Yamaha WXA-50 Streaming Amplifier Review & Comments

1) If I already have a mucisccast enabled receiver - is this product (WXA-50) moot for me?
2) And if not, will I need to hook up the WXA-50 to my existing zone 2 outputs?
3) If I can use this - do I need to run speakers wires to my backyard speakers?
  1. The idea of the WXA-50 is to be used just as you do with your current MusicCast speakers, to allow the same (or different) music to be streamed around a house.
  2. You don't physically connect the WXA-50 to the existing receiver, the MusicCast function does this wirelessly (or via the Ethernet connection).
  3. You would run speaker wires from the outdoor speakers to the WXA-50 (placed indoors) and the WXA-50 just needs mains power and be able to connect to your Wi-Fi.
Alternately, do as previously mentioned and run the outdoor speaker cables to your receiver and employ a external amplifier but this has the limitations mentioned in the previous posts about zone selection issues.
 
Sorry, I know this is an old thread but is the WXA-50 and WXC-50 still holding their ground or is there something better out there ?
 
Sorry, I know this is an old thread but is the WXA-50 and WXC-50 still holding their ground or is there something better out there ?
I've been doing quite a bit of research on this since my Squeezebox finally ended its long and successful run. There is the Bluesound 2i which is getting excellent reviews, but is $150 USD more than the Yamaha. I haven't seen where it actually offers better functionality than the Yamaha. What I'm trying to understand is the quality of the Burr-Brown DAC in this Yamaha. For me, it's down to either this, or getting a standalone DAC and hooking it to a laptop with external hard drive. Obviously this is a much clunkier proposition.
 
The WXC-50 is an excellent performer. I used mine to drive £3000 worth of active speakers and it worked superbly.

Excellent detail, good control and a discernible soundstage. The dac/preamp combination is as good as you’ll get for sane money.

If it has the functions you require then it’s still one of hifi very fine bargains.

The WXA-50 whilst having all the same functions as the WXC, has to make do with a pretty erm... not high current amp section.

So if you’re driving real speakers, I’d suggest the WXC and a more substantial power amp.

If you’re using small, background speakers, or some magical, high impedance high sensitivity speakers then the WXA is in with a chance.
 
Ps, should anyone buy either, the first thing to do with them is to turn off all of Yamahas “enhancements” for eco operation and speaker sizes.

Anything and everything in fact.
 
The WXC-50 is an excellent performer. I used mine to drive £3000 worth of active speakers and it worked superbly.

Excellent detail, good control and a discernible soundstage. The dac/preamp combination is as good as you’ll get for sane money.

If it has the functions you require then it’s still one of hifi very fine bargains.

The WXA-50 whilst having all the same functions as the WXC, has to make do with a pretty erm... not high current amp section.

So if you’re driving real speakers, I’d suggest the WXC and a more substantial power amp.

If you’re using small, background speakers, or some magical, high impedance high sensitivity speakers then the WXA is in with a chance.
Thanks for the reply. Im only looking at the preamp version. I have a vintage Pioneer sx780 that this will be used with, leading to my B&W 683 towers. Im most interested in MAQ support. I know the Yamaha supports Tidal but I don't know if that specifically includes MAQ format or not. Do you?
Glad to hear the DAC is solid.
 
There was no MAQ support when I had mine. I haven’t heard of any upgrades as yet...
 
Yes, Tidal was there from its release. I’ve had a scan about, but there’s nothing about a MAQ upgrade that I can easily find.
 
Yes, Tidal was there from its release. I’ve had a scan about, but there’s nothing about a MAQ upgrade that I can easily find.
Ok thanks for the info. That might send towards the Bluesound. I have been researching as well and could not find anything either. Your information is the most definitive.
 
Ps, I note on your SX-780 that it has 150mv line inputs.

If you go for any thing modern it’s likely to have 2v (2000mv!!) output so I’d also budget for a pair of these to bring down the output to something that your amp will be comfortable with.

GOLDENJACKS audio attenuator for optimal sound - 2 attenuators supplied | eBay

He does them to request spec too, so I’d consider going for a pair of -12dB.
 
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Ps, I note on your SX-780 that it has 150mv line inputs.

If you go for any thing modern it’s likely to have 2v (2000mv!!) output so I’d also budget for a pair of these to bring down the output to something that your amp will be comfortable with.

GOLDENJACKS audio attenuator for optimal sound - 2 attenuators supplied | eBay

He does them to request spec too, so I’d consider going for a pair of -12dB.
I actually have a pair of -12 attenuators that I used to use with a CD player. But thanks for reminding. Good looking out.
 
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The WXC-50 is an excellent performer. I used mine to drive £3000 worth of active speakers and it worked superbly.

Excellent detail, good control and a discernible soundstage. The dac/preamp combination is as good as you’ll get for sane money.

If it has the functions you require then it’s still one of hifi very fine bargains.

The WXA-50 whilst having all the same functions as the WXC, has to make do with a pretty erm... not high current amp section.

So if you’re driving real speakers, I’d suggest the WXC and a more substantial power amp.

If you’re using small, background speakers, or some magical, high impedance high sensitivity speakers then the WXA is in with a chance.

Hi Paul, that is very interesting. I'd love to try out a a music system that comprises of two studio monitor speakers along with a separate sub in a 2.1 configuration with a pre-amp like the WXC-50. Are you using studio monitors too ?

The WXA-50 is nice for what it is, do you think it could handle two 4-ohm book-shelf speakers ? One thing I noticed is that the Yamaha gear has bass management which is nice but the XO is fixed at a 120Hz. This is not a big deal as I could use an external DSP to control that.
 
It will handle 4 ohm loads - but i'd turn on the internal fan to ensure it doesn't overheat.
 
Hi Paul, that is very interesting. I'd love to try out a a music system that comprises of two studio monitor speakers along with a separate sub in a 2.1 configuration with a pre-amp like the WXC-50. Are you using studio monitors too ?

The WXA-50 is nice for what it is, do you think it could handle two 4-ohm book-shelf speakers ? One thing I noticed is that the Yamaha gear has bass management which is nice but the XO is fixed at a 120Hz. This is not a big deal as I could use an external DSP to control that.

Certainly the WXA will drive 4Ohm speakers. But I’d suggest not very well. The power supply is tiny, and I’d therefore imagine its current delivery is a little shy of optimal (being polite).

Yes, I did run the WXC-50 into my active Adams. I consider it to be an exceptional bargain. The Adams sounded as good as they ever have.

The only thing to be mindful of with the WXC is to turn off all of its dsp measures and its eco-mode. They are junk.

As a straightforward preamp/dac/streamer it is peerless at the price.
 
Ps, for use with active monitors, even relatively expensive ones, the WXC is really in its element.

Even the phone/tablet app is one of the better ones. Simple to set up and easy to use.
 
I quite like the look of the preamp. The thing that I find confusing which I guess is straight forward, is that I have all my CD's ripped to flac stored on a HTPC that has two large drives. Currently I listen to the music using Kodi and an Arcam irac connected to the computer via USB.
Looking at this item, it obviously as an internal DAC, but it looks like it doesn't have the same USB port as irdac. Does the music from the HTPC have to be streamed to it over a network, or can it be used like a regular USB DAC, installing a driver etc and the device be listed in Kodi/Windows 10 etc?

Just my HTPC is right next to the hifi. I'm just assuming that the method I'm using will be less prone to grief than over a network, then again I don't know...
 
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Certainly the WXA will drive 4Ohm speakers. But I’d suggest not very well. The power supply is tiny, and I’d therefore imagine its current delivery is a little shy of optimal (being polite).

Yes, I did run the WXC-50 into my active Adams. I consider it to be an exceptional bargain. The Adams sounded as good as they ever have.

The only thing to be mindful of with the WXC is to turn off all of its dsp measures and its eco-mode. They are junk.

As a straightforward preamp/dac/streamer it is peerless at the price.

I guess the right path to take would be to use the WXC-50 with active monitors and integrate a powered sub via the monitor XO or an external DSP. The benefit of using an external DSP would not only give me XO control but would also let me have access to a PEQ.

Out of interest, do you know of any other devices that are an improvement over the WXC-50 or WXA-50 in terms of performance and price ?
 
Sorry, I know this is an old thread but is the WXA-50 and WXC-50 still holding their ground or is there something better out there ?

NAD being the sister brand of Bluesound has a few BluOS products that they have come out with in the past year. C 368 - NAD Electronics

However, I have never been a fan of music cast in the Yamaha. way too limiting and not as well supported as BluOS seems to be.

Bluesound is selling the NODE 2 for 399 right now, that is a killer price if you dont need Airplay2 that comes on the NODE 2i
 
Hello all, novice here. I’m wondering if i can use the wxa50 to play a source at the same time on a pair of connected passive speakers and on one or more Yamaha MusicCast wireless speakers. Did not find any precise info on this online.
 
Yes, if you link the wxa50 to the MusicCast speakers, whatever you play will come out on both. The only limitation is airplay is limited to 1 device.
 
Hi,

I just bought this unit. Really enjoying it.

But I can’t find some of the user settings that manual says it has: all of settings 1 and in settings 2; mono aural downmix, jitter correction, volume section, input setting section, user interface, and other setup section.

Did recent patches dispense with these user adjustments?

Thx.
 
Hi,

I just bought this unit. Really enjoying it.

But I can’t find some of the user settings that manual says it has: all of settings 1 and in settings 2; mono aural downmix, jitter correction, volume section, input setting section, user interface, and other setup section.

Did recent patches dispense with these user adjustments?

Thx.
Go to "Rooms", basically the top menu on the app on your phone (this is on an old iphone for me that I use as a remote). Hit the gear at the top right (across from link), go to the Audio Room (WXC-50 for me), scroll down to advanced settings. You should have a bunch of options. "Sound" is where the jitter settings are, although I'm set to direct. Input settings are there, etc. That should be your missing menu.
 
Go to "Rooms" jitter settings are. That should be your missing menu.

Thanks BT.

The manual isn’t clear: jitter - 1 = low, 3 = high?

While we are on the subject; what is Jitter?
 
I'm loving mine too. Had it about 2.5 months. Took a little tweaking, but the sound quality is very good. It compares
Thanks BT.

The manual isn’t clear: jitter - 1 = low, 3 = high?

While we are on the subject; what is Jitter?
I think normally it would be described as any deviation from the digital source. It could be caused by the moving parts of a cd player, or in this case, the other things your computer is doing while streaming the music. Using a high quality media manager like JRiver Media should eliminate much of that. Interestingly for Yamaha, they consider 1 as being sharp music, and 3 being warm. I'm not sure if that's true or not since I run in direct mode.
That's my very layman's explanation.

My only criticism of the Yamaha at this moment is that the USB only supports FAT partitions, so 16 gb. Maybe it's FAT 32 but not NTFS. Had I known that, I may have gone with a DAC that isn't a streamer, but would allow me to connect a huge drive to the DAC. 16gb is worthless for quality audio.
 

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