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

[admin]

AV receivers are constantly changing, constantly leap-frogging one another in features and capabilities. This year Yamaha announced its Aventage (RX-A) line and, in the process, jumped over a lot of the competition. And not a little jump, more like an Olympic gold medal long jump. Much of that jump is simply in the way of value – we mean the Aventage line in general has build quality and features that seem like it should cost a lot more than it does. The RX-A3000 takes that to the 'nth' degree. There are five receivers in the Aventage lineup and the RX-A3000 is the flagship. This 11.2 channel (140wpc x 7) A/V behemoth has endless configuration options, including dual independent subwoofer outputs, full power amp assignability, simultaneous usage of front effect and back channels, full 3D support, and HDMI Standby with switchable inputs even when the receiver is powered down. If you’re ready for the future, the RX-A3000 is ready to serve you in every capacity. It has proven itself to be a worthy and most importantly less costly successor to the venerable RX-Z7.

Discuss "Yamaha RX-A3000 Aventage 11.2 Networking A/V Receiver Review" here. Read the article.

 

[3db]

First of let me say...Dam I hate you guys!! Thank you for the very thorough review. It took me 5 minutes to skim through all of your tests and it will take me a good hour to really understand what your test results have shown.

From your power tests, it looks like this receiver would be easily capable of handling any speaker syste thrown at it. This receiver is the very arguement why one doesn't need seperates anymore.

Now the reason I hate you guys is that you would have to show the set-up GUI of this receiver. Although I'm quite happy with the performance of my older RX-V1800, I really want this new receiver for the new set-up GUI and the multipoint YPAO. I WANT ONE!!

It really is nice to see Yamaha finally bring back products that are serious contendors to the likes of Denon and Onkyo.

Thnaks again for the great review.

 

[templemaners]

Now we just need reviews of the Denon AVR-4311 and Onkyo TX-NR3008...

$2000 receiver shootout?

 

[digitaldad]

It has proven itself to be a worthy and most importantly less costly successor to the venerable RX-Z7.

I see the warranty period is 3 years. Let's hope this line doesn't suffer the failures the Z7's are having.

 

[gene]

I see the warranty period is 3 years. Let's hope this line doesn't suffer the failures the Z7's are having.

I haven't heard of any failures for the Z7 and I've been using one which works flawlessly since I did the original review. They fixed the processing bug I discovered shortly after I published my review but as far as I know there have not been any hardware issues.

 

[digitaldad]

I haven't heard of any failures for the Z7 and I've been using one which works flawlessly since I did the original review. They fixed the processing bug I discovered shortly after I published my review but as far as I know there have not been any hardware issues.

Check out the thread "Help-Yamaha RX-Z7"

 

[RTPBob]

Magnepan Speakers..?

Clint/Gene, I've been planning on replacing my Sony DA5ES (yes I know it's old, but I've never had a problem with it) with a new receiver to drive my 5.1 MMG-W (5 Ohm) system. The RX-A3000 or A2000 looks like a good option. Also considering the Pioneer Elite SC-37 (ICE Amps).

Do you see any problems with the Aventage driving my 5-Ohm system?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[GlocksRock]

The only thing I would change about that reciever, besides the remote is to get rid of the proprietary surround processing and use Dolby's Proligic IIz instead. Other than that it seems to be a real winner. And I too favor their orange display over their current color scheme.

 

[3db]

The only thing I would change about that reciever, besides the remote is to get rid of the proprietary surround processing and use Dolby's Proligic IIz instead. Other than that it seems to be a real winner. And I too favor their orange display over their current color scheme.

Bring back the "ORANGE"

 

[Jeepers]

Do you see any problems with the Aventage driving my 5-Ohm system?

Thanks,
Bob

"The Yamaha RX-A3000 was defaulted to high impedance mode (8 ohms or more) which is the setting we recommend using regardless of your loudspeakers impedance rating if you are concerned about achieving maximum output power and performance from this unit."

The last pages (measurements) indicate the A3000 is quite capable driving 4 or 5-Ohm speakers.

 

[gene]

Vote in our Yamaha Display Poll

Yamaha ditching the orange frontpanel display in their A/V receivers really irks me a bit. How do you feel about it? Please vote in our poll:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70628

 

[jliedeka]

Great review. I'm not in the market so I just read the intro and skipped to the measurements. Looks impressive and you do a pretty thorough job. If you ever get the yen to spend more money on test equipment, I'd love to see you do power cube measurements. I haven't seen anyone publish them since the Audio Critic stopped posting.

Jim

 

[kriktsemaj99]

The Yamaha front panel display has annoyed me ever since they stopped showing the volume in a decent size that you could read from across the room. But I'm over that now that I use a two-way remote and can see all the info I want in my hand, so the new front panel doesn't really bother me.

But what does bother me is that giant ugly on-screen volume display that pops up every time you make a change, and that cannot be turned off. For some reason they took away the option to disable it (it was there on the Z7 and 3900). In a dedicated theatre setup I just can't have that thing distracting everyone in the room if I decide to tweak the volume during a movie. When they fix that I might buy one.

Apart from that detail, the A3000 looks great. It also comes with a new simpler network control protocol that's much easier to use with third party remotes.

 

[Bass Bum]

I have always been a big fan of Yamaha AVRs. I am in the market for two new ones next April/May time frame. I know which two will be at the top of my list. Nice review. Thanks!

 

[KEW]

Impressively thorough review.
Like others, I'll have to come back when I have adequate time to fully absorb it!

Scanning through it, there were two things that came to mind.
1) The following quote is from the power analysis section:

You can see the protection circuit kick on during our ACD tests, purposely limiting power to 65wpc. In short time, there is no doubt in my mind forum lurkers seeing this will pop up on our site or AVS Forum bashing Yamaha, not realizing the design purpose of power limiting a multi channel amplifier in a compact chassis, or the reality that real world program material will never trip this limiter circuitry.

Is there someplace where this has been discussed in more detail? More specifically, to use the comparison with the UPA-7, it stands out that the UPA-7 does not have such protection circuitry. Should it? You mention "compact chassis", and I suppose with the added electronics of the processing, the Yamaha is effectively a good bit more compact than the UPA. Is it a simple matter of preempting a situation which would lead to overheating, or more complicated than that?

2) I was hoping to see a "gutz" photo, or read a bit about the amplifier design/components to see how they managed to get so much power into such a small form factor at such a low weight (the UPA-7 at 66 lb and Yamaha at 37.5 lb). Do you know what class of amplification is used?
With the comprehensive treatment you gave for this review, I feel a bit reluctant to ask for more information, but how does Yamaha get so much power out of so little weight and size? Are they using some variant of Class D amplification? Is this common in new receivers?

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[gene]

Is there someplace where this has been discussed in more detail? More specifically, to use the comparison with the UPA-7, it stands out that the UPA-7 does not have such protection circuitry. Should it? You mention "compact chassis", and I suppose with the added electronics of the processing, the Yamaha is effectively a good bit more compact than the UPA. Is it a simple matter of preempting a situation which would lead to overheating, or more complicated than that?

2) I was hoping to see a "gutz" photo, or read a bit about the amplifier design/components to see how they managed to get so much power into such a small form factor at such a low weight (the UPA-7 at 66 lb and Yamaha at 37.5 lb). Do you know what class of amplification is used?
With the comprehensive treatment you gave for this review, I feel a bit reluctant to ask for more information, but how does Yamaha get so much power out of so little weight and size? Are they using some variant of Class D amplification? Is this common in new receivers?

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. The amp topology is Class ab just like all prior Yamaha receivers have been. All of this makes it possible for the unit to deliver high continuous power with 2 channels driven and high dynamic power with all channels driven. The Emotiva has the advantage of larger heat sink area to dissipate more heat and an even larger power supply to source more current with multiple channels driven. Yamaha has more regulatory stamps such as CSA which is very stringent on heat dissipation hence why it has the impedance switch and lots of overheat/overdrive protection to ensure you can literally submerge it in a swimming pool plugged in without harming any small children.

 

[Raudi]

Connectivity?

Very good report. However, I miss a summarized comparison, is it "The best ever" Yamaha for audiophiles?

I am considering a successor for my RX-V 4600 from 2005 with i-link. Yamaha has finally launched its new multiformat player BD-A 1000 for SACD with DSD-signal via HDMI. Unfortunately with a new design with more plastics and white letters in the display. So desgin-wise the choice is for the RX-A3000.

But the disadvantage is that Yamaha dropped with the RX-A3000 the outputs/inputs for recording devices to only one analog and one optical output. But I have two DAT-recorders both with analog and digital outputs and inputs. Furthermore I have connected an open reel tape recorder. How to connect these to the RX-A3000? Using y-cable adapters?

Or is it better for me to choose the Z7 or RX-V 3900? Is the technical progress and the improved sound quality the beating argument for the RX-A3000?

Thank you for any suggestions.

Raudio

 

[iraweiss]

I have an old Radio Shack tape input/output switch that should allow me to send one output to two or three recording devices.

 

[iraweiss]

Gene, you noted:

Yamaha still allows you to the center and surround channels to "large" even if you select "small" for the main channels. I would have preferred Yamaha to automatically set all speakers to "small" if the mains were set "small". Pay extra attention when manually configuring speaker size groups or use one of their presets that sets all speakers to "small".


My main channels are Def Tech 2004 TL's with a CLR-2300 center and BP 2x surrounds and BP1.2X rears. The surrounds and rears also utilize Outlaw LFM 2 subwoofers (one for the right side of the room and one for the left side). Will the bass management allow me to use the subwoofer outputs for the 2004's and set the set the center and surrounds to large?

 

[gene]

My main channels are Def Tech 2004 TL's with a CLR-2300 center and BP 2x surrounds and BP1.2X rears. The surrounds and rears also utilize Outlaw LFM 2 subwoofers (one for the right side of the room and one for the left side). Will the bass management allow me to use the subwoofer outputs for the 2004's and set the set the center and surrounds to large?

Yes but if I were you, I would run all subs via the dual subouts in mono crossed over at 80Hz.

Read: Calibration & Setup Techniques for Multi Subwoofer System