Integrated Amp Reviews

Two of the followup reviews that were published in the November 2020 issue of Stereophile have been posted to the magazine's website: Herb Reichert on the Yamaha A-S3200 integrated amplifier and the measurements of the Denafrips Ares II and Terminator D/A processors.

In his original review of Yamaha's new flagship integrated amplifier in the September 2020 issue, self-confessed digiphile Jason Victor Serinus didn't examine the sound of the A-S3200's phono stage. It was also an open question whether the amplifier would get the best from his current-hungry Wilson Alexia 2 loudspeakers, despite Yamaha's confidence that it would do so. In his followup, Herb Reichert auditions the amplifier with Alta Audio and Harbeth loudspeakers, compares it with the similarly priced Pass Labs INT-25 amplifier, explores the A-S3200's phono-input performance, and takes its headphone output for an extended listen.

Herb had reviewed the two Denafrips processors—the $768 Ares II and $4498 Terminator—in his September 2020 Gramophone Dreams column. He was impressed by the sound of both, which feature advanced, discrete-resistor ladder-DAC arrays, so editor-in-chief Jim Austin agreed that a look at their measured performance would be worthwhile. The surprise for me was that in some ways the affordable Ares II's performance on the test bench was better than that of the more expensive Terminator.