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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$400.00
from US Army PX in German Summary:
I felt I had to post a review of this amp since no one else has. This was Yamaha's top of the line stereo power amp when it was produced. I purchased my first one sometime in 1985 while stationed in Germany. This is a great amp, it out performs my Nakamichi PA-5 and holds it's own against my dbx BX1 which is a 400 wpc (watts per channel) amp at 8 ohms. The M-80 is rated at 250 wpc continuous at 8 ohms. The power meters on the front of the amp go up to 900 watts for each channel. This is not to impress people who like big numbers, it is because the amp can push unbelievable amounts of power when required. The way my stereo is set up right now I am pushing over 850 watts of dynamic power at 8 ohms (unbridged) with one of my M-80's. This is an extremely musical amplifier. It's distortion ratings are some of the lowest ever to be produced by any amplifier manufacturer. I now own 3 of them and have Bose 901's connected to each M-80. You do not want to connect speakers with low wattage handling capabilities to a M-80 not unless you enjoy replacing blown speakers. The M-80 is a bridgeable amp which is funny because I have not seen anything printed from Yamaha that states this. I have had 2 M-80's bridged to a soundcraftsmen DX-4200 preamp since I first owned all 3 sometime in the mid-late 1980's. Remember only use the red (positive) speaker terminals when hooking up your speakers to a bridged M-80. I have 2 Bose 901's connected to each bridged M-80 and only use all 4 901's when listening to non surround sound sources. The M-80 allows you to turn each set of speaker terminals on (or off) with 3 separate switches on the face of the amp. The amp has output adjustment knobs for each channel on the face of the amp. The M-80 has 3 separate ohm adjustment switches located on the front of the amp for different speaker loads, the owners manual gives you a formula to use to determine the your speaker load when using multiple speakers (up to 3 pair) on a single amp. The owners manual is a free printable down load at Yamaha's web site. The Class A switch when engaged pushes up to 30 watts of Class A power and switches automatically into Class A/B power for requirements above 30 watts. For those of you that don't know the M-80 as time progressed turned into the M-85 and the final version of this amp was the MX-1000(u). The later M-85 and MX-1000 versions only had minor improvements and 10 watts per channel more than the M-80. All three amps are almost sonically identical and the 10 watt increase of the later 2 versions does not give any noticeable increase in sound output to a set of speakers. I have owned all 3 versions and the construction quality decreased with the M-85 and even more with the MX-1000(u) but I am not insulting either of these amps. Yamaha just started producing them with less expensive parts as time progressed. The great thing about the M-80 is the resale cost, on sites like ebay, the M-80 can be substantially less expensive than the M-85 or MX-1000. I've seen the MX-1000 go for as much as $800.00+ and the M-80 can usually be purchased for around $400.00 used. If you need or want a extremely high powered, extremely musical power amp don't pay thousands for for a new boutique amp if you can purchase an M-80 that is in acceptable condition. You will not only save a whole bunch of money but you will have a better sounding system than most tweaky high end amps produced now a days will give you. I have a friend who uses Krell mono blocks, conrad-johnson and McIntosh stereo amps in his system. His system sounds great and he brags about it a lot but always seems to stop bragging when I'm around!?!
Strengths:
Great amp, great price, unbelievable sound quality Weaknesses:
Needs a lot of space for proper ventilation when used in Class A mode. Similar Products Used:
Nakamichi PA-5 and PA-7, Soundcraftsmen A5002, dbx BX1(the American made version), Yamaha MX-800, Yamaha M-60.
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