Yamaha - A-S801 320W 2-Ch. Integrated Amplifier - Black

Marketing in the audio business can be confusing at times. Let me clear this up. No matter who the manufacturer is, they all advertise the same way. The lower the "resistance" (measured in ohms) the more power/electricity can be conducted. If a speaker has a resistance rating of 8 ohms, it wont be able to receive as much electricity as any comparable 4 ohm speaker even though they're using the same amp, set up and wire. This causes marketing to throw around a bunch of different specs in the air, willy-nilly. Often times, the people creating the product sale page on their website don't even understand what specs are what. Tech can be confusing. When ever a company advertises a devices "Peak Power", they will advertise it at a its lowest usable resistance (4ohms). 2 Channels Driven @ 4ohms, this amp does indeed provide 160 + 160 power, but that's not how you will use this device most likely. If you're driving 4 ohm speakers, you need a better amp than this and you should probably just buy "seperates". The real statistic you will be looking for when shopping an amp or receiver is going to be RMS power for 2 channels driven @ 8ohms 20hz - 20khz. This specific amp is is 100w + 100w (200w RMS). This amp will work great for any 6 or 8ohm rated speaker. It is loud as heck!

Yamaha requires installing a Yamaha software driver for either Windows or Mac. There is no driver available for Linux, so it won't work for example on the Bryston BDP-Pi digital music server, which uses an embedded Linux computer.

High end equipment frequently appears to have lower ratings. In reality the power is pure.....not inflated. When I have friends over they are amazed at the performance running two sets of 8 ohm speakers....I have never turned it up beyond half....at that point you have to raise your voice to speak. No one realizes the volume because the distortion is nil. I run it through Definitive Technology 9020 towers and DF D7 bookshelf speakers. Again, more volume anyone would ever need in their home.