Description
Vintage YAMAHA A-320 Integrated Stereo Amplifier Audiophile HiFi Made In Japan. A GENUINE YAMAHA NATURAL SOUND STEREO AMPLIFIER A-320 Fab condition for age as pictured Fully tested and working Condition as pictured Great piece of vintage YAMAHA audio kit! It seems one foot is not original as pictured SPEC Colour: BLACK Inputs: 5 line, 1 phono MM. Rated Power: 2 x 30 W @ 8 Ohm, 2 x 40 W @ 4 Ohm (DIN) Impedance: 2-8 ohms. Power absorption: 150 watt (max) Dimensions: 435 x 92 x 293 mm / 17.1 x 3.6 x 11.5 inch. Net Weight: 4.6 kg / 10 lb 2.1 oz (10.132 lb) In the Eighties, after the famous NAD 3020 integrated amplifier shocked the market with its stellar quality/price ratio, many HiFi Companies started to design high quality, low powered amps that tried to sound as good. Even NAD released a more audiophile edition of the classic 3020, namely the 3120. Besides other small differences, the 3120 had no tone or balance controls. After the 3120 became one of the most desired integrated amps of its time, the competitors decide to release models that followed the same minimalist “less is more” approach, namely, no tone controls, no balance, just an input selector and a volume control. While competitors of the original NAD 3020 were the Proton 520, the AMC 3020 (designed by an ex-NAD engineer), Rotel 820 and 920, their minimalist audiophile versions were the competitors of the NAD 3120: Rotel RA820B and Proton 520B. The usual “big boys” (Pioneer, Marantz, Yamaha, Sansui etc.) seemed uninterested in following this minimalist “audiophile” trend. Hence, it came as a big surprise when Yamaha released this A320! No tone controls, no balance, just an on/off switch, 6 input selection switches and a dual volume knob! Moreover, it was claimed to have a high dynamic power stage, a low noise MM phono stage and the capability to drive low impedance loudspeakers. And that “20” in its name was a clear sign of inspiration to the xx20 competitors. Actually, what does that 20 stand for? Originally, it was the power output into 8 ohms of the NADs! We reviewed the original NAD 3020 several years ago and the NAD 3120 more recently, evaluating the mods applied by Fidele Audio. Now, while the other NAD competitors had their own moments of glory, the Yamaha A320 had never been taken into serious account by audiophiles. Time has come, after 35 years, to give the A320 all the attention it deserved, as a pretty unique amplifier in the history of the Japanese brand. What's inside? The A320 is a very simple design, based on a push-pull pair of Sanken A1104 and C2579 transistors, used in many other “vintage” integrated amplifier such as Pioneer SA-6500II, Sansui A80, Dual CV-1260 and others. The 150VA power supply uses two beefy high quality Nichicon 6800uF caps, a size that is rather unusual in a 30 watt/channel amplifier. As a comparison, the original NAD 3020 had 4 x 2200uF caps while the 3120 used 2 x 4800uF caps. And certainly NOT Nichicon stuff. The volume pot is a double ALPS 50KAX2, and there's almost nothing else inside, as you can see in the pictures. Oh yes, there's a good quality, low noise phono stage, with gold plated RCA connectors and a headphone socket. Finally, a nice touch of finesse is the use of copper screws throughout on the circuit board. Moreover, two strips of damping rubber glued to the power supply transformer act as a vibration absorption interface for the top cover. Neat! Summarizing, this is a minimalist, high quality design, even “oversized”, if you consider its low power output. Considering how much effort has been put into designing such a good quality amplifier it is rather odd the speaker binding posts are the flimsy push spring loaded clip ones which were/are commonly used on commercial cheap amplifiers! There's no way to use thick wires, forks or bananas. You need to use banana/pin adapters, at least. The power cord is of the fixed kind, so if you wish to experiment with different power cords you need to install an IEC socket. Yamaha A320 vintage integrated amplifier Year: 1985 Manufacturer: Yamaha - Japan
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