Yamaha RX-A3070 vs RX-Z9 did I make a mistake ?

[JOHN FICKEL]

Lossless is WAY better than DD 5.1 which almost always sounds intolerable for music. DTS is close to lossless but you owe it to yourself to get some,high res multi-ch Blu-rays from Pure Audio and others. Lossless audio rocks.

The RX-a3070 amp section isn't as robust as the Z9 which may or may not matter depending on your speakers.

When i Stream Pandora premium through music cast it says mp3 44.1khz. What does that mean? If I do it through airplay from Pandora it just says digital

 

[snakeeyes]

So I somewhat understand what you are going through as we all update gear to support HDMI new standards and Atmos. I replaced my trusty RXV3300 with a RXA2060 at Christmas and I definitely believe the class D amp section is a little weaker than the class A/B old amp even though specs say 10w higher not lower. I do plan to add an external amp for the front 3 channels when I add the 4 ceiling speakers and go from 5.1 to 5.1.4.
Also like in one of the other threads recently on old vs new Yamaha,the natural setting in the menu brings back the classic bright sound we had on the older yamahas. And if you watch Genes video review recently on the 5100 you might find new settings you didn’t know about yet that might help as well.
At the end of the day if your Z9 works better for you, just keep using it and run it until the wheels fall off!

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

I like the 3070. I have a McIntosh MC-252 on my RF-7iis. What I found is I now do manual equalization... specially now that I can also EQ separate subwoofer bands. Could not do that with my other receiver manually .

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

What I’m really interested in now is why when I stream Pandora premium through music cast Which is 192Kbps. My music cast app Reads mp3 44.1. ? So did the receiver convert 192Kbps to 44.1 kHz ? Now if I don’t use music cast and just stream through Pandora directly through their app , it now it just reads digital ? What would be better ? so basically the Pandora app is streaming via airplay

 

[PENG]

I replaced my trusty RXV3300 with a RXA2060 at Christmas and I definitely believe the class D amp section is a little weaker than the class A/B old amp even though specs say 10w higher not lower.

Don't be so sure. Older may not be better!! As far as I know the RX-A series are still based on class AB amps. The RX-A2060 weighs 37.5 lbs, maximum power consumption 1210 watts, that's typical of class AB, not D.

Also, if the RX-A2050 that has almost identical specs (output, consumption, and weight) as the 2060, was benched tested by S&V with respectable power output specs up to 5 channel driven.

Two channels driven:
177.6/200 watts @0.1%/1% THD 8 ohm loads
251/314.7 watts @0.1%/1% THD 4 ohm loads

Five channel driven:
101.4/111.9 watts @0.1/1% THD 8 ohm loads

The two channel driven outputs are comparable to that of the RX-Z9, better (more power output) than the much older RX-V3900, so by extension, most likely better than the RX-V3300.

 

[snakeeyes]

The 2060 is a wonderful receiver. There are great deals on it and with the code update it is very close to a 2070. As I nitpick, I am just starting to justify my future purchase of an amp and 4 ceiling speakers. I noticed some have used the $600 Outlaw 5000 for the 5 bed channels and the internal amp section on the 2060 to power the 4 ceiling speakers. So my guess is as you go beyond 5 ch driven to 9 ch, the power dips well under 100w/ch 8ohm if you rely on internal only amps in the 2060.
For what it’s worth, the old 2003 RXV3300 is 48.5 lbs in comparison to the 37.5 lbs of the RXA2060. They are both beefy though. I hope I can get 15 years of service out of the 2060 too!

 

[lovinthehd]

What I’m really interested in now is why when I stream Pandora premium through music cast Which is 192Kbps. My music cast app Reads mp3 44.1. ? So did the receiver convert 192Kbps to 44.1 kHz ? Now if I don’t use music cast and just stream through Pandora directly through their app , it now it just reads digital ? What would be better ? so basically the Pandora app is streaming via airplay

As we talked about yesterday, kbps is the bit rate, 44.1kHz is the sampling rate....different things. I think you're still getting the better bitrate by streaming it from another app outside of your avr. I looked for the Pandora breakdown of bitrate for various devices, they seemed to have moved or removed it, couldn't find it....

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

When I stream right from the Pandora app then if I go back to music cast now it says just digital , So if I just stream to the Pandora app my signal just says digital when I stream from the music cast app and then select Pandora then it says 44.1 kHz. So what does digital quality mean ?

 

[lovinthehd]

44.1 kHz is also a reference to digital. They are simply obscuring the bitrate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(signal_processing)#Sampling_rate

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

I have decided to go back to my RX-Z9 !! I have decided to not use the RX-A3070.... I’m extremely disappointed in the build quality in all these new units , and all these new formats are just a money making schemes. Core DTS is better in my opinion. It seems once you turn off ( YPAO volume )and all these enhancing features it just sounds lifeless

 

[-Jim-]

Wow, you've been on a long journey. But it certainly wise to return the RX-A3070 before it's too late. But I'm glad you finally got to hear Lossless Codecs and can appreciate the difference. It's just too bad the RX-Z9 can't handle HDMI.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Not even a big deal that the Z9 does not use HDMI, I even noticed running HDMI right to the television the picture quality to me seemed better.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

I even had all speakers calibrated to 82 DB and subs too 83-86db. Again turn off YPAO volume and any enhancements and sounds like poop !! Hooked up the Z9 with all of the same parameters no equalization and calibrated the same sound pressure levels and sounded amazing

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

And lastly the dynamic range on both Yamaha‘s was set to max

 

[Andrein]

What is wrong

I have decided to go back to my RX-Z9 !! I have decided to not use the RX-A3070.... I’m extremely disappointed in the build quality in all these new units , and all these new formats are just a money making schemes. Core DTS is better in my opinion. It seems once you turn off ( YPAO volume )and all these enhancing features it just sounds lifeless

What is wrong with 3070 build quality? Personally, have not found any between a860 and a1070.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

I’m just use to the DSP-A1, RX-V1 and now for a while RX-Z9. The lossless formats do absolutely nothing for me. I guess you don’t get too much for two grand nowadays

 

[snakeeyes]

I’m just use to the DSP-A1, RX-V1 and now for a while RX-Z9. The lossless formats do absolutely nothing for me. I guess you don’t get too much for two grand nowadays

Hmm I would have definitely tried 3060 at discount instead of forking over 2G on 3070.
I will say I dearly loved my 2003 RXV3300 but moved on to the 2060 in October. It definitely was heavier at 48.5 lbs but the sound seemed similar to my 2060 to me at least.
I would bet the Z9 would be more similar to the 5100 than a 3070 though. The Z9 is a beast!

 

[snakeeyes]

Hmm I would have definitely tried 3060 at discount instead of forking over 2G on 3070.
I will say I dearly loved my 2003 RXV3300 but moved on to the 2060 in October. It definitely was heavier at 48.5 lbs but the sound seemed similar to my 2060 to me at least.
I would bet the Z9 would be more similar to the 5100 than a 3070 though. The Z9 is a beast!

Also like to add that Dolby TrueHD is more common now and you won’t see DTS on every disc anymore.

 

[JOHN FICKEL]

Yea I love the Z9. Every movie I have bought is in DTS

 

[snakeeyes]

Yea I love the Z9. Every movie I have bought is in DTS

Well Dolby TrueHD will be exclusive on many UHD HDR discs. Not sure how many regular Blu-ray Discs are exclusive. Dolby TrueHD sounds a lot like DTS, in my opinion.