Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Great sound, very clean at all volumes. Beat a dozen other top-end amps in side by side listening comparison for clarity & separation. On the down side, seems to need repair every few years. One tech told me he called them "M-80" because they keep blowing up.

Despite the maintenance, I still recommend highly as the sound can't be beat.

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Price Paid:  $250.00 from Either Navy Exch or

Summary:
Pure sound exhilleration!!! I was so enthralled by this baby I had to let everyone in the barracks know. Coupled with a pair of Cerwin Vega PD-9s and two pair Bose 901's....the barracks were never the same. They could hear me half way across the base as per the complaints! Most in the barracks, especially myself enjoyed the clarity and sheer power this amp could produce. In fact I also used the setup, but with just the PD-9s for DJing at the base club. Now years later and after being in storage due to no DJ job and use of a surround reciever in my apartment....I pulled it out the other day to test out some new speakers.....Poof!!! All the salt air from Hawaii took its toll on the components. I'm now in denial like a smoker without any cigarettes!!!! All the more I can say is as Tim Allen would put it...UGHHH Power! Enjoy the clean raw power!!!!

Strengths:
You after lifting multiple times! Clean crisp power with the lowest THD to offer me at the time. Two display levels.

Weaknesses:
Unavailable seperate A-B-C level controls.

Price Paid:  $375.00 from e-bay

Summary:
I had owned a CA-810 integrated amp since new in 1977. I loved it until some of the controls started to have issues. The CA-810 is a beautiful piece of equipment. Brushed aluminum faceplate with teak cabinetry. Anyhow back to my newly acquired M-85…I didn’t buy it for the 250+ watts of power but for it’s a dual mono block amp design with Class A operation option. The M-85 has great specs and weights in at over 50 lbs (beefy). The weight is due to the twin transformers/power supplies and the heavyweight heat sinks for the sixteen Sanken output transistors. I also like the meter range control button and switching for three pairs of speaker found on this model. But best of all is the sound. Isn’t that what it’s all about. I very rarely blast music anymore. This unit has full, rich, beautiful sound at any volume. Coupled with my JBL Century L100s and I think I have the best of what rock-n-roll has to offer for the bucks.

Strengths:
Sound..sound..sound. Meter control buttons. Dual mono block design.

Weaknesses:
Black facplate (shows fingerprints, marks too easily).

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha CA-810

Price Paid:  $200.00 from a friend

Summary:
I've got a lot of stereo equipment. I've always just bought what I wanted. I had been stuck on an old crown DC-300a that I got in 1988 or so. My friend bought the yamaha used. He used it with a pair of Phase Tech PC 8.5s. I was using the DC-300A with 1 pair of Dalhquist dc-10s. He had a financial problem, I got the yamaha. Then I got a second pair of DQ-10s. When I got married I set up the yami with both pair of DQ-10s wired in series for 16 ohms. The preamp was a Phase Linear model 2000 series two. I wired the dalhquists in series because DQ-10 speakers arn't all the friendly to start with and I thought the yami wouldn't go for the 4 ohm load as easily as the crown did. I had no idea what I was in for. At 11 o'clock gain on the Phase, I was at concert hall volume in a Van Halen concert and very clear. My wife prefers classical. Sometimes I do too. Tchiakovsky's Romeo and Juliet suite comes thru with as much force and presence as does the Van Halen. The Dalhquists are vey spacious open speakers. My wife and I have gone separate ways, but I still have the Yamaha and the DQ-10s. As experience is my witness, I wouldn't sell either for love or money. The Crown has since blown a channel, but with the Yamaha, I think I'm going to be just fine.

Strengths:
PLENTY of power

Weaknesses:
Goofy speaker hook-ups

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Ebay

Summary:
I purchased a pair of Magnepan MG IIIa's and my old reciever could not cut it. At the time I was in college and could not afford to spend a lot of money, but needed a lot of watts to drive the Magnepans. I found a Yamaha M-80 for sale online a purchased it. It did a great job of driving the very inefficient Magnepans for about a year and the Hales Revelation 3's that replaced them. The Hales are slightly more efficient, but not by much. Once again, the M 80 drove them very high levels without strain even as the power meters on front were bouncing around the 200-400 watt range on very bass heavy music. Inside there are 8 Sanken output transistors on each side, thats 16 total. The amplifier also has twin (yes 2) power transformers and power supplies.

The amplifier operates in pure class A mode up to 25 watts and then in class A/B up to around 230 watts into 8 ohms at the flick of a switch. Otherwise the amp runs class A/B through most of its range and runs quite cool. In the Class A mode, the amp generates quite a bit of heat and the sound improves for about 30 minutes as the amp warms up.

The amp does a really good job at just letting the sound of everything upstream through. If your preamp and CD player are bright or dark, then the Yamaha will let that through. Overall, I would say the amp itself sounds slightly warm, but its very slight. It may just be that it does not have that typical solid state harshness in the treble.

It sounds very good with all sorts of speakers, even very small monitors that would never need the power the amp is capable of. Just let the M 80 sit in class A mode and provide a dynamic and detailed image.

If you can find one for less than $400, then buy it. The only problem you may ever run into are leaky power supply capacitors if the unit was abused or run in a confined space and overheated for a long period of time.

In normal use, the amp should be bulletproof. It has overload protection, startup and shutdown auto muting, and every other system to make the unti as user friendly as possible.

Even though the amp is now in my office system and has been replaced by a $3000 Conrad Johnson amplifier in the main room, I would still recommend it to anyone who either needs a lot of watts for a little money, or just wants to find out what the world of high end is all about.

Strengths:
Neutral sound, with great frequency response. Soundstaging is quite good. Can be used with ANY speaker.

Weaknesses:
None for the price. Its sins are of slight omissions, no warts are added.

Similar Products Used:
Associated products:

CD - Nakamichi MB-10, Rega Planet

Preamps - Nakamichi CA 5, Sansui c2101, yamaha C-80, Conrad Johnson PV10A

Interconnects - Audioquest quartz, goertz silver micro purls,