There are so many CD's on the market that I think are compressed. They lose for the most part the great sound of many of the same recordings from vinyl, or pre-recorded open reel tapes. The true bass is not there on many of these. Bismarck Mobile Truck Repair

None . .

I’ll keep this review to the point…point being this is a very special Pre-amplifier. I have owned many vintage Yamaha pre-amps but….The build quality on the C2-x is superb, especially the electronic parts quality on the inside! Runs dead quite and reveals the most depth, separation, and shear musicality from any pre-amplifier I’ve owned so far (any brand)…Phono stage is legendary and probably among a handful of the very best on the planet at any price. I’ve had a Yamaha c-2 and the c2a but folks the c2-x is in a whole different ballpark and even league. Some complain these pre-amp runs hot but have had mine on for a good 2 hours now and it is not even warm to the touch. I think this is a keeper…my only gripe is the lack of remote function for the volume (but may add a Creek passive at some point soon) It’s amazing how a really well executed Pre-amplifier can make all the difference in an audio system- a really good one can make the music come alive in 3-dimesions! These are very rare and if you can find one do yourself a favor and buy it! (It’s easily worth 800-1000 even in today’s economy)

SYSTEM:
Yamaha c2-x
Yamaha T-2
Yamaha P220
Yamaha Ns-20m and Ns-1000M

Amplifier 1: Linn Klout
Amplifier 2: Yamaha M-50
Amplifier 3: Dayton DTA-1 Class T Digital Amplifier 15 WPC currently a $40 amplifier from Partsexpress but is amazing- highly recommended!

Old Yamaha top of the line preamplifier from the end of the 80s. This very much thought after preamp is full of features, even by nowadays standards, except that it lacks a remote control.

Outstanding built quality from the outside as well as the inside. Thanks to the fact that it was made with the finest premium parts of its time, my C-2x still works flawlessly, even now it is some 25 years old or more and has probably never been serviced. The massive machine gold plated RCA jacks are truly excellent.

The trafos runs absolutly silent. The preamp outputs are dead quite : no hum nor hiss whatsoever. All switches and pots provides a silky feeling.

Sonic wise very transparent, and remain so even when the tone controls are in broad use, which is quite surprising. The soundstage do have both depth and focus whatever the volume level.

From a pros and cons basis, the C-2x seems to me better than its follower, the CX-1, I also reviewed on audioreview. Effectively, the inner componentry of the former is way better at each and every crucial points, particurlarly the volume pots and the tone controls. That's probably the reason why the C-2x more than shines when it comes to reproduced a soudstage or fine tuning the frequency response to make little adjustments depending on the associated loudspeaker or acoustic to improve what is already very good when passing strait of the preamp.