Yamaha AVENTAGE 2021 AV Receivers Bulk Up on Power and 8K Features

[Replicant 7]

View attachment 51658

Yesterday I picked-up my A8A and Panasonic DP-UB9000. It was a good day.

All I had time for was to unhook my Denon AVR-4520CI and get the A8A connected to WI-FI In hopes of getting the firmware update before setting it up on Saturday. At first, there was nothing, but by the time I went to bed, it appeared and I got it done.

So, today I hooked the A8A up and repositioned all my components in my AV stand. It’s a sad day for my OPPO BD-103 now relegated to universal audio disk duty. After running YPAO everything looked good. It identified some of my speakers as large, so I changed them to small and adjusted the crossovers. I have only a 7.1 system for the time being and, after years of dealing with Denon, having to making adjustments like that are nothing new. I think YPAO has handled my sub better than my old Denon, the distance is still coming in at a bizarre number, but that’s always been the case for me regardless of which AVR I use.

So far, the sound has been good. Not hands down better than the Denon, but pleasing for day one and certainly not disappointing. I tried out a few blu-rays—boy that Panasonic puts out a nice picture—and a couple vinyls. I’m happy with it, but know I’m only just scratching the surface with all the things features. I won’t be able to try out any 4K content unit the spring when I update my projector, but so far switching between blu-ray player, Apple TV, PS4 and phono hasn’t created any issues. I know I’ve got to decode all these new features—like the Denon, there’s likely at least one that needs to be deactivated to make the A8A sound even better. I just need to drill down some to find it.

I will say that the first fight in Godzilla vs Kong at -10db was pretty damn impressive.

Lolo, ( it was a good day) Lolo, yep! You got some very nice toys.

 

[chapp]

View attachment 51658

Yesterday I picked-up my A8A and Panasonic DP-UB9000. It was a good day.

All I had time for was to unhook my Denon AVR-4520CI and get the A8A connected to WI-FI In hopes of getting the firmware update before setting it up on Saturday. At first, there was nothing, but by the time I went to bed, it appeared and I got it done.

So, today I hooked the A8A up and repositioned all my components in my AV stand. It’s a sad day for my OPPO BD-103 now relegated to universal audio disk duty. After running YPAO everything looked good. It identified some of my speakers as large, so I changed them to small and adjusted the crossovers. I have only a 7.1 system for the time being and, after years of dealing with Denon, having to making adjustments like that are nothing new. I think YPAO has handled my sub better than my old Denon, the distance is still coming in at a bizarre number, but that’s always been the case for me regardless of which AVR I use.

So far, the sound has been good. Not hands down better than the Denon, but pleasing for day one and certainly not disappointing. I tried out a few blu-rays—boy that Panasonic puts out a nice picture—and a couple vinyls. I’m happy with it, but know I’m only just scratching the surface with all the things features. I won’t be able to try out any 4K content unit the spring when I update my projector, but so far switching between blu-ray player, Apple TV, PS4 and phono hasn’t created any issues. I know I’ve got to decode all these new features—like the Denon, there’s likely at least one that needs to be deactivated to make the A8A sound even better. I just need to drill down some to find it.

I will say that the first fight in Godzilla vs Kong at -10db was pretty damn impressive.

Hey, congrats on the A8A, you'll enjoy it once you finish tweaking it. I think it sounds really good.

 

[PENG]

I am an advocate of the SPL meter and hands down testing. I am not a professional tester reviewer. Please read carefully most of my posts I had mentioned the same thing. I don't care for those Professionals with their test results. I do it just to please myself and my benefit. Sound/ Vision is totally personal and I take it seriously, because at the end of the day, I listen to it not the Pro testers. Just my 2 cents and as I said I did not mean to offend anyone. Owners of Denon 8500 or Yamaha A8A. My findings to my knowledge and testing still shows that the A8A is a lot more pleasing sound wise and power, too, in the identical setting using the identical speakers and subwoofer. All this is for an average person to setup, too. These days AVRS should be user friendly to setup and enjoy and the one setting it up is the important factor, the owner and his/her ears is the best judge.
regards.

Okay..

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

About YPAO not being perfect : stereo straight vs pure sound : Straight (with YPAO automatic equalization) sounds twice larger and way more defined than pure. Per speaker EQ is really not a gimmick. Should save my front speakers EQ, they are gold to my ears. Never realized that a room can make the sound scene smaller or not well defined.
Edit: it’s just unbelievable how it improves the sound stage. Doing back and forth it’s like I was removing my finger from my left ear. The equalization just make the sound wide. Can’t localize the speakers with YPAO EQ.

 

[chapp]

Have any of you ever listened to this? Its reference quality and sounds excellent on the Yamaha

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

View attachment 51660

Have any of you ever listened to this? Its reference quality and sounds excellent on the Yamaha

Indeed
Edit: Papa was a rolling stone

 

[JNMNL52]

@JNMNL52
Do you need an AVR today?
If yes, well, you in a sellers market. This isn't a good time to buy.
Wait.
At least until Yamaha delivers on their promise of making their steamy cr@p heap work. Frankly, I feel the same way about all the options right now.

What's your hurry?

I am really in no hurry. One option i am considering is buying a new production Denon X6700H now (which is immediately available) and see how I like it, and wait for Yamaha to improve over time. Then take another look at the A8A. I only need one HDMI 2.1 now for an XBox-X anyway and it works for me. If the A8A improves, I'll sell my X6700H on eBay and reinvest in a A8A.

 

[Falstaff]

Okay, here’s a question for you guys…

After running whatever AVR I’ve ever had, the distance for my subwoofer has always come out off. I mean really off. My last Denon would consistently put it at 50ft, and now my A8A has it at 1ft. It’s really around 10ft from the listeninto position. Should I correct it if the sound seems right to my ears? In the past I never bothered with it. Just curious.

 

[ryanosaur]

Okay, here’s a question for you guys…

After running whatever AVR I’ve ever had, the distance for my subwoofer has always come out off. I mean really off. My last Denon would consistently put it at 50ft, and now my A8A has it at 1ft. It’s really around 10ft from the listeninto position. Should I correct it if the sound seems right to my ears? In the past I never bothered with it. Just curious.

Any subwoofer amp with DSP built in will be further away in measured distance than actual distance. Distance is actual a measure of delay in the AVRs. The delay is then calculated and applied so that ideally, the impulse response of each speaker matches up with the “closest” speakers receiving the greatest delay, and the “furthest” measurement usually being the baseline.
In my experience, Audyssey has a very good track record with setting the distance/delay, as well as matching trims.

 

[JNMNL52]

Sorry to tell you, but you'll run into the same issues with Audyssey. None of these are simple setup and you will have to do some manual changes etc. to bring it to your liking. You can use the Patterns to setup for different scenarios or tryouts. With the Yamaha A8A, one press of a button can change the pattern as well as other settings that you may configure. This can be accomplished via the Web Setup program. I have done it and it is simple. I do like simple although I am a retired Engineer. Good luck.

Thanks for your response. I have no experience with Audyssey so I will take your word on it since you do. But I have come across many XT32 users who are very happy with their results. I am a relative novice in the room correction area outside of my current 4-year old Yamaha RX-A770 YPAO system which is very basic and innaccurate. I adjusted speaker distances and crossovers, but It has been total guess work to adjust various speakers levels and I never felt I got it right after 4 years. I have been all over the place. I would like a method that can accurately identify what needs to be corrected and go into the system and correct it. This is what the improved 64 bit YPAO system is supposed to do, but apparently it does not. So, how can I work around it to enjoy all that the the A8A offers? I do not want to guess by trial and error again, but would like to rely on good data. My problem is that I do not know how to obtain the proper corrections (data) independent of the YPAO. If I do not know what to correct, I cannot manually change the YPAO setting. Is there another method by which I can obtain the required corrections needed in my room? I keep reading about SPL meters. REW, miniDSP and UMIK-1 mic and I do not know how that relates to YPAO correction. Is this additional hardware/software actually required to accurately fix and adjust the new Adventage YPAO system? Has anyone cracked the code here?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Thanks for your response. I have no experience with Audyssey so I will take your word on it since you do. But I have come across many XT32 users who are very happy with their results. I am a relative novice in the room correction area outside of my current 4-year old Yamaha RX-A770 YPAO system which is very basic and innaccurate. I adjusted speaker distances and crossovers, but It has been total guess work to adjust various speakers levels and I never felt I got it right after 4 years. I have been all over the place. I would like a method that can accurately identify what needs to be corrected and go into the system and correct it. This is what the improved 64 bit YPAO system is supposed to do, but apparently it does not. So, how can I work around it to enjoy all that the the A8A offers? I do not want to guess by trial and error again, but would like to rely on good data. My problem is that I do not know how to obtain the proper corrections (data) independent of the YPAO. If I do not know what to correct, I cannot manually change the YPAO setting. Is there another method by which I can obtain the required corrections needed in my room? I keep reading about SPL meters. REW, miniDSP and UMIK-1 mic and I do not know how that relates to YPAO correction. Is this additional hardware/software actually required to accurately fix and adjust the new Adventage YPAO system? Has anyone cracked the code here?

What you’re looking for is:
REW. Freeware to measure the in room response of your system.
Umik. A calibrated microphone that is used to measure said in room response.
Minidsp: to implement EQ filters to smooth in room response.
This IS in addition to ypao and Audyssey to further do what they won’t on their own. Imo, ypao is not as effective as Audyssey, but keep in mind, neither are perfect.
There are two schools of thought.
One is, use REW/minidsp first, and Audi/ypao has less to do. Or vice versa and
Audyssey/ypao does the the heavy lifting, and then rew/minidsp finishes with light touches.

The rules are usually…
Placement and positional EQ are first.
Then room treatments, and then EQ such as Audyssey/ypao/manual EQ etc.

 

[chapp]

What you’re looking for is:
REW. Freeware to measure the in room response of your system.
Umik. A calibrated microphone that is used to measure said in room response.
Minidsp: to implement EQ filters to smooth in room response.
This IS in addition to ypao and Audyssey to further do what they won’t on their own. Imo, ypao is not as effective as Audyssey, but keep in mind, neither are perfect.
There are two schools of thought.
One is, use REW/minidsp first, and Audi/ypao has less to do. Or vice versa and
Audyssey/ypao does the the heavy lifting, and then rew/minidsp finishes with light touches.

The rules are usually…
Placement and positional EQ are first.
Then room treatments, and then EQ such as Audyssey/ypao/manual EQ etc.

That is good guidance and advice. Hat's off to you for explaining that to him so well. This is why I like simple methods first and then the more advanced ones for when one get more versed with their system. A novice can really screw up their sound by getting into stuff they are not prepared for.
regards.

 

[diablo676]

What you’re looking for is:
REW. Freeware to measure the in room response of your system.
Umik. A calibrated microphone that is used to measure said in room response.
Minidsp: to implement EQ filters to smooth in room response.
This IS in addition to ypao and Audyssey to further do what they won’t on their own. Imo, ypao is not as effective as Audyssey, but keep in mind, neither are perfect.
There are two schools of thought.
One is, use REW/minidsp first, and Audi/ypao has less to do. Or vice versa and
Audyssey/ypao does the the heavy lifting, and then rew/minidsp finishes with light touches.

The rules are usually…
Placement and positional EQ are first.
Then room treatments, and then EQ such as Audyssey/ypao/manual EQ etc.

I think that's just what the poster doesn't want. He wants a system that actually works without all the faff. If you get lucky when you run YPAO it will sound quite good. But it is unlikely to get the bass right - never has in my experience.

Now I'm just sat here in my cinema room doing a MiniDSP setup. It may take me hours or days to get right, who knows?

Now I'm old and retired. I have plenty of time to spend on faffing around with such things. But lots of people have busy lives and can't do this sort of thing - even if they wanted to in the first place.

I reckon the Yamaha chap who invented YPAO in 2003 is now in charge of their Consumer Audio division and is refusing to change anything.

 

[jakkedtide]

Straight for stereo music, Surround decoder for Atmos or Dolby Digital surround music

Do you just have apple music? I have amazon HD which has Atmos but through music cast it doesn't seem to be Atmos. Not sure if it will be an update down the road since Atmos is new to amazon music. I ordered the firestick 4k max to see if it will play Atmos music. Time will tell

 

[jakkedtide]

Try out, 2.1 for music, Net Radio, umm Find, Chill & Smooth Jazz, than click on both Enhancer and Hi-Res Mode, than go into your settings, go into PEQ, Put it on YPAO : Low Frequency. Let me know your thoughts. My A4A stays on those settings for Net Radio. I freaking love it!, By the way your A8A in two channels, puts out 260 x 2 into 4 Ohm's, beastly!!

If you put music to 2 channel stereo will that put out the most power or do you have to set up a new pattern for that to turn off all the other speakers?

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

Do you just have apple music? I have amazon HD which has Atmos but through music cast it doesn't seem to be Atmos. Not sure if it will be an update down the road since Atmos is new to amazon music. I ordered the firestick 4k max to see if it will play Atmos music. Time will tell

I don’t have Amazon HD. I was using Deezer but I currently have a try with Apple Music which provides lossless music.

 

[jakkedtide]

I don’t have Amazon HD. I was using Deezer but I currently have a try with Apple Music which provides lossless music.

I love Amazon music and the price is great for ultra hd quality. Up to 24 bit. I don't have much time to play around with things. Wish I did. But it would be cool to know if some people have compared music HD services

 

[Replicant 7]

If you put music to 2 channel stereo will that put out the most power or do you have to set up a new pattern for that to turn off all the other speakers?

Yes, you'll get the most power that the amp can provide for 2 channel stereo. All you gotta do is on your remote, is go through Program till you see 2ch stereo. Than apply what ever you like set to on or off. I use enhancer set to on, Hi-Res mode on. Than I use Low Frequency in PEQ settings. Than depending on the source, I'll have YPAO Volume set to on, Adaptive DRC set to off, that's (DRC) mostly for night use for people who have family sleeping but that isn't a issue for me I personally just don't like that setting. I use those settings for 2.1 music only and like I said mostly when streaming Net Radio. I have used those settings when playing CD's some benefit from it some don't. It helps with older CDs, some newer CD's just have to much going on already and those settings can make some CDs sound like over mixed kinda thing. I use those settings when spinning Vinyl, like it a lot when using that source.

 

[VASKION]

The distance that the AVR measures with the speaker is acoustic distance depending on the room the actual speakers are located and not the physical distance (how far the tape measure shows).

To all that are trying to correct their rooms through YPAO, REW and other stuff have you check this guy's post here?

Simple Home Cinema - Bringing Your Entertainment to Life

Good sound is dependent just as much on doing the setup correctly, than it is on buying great gear. In this guide, I show you how to get the very best out of your Yamaha Receiver by configuring YPA…

simplehomecinema.com

He has a very nice manual on YPAO (YPAO – The Lost Manual!). He claims that YPAO with a cheap USB sound card and a laptop/PC running REW software is sufficient to make your room corrections.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

I have a question about stereo listening. Straight or 2CH Stereo? Extra bass or not ?
Until now I use straight with extra bass (front speakers set to large and I don’t have any subwoofer). But with a sub I wonder if I should go for 2CH stereo to get some LFE output). On older Yamaha amps it seems 2CH Stereo doesn’t output through LFE so I wonder if with a 2CH input Straight and 2CH are the same.