The Japanese Yamaha unveiled three new integrated amplifiers called AS Last spring , AS 2200 and AS 3200. The appearance and in particular the prominent centrally placed VU meters are very reminiscent of the past. However, according to the manufacturer, modern technology is hidden under the hood. Recently we have the AS 1200, the smallest model, looked at and listened to. Now it is the turn of the AS 3200, the largest model. Does the AS 3200 of Yamaha sail exclusively or mainly on feelings of nostalgia or is the AS 3200 just a good amplifier with a nostalgic look? We are going to investigate the AS 3200.

Yamaha: Maker of audio equipment, musical instruments, motorcycles, outboards and more

The Japanese brand name Yamaha has existed for more than a hundred years and has undergone many transformations. The company is owned by Torakusu Yamaha (1887 – 1916) Founded in 1887. Originally Yamaha built musical instruments and from the early twentieth century pianos were an important part of the portfolio. Specialist knowledge of production methods, plastics and metal alloys is used to continuously expand the product range. The amount of different products that Yamaha builds or has built is too many to mention. About ten years after the Second World War, Yamaha even started building motorcycles. These activities were also sold to car manufacturer Toyota in 2001.

Yamaha has continuously built musical instruments from the beginning. At first they were acoustic instruments (including guitars, pianos and wind instruments), but later synthesizers and electric pianos were added. Yamaha’s DX-7, a velocity-sensitive synthesizer, was on many stages in the eighties of the last century.

From the beginning of the seventies, Yamaha started making sound equipment and parts for sound equipment, both for the professional market and for the living room. Yamaha has roughly about a hundred years of experience building musical instruments and now about fifty years of experience building sound equipment. That is quite a long track record.

Those who make many different products run the risk of being the focus to lose. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Yamaha. Pianos, concert grand pianos and other musical instruments are continuously an important part of the portfolio, as well as sound equipment for the professional and consumer markets. Yamaha has an understanding of making music, but also of recording and reproducing music.

Sound equipment in the years 70 and 80 of the twentieth century, shortcomings

Sound equipment has of course been around for over a hundred years. It all started with radios and later on record players were added. Anyone who could afford it also owned a reel recorder. The cassette tape, invented by the Dutch company Philips, came onto the market in the 1970s. Affordability and reliability increased, also due to the invention of semiconductors.

From around the end of the 1970s, a certain standardization in the shape and dimensions of audio components. In the 1980s, many living rooms had a so-called hi-fi set: that is a stack of components from the same manufacturer where the front plates were tuned to each other and the stack usually consisted of an amplifier, tuner, cassette deck and record player, and of course a pair of passive speakers. The amplifier was usually an integrated model, but sometimes there was also a separate pre and power amplifier. The whole was in a matching cabinet of chipboard with a glass door and a glass lid. At the bottom there was room for LPs and / or cassette tapes. The IR remote control had yet to be invented. The amplifiers from that time were often equipped with VU meters. That gave a kind of professional appearance and buyers were apparently sensitive to this appearance.

The equipment from that time , more specifically the amplifiers, had roughly two disadvantages.

First, the noise level was so high that noise was usually noticeable, especially with good headphones. The noise level of amplifiers was not really a problem because the connected sources, ie record player, tuner and cassette deck had an even higher noise level. This changed with the arrival of the CD player. After all, a CD player has a much lower noise level and the result was that the noise level of the amplifier was much more prominent. At a rapid pace, the noise floor of amplifiers was pushed down in the late eighties and early nineties. A modern amplifier, also a budget model, has no noise, or at least not disturbing, and that was different in the sixties and seventies.

Second the components in the seventies and eighties might have looked nice and were sometimes well built, but the lifespan and trouble-free operation left much to be desired. Potentiometers (volume control, tone control, balance control) started on average after a few years of cracking. Source selector buttons had considerable crosstalk and sometimes contact problems after several years, resulting in channel inequality or annoying cracking. Loudspeaker connections were designed as spring-loaded tabs that could just hold a table lamp cord. The user could often choose between speaker pair A and / or B, but the power to the speaker buttons on the front sometimes ran through relatively small switches, which could also crack after a few years. Silent toroidal transformers were a rarity. Signal paths were more than once unnecessarily long and not well thought out and we can go on and on. Perhaps unnecessarily, of course it was possible to enjoy music. It might just be what you’re used to.

Besides pushing the noise floor down, these problems were also addressed later. Signal paths became shorter. Source selection buttons usually no longer carry a music signal, but control a dedicated relay (and this relay can also be controlled with an IR remote control). Loudspeaker connections were made much heavier, even with cheap amplifiers. And speaker selector buttons no longer had to process high current. This has increasingly been left to a relay with gold-plated contacts and gold-plated contacts are known to increase the transition resistance much less quickly with time than with a normal copper contact. Well-built gas-filled relays with gold-plated contacts are practically indestructible. A silent toroidal transformer has become increasingly the norm, also in budget amplifiers.

We seem to be a bit off wander. Why do these thoughts come up suddenly? Enter the AS 3200, the largest of a set of three new integrated amplifiers from Yamaha.

Yamaha AS 3200: retro appearance with modern technology

Before we Listening to music, we look at the technology of the AS 3200. After unpacking, we take a look at the exterior and the manufacturer’s specifications.

After the AS 3200 is connected, it will turn on. We hear a number of clicks in succession. These are relay clicks. On the front a small rotary knob is placed to choose between speaker pair A and / or B. Turning the knob causes fat clicks under the cover. At first hearing Yamaha has placed heavy speaker relays. So there is no music signal over the small button on the front. When we turn the source selector, we also hear the necessary clicks. The delicate music signal does not run over the rotary knob itself, but the rotary knob controls the underlying relays. The device is heavy in relation to the specified power. The two pairs of brass speaker connections, which are suitable for banana plugs, forks and bare wire up to a diameter of six millimeters, are among the heaviest ones we have seen in recent years, especially in this price range. Under the hood is a toroidal transformer that is supported by four smoothing capacitors of each 22. 000 uF.

The AS 3200 is equipped with a tone and balance control consisting of three rotary knobs. When the appropriate knobs are in the center position, tone and balance controls are bypassed and thus have no effect whatsoever on the signal.

Yamaha AS 3200: Analog circuits only

The entire signal circuit is fully balanced and the AS 3200 has two pairs of XLR inputs. In addition, four cinch inputs are available and a turntable input that is optionally suitable for mm cartridges or mc cartridges (selector switch on the front panel). Then there is also a power amplifier input with which the AS 3200 can be included in a larger system where another device takes care of the volume control. And the installed pre-amplifier output can be used to drive another power amplifier or an active subwoofer.

Completely in line with the amplifiers from roughly thirty years ago, the AS 3200 has no digital circuitry or entrances on board. A user will therefore have to connect a separate DA converter or streamer to be able to process digital signal.

The lack of streaming functions has an advantage. The user does not have to accept terms of use and cannot be spied on. Streamers have the annoying quality of being dependent on software and software updates, just like computers. The AS 3200 cannot suffer from updateritis because it has no software on board. Streaming functions cannot fail or be “improved” against the user’s wishes. The lack of a streaming platform is not a disadvantage; it is an advantage because it makes the AS 3200 future-proof. The AS 3200 has no aging-sensitive features on board.

Of course, a streamer is handy and offers a large well-stocked or perhaps endlessly full jukebox that can be operated from the couch. Streamers can no longer be ignored in the current audio landscape. The user of the AS 3200 can install a streamer / DA converter on the Connect AS 3200. Chances are that the streamer will age faster than the AS 3200. If the streamer needs to be replaced, the AS 3200 can remain.

Yamaha AS 3200: Modern Analogue Amplifier

In summary down that the AS 3200 at first glance is very reminiscent of the amplifiers of thirty to forty years ago. The appearance will evoke a nostalgic feeling in enthusiasts. But that’s just the looks.

When it comes to build quality, the AS 3200 completely broken with the past. The build quality it is nothing like the devices of the past. The AS 3200 has a negligible noise floor. All connections on the rear are of exemplary quality, especially the speaker connections. The power supply is of a much higher build quality than was usual in the past. Music signal and loudspeaker power no longer run over small crack-sensitive buttons. Finally, Yamaha supplies a nice IR remote control with the AS 3200. The earlier amplifiers with VU meters did not have that.

Oh, and who bothers to VU- meters, can turn off the VU meters of the AS 3200.

Let’s take a look at the specifications of the AS 3200, we’ll put it in the test environment and then we’ll do what it’s all about: listen to music.