Yamaha A-S1200

An attractive, well-built integrated amplifier

The A-S1200 is the little brother of the A-S2200 and A-S3200, but it's plenty powerful and impressive in its own right. It delivers a robust 90 watts per channel, and it's 4-ohm stable, so it can handle a wide variety of speakers. It offers features intended to make analog music sources sound superb, including an efficient toroidal transformer, and solid, vibration-resistant construction.

If you're a bit nostalgic for the components of the 1970s — I grew up with them and I love the look — you'll appreciate the large level meters illuminated by soft LED light. The switches and knobs on the front panel were meticulously designed to complement the overall visual style of this amp.

Excellent analog connections

These days, it's a bit unusual to see an integrated amp with no digital inputs, but this amp is all about analog goodness. There are four unbalanced RCA inputs on the back, included dedicated inputs for a separate tuner and the analog output of your CD player. There's also a discrete phono stage that lets you connect a turntable with a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge.

The two sets of binding posts might look a little different than what you're used to. They're made of pure brass, and they have a nice "grippy" shape that makes them easier to spin open and closed.