A300 vs A500

[allang]

I have an A-500 amp and want to use it for two channels only. I'm downsizing my system from surround to stereo. Quality wise, does anyone know of any sound differences between the A500 used for stereo and the two channel A300. Going to buy a PT100 pre and sell my Yamaha CXA5000 which is great but just too much for me spacewise and feature wise, so they will be paired with a two channel pre. I know I'm looking at 110 watts for the A500 in stereo at 8 ohms and 150 watts per channel on the A300. They will be driving either Polk Signature S50 floorstanders or Polk RTI A3 bookshelves. Guess what I'm saying is would there be any reason qualitatively to get the A300 and sell the A500?

[knucklehead]

The 500 should be fine. The 50w difference isn't much, less than 2db more SPL with the 300.

[garbulky]

They sound very similar imo. Not worth buying it if you already have the UPA-500

[allang]

Got my PT100 today. Pulled my Yamaha CX A5000 out and guess what? The PT100 has a better tonal reproduction mated to the BASX A500 than the Yammie does (everything set to flat). With Yamaha's signal processing you can modify any sound to fit your preferences but I feel that the PT100 mated to my BASX A500 has a very natural uncolored sound. One of he things I hated about the A5000 is that it is so complicated to run. It's like the whole kitchen sink in one and I love the simplicity of the PT100. I don't have to spend an hour trying to figure out how to do something anymore. Don't get me wrong, the Yamaha is an exceptional piece of equipment and probably they have the best quality control of any audio manufacturer in the world. I just don't need all the bells and whistles of the Yamaha and I am interested in natural sound reproduction not artificial sound fields. Different strokes, I guess. I'm relatively happy but still undecided about keeping the BASX A500 or getting the A300. Decided to run bookshelf Polk RTI A3's instead of the Polk Signature S50 floorstanders. There's more bass through the RTI A3 as they have 6.5 inch woofers rather than 5 1/4" of the S50 to my ears. Both are decent speakers but my preference has always gone to bookshelf designs. Maybe I'm crazy (or senile) but this is what I'm doing. The fact that I'll have 3 extra channels not being used bothers me so I'll probably end up going for the A300 amp after I get the Yamaha CXA 5000 sold.

[trog69]

Jun 21, 2018 19:54:42 GMT -5 allang said:

Got my PT100 today. Pulled my Yamaha CX A5000 out and guess what? The PT100 has a better tonal reproduction mated to the BASX A500 than the Yammie does (everything set to flat). With Yamaha's signal processing you can modify any sound to fit your preferences but I feel that the PT100 mated to my BASX A500 has a very natural uncolored sound. One of he things I hated about the A5000 is that it is so complicated to run. It's like the whole kitchen sink in one and I love the simplicity of the PT100. I don't have to spend an hour trying to figure out how to do something anymore. Don't get me wrong, the Yamaha is an exceptional piece of equipment and probably they have the best quality control of any audio manufacturer in the world. I just don't need all the bells and whistles of the Yamaha and I am interested in natural sound reproduction not artificial sound fields. Different strokes, I guess. I'm relatively happy but still undecided about keeping the BASX A500 or getting the A300. Decided to run bookshelf Polk RTI A3's instead of the Polk Signature S50 floorstanders. There's more bass through the RTI A3 as they have 6.5 inch woofers rather than 5 1/4" of the S50 to my ears. Both are decent speakers but my preference has always gone to bookshelf designs. Maybe I'm crazy (or senile) but this is what I'm doing. The fact that I'll have 3 extra channels not being used bothers me so I'll probably end up going for the A300 amp after I get the Yamaha CXA 5000 sold.I

I'm  also a bookshelf user, in this case with an SVS PB-2000 sub. Just a note that if you find the pt-100 doesn't seem to have enough output to a sub, rather than using the LFE alone, I was advised to go with the  left and right inputs, as with the summed outputs it doubles the output. It worked great for me. I think more than the preamp, the fact that the sub is shoehorned into a tiny bedroom has more to do with the low output. 

Anyway, glad you enjoy the pt-100. It truly is a great preamp/DAC/tuner for the price. The a-300 should make you very happy. I got the A-100 Flex amp and I am astounded at how great it sounds. It sounds just as good as the Adcom gfa-555 it replaced, though of course with about 1/5th the power. I plan to try bi-amping with both of them just to experiment, though I got the Flex amp for headphones.