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

[Pogre]

To add, in my experience the gain knobs on most subwoofers are pretty sensitive and it doesn't take much to turn them up or down so do small adjustments until you get it where you want.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

God how glad I am to have joined this forum. The amount of information and tricks you have to know to properly setup you system makes this hobby interesting. But it also demonstrates how far we still are from a kind of plug and play consumer YPAO/Dirac/Audissey autocalibration. You need to understand a little bit acoustic, to think about your subwoofer phase, to think that when your signal is boosted (positive dB level on channels) the gain can introduce distortion, etc...

Would love to tweak my system right now but my daughters are sleeping and I assume they would not be happy to be woke up by "Bwaaaouuup" loud sounds from calibration

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I’ve said this before, which reiterates what most members have been saying for many years - YPAO is absolutely NOT Yamaha’s strong suit.

IOW, most people usually don’t buy Yamaha because of YPAO.

If Auto Room Correction is THAT important to you, it’s probably better to get something with Audyssey XT32 or Dirac.

In addition, currently measurement (ASR, RX-A6A THD+N 0.0275% or round up to 0.03%) isn’t their strong suit either. As have been mentioned many times - these measurements are absolutely inaudible. But we can all SEE these measurements.

If measurement is THAT important to you, it’s probably better to get something like a Denon X8500HA with THD+N of 0.0007% or X3700H with THD+N of 0.001%. Probably not any $20K - $30K processors with Dirac or Trinnov can beat the 0.0007% THD+N.

But if all you want is great sound without YPAO, 5YR warranty, probably better reliability (I don’t know if any can actually prove reliability) and probably better customer support (some have disagreed), then the new Yamaha Avantage AVR may be for you.

 

[Pogre]

I’ve said this before, which reiterates what most members have been saying for many years - YPAO is absolutely NOT Yamaha’s strong suit.

IOW, most people usually don’t buy Yamaha because of YPAO.

If Auto Room Correction is THAT important to you, it’s probably better to get something with Audyssey XT32 or Dirac.

In addition, currently measurement (like THD+N below 0.008%) isn’t their strong suit either. As have been mentioned many times - these measurements are absolutely inaudible. But we can all SEE these measurements.

If measurement is THAT important to you, it’s probably better to get something like a Denon X8500HA with THD+N of 0.0007% or X3700H with THD+N of 0.001%. Probably not any $20K - $30K processors with Dirac or Trinnov can beat the 0.0007% THD+N.

But if all you want is great sound without YPAO, 5YR warranty, probably better reliability (I don’t know if any can actually prove reliability) and probably better customer support (some have disagreed), then the new Yamaha Avantage AVR may be for you.

It really gets into a ymmv situation. I personally felt that YPAO, while maybe not as effective as Audyssey, still improved things in my room. I think it's worth at least experimenting with and if you don't care for what it does you can always turn it off.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It really gets into a ymmv situation. I personally felt that YPAO, while maybe not as effective as Audyssey, still improved things in my room. I think it's worth at least experimenting with and if you don't care for what it does you can always turn it off.

Absolutely yes. Never hurts to try everything. But don’t have great expectations. It may be good for some and not for others.

But definitely never hurts to try and see if you like it.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

I had a look to the Denon X8500HA because my previous amp was a Denon AVC-A1D but here it's 6000 CAD when I got the RX-A8A for 3850 CAD so while I can understand that the small THD+N difference matters to expert, in my case it's not worth the 55% cost increase.

I also still have high hope of a good hdmi 2.1 seven inputs support... some day.

 

[Pogre]

Absolutely yes. Never hurts to try everything. But don’t have great expectations. It may be good for some and not for others.

But definitely never hurts to try and see if you like it.

Is there a way to limit YPAO to just focusing on sub levels? Like say below the Schroeder frequency? Bass is usually what needs the most work when it comes to straightening out the frequency response.

 

[Pogre]

I had a look to the Denon X8500HA because my previous amp was a Denon AVC-A1D but here it's 6000 CAD when I got the RX-A8A for 3850 CAD so while I can understand that the small THD+N difference matters to expert, in my case it's not worth the 55% cost increase.

I also still have high hope of a good hdmi 2.1 seven inputs support... some day.

The 8500 is a great unit, but for the money I think the 3700 will do everything you need. Above that it's just a touch more power and a couple more bells and whistles.

 

[Mark E. Long]

I’ve found that YPAO gets speaker distance incredibly close on my rig and the levels too . But I’ve also found the auto peq can get a little strange tho if your not doing the 8 point with angle measurements I highly encourage everyone to do that for good results.
A lot of the auto settings that it sets in sound field’s can be way over blown with delays and dsp levels in there respective sound fields turn them down and dial them in for your particular room it can be interesting to here what each individual setting can do and hearing these as you go up or down in the levels can give you a better understanding of what these do to your listening environment on the other hand some should never be turned on . Most of the time I use just Standard or Spectical . Music video is good for concerts if you go in the menu and tweak the settings and you can always reset what you’ve changed if your results are not to your liking .

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

The 8500 is a great unit, but for the money I think the 3700 will do everything you need. Above that it's just a touch more power and a couple more bells and whistles.

The 3700 is only a 9ch amp... I am using the A8A 11 channels.

 

[Pogre]

The 3700 is only a 9ch amp... I am using the A8A 11 channels.

Ah, gotcha. The 3700 will process 11 channels, but you do need a separate 2 channel amp to power them all so that would factor into the cost. However, depending on what you get for external amplification you can still save a few bucks. For instance you wouldn't need a big powerful amp to power atmos or surround speakers, but you can assign it to power your mains if you want. In that case I would (and did) get a bigger amp.

 

[Pogre]

Hey just for the record I don't mean to be shilling for Denon in a Yamaha thread, lol. I'm only trying to offer suggestions to help with dialing in a subwoofer and Denon/Marantz's Audyssey UI is what I'm familiar with. It's been a long time since I've had a Yamaha, but the one I had lasted for a decade and still works to this day. They make really good gear that's built to last.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

Your speakers will be what they will be. How you get your sub in line is with the gain (volume) on the back of your sub. If your trim levels are at -10 right now then you're likely running hot. A lot of the time they instruct you to start with your gain at 50% (12 o'clock) but I find that's even too much. The gains on my subs are at about 9 o'clock.

This makes me happy

 

[Pogre]

This makes me happy
View attachment 51840

That's a solid looking center channel you have. That design is about as good as it gets for a center.

 

[Replicant 7]

God how glad I am to have joined this forum. The amount of information and tricks you have to know to properly setup you system makes this hobby interesting. But it also demonstrates how far we still are from a kind of plug and play consumer YPAO/Dirac/Audissey autocalibration. You need to understand a little bit acoustic, to think about your subwoofer phase, to think that when your signal is boosted (positive dB level on channels) the gain can introduce distortion, etc...

Would love to tweak my system right now but my daughters are sleeping and I assume they would not be happy to be woke up by "Bwaaaouuup" loud sounds from calibration

Well said, AH has some of the best articles on the web for info setting up a AVR properly. Here's the thing about one AVR say sounding better than another, I personally don't buy into that. I've posted this up many times as many other members have also. You set up everything equal in a controlled room put Denon, Marantz, Yamaha side by side same speakers anyone would be hard pressed to tell which one is playing.

 

[Pogre]

Well said, AH has some of the best articles on the web for info setting up a AVR properly. Here's the thing about one AVR say sounding better than another, I personally don't buy into that. I've posted this up many times as many other members have also. You set up everything equal in a controlled room put Denon, Marantz, Yamaha side by side same speakers anyone would be hard pressed to tell which one is playing.

Yup. I agree. It really comes down to features and reliability. I think it could be argued that Yamaha edges out most others for reliability but that's debatable. In my experience they're all on pretty equal ground there too.

 

[Replicant 7]

I’ve said this before, which reiterates what most members have been saying for many years - YPAO is absolutely NOT Yamaha’s strong suit.

IOW, most people usually don’t buy Yamaha because of YPAO.

If Auto Room Correction is THAT important to you, it’s probably better to get something with Audyssey XT32 or Dirac.

In addition, currently measurement (like THD+N below 0.008%) isn’t their strong suit either. As have been mentioned many times - these measurements are absolutely inaudible. But we can all SEE these measurements.

If measurement is THAT important to you, it’s probably better to get something like a Denon X8500HA with THD+N of 0.0007% or X3700H with THD+N of 0.001%. Probably not any $20K - $30K processors with Dirac or Trinnov can beat the 0.0007% THD+N.

But if all you want is great sound without YPAO, 5YR warranty, probably better reliability (I don’t know if any can actually prove reliability) and probably better customer support (some have disagreed), then the new Yamaha Avantage AVR may be for you.

Or, find you're self a good dealer, who can get you great audio gear that smashes high prices!

 

[Pogre]

This makes me happy
View attachment 51840

OH! And I just noticed your sub trim levels are -7 now! Perfect!

 

[Mark E. Long]

OH! And I just noticed your sub trim levels are -7 now! Perfect!

But noticed the surrounds are jacked way up would like to see there placement in his room . I didn’t see what he’s useing for those or there locations .

 

[Pogre]

But noticed the surrounds are jacked way up would like to see there placement in his room . I didn’t see what he’s useing for those or there locations .

They might just not be as sensitive as the main speakers. Did op give us a speaker list? If so I missed it and really don't wanna dig back through 20 pages to find it... lol.

Also @OldAndSlowDev, did you manually adjust your mains so they're at 0.0? I would leave them wherever YPAO had them. The idea is to have them all playing the same volume at mlp and room interactions and positioning can result in some differences.