Hi guys, I was looking into Yamaha A-S1000 and even newer A-S1100/A-S1200, but the newer ones are outside my budget.
I found the A-S1000 for around 700Euro, maybe less if I negociate, but I was looking also at the Pioneer A-717 or newer A-777 which is mostly identical, but from what I researched with plastic knobs, early 90's had plastic knobs unlike the late 80's.
Also I was looking at Sony ES models from the same period as the Pioneer, like Sony TA-F505ES, TA-F700ES etc., there are quite a few out there and I am not sure of what to buy.
Currently I have the Yamaha A-S201 as a desktop amp for my PC and want a robust, reliable, easy to maintain amplifier that gives good sound.
My electrician guy doesn't like the newer ones, since most have microprocessors and motherboards that once they break, you have to source a whole new board, found out the hard way when I bought a Primare SPA-22 which had integrates in it and not classic transistors and was defective, probably a microprocessor was bad and I am now stuck it, lucky I got my money back, but lost around 200 Euro on shipping, taxes, probably even more.
Was looking also at the cheaper Yamaha alternatives like the A-S501/701 or A-S700/R-S700, which from research look pretty much the same, the A-S801 is hard to find new/used at a decent prince and from what I understood it is better to buy a external DAC from Topping/SMSL for the price difference between it and A-S701 priced new.
Any inputs on what is the best way to go, since I don't plan on upgrading my amp for some time and wanted to know which is more reliable on the long run and fixable(I'm afraid not to end up with a modern one like the A-S1000, that has some integrated chips in it, those may break and I might up scrapping it for parts not being able to fix it for a fair amount or not being able to source the motherboard part).
Yamaha AX-900 looks good also, anyway most used Pioneer's, Sony's and Yamaha's that I mentioned go for around 200-300 Euro, give or take and are probably the way to go, the older and hi-end Yamaha's like the A-1000, A-2000 have gone up in price like crazy, at around 1000 Euro or more, vintage CA-1000/CA-1010 also, I did a lot of research.
Thanks.