HiFi News recently reviewed the C5000/M5000 Pre/Power Amp and called it Japanese engineering ingenuity and construction quality at its very best. Here’s a summary of the critiques this highly impressive and cosmetically stunning combo received:   ‘When it comes to cosmetics, the C5000 and M5000 continue the traditions rekindled by the A-S2000 amplifier. This means piano-style keys for power and feature selection, solid metal bars for knobs on the input selectors, a chunky volume control and those glorious analogue meters on the power amplifiers. These, in turn, hark back to past Yamaha designs, yet somehow the two manage to look stylishly modern at the same time.’   ‘Don’t be mislead by the seemingly unremarkable 100W per channel power rating that Yamaha quotes for the M5000. The amp has huge power reserves waiting to be tapped and is more than capable of raising the roof, should you wish it to.’    ‘The Yamaha pairing is as smooth and beguiling as you could hope for at the top-end – qualities that are evident through the entirety of the frequency range.’    ‘Bass was another area in which the C5000 and M5000 proved effortlessly capable, with all inputs. Kick drums pounded with a sense of physical impact while the warmth and resonance from double-basses was an absolute job to behold.’
