Different price classes - Mark Levinson No.5805 costs roughly 3.5x what Yamaha A-S1200 does. Expect it to lead on paper; the question is whether you will hear the difference through the speakers you own.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Mark Levinson No.5805 has more power - 125W against 90W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.4dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Mark Levinson No.5805 the better fit for a large room and a very large room, and Yamaha A-S1200 for a small room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Mark Levinson No.5805 holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output nearly doubles to 250W, where the other increases strongly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | B | Yamaha A-S1200 is the quieter design on paper - 110dB against 103dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Mark Levinson No.5805 has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Yamaha A-S1200 takes more analogue sources - 6 against 3. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Shelf space | depends | Yamaha A-S1200 takes up about 13% less shelf area (2123cm² against 2454cm²), and it is 71mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Yamaha A-S1200 costs less - $3,000 against $10,500 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Yamaha A-S1200 is the cheaper watt - about $33 per watt against $84. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Mark Levinson No.5805 B Yamaha A-S1200
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Neither runs away with it - they trade advantages. Let the "depends" rows and the speakers you already own settle it. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Mark Levinson No.5805 is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Yamaha A-S1200 becomes the more rational buy.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.