MSRP: £1,999.95
Yamaha launched the world’s first home cinema surround processor in 1986 and nearly thirty years later, they have a new line up of AV Receivers, featuring all the latest developments in the AV world.
This year the line-up has expanded somewhat, with a brand new model at an all new price point; the RX-A550. This model sits below the RX-A850 in the AVENTAGE line-up, but doesn’t replace anything else within the range. The RX-A550 includes the latest HDCP, 4k video support, Bluetooth and WiFi and features a full Aluminium housing. It also features 5 channel discrete amplification and specific UK tuning.
The rest of the range will be updated to the RX-A850, RX-A1050, RX-A2050 and RX-A3050; replacing their respective models from last year. All models from RX- A850 and above will include HDCP 2.2, Bluetooth and WiFi on board, support for the full 4k colour space, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, RS-232 for custom install integration and a new Subwoofer EQ to get the most out of your bass.
The rest of the range will be updated to the RX-A850, RX-A1050, RX-A2050 and RX-A3050; replacing their respective models from last year. All models from RX- A850 and above will include HDCP 2.2, Bluetooth and WiFi on board, support for the full 4k colour space, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, RS-232 for custom install integration and a new Subwoofer EQ to get the most out of your bass.
Yamaha are using ESS SABRE DACs in the RX-A1050 and above, with the ES9006 being used on the RX- A1050, two ES9006 DACs on the RX-A2050 and an ES9016 and ES9006 DAC on the RX-A3050. Combined with these is their new Polymer Multi-layer capacitors, specially developed with Rohm technologies in association with Yamaha. These new capacitors are tiny in size but pack a huge punch, they tell us.
They also say that you’ll find a much smoother and refined sound from Yamaha’s AV Receivers going forward, which is largely thanks to research and development of these new tiny components. There’s also a new Jitter clock in AVENTAGE for 2015, specifically focusing on network, Bluetooth and USB playback. As times move on there is a distinct trend towards using network based music sources so they want to focus on making this kind of source as good as it can be. Not only this but there’s a new Volume IC built into the AV receiver range which not allows a smoother control over volume from us as the listener, but dynamic range in music and movies is better controlled as well.
Yamaha will also support hi-res playback on all the AVENTAGE models, including up to 5.6MHz DSD, 192/24 FLAC/WAV/ALAC/AIFF and MP3 and WMA files. These can be played back over the network or USB as well as using an external player if you so wish.
Other improvements include a better refinement of our YPAO auto speaker calibration, a new GUI HD uplift, continuous upgrades to the AV Controller app and some extra adjustments made for zone playback including delay adjustment and a handy main zone sync function.
The range of AVENTAGE AV Receivers from Yamaha this year will support the newest object based audio formats, referring specifically to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Dolby Atmos will be supported on the RX-A850 and above, while DTS:X will be available on the RX-A1050 and above.
Tentative SRPs are as below for the new AVENTAGE models, all of these will be arriving late Summer/early Autumn 2015:
RX-A550: Tentative SRP £549.95
RX-A850: Tentative SRP £899.95
RX-A1050: Tentative SRP £999.95
RX-A2050: Tentative SRP £1499.95
RX-A3050: Tentative SRP £1999.95
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