Just bought new AVR!!

[timoteo]

So i went downt to my local high end stereo shop today. (Audio/Video Today) I have been wanting to listen to the new Denon A100 connected to the same B&W 683 towers that i have. I sit down & pop in a few cds that i brought & gave them a spin. The sound was in my opinion identical to my current Denon AVR889. I have always enjoyed the sound but felt it wasnt "open enough."

I have to admit i was a little disappointed because i expected an AVR of this price to have an improved sound from my lower model. Then i had them turn on the Yamaha RZ-A3000. Still hooked up to the 683s. I was totally blown away by the immediate improvement in sound that the Yamaha had. I asked if both recievers were calibrated for the room & the salesman informed me yes. I tried a few more cds & even a bluray. Then i had him go back to the Denon A100 (Anniversary Edition = 4311) & yep the difference was apparent. To my suprise i loved the Yamaha over the Denon. I had always been a fan of Denon & still am but paired with B&Ws "laid back" sound the Denon is just too warm. Combined, i feel they produce a muffled feel. However Yamahas "brighter" sound really opened up the B&Ws.

I went home to think about what i had just experienced. I couldnt help but think about how much better the 683s had sounded. Then i remembered my neighbor had mentioned to me that if i ever wanted to sell my Denon to let him know. So i went over & told him i was considering selling my 889 & would sell it to him & hook it all up including calibration for $500. To my suprise he said "YES lets do it!"

With that confirmed, i drove right back to A/V-Today. (After doing some comparisons to the Yamaha RX-A2000) I am happy to say that i am now the proud owner of a Yamaha RX-A2000!!

I just finished hooking her up & running a quick round of YPAO. Its late & the wifey is tired so i havent really gotten too deep into the tweaks or being able to really crank up some blurays. But even some cds ive put in sound really great now. So far so good!!! I got it for $1200.00 so after i get the $500 from my Denon id have pocketed $700. Not too bad in my eyes.

This is my first Yamaha so if there are any of you that own them, i am all ears for recommendations on the settings or just any suggestions. I"ll stop now...just pretty stoked because i felt my AVR was the weak link now is up to par with the rest of my equipment. A good feeling!!!

 

[GranteedEV]

You should have just bought an XPA-5. Yamahas are neither bright nor are Denons warm. One may have had a less adequate amplifier however.

 

[3db]

So i went downt to my local high end stereo shop today. (Audio/Video Today) I have been wanting to listen to the new Denon A100 connected to the same B&W 683 towers that i have. I sit down & pop in a few cds that i brought & gave them a spin. The sound was in my opinion identical to my current Denon AVR889. I have always enjoyed the sound but felt it wasnt "open enough."

I have to admit i was a little disappointed because i expected an AVR of this price to have an improved sound from my lower model. Then i had them turn on the Yamaha RZ-A3000. Still hooked up to the 683s. I was totally blown away by the immediate improvement in sound that the Yamaha had. I asked if both recievers were calibrated for the room & the salesman informed me yes. I tried a few more cds & even a bluray. Then i had him go back to the Denon A100 (Anniversary Edition = 4311) & yep the difference was apparent. To my suprise i loved the Yamaha over the Denon. I had always been a fan of Denon & still am but paired with B&Ws "laid back" sound the Denon is just too warm. Combined, i feel they produce a muffled feel. However Yamahas "brighter" sound really opened up the B&Ws.

I went home to think about what i had just experienced. I couldnt help but think about how much better the 683s had sounded. Then i remembered my neighbor had mentioned to me that if i ever wanted to sell my Denon to let him know. So i went over & told him i was considering selling my 889 & would sell it to him & hook it all up including calibration for $500. To my suprise he said "YES lets do it!"

With that confirmed, i drove right back to A/V-Today. (After doing some comparisons to the Yamaha RX-A2000) I am happy to say that i am now the proud owner of a Yamaha RX-A2000!!

I just finished hooking her up & running a quick round of YPAO. Its late & the wifey is tired so i havent really gotten too deep into the tweaks or being able to really crank up some blurays. But even some cds ive put in sound really great now. So far so good!!! I got it for $1200.00 so after i get the $500 from my Denon id have pocketed $700. Not too bad in my eyes.

This is my first Yamaha so if there are any of you that own them, i am all ears for recommendations on the settings or just any suggestions. I"ll stop now...just pretty stoked because i felt my AVR was the weak link now is up to par with the rest of my equipment. A good feeling!!!

Congrats on the new Yammy. I'm a big fan of Yamaha too owning an older but very capable RX-V1800. My unit has the older YPAO which is capable of only calibrating for a single listener spot. Your model's YPAO is equipped with multi listener positions. Run the YPAO and see what it comes up with for speaker sizes and distance. I manually set my towers to small and had YPAO omit the speaker size test. They would have passed for large as my speakers are capable of prodicing bass into the mid 30s. I also ran it thru two equalization settings; flat and natural and saved these settings to memor yo so I could toggle back and forth between them just to see if I could hear any difference.

 

[Kitsum]

High End Stereo shop eh? My high end salesman used to connect caps and coils on receivers and amps to make them sound different and sell the ones HE wanted. Until i look in the back and saw the truth ...

 

[timoteo]

I always wanted to ad an XPA-5 or XPA-3 to the Denon 889 i had, but it didnt have pre-outs so that was not an option. But now that i have pre-outs you better believe im gonna add some more power down the line!

The dealer i got it from was actually leaning towards the Denon A100 or 4311 for me. They would have made more money had i gone with the Denon over the Yamaha. Plus i saw all the wiring at the back of the recievers because i was messing with the REL sub they had next to them. No gimicks at this place, they're cool guys.

As far as the amps being better on one over the other its hard to believe. The Denon A100 i think is rated at 10 more watts per channel & costs $1000 more. I assume that the amps between that & the Yamaha RX-A2000 would be considered pretty equal if not leaning toward the Denon.

I know most dont like to say the words "bright" or "warm" however that is the best way for me to describe what i heard. From my experience those terms still apply to AVRs. They each have a signature sound. Ears dont lie & all i know is the Yamaha made my system more detailed & dynamic. Its just a better reciever than my previous one!

 

[3db]

I know most dont like to say the words "bright" or "warm" however that is the best way for me to describe what i heard. From my experience those terms still apply to AVRs. They each have a signature sound. Ears dont lie & all i know is the Yamaha made my system more detailed & dynamic. Its just a better reciever than my previous one!

The only time your bias may apply is when you are at the operating limits of a receiver. Other than that, its just subjective speculation. I say this because "sounding bright" and "sonic signature" implies that the frequency response has emphasis on some frequencies or demphasis on other frequencies depending on which way one looks at it. However, if you look at the frequency responses, all receivers have a flat response (with in .5 db which is inaudable) well beyond the audio range. Since the receivers response is flat, its impossible to imply a sonic signature of any kind while its operating well within the unit's limits. Cheers.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

...I have to admit i was a little disappointed because i expected an AVR of this price to have an improved sound from my lower model...


...I asked if both recievers were calibrated for the room & the salesman informed me yes...

The problem may be the CALIBRATION part.

If both AVRs were in Direct or Pure Direct mode, they would have sounded identical since they were hooked to the same speakers.

 

[anamorphic96]

I tend to agree with the above. If both units where not running in a pure direct mode then they very well could have sounded different.

 

[3db]

I tend to agree with the above. If both units where not running in a pure direct mode then they very well could have sounded different.

I implied that...I should have mentioned that.

 

[timoteo]

3Db i feel that you are correct on your comment about me hearing a diff depending on the limits of said AVRs. It made me think of what exactly i was hearing.

Again i want to make it clear that i still love Denon however it may come down to the fact that i believe i enjoy what YPAO does to the signal over what Auddessey does to it, in respect to the processing.

In pure direct mode however i still liked the Yammy better. Now whether that is because i was already leaning towards it or not i cant say. I may have "convinced" myself of this conclusion. This is where audio gets into a grey area & i understand that. Since it took more that 3-5 seconds to switch back&forth between the 2, it can be hard to determine a difference when the difference is so small if at all.
Either way i am loving this A2000 more each day as i continue to dive into all its goodness. I love tweaking as much as possible to sqeeze every last drop out of my equipment & i am just starting to sqeeze this one...haha!

SIDENote: I can really hear a difference with my 2 subs blending well with the speakers. I had them daisy chained together before but now that the system recognizes them individually & adjusts accordingly they arent at all boomy & even at lower volumes they fill in nice & punch when called upon. Great job YPAO!...

 

[LAB3]

So i went downt to my local high end stereo shop today. (Audio/Video Today) I have been wanting to listen to the new Denon A100 connected to the same B&W 683 towers that i have. I sit down & pop in a few cds that i brought & gave them a spin. The sound was in my opinion identical to my current Denon AVR889. I have always enjoyed the sound but felt it wasnt "open enough."

I have to admit i was a little disappointed because i expected an AVR of this price to have an improved sound from my lower model. Then i had them turn on the Yamaha RZ-A3000. Still hooked up to the 683s. I was totally blown away by the immediate improvement in sound that the Yamaha had. I asked if both recievers were calibrated for the room & the salesman informed me yes. I tried a few more cds & even a bluray. Then i had him go back to the Denon A100 (Anniversary Edition = 4311) & yep the difference was apparent. To my suprise i loved the Yamaha over the Denon. I had always been a fan of Denon & still am but paired with B&Ws "laid back" sound the Denon is just too warm. Combined, i feel they produce a muffled feel. However Yamahas "brighter" sound really opened up the B&Ws.

I went home to think about what i had just experienced. I couldnt help but think about how much better the 683s had sounded. Then i remembered my neighbor had mentioned to me that if i ever wanted to sell my Denon to let him know. So i went over & told him i was considering selling my 889 & would sell it to him & hook it all up including calibration for $500. To my suprise he said "YES lets do it!"

With that confirmed, i drove right back to A/V-Today. (After doing some comparisons to the Yamaha RX-A2000) I am happy to say that i am now the proud owner of a Yamaha RX-A2000!!

I just finished hooking her up & running a quick round of YPAO. Its late & the wifey is tired so i havent really gotten too deep into the tweaks or being able to really crank up some blurays. But even some cds ive put in sound really great now. So far so good!!! I got it for $1200.00 so after i get the $500 from my Denon id have pocketed $700. Not too bad in my eyes.

This is my first Yamaha so if there are any of you that own them, i am all ears for recommendations on the settings or just any suggestions. I"ll stop now...just pretty stoked because i felt my AVR was the weak link now is up to par with the rest of my equipment. A good feeling!!!

I have owned several Yamaha Receivers. Never had a problem with them.
I upgraded from my RX-V2400 because it was not HD. I wanted the RX-V2065 HD but got a deal on my Onkyo HD Receiver with the same spec's.
I used the mic on my Yamaha to set the speakers but ended up setting them manual. You made a good choice.

 

[TheFactor]

Congrats on your new yammy !! Enjoy !!