Its an amp that changes the face of your listening entirely if you have been using lesser equipment..no matter what it cost.
The AX 500 makes a high fidelity sound way above its considerable cost when released by yamaha..and puts all of its contemporaries in the shade.
Its an imposing box, though like all of the natural sound range pulls that off with elegance. The sleek lines are very dark hi-fi and blends in nicely anywhere.Its hansome, heavyweight and shakes the foundations.
How yamaha achieve such cleaness of sound,musicality and such fabulous signal to noise ratio is said to be down to the sheer precision of thier manufacturing. Their products are incredibly long lived delivering all of the original performance. They achieve this with hi-fi, much of which is now getting on over 60 years old and has cult collectable status, musical instruments, ditto, people go nuts for their vintage amps guitars effects etc,,,,motorcycles, and endless list.
All of this is done with panache too as the looks of their ranges is always fantastic.
When it comes to soldering electrical componets together on mass produced electrical goods and the whole choice of first rate quality components, not to mention absolutely brilliant designs in the first place,yamaha's goods are better than bespoke, that i believe is why the hi-fi sounds so good.Just the quality of yamahas soldering work, (and just imagine how many solder joints there are in a complex hi-fi amp)..is the difference.That itself, ensures a great deal..and the signals that yamaha hi-fi gives out is superb as a result, let alone other factors.They have got the fine details right that the hi-fi press talk about all the time with regard to build qualities in hi-fi products.
And use the best components.
Which makes me wonder why, i sold my AX 500. Well, it was because of a mortgage actually, but i should have ignored that!
The AX 500 is one of those amps that just works.it sounds better than the rest of the range both smaller and larger.
What it does is perfect, that is, where big amplification is needed and the AX 500 is not the max, there are bigger still.
Its bulletproof and just sings where hi-fi sound is concerned.
They also defy logic, since when compared to even more ( far more even ) expensive gear, an ax sounds equal to and better.
I cant explain why that is, its an amp that delivers in gobs.
I shall seek and find another, worth its weight in gold. They come up on average around 400 pounds in good condition.
I'd avoid any hi-fi thats going cheap because its bashed or chipped excessively, as that jolts the very delicateness of the internals.
Fabulous looking,clean highly musical sound, bags of power, unbelievable reliabilty,classic status, and very very cool. I cant think of any disadvantages except its not a 7.1 nu supA-doitt.
Highly recomended,will put a big smile on your face.