NEWS: Yamaha announces Aventage RX-A2A AV receiver

[Andy Bassett]

Yamaha has unveiled its latest AVENTAGE AV Receiver, the RX-A2A, which sports a new look, rock solid construction, multiple 4K 120Hz inputs and plenty of immersive technology.
Read the news.

 

[dante01]

It is basically a Yamaha RX-V6A with a detachable power cord LOL

There are however the usual Aventage chassis modifications such as the wedge (fifth foot) and a metal front fascia.

Anti Resonance Technology Wedge
The Anti Resonance Technology (A.R.T.) Wedge is a fifth foot in the center of the chassis unit base. It dampens vibrations from the power transformer, power transistors and heat sinks, as well as vibrations that might be caused by the sound from the speakers — providing dynamic sound and focused, accurate reproduction.

Here's a link to the A2A on Yamaha's site:

RX-A2A - Overview - Yamaha - UK and Ireland

A2A - 7.2 ch AVENTAGE with CINEMA DSP 3D, HDMI™ 7-in/1-out, Special A.R.T technology.

uk.yamaha.com

The A2 has a RRP of £849 which is £200 more than that suggested for the RX-V6A. Is a fifth foot and a detachable power cord worth an extra £200?



There have been some noticable downsides to owning one of the new Yamaha models that will be also apparent with this one. The new remote has no ability to directly select a source and you have to cycle through the sources if using the IR remote. The receivers will however still repond to discrete IR source commands sourced via older Yamaha remotes. Yamaha have for some unknown reason not added support for their iOS or Android control app and the new models only support the MusicCast app. THe MusicCast app lacks many of the features you could control with Yamaha's control app. I've no idea as to why Yamaha have gone in this direction, but neither the redign of the remote and the ommission of the control app support helps enhance a users experience while using these new models.

For anyone as yet not aware of it, you should be a little warry of claims that these new models are 4K/120fps compliant. There is an issue with the chipsets that have been utilised by Denon. Marantz and Yamaha that actually prevents these models from conveying uncompressed 4K/120:

NEWS: Denon, Marantz and Yamaha AV receivers hit by HDMI 2.1 bug

It seems that the implementation of HDMI 2.1 in some of the most recently launched AV Receivers is problematic and not delivering the fully promised 4K 120Hz experience. Read the news.

www.avforums.com

Yamaha imply that they'll have a fix for this, but there's no guarantee of this!

 

[AntiDante]

I personally would not buy any until the Chipset issues are remedied. Not convinced a Firmware upgrade can resolve a hardware issue.

 

[Tejstar]

Does anyone know when Yamaha's higher-end receivers are due? If this model is only landing in Jan 2021, then it seems like there'll still be a decent wait...

 

[dante01]

It has been indicated/suggested that the new Aventage models will be released early next year. It is a bit of a surprise to see the A2 announced so early.

 

[Gasp3621]

New Aventage models Q1 so january - march, but last time i asked it will be later than that for Europe customers. Probably spring 2021 is closer for the top models.

One installer mentioned on other forum:

I had a very interesting discussion with my Yamaha insider about AVRs....
Firstly, the factory has started production on certain new Aventage models, starting @ the bottom. Higher end Aventage models are pushed back, mainly due to slow delivery of crucial internal components, plus wanting to optimize their HDMI 2.1 validation and performance. In light of this their factory in Malaysia is planning 1 more mass production run of 3080s scheduled for mid-December, the 2080s are done and now discontinued. Another factor for mass production is the coming of the Chinese New Year(in February, 2021) which can/will affect the delivery internal components from China. Note that about 70% of the internal components are from China.

 

[GrazzaB]

Cycling through sources on a receiver remote is ridiculous, you have to wonder who approves that as an idea. By buying an expensive receiver surely you’re not the kind of buyer who just wants a really simple / limited remote.

 

[CynanX]

If nothing else at least they’ve ditched those awful rounded sides on the front panel!

 

[Deicerniauskas]

Yamaha V6 dac performance is utter trash, dont expect much from this as well

 

[milano j]

Love the external design looks classy

 

[nenito2k]

@Deicerniauskas saying that the DAC is trash...is like saying that ALL yamahas (aside from +1000 aventage) are TRASH; because the DAC is the SAME as all of their models for the last years....all V range+ low end A range have this SAME (pretty much) DAC...

 

[Deicerniauskas]

Dac performance is not just dac itself, its about isolatuon, lack of leakage and so on...take a look:

Yamaha RX-V6A 7.2 channel 4K / 8K Dolby AV Receiver Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Yamaha RX-V6A "8K" Audio/Video Receiver (AVR). They only announced two such 8K AVRs and this is the upper model. Our company (Madrona Digital) is a dealer for Yamaha so I was able to purchase this at a discount for testing. Retail cost is US...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[nenito2k]

@Deicerniauskas that A.S website guns down EVER single AVR on the market ! be it a 200$ avr or 3000$ one...the only one that was ok was the DENON 3600 !
don't get me wrong AMIR knows his stuff for sure....but reading him tells us all AV gear on the market is crap...
and in the real world...99.99% of us won't even hear the issues described on his articles, as they are related to current/wattage/noise/distortion and so on....

 

[Moonda]

May be better looking at a new AVR in a years time...They’re not ready/complete yet.

 

[nenito2k]

STILL, 5 years warranty is a HUGE bonus !

 

[Gasp3621]

STILL, 5 years warranty is a HUGE bonus !

You can get 6years for RX-V6A paying 65£ on Richer Sounds. Still lot cheaper and basically same machine...

 

[nenito2k]

yes @Gasp3621 but many people in europe don't have RS and...5 years from yamaha is great!

 

[simon194]

It is basically a Yamaha RX-V6A with a detachable power cord LOL

… and without the rounded edges on the front panel. A design feature I'm not overly keen on with the RX-V models.

 

[dante01]

… and without the rounded edges on the front panel. A design feature I'm not overly keen on with the RX-V models.

Yeah, well worth an additional £200 LOL

 

[yallaman]

Phil Shea, Product Trainer Manager of Yamaha, talks about the RX-A2A from around the 48 minute mark:


No Parametric EQ (PEQ; also confirmed in the manual) is a bit ridiculous. The RX-A2A seems like a successor to the cheapest current Aventage, the RX-A680.

For the first time, Yamaha now says that the cheap Aventage has better filter caps than the RX-V line – specifically 22% bigger. Before, they only said that about the top three models (1080, 2080 and 3080).

 

[Galaxy]

You can get 6years for RX-V6A paying 65£ on Richer Sounds. Still lot cheaper and basically same machine...

You get 5 years from Yamaha with the RX-V6A anyway......

 

[MPJune69]

I can't address how Yamaha's regular AVRs handle mode switching, but for the past several years, mode switching on the Aventage line isn't the monumental task some have suggested. Using the on-screen setup/configuration menu, you can display a complete list of the various modes and simply "check" the modes you do not want to cycle through in regular "user" mode. So if you've gone through the list and eliminated 50% of the modes, you'll never have to endure a half-second of "Cellar Club" again - or the 17 other modes you've "eliminated" from the list!