Yamaha A-S2100 Integrated Amplifier Review

OnTheBlitz

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The Yamaha A-S2100 (purchased in May 2015) is for lack of better words, Totally Awesome!! The Bass is tight, clean and powerful. Mids and Highs are smooth as silk. The Soundstage is Deep and Wide. No need for separates with this BEAST! I also own the Yamaha A-S2000 (it has conventional Transistors not MOSFETS) which I purchased in May of 2014. This unit is also exceptional. Bass is comparable to the A-S2100. However, when it comes to the Mids, Highs and Soundstage, this is where the A-S2100 really excels over the A-S2000, and significantly! I would attribute this to the fact that the A-S2100 is using MOSFETS (same as the flagship A-S3000) and has also carried over other attributes from the A-S3000. I have the Polk LSIM-707 Speakers and I'm now bi-amping my system: using the new A-S2100 for Mids & Highs and the A-S2000 to drive the bass. The perfomance is unbelievable! Additionally, the VU meters and high gloss real wood sides of the A-S2100 are "icing on the cake"
UPDATED 7/6/16: After owning the Yamaha A-S2100 for a year now, I'm still amazed at the perfermance of this integrated Amplifier. It is an absolute Gem! Furthermore, after reviewing the schematics of the A-S2100 V.S the Flagship A-S3000, there is virtually little difference in the two units. The differences are: the A-S3000 has larger meters, toroidal transformer, additional copper shielding and EDIT: 1 set of additional balanced line inputs. Unless you have money to burn, my recommendation is the A-S2100 as there will be little or no sound perfermance improvement between the Flagship A-S3000 and A-S2100.

Pros: Flawless Sound. Exceptional Build Quality.

UPDATED 7/6/16: Excellent Sound quality! Top notch build quality! Ultra Smooth and detailed Highs, precise mids, deep tight bass and spectacular wide and deep soundfield!

Cons: No tape loop for EQ.

UPDATED 7/6/16: None. I've solved the lack of a tape loop for EQ.
Yamaha A-S2100-1.jpg
A-S2100 Rear View.jpg
A-S2100 top view.jpg

Update: 10/07/2016 Owners Manual and Service Manual are now on the Digital Docs site.

Cheers,
OnTheBlitz
 
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Thanks for your review. I have had mine for 6 months now and it does everything well. I also have the CD-S 2100. I give the amp 5 stars and the SACD player 4 stars, The SACD player has a finicky laser and does not read certain cds well. My old Marantz SA-8004 would play any cd no matter how scratched or dirty. Can't say the same for the Yamaha. It makes a great digital pre-amp however.
 
Thanks for your review. I have had mine for 6 months now and it does everything well. I also have the CD-S 2100. I give the amp 5 stars and the SACD player 4 stars, The SACD player has a finicky laser and does not read certain cds well. My old Marantz SA-8004 would play any cd no matter how scratched or dirty. Can't say the same for the Yamaha. It makes a great digital pre-amp however.

Rob84, you may want to have your CD-S2100 looked at. I picked up one of these players a few weeks ago and have played all kinds of scratched up CDs with success. For really bad scratches that would send my old player into never-ending loops, the CD-S2100 just inserts a blank space and moves ahead to the next clean part of the disc.
 
Rob84, you may want to have your CD-S2100 looked at. I picked up one of these players a few weeks ago and have played all kinds of scratched up CDs with success. For really bad scratches that would send my old player into never-ending loops, the CD-S2100 just inserts a blank space and moves ahead to the next clean part of the disc.
Thanks for you advice. I did re-adjust the DPLL bandwidth of the internal DAC and that helped immensely. I had it set too low. It works better now.
 
jetstream and @crouse so sorry for a very, very late answer to your question. I developed my own SuperDAC years back, That said, I Y-ed my DAC Output so I could pass it through the DBX 14/10 EQ and then bring it into a separate A-S2100 input. Not exactly a tape-loop, but works for what I need.

Cheers,
-Blitz
 
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Beautiful amp and considering one for my Heco Direkt. I drive them with Audiolab 8200M monoblocks but it seems they are too clean for the already lively and fast. The 2100 looks like it will bring more warmth and fullness.
 
I Y-ed my DAC Output so I could pass it through the DBX 14/10 EQ and then bring it into a separate A-S2100 input. Not exactly a tape-loop, but works for what I need.
Thanks. That was my guess - a two output source.

Do you, or anyone else, have some knowledge of A-S 1100? Need serious comparison to A-S 2100, mainly in terms of sound and power.
 
Great review. Have had the A-S2100 for a year, tried on different speakers: Yamaha NS-F901, Usher Mini One DMD, Seas Odin DIY..
Also have the older A-S1000, and 2100 brings better mid bass and smoother high freq. Its a better amp, no doubt.
Still can't compete with my Electrocompaniet rig of EC ECP2 RIAA, EC 4.8 pre an EC AW180 power amps, but not far off.
Anyone else have the NS-F901 speakers by the way...?
 
I had one for about a year and it remains one of my all time favs. Probably second to the Luxman 507u. Wish I had a dedicated music room in our new house - I would have kept it!
 
I have use for a well executed SS integrated. They can attain quite superb performance in one package, nullifying the importance of pre/power impedance matching & interconnect choice.
The A-S3000 has a 650VA power transformer with 22,000uF filter capacitors backing it up. Plus, both it and the smaller models in this series utilize careful layout of internal wiring with regard to composition and routing. It is nice to see the driver boards vertically flanking the finals heatsinks as has been seen in many legendary integrated amps.
 
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