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

[Replicant 7]

Okay, my Yamaha RX-A6A has arrived from Addicted to Audio Perth just 48 hours ago. Still setting it up.

Love the clarity. The crispness and soundstage of classical music (e.g. LSO, “The Lark Ascending”) in PureDirect is breathtaking. So is the dynamic range and directionality of 5.1 movies (e.g. the prison rescue scene almost an hour into Marvel’s “Black Widow”): effortless punch.

Maybe I’m a purist, but I do prefer Straight to all the DSP settings they provide. Yamaha provides to much configurability — even the power to set the DAC Digital Filter (“Sharp roll-off” was my preference).

Between the remote, MusicCast app, Web Setup (settings in a browser), I rarely use the screen or buttons on the receiver.

For me, this was a big step-up (from a Denon X540BT). Using moderate speakers (5.1, based around Yamaha NS-555), in a single moderate-sized room (6 x 4.5 x 2.4 m).

The only issue I’ve hit run into is a known incompatibility with Atmos on DisneyPlus. The workaround is to dial the Disney+ settings back to HD (rather than 4k), so it outputs Dolby Digital Plus rather than Atmos. Haven’t tried anything that needs 40Gbit/sec on HDMI 2.1.

Love this thing. For me, it’s the perfect combination of stereo amp (in PureDirect) and surround sound (in Straight), with a great DAC and a decent power supply. Hoping for a decade of good sound. Now, I must go fill in that 5-year warranty.

Congratulations! I believe your the 2nd on AH with the RX-A6A.

 

[Replicant 7]

Yes we do. My Denon has a fan, it also works no bugs or issues.

Congratulations! My Yamaha works with no bug's and or issues also. Gotta to ask though, you eat melatonins,?

 

[clone1008]

Congratulations! I believe your the 1st on AH with the RX-A6A.

Huh? I also have the A6A. I got it almost a month ago.

 

[clone1008]

If you are not experienced with those drivers, don't use ASIO unless you have a reason to do it.

What's the dire warning about? Is his system going to blow up?

 

[Replicant 7]

Huh? I also have the A6A. I got it almost a month ago.

Going update that post.

 

[clone1008]

I'm beginning to think Yamaha has put Gene into their Witness Protection Program.

 

[UltimateGattai]

I also had problems with Disney plus in Atmos. I wasn't sure if it's my streaming device or the receiver. The new shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings disney plus gives me problems. The audio turns on and off every 10 seconds or so. I wonder if Yamaha knows of this

I have the same issue with mine, I don't think it's the AVR (my old Pioneer would only do Stereo, otherwise it just keeping dropping the audio if I did surround sound), I think Disney Plus just tends to have issues. Netflix and Amazon Video runs fine on my A6A (and apparently it's receiving Atmos from Amazon Video, I just don't have the speakers installed to test it yet), I haven't watched a full episode or movie on Disney Plus to test if it's just buffering due to not having a fast enough connnection, or if there's something else going on. I've always had audio problems with Disney Plus, even just using the TV on it's own doesn't work as you would expect.

 

[PENG]

What's the dire warning about? Is his system going to blow up?

Not a warning at all, and if he must use it I am sure he can get it to work. I can't remember the details as I have not used it for a few years to measure multichannel(e.g 7). It did work fine, just seemed less trouble free based on my distant memory. For multichannels, ASIO4ALL is the one to use and it will work, again, may be just more "work" to set it up. There are always help available on AVNirvana and Hometheatershack forums.

 

[Pogre]

"If you are not experienced with those drivers, don't use ASIO unless you have a reason to do it." Comes across as a warning like something bad will happen if you don't know what you're doing. Probably just lost in translation.

I didn't read it like that, tho I do agree with Peng. ASIO isn't plug n play simple and adds complexity. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner either.

 

[clone1008]

I didn't read it like that, tho I do agree with Peng. ASIO isn't plug n play simple and adds complexity. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner either.

Like I said, it was lost in translation on me....no worries.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

I discovered a new tool to help with psychopath symmetric placement : iPhone LiDAR
Also a tool to check YPAO distances

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I didn't read it like that, tho I do agree with Peng. ASIO isn't plug n play simple and adds complexity. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner either.

Yeah, I’ve seen too many reports of asio being a PITA and not working properly. I usually recommend not using it either. Unnecessary complexity.

 

[Pogre]

I discovered a new tool to help with psychopath symmetric placement : iPhone LiDAR
Also a tool to check YPAO distances
View attachment 51825

As far as checking the distances goes, they're not always gonna line up with what you measure with a ruler (or a lidar phone app- very cool btw!). YPAO uses the distances as a type of delay for proper timing so it's not so much to do with feet and inches (or meters and centimeters for you canucks) as it is about milliseconds. It's most often more off with subwoofers ime, but it's pretty normal. I wouldn't mess with changing the distances myself.

 

[clone1008]

So I have a question that may have already been discussed. When checking YPAO speaker level settings after calibration using the manual test tones with either REW or an SPL meter does Yamaha disable it's calibration settings? If so this would never be an accurate test would it? I have read that some AVRs will bypass everything when using manual test tones.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

So I have a question that may have already been discussed. When checking YPAO speaker level settings after calibration using the manual test tones with either REW or an SPL meter does Yamaha disable it's calibration settings? If so this would never be an accurate test would it? I have read that some AVRs will bypass everything when using manual test tones.

I’ve seen this asked a bunch before too. Unfortunately never seen an answer. Theoretically, there is some validity to it. But I’m not sure if I’m reality it matters. I think that since the test tones cover such a wide band of noise, the average remains the same, or close enough at least as not to matter.

Using REW as a tone generator would really bypass ypao/Audyssey in the same way as bypassing internally. Just not sure it matters. It’s even possible that the processors can sort that out internally, further negating the idea that it will matter. This is total speculation on my part though.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

As far as checking the distances goes, they're not always gonna line up with what you measure with a ruler (or a lidar phone app- very cool btw!). YPAO uses the distances as a type of delay for proper timing so it's not so much to do with feet and inches (or meters and centimeters for you canucks) as it is about milliseconds. It's most often more off with subwoofers ime, but it's pretty normal. I wouldn't mess with changing the distances myself.

Agreed. The mic “sees” the room in an auditory way. That’s complete with reflections and diffractions and stuff. Good thing I guess is I believe he mentioned that they were close. A little surprising since the right front is right against the wall, and the left front has nothing.

 

[Pogre]

Yeah, I’ve seen too many reports of asio being a PITA and not working properly. I usually recommend not using it either. Unnecessary complexity.

I started out trying to use ASIO, not knowing any better, and spent almost a full day wrestling with it til I got it to *kind of* work for me. When I found out it wasn't necessary it was so much easier to get rew going and it works just fine without it.

 

[AVR Enthu]

iPhone LiDAR

iPhone LiDAR - make your own OCD speakers

 

[clone1008]

I’ve seen this asked a bunch before too. Unfortunately never seen an answer. Theoretically, there is some validity to it. But I’m not sure if I’m reality it matters. I think that since the test tones cover such a wide band of noise, the average remains the same, or close enough at least as not to matter.

Using REW as a tone generator would really bypass ypao/Audyssey in the same way as bypassing internally. Just not sure it matters. It’s even possible that the processors can sort that out internally, further negating the idea that it will matter. This is total speculation on my part though.

I did a test but not really sure what it's telling me. I did a level test of my speakers post calibration running Yamaha Straight setting through REW using ASIO and every speaker was about 4db too low. I then put the levels back to YPAO settings and manually tested with a RS SPL through the Yamaha and every speaker was about 4 db too high. That's a 16db spread and again not sure what it means.

 

[OldAndSlowDev]

As far as checking the distances goes, they're not always gonna line up with what you measure with a ruler (or a lidar phone app- very cool btw!). YPAO uses the distances as a type of delay for proper timing so it's not so much to do with feet and inches (or meters and centimeters for you canucks) as it is about milliseconds. It's most often more off with subwoofers ime, but it's pretty normal. I wouldn't mess with changing the distances myself.

I will run YPAO now I understand that that sound distance isn’t straight line distance. I have a question about the crossover on subs, should I let the subs to play full range (27-300) while doing the calibration and let the amp manage the crossover? Or manually setting the proper front speakers/ subs crossover is the way to do it ?