rwortman
02-08-2003, 03:23 PM
Review: Yamaha M-80 amplifier, 250wpc 8 ohms, 330wpc 4 ohms, 3 sets of speaker outputs, level controls, switchable transistor bias that extends class A operation up to 25watts into 8 ohms.
Every since I got my PSB Stratus Gold i's about 5 years back, I have been itching to try them with a high powered amp. I had a nice little Adcom GFA535 S'Phile approved and all but a little underpowered for serious rocking. I bought another one for $200 and was using them both in a passive vertical biamp configuration for quite some time now. This gave me a bit more power reserve but I still only had about 80w going to each woof. Tax time and I decided to see what used stuff was out there. I wanted to stay under $1k so that ruled out all the esoteric stuff. (My spouse approval factor has more to do with price than appearance)I posted at the Audio Asylum amp board asking for advice on used amps at least 200w and under $1k. I was surprised that I only got two responses. Usually ppl there are more than willing to share their opinions. Maybe I scared them off because I am not bashful about posting when I think someone is spouting nonsense or mayby my paltry $1K budget wasn't interesting enought. Pete the Bully suggested a Yamaha m-80 or M-85 at much less than 1K and another guy pointed me at an AVA amp at Audiogon. I checked on the AVA and it was sold.
I did some ebay searching and came up with a cosmetically near mint Yamaha M-80 fixed price listing. There was another one and a 85 up for auction as well as a Sony ES series 200 watter. The other two Yammies weren't as nice and the Sony was a big unknown so I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger on the M-80.
I got it last Thursday and did some listening. The first thing I noticed was that none of the front panel indicators worked including the power meters and that some of the switches were stuck in. (Actually the very first thing I noticed is this is one heavy SOB) I went ahead and put on some music. First up was Alan Parsons "Turn of a Friendly Card". My LP either isn't in great shape( a gift from someone who was canning their records) or the recording wasn't wonderful so this sounded pretty good but not great. On to the CS5000 went a nice LP of Dire Straits "Communique". This was quite impressive. The bass lines and bass drum hits always sounded a bit weak with my little Adcom amps and now they were there with full impact. Realistic rock and roll volume levels that made the Adcom sound a bit strained were handled effortlessly by the big Yammy. After two album sides at fairly loud listening levels it was still cool as a cucumber. The Dynaco CDV-2 was warmed up by now so in the the tray went Cassandra Wilson and Jacky Terasson's "Rendezvous". I first heard this extremely well recorded CD at a hi fi store on a pair of ML Request's powered by some big amps. The standup bass was really vibrating the air in the room. My system never fully reproduced this. Now it does. I had the Yammy in auto class A for this jazz recording. The first two cuts had me thinking that just maybe my baby Adcoms had a touch more delicacy in the mids and highs as I listened to Jacky's piano playing and Cassandra's husky vocals. By the time they got to "Autumn Leaves" all was well. Maybe that comment I read somewhere about auto class A sounding a bit thin until the amp warmed up was true. Then I shut it down to look at why the meters and lights weren't working and off it went to my workroom. The heat sinks were nice and warm now. Not hot, but for sure lots warmer than when rocking in A/B. I found the front panel meter board had been broken at its lower mounts and cracked on the left side about an inch in. I had to repair about 10 broken traces and epoxy the board back together. I also found the plastic casting that makes up the C speaker connections got smashed. This I simply removed and taped over the hole. I will never need to hook up three sets of speakers anyhow. I got it back in the system and sat down to do some listening. Rock and roll, bluegrass, jazz, the amp did it all and never broke a sweat. Cymbals and percussions were crisp and clean, low bass was powerful and well controlled, voice, sax, and trumpet were pure and uncolored. About 3 hours later it was off to bed. I liked the amp quite a bit but it seemed that maybe it was emphasizing vocal sibilants a bit. Next day I dragged out one of the Adcoms and hooked it back up. The sibilants sounded no different. Bypassed the preamp and went straight to the amp (My CD player has a volume control). I heard no difference here either. Maybe it was those NOS RCA 6DJ8's I had recently put in the CD player. Out they came and in went a pair of 6922's that I had in reserve. (one 8 year old Sovtek and one new JJ. I didn't have a matched pair except for some NOS Sylvania 6DJ8's that the jury is still out on.) This was maybe a bit better. I wasn't too sure. Maybe I was just listening hypercritically since I had a new component. I put the Yammie back in and the sibilants were essentially the same. I decide that I was just being fussy. Vocal s's are always hard to produce perfectly and I think many times what we think is a problem with our system is just the sound the the particular recording mike makes when someone s's into it. So the bottom line is that the M-80 sounds very similar to the Adcom 535 but has the extra power reserves I wanted. Since I liked the 535 and it has developed a reputation over the years for being a very good sounding little amp, this is no bad thing and really what I was hoping for. The bar graph power meters may not be audiophile approved but they do look cool and as a whole the amp is an attractive package. So I now have a good looking, good sounding amplifier for under $500. That my friends is a pretty good deal.
associated equipment: Dual CS5000/Ortofon X3MC, Dynaco Pas4, Dynaco CDV-2, Yamaha T-7, Adcom GFA535.
Recordings used: LP Dire Straits "Communique", Alan Parsons Project "The Turn of a Friendly Card", Grateful Dead "Go to Heaven, Joni Mitchell "For the Roses", Santana "Abraxas", Elvis Costello "My Aim is True". CD Cassandra Wilson "Blue Light Till Dawn" "Rendezvous", Karrin Allyson "In Blue", Diana Krall "Love Scenes", Lyle Lovett "Joshua Judges Ruth", Highway 101 "Paint the Town", Alison Kraus "Forget About It" Bonnie Raitt "Nick of TIme"
Every since I got my PSB Stratus Gold i's about 5 years back, I have been itching to try them with a high powered amp. I had a nice little Adcom GFA535 S'Phile approved and all but a little underpowered for serious rocking. I bought another one for $200 and was using them both in a passive vertical biamp configuration for quite some time now. This gave me a bit more power reserve but I still only had about 80w going to each woof. Tax time and I decided to see what used stuff was out there. I wanted to stay under $1k so that ruled out all the esoteric stuff. (My spouse approval factor has more to do with price than appearance)I posted at the Audio Asylum amp board asking for advice on used amps at least 200w and under $1k. I was surprised that I only got two responses. Usually ppl there are more than willing to share their opinions. Maybe I scared them off because I am not bashful about posting when I think someone is spouting nonsense or mayby my paltry $1K budget wasn't interesting enought. Pete the Bully suggested a Yamaha m-80 or M-85 at much less than 1K and another guy pointed me at an AVA amp at Audiogon. I checked on the AVA and it was sold.
I did some ebay searching and came up with a cosmetically near mint Yamaha M-80 fixed price listing. There was another one and a 85 up for auction as well as a Sony ES series 200 watter. The other two Yammies weren't as nice and the Sony was a big unknown so I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger on the M-80.
I got it last Thursday and did some listening. The first thing I noticed was that none of the front panel indicators worked including the power meters and that some of the switches were stuck in. (Actually the very first thing I noticed is this is one heavy SOB) I went ahead and put on some music. First up was Alan Parsons "Turn of a Friendly Card". My LP either isn't in great shape( a gift from someone who was canning their records) or the recording wasn't wonderful so this sounded pretty good but not great. On to the CS5000 went a nice LP of Dire Straits "Communique". This was quite impressive. The bass lines and bass drum hits always sounded a bit weak with my little Adcom amps and now they were there with full impact. Realistic rock and roll volume levels that made the Adcom sound a bit strained were handled effortlessly by the big Yammy. After two album sides at fairly loud listening levels it was still cool as a cucumber. The Dynaco CDV-2 was warmed up by now so in the the tray went Cassandra Wilson and Jacky Terasson's "Rendezvous". I first heard this extremely well recorded CD at a hi fi store on a pair of ML Request's powered by some big amps. The standup bass was really vibrating the air in the room. My system never fully reproduced this. Now it does. I had the Yammy in auto class A for this jazz recording. The first two cuts had me thinking that just maybe my baby Adcoms had a touch more delicacy in the mids and highs as I listened to Jacky's piano playing and Cassandra's husky vocals. By the time they got to "Autumn Leaves" all was well. Maybe that comment I read somewhere about auto class A sounding a bit thin until the amp warmed up was true. Then I shut it down to look at why the meters and lights weren't working and off it went to my workroom. The heat sinks were nice and warm now. Not hot, but for sure lots warmer than when rocking in A/B. I found the front panel meter board had been broken at its lower mounts and cracked on the left side about an inch in. I had to repair about 10 broken traces and epoxy the board back together. I also found the plastic casting that makes up the C speaker connections got smashed. This I simply removed and taped over the hole. I will never need to hook up three sets of speakers anyhow. I got it back in the system and sat down to do some listening. Rock and roll, bluegrass, jazz, the amp did it all and never broke a sweat. Cymbals and percussions were crisp and clean, low bass was powerful and well controlled, voice, sax, and trumpet were pure and uncolored. About 3 hours later it was off to bed. I liked the amp quite a bit but it seemed that maybe it was emphasizing vocal sibilants a bit. Next day I dragged out one of the Adcoms and hooked it back up. The sibilants sounded no different. Bypassed the preamp and went straight to the amp (My CD player has a volume control). I heard no difference here either. Maybe it was those NOS RCA 6DJ8's I had recently put in the CD player. Out they came and in went a pair of 6922's that I had in reserve. (one 8 year old Sovtek and one new JJ. I didn't have a matched pair except for some NOS Sylvania 6DJ8's that the jury is still out on.) This was maybe a bit better. I wasn't too sure. Maybe I was just listening hypercritically since I had a new component. I put the Yammie back in and the sibilants were essentially the same. I decide that I was just being fussy. Vocal s's are always hard to produce perfectly and I think many times what we think is a problem with our system is just the sound the the particular recording mike makes when someone s's into it. So the bottom line is that the M-80 sounds very similar to the Adcom 535 but has the extra power reserves I wanted. Since I liked the 535 and it has developed a reputation over the years for being a very good sounding little amp, this is no bad thing and really what I was hoping for. The bar graph power meters may not be audiophile approved but they do look cool and as a whole the amp is an attractive package. So I now have a good looking, good sounding amplifier for under $500. That my friends is a pretty good deal.
associated equipment: Dual CS5000/Ortofon X3MC, Dynaco Pas4, Dynaco CDV-2, Yamaha T-7, Adcom GFA535.
Recordings used: LP Dire Straits "Communique", Alan Parsons Project "The Turn of a Friendly Card", Grateful Dead "Go to Heaven, Joni Mitchell "For the Roses", Santana "Abraxas", Elvis Costello "My Aim is True". CD Cassandra Wilson "Blue Light Till Dawn" "Rendezvous", Karrin Allyson "In Blue", Diana Krall "Love Scenes", Lyle Lovett "Joshua Judges Ruth", Highway 101 "Paint the Town", Alison Kraus "Forget About It" Bonnie Raitt "Nick of TIme"