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

[Replicant 7]

@OldAndSlowDev nice set-up!

 

[Replicant 7]

My humble setup, tried to get the whole pic in but can't upload.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

@OldAndSlowDev nice set-up!

I built the cabinet to match the RX-A8A dimensions three months ago
It has to support the depth of the amp and align the central speaker with the height of the wood planks

 

[Replicant 7]

I built the cabinet to match the RX-A8A dimensions three months ago
It has to support the depth of the amp and align the central speaker with the height of the wood planks

Hey is that a PS4, I see under your center channel to the right?

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

Hey is that a PS4, I see under your center channel to the right?

Yes it’s not even plugged. Last use was to play Harrry Potter blue rays. I have a PC that I will run through the AVR once the hdmi 2.1 firmware update (I have an optical fiber command hdmi 2.1 extender that runs from my PC to the TV). It will be the ultimate compatibility test. Tomb raider, in HDR 4K with VRR and Dolby Atmos is a good stress test. I hope it will work.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

I slept four hours and returned to listening to my new toy
Can’t get Atmos with Disney+ (AppleTV 4K plugged to the AVR, not using eArc). With Netflix or Apple+ sound displays Atmos/PCM 48khz. I hope I am doing it right. Not sure about virtual presence speakers too.

 

[Replicant 7]

I slept four hours and returned to listening to my new toy
Can’t get Atmos with Disney+ (AppleTV 4K plugged to the AVR, not using eArc). With Netflix or Apple+ sound displays Atmos/PCM 48khz. I hope I am doing it right. Not sure about virtual presence speakers too.

Wish I could help on the Apple issues but I don't use one. Can say I do get Atmos when using Netflix, it does show up on my front display. I don't use the virtual speaker settings I have those set off also. I really like, in the (Parametric EQ) settings, the YPAO: Low Frequency, mine is set to that one. Best I've heard on my set-up anyways. You gotta run the calibration, than you can choose which settings is best for your set-up. YPAO adjust the low end down to 15 Hz. Not that my speakers can go that low they can't. From what I have read, it adjust just the low end and Subs and or Subs if you have more than one Sub and leaves the mid bass and highs alone.

As you can see my right front is a little higher on the low end, my Sub is on the left side next to the left main, guess it adjust for being close to that speaker. That something I've never been able to set that close with the low end on any Yamaha. It kinda reminds me of the way X32 was able to dial in my two Subs on my Onkyo NR818 which I liked a lot.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

Wish I could help on the Apple issues but I don't use one. Can say I do get Atmos when using Netflix, it does show up on my front display. I don't use the virtual speaker settings I have those set off also. I really like, in the (Parametric EQ) settings, the YPAO: Low Frequency, mine is set to that one. Best I've heard on my set-up anyways. You gotta run the calibration, than you can choose which settings is best for your set-up. YPAO adjust the low end down to 15 Hz. Not that my speakers can go that low they can't. From what I have read, it adjust just the low end and Subs and or Subs if you have more than one Sub and leaves the mid bass and highs alone.
View attachment 51352
As you can see my right front is a little higher on the low end, my Sub is on the left side next to the left main, guess it adjust for being close to that speaker. That something I've never been able to set that close with the low end on any Yamaha. It kinda reminds me of the way X32 was able to dial in my two Subs on my Onkyo NR818 which I liked a lot.

After running YPAO, the saved profile is FLAT... It only tweaked the dB for surround channels that aren't equidistant from the listening position so I have between -0.5dB and -4.5dB on the surrounds...

 

[Replicant 7]

After running YPAO, the saved profile is FLAT... It only tweaked the dB for surround channels that aren't equidistant from the listening position so I have between -0.5dB and -4.5dB on the surrounds...

It did the same for me, set it to Flat, but I like the Low Frequency settings better, for my setup anyways. It's a preferred choice thing.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

It did the same for me, set it to Flat, but I like the Low Frequency settings better, for my setup anyways. It's a preferred choice thing.

As I don't own a subwoofer not sure about the low frequency settings but I may try

 

[Replicant 7]

As I don't own a subwoofer not sure about the low frequency settings but I may try

Get one! or two!! Oh man, for movie's Sub or Subs take your movie experience to a whole nother level! Just ask umm let's take @AcuDefTechGuy for example, he got like umm 15 Subs throughout his house. With amps for each Sub! When Andrew fires up his setup, his neighbors thought it was earthquake's happening. Not really, but some of the members on AH have some really nice Subs in the setups. The one I have isn't, but it is enough to piss the neighbors off.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

Get one! or two!! Oh man, for movie's Sub or Subs take your movie experience to a whole nother level! Just ask umm let's take @AcuDefTechGuy for example, he got like umm 15 Subs throughout his house. With amps for each Sub! When Andrew fires up his setup, his neighbors thought it was earthquake's happening. Not really, but some of the members on AH have some really nice Subs in the setups. The one I have isn't, but it is enough to piss the neighbors off.

My bank account after purchasing a 65inches QN90A, a RX-A8A, a HTM71 S2, four 707 speakers with floor stands won't allow me to purchase subwoofers... right now The only thing I kept from my previous setup are my B&W704...

 

[Replicant 7]

My bank account after purchasing a 65inches QN90A, a RX-A8A, a HTM71 S2, four 707 speakers with floor stands won't allow me to purchase subwoofers... right now The only thing I kept from my previous setup are my B&W704...

But, now you gotta lot of nice toy's!!

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

But, now you gotta lot of nice toy's!!

Exactly, soon divorced but what a nice home theatre

 

[VASKION]

Congrats on your new toys guys! They look amazing! I am looking forward to joining the club as well.

Have one question though. Looking at A4A user manual it seems that 5.2.4 speaker configuration cannot be set. 5.2.2 seems the maximum with two front presence speakers while the rest two outputs can be assigned either to surround back (7.2.2) / zone 2 (for 5.2.2) or not used at all. Correct?

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

I don't know and I am not exactly sure about what are just presets to make setup easier and what is really supported. I am running a 7.0.0 setup with bi amplification for the front left/right speakers and it works flawlessly. I just disabled the subwoofers in the speakers menu.

 

[TadMoore]

Congrats on your new toys guys! They look amazing! I am looking forward to joining the club as well.

Have one question though. Looking at A4A user manual it seems that 5.2.4 speaker configuration cannot be set. 5.2.2 seems the maximum with two front presence speakers while the rest two outputs can be assigned either to surround back (7.2.2) / zone 2 (for 5.2.2) or not used at all. Correct?

I believe you are correct. You would have to go for the A6A for the 5.2.4.

 

[jakkedtide]

My AV store just called me today! My A8A is in. I can't wait to get it. Too bad my work schedule doesn't let me get it until next week. But it's here!

 

[Padinn]

Sharing this here as well, I got a very helpful email from Yamaha support:

Thanks for your email, and sorry you're having trouble with your receiver. There is indeed an issue with HBO Max when streamed to our new Aventage receivers, where sound will intermittently drop in and out. The issue has been reported to Yamaha Japan and we're hoping for a resolution soon. For now you can employ one of the following work-arounds:

-Set the source device to output a 2CH PCM signal instead of surround sound. The issue only seems to happen when decoding DD+ audio audio
-Set the receiver's DSP mode to All CH Stereo
-Use the HBO Max app in a Fire TV stick. This does not seem to have any issues

We're not having any issues with Disney+ decoding, so you probably have something else going on there. My guess is that issue stems from the eARC mode setting in your TV. This setting does more than just expanding the bandwidth allocation for Audio Return Channel. In addition to this, it also makes the TV re-encode the audio to multi-ch PCM before outputting it to the audio system. We've seen this reencoded audio have issues passing through our DSP chip, as well as introducing audio artifacts, and our thus far recommendation has been to disable it.

I also ran into a similar situation with another user running an Xbox. It has a setting called "Dolby Audio Processing", which similar to eARC mode in the TV, makes the Xbox reencode the audio in an attempt to simulate a Dolby Atmos experience. Disabling this feature resolved his problem, so I wonder if you can try it here.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

Sharing this here as well, I got a very helpful email from Yamaha support:

Thanks for your email, and sorry you're having trouble with your receiver. There is indeed an issue with HBO Max when streamed to our new Aventage receivers, where sound will intermittently drop in and out. The issue has been reported to Yamaha Japan and we're hoping for a resolution soon. For now you can employ one of the following work-arounds:

-Set the source device to output a 2CH PCM signal instead of surround sound. The issue only seems to happen when decoding DD+ audio audio
-Set the receiver's DSP mode to All CH Stereo
-Use the HBO Max app in a Fire TV stick. This does not seem to have any issues

We're not having any issues with Disney+ decoding, so you probably have something else going on there. My guess is that issue stems from the eARC mode setting in your TV. This setting does more than just expanding the bandwidth allocation for Audio Return Channel. In addition to this, it also makes the TV re-encode the audio to multi-ch PCM before outputting it to the audio system. We've seen this reencoded audio have issues passing through our DSP chip, as well as introducing audio artifacts, and our thus far recommendation has been to disable it.

I also ran into a similar situation with another user running an Xbox. It has a setting called "Dolby Audio Processing", which similar to eARC mode in the TV, makes the Xbox reencode the audio in an attempt to simulate a Dolby Atmos experience. Disabling this feature resolved his problem, so I wonder if you can try it here.

I can imagine the nightmare of supporting so many different streaming apps that aren’t outputting exactly the same DD/Dts/Atmos stream. It’s obvious that we are far from having a single actor that manages a standard (thinking about Microsoft with DirectX that runs thousands of apps on hundreds of different graphic cards). My Samsung QN90A doesn’t output Disney+ Atmos, I bought an Apple TV (no regret it’s really a good product) in order to get Disney + with Atmos but after spending some times with customer service (which was good and efficient) I realized that French Canadian audio isn’t Atmos. English is and works flawlessly. Currently binge watching the Iron Man movies improving my English but damn how fast Tony Stark is speaking