Here is a review from a guy who had both.
Personally, I believe the differences between high quality amps like these (from mainstream quality brands) is far too subtle to make the kind of claims he does about hearing differences. I do believe I would be inclined to
think the amp with big VU meters would sound better than the one without!
But to each his own.
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/the-yamaha-a-s-3000-integrated-amp-review/
Interesting, right now Amazon pricing is $7000 in black and $8000 in silver. I like silver, but not sure it sounds $1000 better!
I am being tongue in cheek here. If your AS2000 is properly matched to the demands of your speakers, I cannot imagine you could tell the difference in a blind test.
Some companies deliberately color the sound from their gear to attract attention, but I think Yamaha has always had a philosophy of maintaining the purity of the original signal.
