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Review 1 of 10
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I bought the Yamaha DSP-A2070 from an audiophile priced at $160 when I took an audition at his home & the power, the pulse, the depth, the dynamism, the roar, the elegance, the simplicity, the complexity, the coloring, the naturalism ...... every aspect of sound from those B&W floorstanders paired with this beastly 7.1 channel amplifier in pure stereo mode......my goodness, in those moments you just forget about everything and enter into a different dimension.
Mind you this DSP-A2070 had a list price of whooping $2000 back in 1993. It was Yamaha's most costly & coveted amp back then. The Yamaha sound engineers have put every thing they have learnt for the past 100 years in this product. So, the amp is always going to be something special in terms of SQ & product quality. Yamaha is also the manufacturer of musical instruments. While having this expertise since 1887, it was from 1970’s onward they started venturing in designing concert halls for accurate sound reproduction. They also started custom fittings of audio gear in many famous churches & clubs. While designing these concert halls Yamaha sound engineers had to study and carry out a lot of tests regarding how their audio equipment should be placed inside the hall in order to get the best possible sonic experience. Tests regarding sonic fidelity, echos & reverberation patterns not to mention the liveliness of music as it reaches to the back of the hall and many other parameters related to sound technology were performed. From all these cumulative experiences they gathered huge amount of raw digital measurement data.
Back calculating, the sound engineers of Yamaha thus came to know how the echo & reverberation patterns along with many other audio parameters should be in order to recreate the same "sound field" on sonic environment in a room. If some portion of their proprietary raw digital data is calculated in real time it will recreate the same kind of ambience or “sound field” as felt in by a person sitting in a concert hall, church, club etc.
It has Dolby Pro Logic and all kinds of Yamaha Sound Field Processing (DSP) options. The DSP settings are incredibly complex and you can spend half of your life in those settings. I am currently using the DSP-A2070 in a six speakers configuration(no center channel still) and really enjoying the Digital Sound Field Processing that this amp comes laden with. By heart I am purist, but when the mood is right I really start enjoing these DSP modes!!!
I have minutely studied the DSP unit of my DSP-A2070 and became quite impressed with their work. In plain words these are tiny computer with dedicated CPU, RAM, bus, cache memory, storage memory, memory bus.... Pretty impressive work back in 1993 using Cirrus Logic ADC's and Burr Brown DAC's.
Mind you both A1000 & A2070 had the option for the main left & right stereo speaker channels to pass through this DSP unit having the added "sound filed" effects and A/D to D/A conversions, or to bypass this DSP unit and remain pure analog or in other words "pure stereo" mode. This can be done with the "Front Mix" switch located a the back of the amp in off position.
There is something magical in the sound of the DSP-A2070 especially in true stereo mode that spells in my ears that it is staying with me for a long time. I am going to keep this Yamaha beast around. Sometimes I will also need to check whether I am going the right direction with my main setup.
If I want, I can also connect new or guest speakers to it, just to see what would happen. It is just fun to play around with DSP-A2070. It has got so many options. I can also use it as a separate pre-amplifier or power amplifier according to my wish. There is simply something magical to its sound that just makes me sit up and pay attention. It has immense power and drive; really making you part of the music. It had mind boggling BASS & SLAM, this comes like a big tidal wave and simply washes you out. Tight, precise and solid with exact timing. The detailing of mids & highs is also spot on and man it could really rock. The detailing and high frequency smoothness and extension, even in the context of a music setup(stereo mode),
It is a very powerful sounding amp. When used as a power amplifier (bypassing the internal pre-amplifier) it is amazingly dynamic and spacious and even more brutal in force than a pair of Bryston 7BST's(as auditioned). Ultimately of course it has less power than the 7BST's, but when used within its limits it makes up for a perfect stereo setup or a perfect home cinema amplifier(minus recent 7.1 channel effects) with its thunderous bass and powerful slam. The amplifier is very visceral and entertaining while at the same time maintaining great fluidity and refinement.
It is so incredibly heavy at 21 kgs, you need real muscle to put it in a rack. The internal electronic & mechanical components used are of very high quality & Yamaha seems not to have cut any corners with their top of the range “Signature Amplifier” of 1993.
You have no idea how big the EI power transformer is, it weighs 18lb (8.5 kg) and seems to be a 800VA plus & is simply gigantic. The humongous power capacitors are a pair of Nichicon Great Supply Type-I 22000uF, 71WV capacitors for the main stereo and center speakers. This caps are 4 inches tall and 1.5 inch in diameter and very heavy. This is the reason why Yamaha uses clamps to hold this caps to the chassis. And there is another pair of Nichicon Great Supply Type-I, 8200uF, 40WV capacitors for the four effect speakers.
So we end up with an almighty power supply consisting of a giant transformer & 60,400uF of pure HiFi grade Nichicon power. Mind you the above transformer & caps takes care of the power amp module only and are dedicated to power output. There is a separate smaller power supply unit with separate power caps that takes care of the DSP & other modules.
This power supply also allows Yamaha engineers to add an additional bass feature namely “Bass Extension”. While the bass knob allows you to add +/- 10db (50 Hz) the bass extention adds another +7db (70 Hz). So now you can get +17db over the reference, which is a tremendous achievement from the bass boosting point of view. All of this due to its “King Kong” power supply.
The power amplifier module of this DSP-A2070 is discrete/solid state as it uses a pair of Toshiba 2SA1302/2SC3281 power transistors in push pull mode for each of its right, left & center channels. Each of these pairs has a rated 150 watts of peak dissipation and can easily pump out 100 watts of continuous power. So a minimum of 300 watts & six power transistors here. The four effect speaker channels uses a pair of Sanken 2SA1726/2SC4512 power transistors in push pull mode for each of the four surround channels. Each of these pairs has a rated 50 watts of peak dissipation and can easily pump out 35 watts of continuous power. So a minimum of 104 watts & eight power transistors here. These fourteen power transistors pump out a minimum of 404 watts in total.
All the electronic & mechanical components used in this amp are of “GRADE-A” variety, and are simply built to last for generations. The DSP-A2070 is supeflous with ultra high quality Nichicons and super high quality Panasonic capacitors. Even after 15 years of abuse they seem new. Not a single leak from a single cap. Just speak of quality. Same goes for transistors, IC's, diodes, resistors, control pots, PCB's, wires & even the nuts used to mount the power transistor to gigantic heat sinks are of aero space grade.
Total minimum power(RMS) : [20Hz-20kHz @ 0.015% THD, 6 ohms] : 100 (Main Left) + 100 (Main Right) + 100 (Center) + 30(Front Left) + 30(Front Right) + 30(Rear Left) + 30(Rear Right) = 420 watts
Total minimum dynamic power(RMS) : [20Hz-20kHz @ 0.015% THD, 6 ohms] : 160 (Main Left) + 160 (Main Right) + 160 (Center) + 42(Front Left) + 42(Front Right) + 42(Rear Left) + 42(Rear Right) = 648 watts
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