I love the digital inputs, and the DAC they use seems to do an excellent job

Pros:9 inputs (totally awesome - enough to hook up 8 track, minidisc, cassette/DCC, DAT, CD/DVD Audio/SACD, Turntable, Tuner and USB and maybe even reel to reel tape or some other obscure format)Built in

My 45 year old 25 watt Sansui receiver outperforms it in every respect save a lack of modern digital inputs

Very rich and warm sound, and the optical input (from my existing old Yamaha CD player) sounds great.

Everything works as expected but for one small (but important) detail: the digital inputs only work with mundane PCM 2 channel signals

What the Yamaha A-S801 does is bring out the highs and keeps the warm mid-range that I really love

Compared to it the Yamaha has better separation more power and dynamic range

I've noticed the amp with the subs pretty well covers the range, but I a am going to bi-amp with the Yamaha as the low end and a 30 watt tube for the highs just for the heloo of it

Also I burned my tunes at the higher but rat e (320).Would highly recommend.

Has an effortless range and easily produces colcated orchestral soundstages

"A/B"ing between Pure Direct and normal, resetting the controls to compensate for room acoustics/speaker reproduction (tonal imbalances heard while on PD) until the imbalances were gone and the program material even sounding

Also I burned my tunes at the higher but rat e (320).Would highly recommend.

The convenience of the full set of controls is nice although 95% of the time I only use the "pure direct" and the volume setting

The pure- direct & the loudness features were useless for me

Pure direct is slightly better, but there is still little warmth and too much high end

: Enjoy this amplifier more and more the past two months

Excellent Amplifier, easy to set up and quite versatile.

i started looking for the best amplifier in the $400-$600 price range that could drive my speakers.

It's a well designed and aesthetically beautiful integrated amplifier

This is an outstanding integrated amplifier for its price

the kitchen set up has Pioneer SP-FS52-LR Andrew Jones tower speakers (another great value).

Considering some of these can get way up into the triple digits, it's certainly seems to be a good value.

The media room speakers I use are Pioneer SP-BS21-LR (awesome value)

And I got the amp for 50% off on an Amazon warehouse deal, which is fantastic value for money spent!Update on March 23 2015

Amazing clarity and soundstage, very accurate and great value for money for this 2.0 set up that includes the best of digital and analog

It is decent quality nice looking and vintage style amplifier

It's sleek, minimalist look isn't overpowering in our entertainment center unit and, while I'm certainly not as experienced an audiophile as he is, we both agree that it works as good, if not better, better than we were expecting.

That's too bad because it's wonderfully built and is very good looking

I liked that clean 70's / 80's look, I liked heavy pieces that were built like tanks, and, of course, the older pieces usually sound pretty nice too

It's sleek, minimalist look isn't overpowering in our entertainment center unit and, while I'm certainly not as experienced an audiophile as he is, we both agree that it works as good, if not better, better than we were expecting.

Assuming maybe I had bad power going to it, I tried different outlets and even brought it to a different location, no improvement

The amount of clean power that this operates at compared to a 5.1 receiver setup is night and day.

A good natural sound for the 90% of us that want clean power at a reasonable price

Turns out my laptop has some pretty dirty usb power

It has enough power to drive my q acoustics 3050 very loud

Stunning (the internal DAC is really nice) - Actually handling CD's so they are not too shrill and fatiguing

With good DAC chips being a commodity these days, I think it

I have a Pioneer SX-650 that also sounds great but this apmplifier sounds just as good, plus it has a remote, subwoofer pre-out, and a nice DAC and way more source inputs.

I have a high end Sony cd player with a good DAC and connected to this via optical or analog you can't tell the difference

The onboard DAC didn't like it at all

phono stage).I've got my amp for the next 20 years, and recommend this piece without hesitation.

I liked that clean 70's / 80's look, I liked heavy pieces that were built like tanks, and, of course, the older pieces usually sound pretty nice too

Also I burned my tunes at the higher but rat e (320).Would highly recommend.

Also I burned my tunes at the higher but rat e (320).Would highly recommend.

My worse piece, I guess, are

now I am a true audiophile Yamaha is known for it true superior sound quality.

It is decent quality nice looking and vintage style amplifier

I'll also note that the quality of the sound at lower volumes is lacking - to my ears it's very muddy, especially in the vocals

I was just looking for a high quality pure amplifier and I have found it.

This works, but I am surely loosing DVD sound quality compared to using the original digital signal straight from the DVD/CD player (as when playing CDs on the same unit).I suppose this issue can be blamed on me because I didn't realize that the DVD/CD digital output would be different for DVD and CD playback

If you are building a sound system that will be left alone, you will love this little unit.

Unless these reviewers got a defective unit which should be exchanged, this is nonsense

The unit is really, really good on 'normal' mode, but truly shines when the 'Pure Direct' mode is on (assuming you have a quality source).

(And I wouldn't even consider buying such an expensive unit any place other than Amazon.

They sync up and remain connected, and the sound, while some may say is not as good as a standalone unit, sounds very good to my ears, smooth and warm sounding

The Yamaha just sounds a bit warmer and inviting, especially when pushed

So if you're planning on using your laptop I think the Yamaha would be perfect for you

For $300 you can buy very decent Yamaha A-S301, just add $50.My conclusions:1.

I found that Yamaha A-S701 looks very similar to $300 less expensive Yamaha R-S700 Natural Sound Stereo Receiver

great Yamaha added a DAC into this unit despite going for a "classic" feel