Herb Reichert wrote about the Yamaha A-S3200 in November 2020 (Vol.43 No.11):
The Yamaha A-S3200 is a strikingly beautiful, all-analog integrated amplifier. When switched on, it gives off a brilliant, slightly warm light from its dual glass-fronted VU/Watt meters. Looking at it makes me feel good but also reminds me how much of a baby boomer I really am.
The A-S3200’s sleek, knob-and-switch–lined silver faceplate triggered clear-as-yesterday memories of my youth reading Audio, Stereo Review, and High Fidelity magazines, then going to J&R Music on Park Row here in New York City and staring at the wall of made-in-Japan integrated amps.
My friends all bought Sansui or Pioneer, but to my ears and eyes, Yamaha was the class of the J&R pack.
Sadly, after ridiculous amounts of spec comparisons and deliberation, I bought a midlevel Kenwood integrated and matching tuner. The tuner was world-class; I kept it for 20 years. The amp made my Large Advent loudspeakers sound hard and flat. I kept it for two weeks.
Listening
Because this Yamaha, the A-S3200, costs a not-inexpensive $7499.95, I began this follow-up review by struggling to imagine what price level its users would consider appropriate for an ancillary DAC. Choosing a DAC seemed like an important decision, because the choice would influence my perceptions of the A-S3200’s sound quality. My solution was to start with the reasonably priced ($768) Denafrips Ares II and then switch to my reference DAC, the Holo Audio May ($3798–$4998).
The first album I played, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya’s Slide-Guitar Ragas from Dusk Till Dawn (16/44.1 FLAC Riverboat Records/Tidal), made it instantly clear that this new Yamaha was more exciting, sonics-wise, than those 1970s Yamahas I auditioned long ago.
In the October Gramophone Dreams, I described the Denafrips Ares II as specializing in realistic energy retrieval, solid bass power, and raw engagement. Those exact traits dominated my experience of From Dusk Till Dawn with the Ares II and the Yamaha. Before this spellbinding album was over, I had no doubt that this amp, with the Ares II DAC, could bash and boogie with the best. If you like your music live and dynamic—if you like to play air guitar, bob your head, and tap your feet—this combo could move you to do those things.
I played Bhattacharya’s Hindustani slide guitar with this combo driving, first, the $5k/pair Alta Alyssa standmount speakers (see review elsewhere in this issue), then my reference Harbeth M30.2s ($5499/pair). Both speakers seemed vitalized by the A-S3200’s 100Wpc (class-AB) into 8 ohms and 150Wpc into 4 ohms.
Switching from the overachieving Denafrips to the super-lucid Holo Audio May, and from Hindustani slide guitar to the guitar-driven blues of Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins, I began to experience the A-S3200 in its fullest music-making measure. Hopkins’s guitar and voice on Lightnin’ Hopkins Live at Newport (16/44.1 FLAC Vanguard/Qobuz) are close-miked and direct-sounding; with the Yamaha amp, it had demonstration-quality presence.
Hopkins’s blues are blood-of-the-earth and aligned with the constellations; I strongly regret not seeing him live when he was alive. However, when my sound system sounds right, as it did with the May feeding the Yamaha, which drove the Alta Alyssa speakers, Lightnin’ felt almost live, like there was almost nothing between myself and the stage Hopkins was playing on. That “almost” is important; while listening to Live at Newport, I began to notice a slight transistor-like opacity that limited the normally stunning transparency of this Live at Newport recording. The effect was slight and did not reduce Lightnin’s powerful mojo.
Compared to the Pass Labs INT-25
Currently, all my equipment comparisons refer back to one basic reference system: the Holo Audio May DAC, the Pass Labs INT-25 integrated amp, and the Harbeth 30.2 monitor speakers. The $7250 INT-25 is my reference amplifier because it is the most transparent, microdetailed, dare I say invisible solid-state amplifier I have used. It operates in pure class-A and is rated at 25Wpc into 8 ohms and 50Wpc into 4 ohms.
I simply replaced the Pass Labs amp with the Yamaha A-S3200. Immediately, the Yamaha’s greater power made its presence known. Into the power-loving Altas, the Yamaha out-punched and out-danced—but did not out-sing—the Pass Labs integrated. The Yamaha displayed thrust, while the Pass Labs created intimacy.
Into the Harbeth 30.2s, the A-S3200 played more dramatically than the INT-25 did. Bass had more force and bite. I would describe the Yamaha-Harbeth combo as outgoing. In contrast, the INT-25 delivered an attractive, microtextured, inner view that befitted its class-A pedigree.
And God created black discs
The Yamaha A-S3200 arrived bearing a standard RIAA phono stage, with a simple front-panel toggle switch for selecting either a moving-magnet or moving-coil cartridge (with a preset 50 ohm load for MC). When I connected the Yamaha to the Dr. Feickert Blackbird turntable, with the Jelco TK-850L tonearm and an Ortofon 2M Black moving-magnet cartridge, I was immediately impressed by the depth and transparency of sound.
Through the Yamaha, the 2M Black played Hamza El Din’s Escalay: The Water Wheel (LP, Nonesuch H-72041) with sensuous, intoxicating rhythms, excellent transparency, and a radiant, detail-revealing light.
I have always admired Ortofon’s $755 2M Black moving-magnet cartridge for its dense, superdetailed presentation, but I didn’t use it much because I found it low on flow and drive. Clearly, that assessment was wrong. In my previous follow-up, the 2M Black played with force, vigor, and acuity through the Rogue Audio Sphinx V3’s phono stage. Now it’s playing like that through the Yamaha’s phono input.
The next test was big: I exchanged the 2M Black MM for the $7495 Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, a low-output (0.3mV), low-impedance (5 ohms) moving-coil cartridge.
I assumed the Yamaha’s “discretely configured” head amp would load the Koetsu effectively at the specified 50 ohms(footnote 1). (Normally, I load the Koetsu at 60–100 ohms.)
Not surprisingly, the Koetsu made El Din’s Escalay: The Water Wheel sound more transparent, vibrant, and sharply focused than the 2M Black did. The Koetsu into the A-S3200 facilitated an intense and engaging listening experience. Loaded at the Yamaha’s 50 ohms, the fancy Koetsu played instruments with exceptionally tight bass and a detail-packed midrange. Loading seemed correct, as transients and high frequencies drew no attention to themselves.
The quality of the Yamaha’s high frequencies was most obvious with the Koetsu playing Hamza El Din’s “Song with Tar,” where the goatskin head on the tar (an open, single-headed hoop drum) displayed, to wondrous effect, its thickness, diameter, and exact position in the soundfield.
Still curious about the Yamaha’s unchangeable 50 ohm impedance, I tried the low-output (0.3mV) $6995 My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent Ex moving-coil, which sports an internal impedance of just 0.6 ohms. Despite that ultralow internal impedance, Music Direct’s specs for the “Ex” recommend 100–800 ohms, adding that “ideal is around 400 ohms.”
Spinning Vladimir de Pachmann plays Chopin (LP, Everest X-921) into the Yamaha’s 50 ohms, the sound of the Ultra Eminent Ex was thicker, duller, and less dynamic-sounding than it was when loaded at the recommended 400 ohms into the Parasound JC 3+ phono preamplifier. It also sounded duller than the Koetsu or the Ortofon.
So, the Yamaha’s fixed MC load worked very well with the Koetsu moving-coil, but not so well with the My Sonic Lab. Those who buy this Yamaha and utilize its phono stage will need to choose MC cartridges with care. I feel certain that no users will be disappointed with the moving-magnet input. Overall, the Yamaha’s phono stage far exceeded my expectations.
Headphone output
Another quandary: What headphones should a Yamaha A-S3200 owner use? Probably not my reference JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC. They cost $4995 and sit funny on the head, but I used them anyway, just to see what lays behind that ¼” front panel jack and its accompanying Trim selector that allows a user to choose gain settings to match headphone sensitivity (–6dB, 0dB, +6dB, +12dB).
Because this performance by the Art Ensemble of Chicago has a lot of talking, weird percussion, clanging bells, slow saxophone, and miscellaneous stage and crowd noises, I use BapTizum – Performance At The Ann Arbor Blues Festival (16/44.1 FLAC Rhino Atlantic/Qobuz) as a test for info-sorting, image solidity, and tone-truthfulness. On the +6dB gain setting, the Abyss TC did surprisingly well on each of those accounts. Its only deficiency was a reduction in transparency compared to the
Mytek HiFi Brooklyn+ DAC/preamp/headphone amplifier.
Then it hit me: Focal’s Stellia closed-back headphones might be a perfect match for the A-S3200. When I tried them, the Stellia’s cognac and mocha finish looked superstylish lying next to the sleek Yamaha. Better than that, the Stellia’s 35 ohm impedance and 106dB/mW sensitivity were an ideal match for the Yamaha’s headphone amplifier.
While auditioning the Stellia-Yamaha combo, I put the Ortofon 2M Black back into the A-S3200’s MM phono input and achieved the crowning all-analog, all-Yamaha babyboomer moment, starring “Casey Jones” and featuring a 45rpm reissue of the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead (LP, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 2-428).
I can think of only one reason for having a fancy sound system in my home, and that is to connect my dreaming mind with my record collection (which of course represents the soundtrack highlights of my long life). The Yamaha with the Dead and the Stellia and Ortofon cartridge accomplished that with lively, clear, engaging sound.
Conclusion
This luminous, retro-looking integrated is more than a babyboomer nostalgia toy. It is a serious, high-value music-playing machine. I enjoyed every minute with it.—Herb Reichert
Footnote 1: I’m surprised the Yamaha’s restrictive 50 ohm load worked better with the 5 ohm Koetsu cartridge than it did with the 0.6 ohm My Sonic Lab cartridge. But there is much we don’t know about this system; for experienced listeners, hearing is knowing.—Editor
COMPANY INFO
Yamaha Corporation of Japan
US distributor: Yamaha Corporation of America
6600 Orangethorpe Ave.
Buena Park, CA 90620
(714) 522-9011
usa.yamaha.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS
Page 1
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Specifications
Associated Equipment
Measurements
Herb Reichert November 2020
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