Yamaha CR-420 vs. Yamaha A560/T460

pmatt

New Member
So I am currently using a Yamaha CR-420 (25wpc) and have been looking to upgrade. A Yamaha A560 amplifier (55 wpc) and T460 tuner have come on sale for $100 and look to be in good condition. Does anybody have experience with this amp. Is it worth the asking price or should I stick with my 420 for now?
 
I've owned a CR-440 and A-560, and thought fairly highly of both. The 560 is somewhat newer, with aluminum heat sink vs iron/steel in the 440, IC chips vs discrete components in the 440. I thought the 560 sounded very good...at least as good as the 440 (both had the typical smooth Yamaha sound)...and I liked it's looks quite a bit. Some of the best looking stuff from the 80's. I especially like the looks of that series of tuners, but I don't know much about their sound quality or reception performance.

While 55 watts still isn't exactly a powerhouse, it is double what you have now and will give you another 3dB of headroom. Personally, if I could only have one of them, I would choose the 560...mostly because of the increased power.

I sold my 560 several years ago for $115, which was my asking price. I probably would have taked $90 for it. I don't know what the going rate is today, but if you could get the amp and tuner for a bit less than $100 (say, $85-90), I think it would be a very fair deal.

And if you sell your CR-420, I suspect that you can get around $100 for it...so for basically nothing out of pocket, you end up with double the power.
 
In my experience regarding Yamaha - newer is better. At least up to the late 80's.

But I would not recommend these. Too high price, too boring looks (ESPECIALLY compared to what you have), and most certainly, minimal improvement (if any).

The additional power is unlikely to be necessary. Most people never have their amps output more than a handful of watts (usually without knowing it).
 
The additional power is unlikely to be necessary. Most people never have their amps output more than a handful of watts (usually without knowing it).

This is incorrect, and represents a common misunderstanding of the difference between continuous output (average/nominal output) and momentary/peak output.

Dynamics - the difference between loud and soft - are critical to good sound quality. Dynamic peaks in music are 12-15dB higher than the average output. Each 3dB requires a doubling of power. An amplifier without sufficient headroom to accommodate these peaks will go into clipping, which causes distortion and degradation of sound quality.

Yes, in most home audio situations your AVERAGE output is only 4-5 watts at a moderate loudness (assuming reasonable efficient speakers, with sensitivities around 90dB). But to accommodate dynamic peaks without clipping when pushing 4 watts continuous, your amp would need to be capable of 64-128 watts of peak output.

Minimal clipping is acceptable, as it is not particularly audible. However, clipping distortion increases exponentially as more and more of the signal is cut off. Because the relationship of loudness, amp power, speaker sensitivity and clipping is not well understood, it is my belief that clipping is extremely common. Most people are clipping their amps with regularity, but they assume that the harsh edge and compressed low end they are hearing is just because their speakers aren't good enough!

Obviously, which of these amps is more attractive is purely subjective. A fair, market-based price for the integrated is $80-90...it is up to you to decide if this is "too high". The performance specs of the two units are close enough as to be relatively indistinguishable. The only significant objective difference between the two is their output power.
 
I've had a coupe of amps: A 07& A420, which look similar to thee A560.

They were both awesome amps IMO. Smooth and non fatiguing. I listened to those amps wllingly for hours
 
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