Yamaha RX-A3000 Aventage 11.2 Networking A/V Receiver Review

M

mrceolla

Audioholic Intern
Hi all,

Thanks for the input. Yes, I need to run analog to the receiver in order to send a source's audio to other zones. Party Mode will down mix digital to 2ch and send that to all zones, but when I do that I'm forced to 7ch stereo in the main zone.

The receiver's lip sync functionality only delays audio further. My problem is that the digital audio is already delayed too much.

I can live with the fact that the digital version of the audio is not output in sync with the analog version from the same source when listening in other zones. But what I can't live with is that the digital version is NOT in sync with the video from any given source. I have 4 different sources feeding digital and analog audio to the receiver. The analog is always in sync with the video, but the digital is always behind. I can see doors close before I hear it. I can see drum sticks hitting drums/symbols before I hear it.

If I manually set the speaker distances to the max of 80ft., this shortens the audio delay, but it's still not perfect.

My test for perfect was to send the optical audio output from my TV to my receiver and listen to the audio coming out of both my TV's speakers and my receiver's speakers when tuned into an over the air station. One can safely assume the audio coming out of the TV when using the TV's built-in tuner is going to be in perfect sync with the video, right? Well it looks to be in perfect sync to me. But when I turn on the receiver's speakers too, I hear an echo and can hear words and other sounds start in my TV's speakers before I hear them out of the receiver's speakers. So my conclusions is simply that the digital audio is being delayed by the receiver and that there is no way to get perfect lip sync.

I have a CRT HD TV (Sony XBR 960). So I could understand how this wouldn't be a problem for people who send all audio and video signals to the receiver first, and then the video to a flat panel which introduces a video delay of its own. But even with a flat panel, what happens when the TV itself is the source of the audio? The TV is going to output the audio in sync with the video frame currently visible on the display, right? So if the receiver then adds a delay to the audio, you loose sync, right?

All I know is I didn't have this problem with my old Yam HTR-5790. With that receiver, there was little to no discrepency in latency between the digital version and analog version of audio from the same source and lip sync with video was never a problem. But that was stolen and now I need to find a replacement. I thought this receiver would be awesome but this lip sync and digital audio delay is killing me. I just don't understand why these newer receivers do this and how no one else is noticing it as a problem.

I did receive a 2nd RX-A3000 Friday night and it has the same problem. So I guess there is nothing 'broken' on the other unit and it wasn't the firmware update that caused the problem.

I don't have cable or satelite and watch OTA a lot. And with this receiver, I just don't see how I'm supposed to get perfect lip sync when using a TVs built in tuner, whether it's a CRT or flat panel if the receiver is going to introduce a delay on all digital sources. It appears to me that the only way lip sync is possible is to have a flat panel that introduces a video delay of its own and to run all audio and video through the receiver. But this would mean that I can't use the tuner or other sources like Netflix built into a TV.

What am I missing?

Thanks.
 
M

mrceolla

Audioholic Intern
{cricket sounds}

Nobody with any input on this? It's driving me crazy. Why are newer receivers taking longer to process digital audio than older receivers? Do I need to buy a new TV in order to achieve perfect lip sync?
 
harleyoz

harleyoz

Audioholic Intern
I have no issues with my projector & use a MCPC for all my av stuff m aybe just a TV thing?
 
J

JSmyth

Audiophyte
I just confirmed with Yamaha support. You CAN run 6-8 Ohm speakers at any position and 4 Ohm speakers in the Main Front position ONLY, all at the same time. To do this, you must change the default impedance to 6 Ohm from 8 Ohm in Advanced Setup.

In other words, once you change default impendance to 6 Ohms, you can run Front Mains at 4 Ohms, Zone 2 at 6 Ohms, Center Channel at 8 Ohms, Rears at 6 Ohms, etc. But they specifically state the ONLY place you can run 4 Ohm speakers is Front Main.
 
B

Bghead8che

Audioholic Intern
How does the YPOA compare to Audyssey 32XT. Also, does the Yamaha do a full EQ on the subwoofer? How about a second subwoofer like the Audyssey can?

Thoughts?

-Brian
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
I just confirmed with Yamaha support. You CAN run 6-8 Ohm speakers at any position and 4 Ohm speakers in the Main Front position ONLY, all at the same time. To do this, you must change the default impedance to 6 Ohm from 8 Ohm in Advanced Setup.

In other words, once you change default impendance to 6 Ohms, you can run Front Mains at 4 Ohms, Zone 2 at 6 Ohms, Center Channel at 8 Ohms, Rears at 6 Ohms, etc. But they specifically state the ONLY place you can run 4 Ohm speakers is Front Main.
IMHO they say main fronts only because most if not all of us tend to put our biggest/best speakers in the front L/R and if they are 4 ohms so be it. On pure technical sense, all they are trying to say is that you can run two 4 ohms speaker and the rest 6 to 8 ohms. They have to say all those things probably to comply with CE, UL, CSA kind of standards.

If you are really concern with running 4 ohm speakers in the front, I would just add a two channel amp and be done with it. Using the 6 ohm selection is not a good way to do it.
 
B

Bghead8che

Audioholic Intern
How does the YPOA compare to Audyssey 32XT. Also, does the Yamaha do a full EQ on the subwoofer? How about a second subwoofer like the Audyssey can?

Thoughts?

-Brian
No takers?

-Brian
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
No takers?

-Brian
The proof is in the listening. Take the two different receivers, connect them to the same speakers in teh same room playing the source material and listen to each one to see if you notive a difference. I'm very happy with rudamentary version of YPAO on my RX-V1800. It did the trick for me.
 
audioAl

audioAl

Enthusiast
Yamaha RX 465

I bought the above Yammy six months ago and now want to upgrade again. My unit will do 7.1 setup, I only use the 5.1 now. Does the new Yamaha have Burr-Brown dac's?
 
S

Sepen

Junior Audioholic
I have two questions, will the HQV Vida chip make Directv HD and Netflix HD look any better? And does the A2000 have the same video chip? Thanks.
 
smurphy522

smurphy522

Full Audioholic
Gene,

Nice quote:
"protection to ensure you can literally submerge it in a swimming pool plugged in without harming any small children"

I just removed you from my pool party list.
 
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic
The RX-A3000 has quite a large power transformer and big capacitor bank. They are using some pretty sophisticated output devices which I discuss in the review.
Why is the actual size of the capacitor caps not noted? I notice for all the other flagship receiver reviews, the size in microfarads is noted...Conspicuously absent in this review.

Perhaps it's significantly smaller than expected and thus worth not mentioning...
 
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3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
Why is the actual size of the capacitor caps not noted? I notice for all the other flagship receiver reviews, the size in microfarads is noted...Conspicuously absent in this review.

Perhaps it's significantly smaller than expected and thus worth not mentioning...
The A3000 is very formidable in its power delivery according to Audioholics testing which means that this receiver has the capacitors required to make it work. Just because it wasn't mentioned in a review doesn't it mena its no there. Now if the power delivery was weak, then I would have to agree with you but this is clearly not the case with this unit.
 
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic
Large capacitors are when a large discharge of power is needed for an immediate transient. That's different than running an RMS test with no speakers and measuring the output at the end of the circuit with a wattmeter.
 
gmichael

gmichael

Audioholic Spartan
Large capacitors are when a large discharge of power is needed for an immediate transient. That's different than running an RMS test with no speakers and measuring the output at the end of the circuit with a wattmeter.
If they were smaller than expected, I'm sure that would have been noted in the review.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Large capacitors are when a large discharge of power is needed for an immediate transient. That's different than running an RMS test with no speakers and measuring the output at the end of the circuit with a wattmeter.
Our testing is far more sophisticated than using a watt meter. We run continuous and dynamic tests per CEA 2006 as you can see in our test report of the review in question. If the receiver didn't have adequate reserves for its stated wattage, the ripple voltage would have been poor. The power would have sagged during our tests much more than just being limited by the overall output of the power transformer.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Why is the actual size of the capacitor caps not noted? I notice for all the other flagship receiver reviews, the size in microfarads is noted...Conspicuously absent in this review.

Perhaps it's significantly smaller than expected and thus worth not mentioning...
Or perhaps the caps were not easily readable b/c they were tightly packed into the receiver so we didn't comment. I would make an educated guess based on performance than this receiver has a very similar power structure to the RX-Z7 I reviewed which had 2 x 18,000uF 71V caps.
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
Large capacitors are when a large discharge of power is needed for an immediate transient. That's different than running an RMS test with no speakers and measuring the output at the end of the circuit with a wattmeter.
Large discharges you are refferring too are musical transients that are very short in duration. ;)
 
I

ichigo

Full Audioholic
Actually it was pretty easy to see the capacitors, I took a look inside. 2 x 12,000uf, 2x 6,800uf, so 37,600uf total.

12,000uf caps seem pretty popular these days; I saw them in some Denons. I think pretty much everyone is just getting their stuff sourced from the same places these days.
 
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gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Actually it was pretty easy to see the capacitors, I took a look inside. 2 x 12,000uf, 2x 6,800uf, so 37,600uf total.

12,000uf caps seem pretty popular these days; I saw them in some Denons. I think pretty much everyone is just getting their stuff sourced from the same places these days.
The 6,800uF caps are not part of the power supply for the amp section. The 2 x 12,000uF caps are for the amp section.
 

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