Question Yamaha RX-A1060 or Yamaha RX-A3050

Tjopper

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As my receiver is broke I want to get a new one.

This is my current setup:
Living room layout
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/f3eti68pnjmxsoj/Living Room.PNG?dl=0

The usage of the receiver will be something like this:
  • Watching movies (30%)
  • Listing to music (50%)
  • Playing games (20%)
I used to have a Pioneer receiver. My father has a Yamaha receiver and today I had a listening session with a Yamaha receiver in the setup. And I do like the sound of Yamaha.

At the moment I do not care for Dolby Atmos of DTS:X but in the future I might want to use it in a 5.1.2 setup.

Today I got the following offer:

- Yamaha RX-A1060 new € 1.250,- (£1053)
- Yamaha RX-A3050 demo model 1 year old € 1.650,- (£1390)

Do you think it is worth to spend the extra € 400,- (£337) to get the A3050?
 
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Only heard the 3050.
If the RX-A1060 does everything you need then it's makes sense to get it rather than have used feature amp in the 3050.

The 1060 has a revised EQ and Zone 2 BASS and a few other tweaks, but remains mostly the same.
 
Agree, go for the A1060 unless you need all that extra power and extra channels.
 
Thanks all for you feedback.

I could narrow the difference between the A1060 and A3050 down to € 300,- (£250). As the A3050 also has the better build and components I think it is worth the extra money. Also as this is a long term investment for me.
 
This is the same question as I've been trying to work out. So far people have been leaning me towards the a3050. To be honest I'm still unsure. I just want the best amp for £1000 and it needs to be significantly better sonically than my Denon avr2805. The thing is after manually setting the eq of my denon to each front speaker it's hard to beat. I just don't have hdmi inputs which is why Id like to upgrade.
 
For me I would be advising you to go for the 3050 if you have the money.

You're getting a top end ESS Sabre 32 DAC and 9.2 channel processing from the 3050 plus what should be a better version of YPAO. For both stereo and movies I would expect the 3050 to be better than the 1060. The 3050 is fairly future proof as well so it could be something you'll keep for 5 years plus and having the flexibility to go 5.1.4 at a later date could be useful.

I suppose I feel as though you are getting bad value for money buying a 1060 over the 3050. I just struggle to recommend buying receivers brand new if last years version has all the features you need and is nicely discounted. That changes if you are looking in the <=£500 but over £1k I think you can often get a good deal on a top quality AVR. Something that would have cost £2k+ 12 months ago.

However since you have a Denon now is there any reason you aren't considering the X6200W?

Denon AVR-X6200W AV Receiver

I would say it's a better value buy than the 3050 and should be better sonically than the Yamaha; unless you really love the Yamaha sound. I'd be pretty surprised if you hated the Denon X6200W sound though.
 
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@DrHarvey12 The denon does seem good too so maybe that will be a contender for me. I'd just read the yamaha was better and this seems to some up what I've been reading.

Reviwed from this forum.
"Up against our day-to-day Yamaha RX-A3050 the Denon is a little more relaxed in its presentation compared to the upfront and more neutral signature of the Yamaha. It is not an obvious night and day difference"

I think I'll go for a yamaha if I can find one but Ill consider anything. So far my not so short list is:

Yamaha 2050/ 3050
Pioneer lx59/ lx79
Denon x6200/ avr x3300
Anthem? Never heard them.
 
There was an interesting av receiver shoot-out that AV Forums conducted earlier this year:

High-End AV Receiver Group Test

Some of the receivers you are looking at had similar if not slightly higher spec versions reviewed.

Anthem & Arcam are probably regarded as the best receivers you can buy for sheer audio performance. The downside tends to be a hefty price tag and possibly they will lack some of the features other brands have. One of their strong selling points is there room correction software. Dirac and ARC are very well regarded, unlike Audyssey & YPAO which seem to get slightly mixed reviews. Saying that I haven't had too many issues with either Audyssey or YPAO. I will say YPAO was pretty good at getting the subwoofer levels right. Something I had to fiddle about with (and still am to a certain degree) in Audyssey. Both sound better to me in my room when engaged, albeit marginally.

Yes, I would say that the Denon has a slightly warmer sound than the Yamaha; however for me this is what I prefer. I wouldn't say the Denon was un-detailed, just some of the highs that I found a little harsh on the Yamaha (& Pioneer for that matter) sound "fine" to me on the Denon. I am very susceptible to listener fatigue and a lot of people much prefer that crystal clarity at the top end so YMMV.

I will say that the Yamaha app is much better than the Denon's. I actually used the Yamaha one with my RX-A2040 whilst I make do with the Denon remote control (which fortunately is pretty good). Denon have a really newbie friendly setup routine which I like to a point. However if you are trying to setup a slightly non-standard speaker setup the Denon does leave you scratching you head somewhat. For instance, the Denon let me specify seven main speakers and then choose to have height speakers as well. However the setup wizard only let me select two height speakers; bit annoying since I have 4. It was also quite frustrating trying to get it to utilise my power amp, but luckily where the manual failed the clever and helpful members of this forum got me up and running! :clap:

Honestly any of those receivers is going to be good, anything above the X3300W I expect to be VERY good! If you can get a great deal on one then I would go for it.
 
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