Yamaha Separates? The CX-A5000 AV Preamp and MX-A5000 11CH Amplifier is here!

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If and when they do, their flag ship AVR will replace my AV8801 for sure. I love the 8801 but its too much money for just a prepro.

It's almost a shame isn't it?

Although we know none of the numbers are actually audible, it's nice to see them.

But no Audyssey XT32. Sad.

My AVP has a Xtalk of -111dB and SNR -114dB (HTM). Too bad the SNR isn't -130dB.

Again, utterly inaudible, but just talking.

 

[gene]

Yamaha CX-A5000 & MX-A5000 Video Review

Hey guys, we just shot this video review as a teaser to our formal written review which will publish in about two weeks.

[video=youtube;lsWB0SrXwKs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsWB0SrXwKs[/video]

 

[3db]

That power amp is HUGE!!!

 

[haraldo]

Gene .... Are you thinking about a review of the Yamaha A-S3000?
Would be interesting for the two-channel-guys

Or even the A-S2000 would be interesting..... even though it's not a new product....

 

[melody3310]

How soon they will update their CX-A5000 to support HDMI 2.0 version? Or CX-A6000 coming soon?

Can't find any pre/pro with HDMI 2.0 yet.

 

[ellisr63]

When you bi-amp with the CX-5000 can you adjust the gain for each driver in the CX-5000 or do you need to use a power amp with gain controls per speaker?

 

[PENG]

When you bi-amp with the CX-5000 can you adjust the gain for each driver in the CX-5000 or do you need to use a power amp with gain controls per speaker?

What did you mean by "adjust the gain for each driver? If you biamp with the Yamaha MX-A5000 or another multichannel amp, there is no need to adjust anything. If you use the CX-A5000 with two or more amps with different gains to get the number of channels you need then you may have to do something.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

When you bi-amp with the CX-5000 can you adjust the gain for each driver in the CX-5000 or do you need to use a power amp with gain controls per speaker?

From the back panel, like most MCH amps, it doesn't look like each channel of the Yamaha MX-A5000 amp has it's own gain control.

I know my ATI AT6012 60WPC 12Ch amp has individual gain controls for each of the 12Ch.

 

[ellisr63]

What did you mean by "adjust the gain for each driver? If you biamp with the Yamaha MX-A5000 or another multichannel amp, there is no need to adjust anything. If you use the CX-A5000 with two or more amps with different gains to get the number of channels you need then you may have to do something.

If you bi-amp with an active crossover you need to have gain controls on the power amp... I was asking this because I was wondering if the Yamaha CX-5000 had individual gain controls for when you are bi-amping so the adjustments could be made there. If you have a crossover in your speakers you are not really bi-amping, as you do not have your amps after the crossover.

 

[ellisr63]

How soon they will update their CX-A5000 to support HDMI 2.0 version? Or CX-A6000 coming soon?

Can't find any pre/pro with HDMI 2.0 yet.

CX-A5100 is going to be announced by the end of the month. Here is a link to some info... http://www.eastwoodhifi.com.au/yamaha aventage.htm

 

[PENG]

If you bi-amp with an active crossover you need to have gain controls on the power amp... I was asking this because I was wondering if the Yamaha CX-5000 had individual gain controls for when you are bi-amping so the adjustments could be made there. If you have a crossover in your speakers you are not really bi-amping, as you do not have your amps after the crossover.

Biamping typically means using two amplifiers per channel so I did not know you were talking about "active" biamping. I don't think the CX-A5000 has individual analog gain volume dials. You could use the level trims (digital) but you then will be limited to the typical 0.5 dB resolution so I guess that won't work.

 

[ellisr63]

Biamping typically means using two amplifiers per channel so I did not know you were talking about "active" biamping. I don't think the CX-A5000 has individual analog gain volume dials. You could use the level trims (digital) but you then will be limited to the typical 0.5 dB resolution so I guess that won't work.

I guess I should have explained that I don't use passive crossovers...

Here is a link to the definition of Bi-amping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-amping_and_tri-amping


Quoted from the above link.
"However, the passive crossover itself is inefficient, so splitting the frequencies electronically before these are amplified is a way to avoid this problem. In such a case, an amplifier each powers a frequency range determined by an active crossover to each of the drive units. The technique is primarily used in large-scale audio applications such as sound amplification for concerts, in portable powered speakers and by hi-fi enthusiasts"

"Most audible differences are subtle. If at all noticeable, benefits of bi-amping cannot be realized if passive crossover networks of a speaker system are not removed.[1] Benefits include transients are less likely to cause amplifier overload (clipping) and/or speaker damage, and reduced intermodulation distortion, elimination of errors introduced by low frequency passive crossover, reduction of load to the load presented to the power amplifier, better matching of power amplifier and speaker driver and others.[2]"

I was hoping that the CX-5000 had internal gain controls that were accessible when bi-amping, but apparently it doesn't. Gain controls are required to match the outputs of the horns to the woofers in my setup. If I don't adjust the gains then my horns will be almost 20db louder than my bass bins.

 

[PENG]

I was hoping that the CX-5000 had internal gain controls that were accessible when bi-amping, but apparently it doesn't. Gain controls are required to match the outputs of the horns to the woofers in my setup. If I don't adjust the gains then my horns will be almost 20db louder than my bass bins.

I understand why you need it as soon as I realized you wanted to do active biamping, but the individual level adjustments should get you within 0.5 dB. That may not be good enough for you but until you try you never know. I am not aware of any prepro or even preamps that has continuously adjustable analog gain control as such. As ADTG mentioned, you can get power amps that offers such controls.

Active biamping theoretically should offer the benefits as described in the linked article but mainly on the efficiency part. In terms of discernible sound quality improvements, as long as you have more than enough power to meet the demands including peaks, the benefits of active biamping will be speaker dependent and how good your external crossover networks are. Regardless, I am very interested in the results of your active biamping experience, and I look forward to hearing back from you once you have tried it.

 

[ellisr63]

I understand why you need it as soon as I realized you wanted to do active biamping, but the individual level adjustments should get you within 0.5 dB. That may not be good enough for you but until you try you never know. I am not aware of any prepro or even preamps that has continuously adjustable analog gain control as such. As ADTG mentioned, you can get power amps that offers such controls.

Active biamping theoretically should offer the benefits as described in the linked article but mainly on the efficiency part. In terms of discernible sound quality improvements, as long as you have more than enough power to meet the demands including peaks, the benefits of active biamping will be speaker dependent and how good your external crossover networks are. Regardless, I am very interested in the results of your active biamping experience, and I look forward to hearing back from you once you have tried it.

I used to have pro amps with level adjustment, and I just purchased a MX-5000 amp. I will be getting the matching CX-A5100 preamp in a few months. I have ways to lower the level it is just better to do it with the gain controls. Currently (until the new amp arrives) we have a Lexicon NT-512 in the setup and it sounds great biamped (just running out of space in the rack so we have slowly moved from 7 amps in the rack to 2 when the new amp arrives.

 

[RichB]

Vertical, Passive bi-amping separates the amp channel driving the high-frequencies form expose to the load driving the lower frequencies. A momentary clip would be less noticable.

The Salon2 features include separating the low and high frequency crossovers boards to avoid electromagnetic interference. That may be marketing but I found that passive bi-amping was beneficial with the Salon1's.

When my Salon2's arrive, I will try passive bi-amping against single amping again.
My expectation (bias) is that I will not hear a difference.

- Rich

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Vertical, Passive bi-amping separates the amp channel driving the high-frequencies form expose to the load driving the lower frequencies. A momentary clip would be less noticable.

The Salon2 features include separating the low and high frequency crossovers boards to avoid electromagnetic interference. That may be marketing but I found that passive bi-amping was beneficial with the Salon1's.

When my Salon2's arrive, I will try passive bi-amping against single amping again.
My expectation (bias) is that I will not hear a difference.

- Rich

I am 99% sure that you will hear a difference.

 

[RichB]

I am 99% sure that you will hear a difference.

That's because you suffer from expectation bias.

- Rich

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

That's because you suffer from expectation bias.

- Rich

I'm sure I suffer from one thing or another.