Yamaha A-S801 - horrible experience


I've read many good reviews of the Yamaha gear that I thought I'd give the A-S801 a try.  Through Accessories4less.com, it was only $650 and had a return policy, so there was little to lose.  I took the unit out of the box and set it in my rack.  I noticed the that the speaker selector button had come off during shipping.  I hunted through the box and found it under a layer of cardboard.  Not a good start.

I tried to hook up my speaker cables and found out that it wouldn't take spades.  The plastic guide has such a narrow opening that there is no way to fit an average sized spade through it.  I tried to put one end of the spade in it and tighten down, but the weight of the speaker cables made the binding posts sag quite a bit.  They have a very flimsy connection to the chassis, and I was afraid that I would rip them off completely.  I found some old bare wire cables, and hooked them up.  

I put on a Lucinda Williams song and it sounded ok.  A little thin, but it wasn't warmed up.  I wanted to see how piano sounded, so I put on a Thelonious Monk album.  Here's exactly how it sounded:  pop, hiss, crackle, silence.  The amp died on the second song I played.

I know that every company has the occasional defective unit, but there were so many things wrong with this amp that it was comical.  Just a warning that if you have speaker cables with solid spades, the unit will not be usable.  I certainly won't try another Yamaha product after this.  Live and learn.


smrex13

Showing 1 response by big_greg

Sounds like you got a lemon.  Were you able to return it or have it repaired? 

I've bought a number of refurbished items from Accessories4less and have been happy with my experiences.  How did they respond to your problems?

I'm surprised that the quality of the speaker connections didn't come up in any of the reviews you read, usually that's something that reviewers will touch on.