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

VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Mere mortals can't hear SINAD of 70db? I guess Amir isn't a mere mortal as he gives headless panthers for ultrasonic ringing and considers SINAD below 100dB absolutely unacceptable.... Oh that's the reason I stopped reading AudioScienceReview... :) (e.g. The Monoprice HTP-1 is awesome and probably the best deal in home theater for a 16.x channel processor and he trashed it for inaudible reasons... Ridiculous)

Gene, if you're reading this can you reset or wipe my account as I've been getting ultra slow loading and other weirdness for over a year now and everything points to it being something with the account as it does it on every device and browser and even ISP service, but not when I'm logged out. Then everything is normal. I put in a contact request for this, but never got a response. The site is largely unusable for me due to slow and error ridden loading once logged in.
 
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PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Interesting perspective on room correction (as its discussed here from time to time).
Based on specs I think this is the integrated amp to beat. It has the best DAC IC for integrated amps at this price point. So far I am not aware of any AVP regardless of price uses the calibers of the ES9028Pro. NAD says 9028 but they must have meant the ES9028Pro.

I can't wait to see some bench test with a full compliment of measurements. Subjective review like this one is useless for me other than reading it for entertainment. For example, in this case how the reviewer described the following is almost laughable and hopefully won't mislead readers, but unfortunately I think that would inevitably happen to some.

Then, you get the choice of three sound stage sizes, tight focus, normal focus, and wide focus. Since my room is relatively small, I started with tight which requires nine measurements around the listening position. The app shows a graphical representation of where one should put the mic so it’s super easy to run.

The result was very balanced from a frequency standpoint and was indeed very tightly focused. It shrunk the music down to a space no wider than the speakers.
It seems that he's talking about the positioning of the mic required for listening within a tighter area such as only for the mlp, or for a wider area that covers more seats. The way he described it was as though he thought it had to do with "soundstage/imaging", and actually heard the effects obviously had much to do with Placebo/expectation bias. To be fair, Dirac probably should have avoided the word "imaging" in the manual. By imaging, they clearly meant from the size of the area to be included for EQ'ing.
 
T

tparm

Audioholic
Based on specs I think this is the integrated amp to beat. It has the best DAC IC for integrated amps at this price point. So far I am not aware of any AVP regardless of price uses the calibers of the ES9028Pro. NAD says 9028 but they must have meant the ES9028Pro.

I can't wait to see some bench test with a full compliment of measurements. Subjective review like this one is useless for me other than reading it for entertainment. For example, in this case how the reviewer described the following is almost laughable and hopefully won't mislead readers, but unfortunately I think that would inevitably happen to some.



It seems that he's talking about the positioning of the mic required for listening within a tighter area such as only for the mlp, or for a wider area that covers more seats. The way he described it was as though he thought it had to do with "soundstage/imaging", and actually heard the effects obviously had much to do with Placebo/expectation bias. To be fair, Dirac probably should have avoided the word "imaging" in the manual. By imaging, they clearly meant from the size of the area to be included for EQ'ing.
Agree. I found it interesting that one two devices in his room, at least for 2CH, he prefers no auto room correction. On a somewhat unrelated subject, and a anther subjective review (although I think in their original review they had a full spectrum of measurements, or maybe that was another site), I just watched Jay Lee's Take 2 video review of the C298 and it seems NAD is on a bit of a roll these days. It does point to a future of near transparent playback. I think it'll be interesting to see if we like what we hear. :) Might just listen to Chesky and 2HD recordings, and Dominque Fils Aime from now on haha.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Agree. I found it interesting that one two devices in his room, at least for 2CH, he prefers no auto room correction. On a somewhat unrelated subject, and a anther subjective review (although I think in their original review they had a full spectrum of measurements, or maybe that was another site), I just watched Jay Lee's Take 2 video review of the C298 and it seems NAD is on a bit of a roll these days. It does point to a future of near transparent playback. I think it'll be interesting to see if we like what we hear. :) Might just listen to Chesky and 2HD recordings, and Dominque Fils Aime from now on haha.
I bought most of my HD audio files from hdtracks and NativeDSD. Where do you buy yours? As I mentioned in other posts, I really don't believe anything higher than 16bit/44.1 Hz would be necessary but in my experience the best chance of getting high quality recordings are to choose from those in 24b/96 kHz and higher. There may be a few average quality recordings in my collection of 24bit/96 kHz files but I think >90% of my DSD and 24bit/196 kHz or higher flac or wave files are of very good recording quality, Chesky or not.
 
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tparm

Audioholic
I bought most of my HD audio files from hdtracks and NativeDSD. Where do you buy yours? As I mentioned in other posts, I really don't believe anything higher than 16bit/44.1 Hz would be necessary but in my experience the best chance of getting high quality recordings are to choose from those in 24b/96 kHz and higher. There may be a few average quality recordings in my collection of 24bit/96 kHz files but I think >90% of my DSD and 24bit/196 kHz or higher flac or wave files are of very good recording quality, Chesky or not.
The comment about about playback material was to be taken lighthearted, but I do find most of those to be well recorded. I also use HDTracks and have considered the Qobuz store. Frankly most of my listening is streamed via Qobuz or AMHD (or spatial tracks from Apple, but that a whole 'nother ball game). I have no way of knowing or proving that one track sounds better than another based on resolution or just the quality of the original recording, but I swear many times when I feel I hear something that better its a 24-bit track. Could be pure coincidence.
 
OldAndSlowDev

OldAndSlowDev

Senior Audioholic
@gene Any idea what issues the firmware update addressed?
The 1.22 is from novembre I think, I assume Gene was using this firmware while reviewing. I am more interested in the next one that will bring Auro3D support. Was supposed to be release before the end of the year, then...
 
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tparm

Audioholic
The 1.22 is from novembre I think, I assume Gene was using this firmware while reviewing. I am more interested in the next one that will bring Auro3D support. Was supposed to be release before the end of the year, then...
Oh. Well that is no fun at all. I misread your post before I was fully awake this morning, I thought there was new firmware released.
 
AVR Enthu

AVR Enthu

Full Audioholic
Mere mortals can't hear SINAD of 70db? I guess Amir isn't a mere mortal as he gives headless panthers for ultrasonic ringing and considers SINAD below 100dB absolutely unacceptable.... Oh that's the reason I stopped reading AudioScienceReview... :) (e.g. The Monoprice HTP-1 is awesome and probably the best deal in home theater for a 16.x channel processor and he trashed it for inaudible reasons... Ridiculous)
He said: "Buy this product because you want its features, not because you think the $4,000 is bringing you superlative objective audio performance. There are $150 stereo DACs that easily outperform it on that front."

There is nothing extraordinary in his statement. We know he is primarily focused on DAC's performance. DAC-oriented reasoning is really simple. If a product for $150 can deliver very clean audio, equally clean performance of DAC in a product for $4,000 is a must, regardless of its other features. Engineering matters more for him, so inaudiable distortion does not always mean good DAC implementation. It's a purist view. Buyers are at liberty to ignore his findings and that's ok too.

A vaccine with ~70% of protection is good enough and not as good as the one with ~90% of protection. Both deliver protection, but if the one that delivers ~70% of protection was more expensive to produce, someone needs to ask questions about engineering process. Amir does exactly that in audio world.

That's why it's inexcusable to sell very expensive audio devices with average performing DACs, even if distortion is not audible. DAC engineering must be top notch if people pay thousands for AVRs/AVPs.
 
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sk11vengeance

Enthusiast
And we just got an update: "We're working on shipping this item. It's unlikely, but if your item isn't available by Fri, January 21, we'll issue a refund. "
My order changed today from "ready for packaging" to "packaging your item". I'm wondering which shipping carrier they will use since it says signature required.
 
OldAndSlowDev

OldAndSlowDev

Senior Audioholic
My order changed today from "ready for packaging" to "packaging your item". I'm wondering which shipping carrier they will use since it says signature required.
Don't get you expectations too high, this amp is only doing great when it's about music and movies, for coffee it sucks, I can't manage to get good cappuccino
 
clone1008

clone1008

Full Audioholic
Don't get you expectations too high, this amp is only doing great when it's about music and movies, for coffee it sucks, I can't manage to get good cappuccino
No wonder you had to reset your unit. God only knows where you tried to jam coffee beans into it. :oops:
 
OldAndSlowDev

OldAndSlowDev

Senior Audioholic
No wonder you had to reset your unit. God only knows where you tried to jam coffee beans into it. :oops:
I play music at max level for 24h with a heater under the amp in order to get this warm enough. Then I think the fan would start to spin and I will be able to grind coffee beans, then adding water I am on something
 
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