I've owned a lot of budget amps over my lifetime, including the Clari-T, various NADs (including the venerable 3020), and a couple of tube amps. Although most of the other amps have a good low end, no amp has the high-end clarity and detail that the Yamaha delivers. When I blew a capacitor in my NAD 315BEE and swapped in the Yamaha, the first thing my wife said, "Well, that certainlly sounds more natural." This is a beautiful sounding underatted amplifier and a treasure to whoever finds one.

The thing is monstrously huge and dominates our living room shelf.

Excellent sound, deep bass. Easy to use. A convenient remote control. Very well built, robust design.

This is a tremendous integrated amp that has a very warm and natural acoustic property. It is a very good choice for digital playback because it is not brittle or harsh like so many mid-grade components.

Up to the mid levels of volume they are close in listening quality to the more expensive units and may even surpass some pretenders. Cheap price for a second unit in the house.

Probably not enough watts (grunt) for the higher listening levels in the bigger loungeroom - maybe.

I purchased this integrated amp AX392 (second hand) for the bedroom and was surprised by the quality. My experience with Yamaha amps in the past was they were too bright and/or crude. Or in the case of their seperates M4 they were grainy. Used in the bedroom I play the AX at the lower levels rising to the mid levels and the amp runs nicely with a good Rotel tuner and CD player. The speakers I use are hand built back in 1963 using some of the best quality speakers and crossovers. Even worse, they are reasonably large and I have them sitting on top of wardrobes ! No one is more amazed than myself that they still produce the goods. This is a nice amp that is lively for classical, jazz and theatre music.

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Other amps in the house are Perreaux PMF 1850 and large early Spendor speakers.

Amazin, simple as that.

Powerfull clear sharp sound

Not very round therefore may be not very emotional. However, you cannot have everything, expecially at this price

I am using this ampli with an AH 4000 cd player and Avance 603 speakers. I know it is better to avoid buying components based on reviews, but I hate HiFi retailers, and since this ampli had such a good rating I decided to risk it. At the beginning I tought that the ampli had the tendency of enhancing the bass frequencies, but after some time I understood that this was due to the position of my speakers. I bought a pair of stands and I moved the speakers from the library shelfs to the stands. This solved the problem and improved the sound consistently. The ampli sounds better with the direct cd amplification, the sound is sharp and not very round, but very clean and open. It sounds very good also at high volumes. The bass is controlled and the high ranges are clean and definite. All in all I can say that it has no weaknesses, unless you do not like the type of sound that it produces, sharp, not very round, but precise. I compared this ampli with a rega brio, which costs twice as much. I have to say that I prefer the yamaha (which by the way, weighs twice as much). The rega may sound more smooth, but the yamaha is more clear and open. Just one word about the loudness circuit. Many people say it is not hifi, but when you try to listen to the music at very low volumes, it helps making your stereo sounding different than a simple FM radio.

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Rega Brio

Good value. Excellent clean sound. Versatile. Bypass options a plus. Gold contacts. Solid Construction.

Only minor: maybe a sub-woofer output would be a nice touch.

I've been looking for an amplifier (integrated, solo, tube, solid state)to replace my aging Kenwood KA-87 integrated amplifier (100W rms). Initially i eyed the Yamaha AX-496 since this would be for my bedroom system. The only models available here in Manila were the 396 and 596 models. With a little haggling i was able to bring down the price of the AX-596 to US$300. So i bought it even if it was above my budget. And i am happy that i went through with it. A good tube amp was way over my budget and so were other solid state amp brands of similar power to the AX-596. Yamaha provided me with a reasonably priced amp that gave me clean, high quality sound. What i like about the AX-596 is that it has 2 bypass switches in order to get the purest source sound. This is also in line with their ToP-ART concept (Total Purity Audio Reproduction Technology) which their H/T receivers are also known for. Since i like tube sound but couldn't afford a nice set, i bought a tube pre-amplifier (Tono, DIY) which is connected to the cd/dvd input of the Yamaha. With the press of the CD/DVD Direct button i now have a hybrid system. While the AX-596 already gave a nice clean sound to my CD player (a cheap JVC DVD player for now), the addition of the tube pre-amp now coloured the sound like you'd expect tubes to do: warm, full-bodied and smooth. I also have my Thorens TD-166 MKII turn-table hooked up to the pre-amp/AX-596 and my wife is amazed at the clarity that she always thinks the CD player is playing. All this i'm playing through my aging Polk Audio Monitor 4 stand/bookshelf speakers (100W, 8ohm, 87dB) which i bought in 1990. Never heard my speakers sound this good before. However i am on the lookout for a good pair of speakers to match to this hybrid. Maybe the JMLab Chorus 706, Dynaudio Audience 42 or B&W 602 S3. These are the leading candidates so far.

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Kenwood KA-87 stereo integrated amplifier

The absolute strength and quality of its ouptut. By God, this amp can really sing...

It doesn't have any... I might be back later to confirm this...

I really get into good music - not necessarily loud, but "good" sounding music, no matter what kind of music it is,, AND,, the only way to listen to good music is to have a good amplifier. In the past I have enjoyed sounds from the older Technics amp I have owned for so many years it's not funny. It is just plain hard to beat for great reproduction espescially at the low "rich" bass end of the sound spectrum.. Just last year, I bought what I considered was a worthy amp to equal or even better the Technics amp. It was a Yamaha AX-396, 60 watt/p/c. It sounded great and I was able to see just why Yamaha had such a huge name in Hi-Fi audio gear. Since then I got ahold of and older Yamaha RX-V660 A/V amp which was kind of good too. Just 2 months I bought a Yamaha RX-V540 brand new H/T amp and I was truly impressed with this. This baby really strutted its stuff with its head held high. It sounded great,, BUT,, somehow it just didn't quite have the finesse needed for pure "audio only" reproduction. I have to admit that it was slightly bettered by the AX-396 and my older Technics amp.. By accident I managed to buy a real cheap Technics SA-GX390 A/V amp and I have to say that it gave some good sounds. After many weeks of deliberating, I put the above amps in the following order for quality of "audio" only reproduction. Yamaha AX-396 Technics SA-GX390 Older Technics amp Yamaha RX-V540 Yamaha RX-V660 I tested all of them with all of the different speakers and other add-ons I have to see just which was the best. Hands down, the Yamaha AX-396 came up as the best audio amp... Just today, I decided to take a gamble and headed into town and bought the real flagship of the Yamaha audio amps - the AX-596, 100 watt/p/c, which gets rave reviews no matter where it is used. I got it home and plugged it in and I can truly see why.. Straight away I noticed the absolute punch it had. I accidentally had it turned up to about the 10 o'clock position and it nearly blew my Onkyo speakers out of their boxes. Holy sh*t, this thing can really pump out some sound and whats more, it sounds damned good too. Even though the AX-396 is the smaller brother of the 596, there is a world of difference in loudness between the two. I ran my favourite tracks throught it from DvD/CD and it produces every bit of the great quality that the 396 gives.. But what really gets to me, is the amount of good quality sound you get as you turn up the volume. It just stays good all the way up to where my eardrums just can't take any more loudness - absolutely NO signs of audible distortion. I could only take it up to about half volume before it was just "too" loud for me... The 396 is as good but as the volume gets up, it begins to kind of run out of puff. The 596 is destined to "go all the way" as the saying goes... So - What have I learned about audio reproduction.??? 1. If you are into audio only - Don't waste your time buying H/T amps as they are obviously aimed at a different type of reproduction, probably special effects rather than pure sound. 2. Some older amps can still hang in there with the best that today has to offer, albeit with a slightly less power output. 3. Quality is quality and you don't have top look much further than a Yamaha to get it... I have heard many different brands of H/T amps and it just seems to me that they don't posess the true quality needed by the modern audio buff. Yet, pure amps are becoming harder and harder to find while H/T amps and literally falling out of the sky at a dime a dozen... Long live good quality audio amps...!!!

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For this sort of low pricetag - there isn't anything to compare it to. It's in a world of its own...

Good sound, great looks, durable. It drives my boston vr-40 speakers without a problem.

remote is kinda cheap looking

I purchased this amp at hifibuys open box for 300 bones. Amp works well, never overheats, and i leave it on 24/7. Movies sound really well music sounds really great as well. This amp drives my boston acoustics vr-40s without a problem. I won't say this is a krell or any high end amp, but for a decent price you get a really nice sounding 2 channel, or as i use it a part of a surround sound repertoire. I would recommend this amp to anyone who is on a tight budget, and is looking for a 2 channnel/integrated amp.

Good power, Nice sound!

None for the price I paid. The $550.00 retail price is a little high.

Alright, I got this thing off of E-bay for 123.50(Original box,instructions, and remote, like new condition).By the time I paid shipping it was still only 150.00 It was worth every penny and then some! The sound is so clear and powerful. This thing has a pretty good amount of power in reserve. I have it hooked up to a pair of Polk RTi38 with a NAD C541i CD player. The sound is very nice. Bass is strong, mids and highs are clear.

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This is my first integrated amp.