Australian company but were very highly rated in their day!)

Thirdly, how do you go about using subwoofers with these sort of amps? Can you just plug them in the back?

Link to the Pioneer I currently have here: http://www.pioneer.com.au/au/products/VSX-520-K/print.html
Link to the Yamaha here: http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/amps/a-s1000_black__u/?mode=model

Thanks!

 

[jonnythan]

It's just an amplifier, not a receiver. You still need something to do the signal processing. It's not an "upgrade" from a receiver because it doesn't perform the preamp processing of a receiver. Many people use their receiver as a pre-pro, but the receiver needs preamp outputs for that and the Pio 520 doesn't have any.

The Pioneer doesn't have a great amp section, but it's decent. Unless you listen loud, it's probably entirely adequate. In order to upgrade the amp, you'd need to either:

1) Replace the Pioneer with a receiver that has a better amp, or
2) Replace the pioneer with a pre-pro or a receiver that has preamp outputs, then add an external amp.

$1000 seems like a lot of money for a 2-channel 90 watt amp. I dunno if they ship to Australia, but Emotiva sells the UPA-2, a 125 watt 2-channel amp, for $300. You can also get a pro audio amp that'll do over 300 watts per channel for around the same price.

 

[Xytech]

Thanks very much for your advice. I must have got confused and thought it was an integrated amplifier!

I don't listen extremely loud, so perhaps the best bet is to just stick with the Pioneer for now.

Cheers

 

[LAB3]

I have has Great service from both of my Yamaha AVR. Match the AVR you want to the speakers you have so have some extra power for watching Bluray movies etc. I have 100 watt speakers and 130 WPC AVR that I am sure does not get close to these specs with all amps driven at one time.
But my old Klipsch speakers donot need a lot of power to play very loud.
Good Luck with what ever model Yamaha AVR you purchase.... RX-A series Yamaha AVR are great units.