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so welcome to a video with a different
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visual presentation
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i thought it would be cool to change
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things up and allowed a product to take
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center stage over
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my face even though i'm pretty sure the
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camera is focusing on me right now and
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if that ends up being true then hey
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can't say i didn't try right so now
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let's move on to the purpose of this
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video which is
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to revisit the yamaha as 1200 integrated
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amplifier
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i reviewed it a couple months ago and i
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noticed a subtle
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change in its performance between then
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and now now to be clear this isn't a big
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change it doesn't alter what i had to
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say about the product in my review
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but it is noteworthy enough to where i
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would like to make a separate dedicated
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follow-up video to this unit now before
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i begin i need to be clear about
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something this is not
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an objective review instead this is
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going to be my subjective take
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on the 1200 so i'm going to be biased
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you're going to get my raw
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personal thoughts on this unit that
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didn't quite make it into my review
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so i think the best place to begin is to
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comment on the build quality now if
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anything i think this is the best part
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about the 1200
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and i may have even underplayed it in my
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review because it really
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is so well made for the money in fact i
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don't mind saying that in my subjective
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opinion
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i feel like it's one of the best made
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three thousand ish dollar integrated
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amplifiers
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out there today now of course i
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understand that there are plenty of
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obscure manufacturers out there that may
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offer
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more for the money than what you're
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looking at right here again by
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conventional standards
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but i'm saying this from the perspective
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of something that comes from a large
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established company
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that's well distributed throughout the
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world something that most of you have
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access to
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if you want it followed by support
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like real warranty support so under
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those guidelines yes i think yamaha has
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done a great job with this unit
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and plus just on a completely personal
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level i really like integrateds like
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this something that's big man something
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that has weight behind it
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something that uses a big transformer
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big caps we have vu meters metal tone
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controls
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this is the kind of thing that i like
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seeing on my equipment rack
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and i'm not saying that to slam more
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modern tech pieces because quite frankly
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they have their place too
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and the performance of those components
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are really good class d amplifiers for
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example they've come a long way
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built-in streaming has come a long way
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and there's something to be said to
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having access to tone controls and
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in-room eq that's done in the software
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domain so i think ultimately
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those components compete evenly in terms
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of performance but i still prefer
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more of the old-school approach to doing
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things and bear in mind there's no right
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or wrong here
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it's just a matter of personal
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preference and that leads me to the
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performance
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of the 1200 so on a very personal level
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i remember that when i took it out of
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the box i was just
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meh about the sound now don't get me
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wrong i appreciated a few things right
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away
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the power even though the specs would
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suggest it's not that powerful in the
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real world yeah it sounds powerful
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the detail is very good i could even
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appreciate the voicing that warmth
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within the lower mid-range and upper
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base something that's designed to give
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it
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this full bodied sound while at the same
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time having that liveliness and the top
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end particularly the lower treble and
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upper mid-range
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but the problem that i really had with
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it wasn't the voicing at all
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i was cool with that it was the tone
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with the biggest issue being
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the upper mid-range and lower treble it
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was so
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forward that i felt like
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it could take on this rather hard
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tonality
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let me give you an example when i listen
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to
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unamplified acoustic instruments like
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say a piano
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when somebody is playing the piano and
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they're just going ham on the keys
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yes it's supposed to sound hard and
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aggressive because that is how a piano
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sounds in the real world when somebody
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is playing it like that
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however when the pianist is having one
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one of those more delicate moments
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that's how it should sound and it's like
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the yamaha doesn't want to play the more
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delicate moments it just wants to rock
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and roll all the time
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and to me that gets fatiguing and it
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doesn't take long for it to get
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fatiguing
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so on a subjective level i loved the
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build quality but i was so so about the
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sound
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particularly due to that voicing that
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they use
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now after i published my review which by
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the way yamaha co-signed on they said
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that hey
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that's an accurate review that's what we
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were going for i
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tended to use this integrated amplifier
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for a number of different comparisons
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but once i was done with those
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comparisons i just set it aside
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and then it would start to collect dust
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up until about
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two weeks ago so here's the interesting
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thing in that time i didn't notice a
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change in his performance whatsoever
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but about two weeks ago i decided to
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hook it up to my system and listen to it
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just for the sake of listening to it
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and i noticed that when i did so huh i
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noticed that that prominence that i just
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spoke about what i don't like about it
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that hardness within the upper mid-range
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seemed less obvious now don't get me
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wrong it was still
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there if i were to review it all over
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again i would still say the same thing
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but now it didn't seem as offensive and
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i think i was running down audio evoke
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tens at the time
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now i remember i didn't really jump to
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conclusions right away i thought
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i'm probably just hearing something or
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maybe it's a psychological thing going
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on in between the ears maybe i have a
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bunch of earwax who knows it could be
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any number of different variables
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contributing to what i'm experiencing
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now so i decided all right well let's
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try out some different speakers
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i did that and guess what same thing so
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then i said
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all right well why don't we put this in
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a totally different system so i put it
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on my computer rig
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which is on a completely different power
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grid and then guess what
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same thing and as it just so happens
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right at the same time i'm talking about
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within the same
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week thomas from thomas and stereo
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reached out he's reviewing the 2200
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and he observed the same thing because
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thomas is putting literally hundreds of
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hours on that unit
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and he noticed that yeah it does soften
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up a little over time
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then the dealer reached out to me and
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said the same thing about the same unit
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the 2200
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and then two of you who owned 1200 and
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you've been running it for months
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also said the same thing so it seems
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like the people who own these units and
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or
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who have a lot of experience with them
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and they've been using them for months
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at a time
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have all mostly experienced the same
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thing and i think that's pretty
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interesting
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in fact that leads me to something that
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i'm curious about which is
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to those of you who are watching this
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video who owned this unit especially if
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you've owned it for a few months
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have you experienced what i'm reporting
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in this video
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which is that prominence in the upper
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mid-range softening
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just a little bit now to be clear i'm
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not
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doing this because i want to see if
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somebody's right or wrong there's no
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right or wrong here
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this is just one enthusiast asking
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another for their own personal
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impressions
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now of course i understand that this
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invites the topic of break-in and i'm
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sure the comment section is already full
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of people
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leveraging their opinion on the subject
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now of course yamaha has never offered
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up any hard evidence to support their
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claims of break-in but some companies
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have like picard audio
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i think if you reach out to them they
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may even support you with evidence
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that indicate how the s 400 performs
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completely new out of the box and how it
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compares and contrasts
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to something that has around 300 hours
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on it i don't know if they've ever made
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it public
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but i do know that they have that
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information because i've seen it
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but just the same it doesn't really
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matter whether
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it's real or imaginary and more the
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results of psychoacoustics because
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perception
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is still reality but nonetheless i think
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it's just too coincidental for a lot of
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people to notice the same thing to
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include
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very experienced ears so um
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that is going to overall be the
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observation that i made and that leads
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me to my final thoughts on the 1200
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after living with it for so long i'm
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sure my hands look really big right now
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um ultimately it's interesting
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my impression of the build quality has
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not changed at all
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but my impression of the sound has just
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a little bit
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because out of the box i didn't really
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care for it all too much
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but now i feel like i can genuinely
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listen to it
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enjoy it i'm not only a wider variety of
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speakers but i feel like i don't have to
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use the tone control anymore
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to find it listenable over the long haul
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and ultimately that means that hey i
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think it's an even better value in my
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mind
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than when it was when i reviewed it i
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could see more people enjoying something
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like this
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if they have the patience and only if
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they run
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into the same things that i did so
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anyways guys
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that is going to be my take on the 1200
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after living with it
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if you've made it this far i don't know
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how but i appreciate you tuning in and
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until next time
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peace
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you
