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

Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
So my A6A arrived today from Best Buy. First impressions are good, sounds great, I like all the additional settings that my Denon doesn't have such as more control over the speaker placements and better visual indication of that each setting is doing. Also the Dac setting for sound with the different roll offs is nice. Its sort of hard for me to try out a lot of settings right now till the firmware for 2.1 comes out since I use Pc's with 4k 120hz so I am anxiously waiting on that.
If I had to nitpick anything right now I'd say the front display is a bit small to see at my seating distance of about 10ft. Also the remote not having dedicated input buttons for each source like my Denon remote will take getting used to but I like that its backlit.

Here is a quick photo, please ignore the messy wires, I plan on sorting those when the 2.1 update comes out and I hookup new cables at the back of the unit.

View attachment 53081
Congratulations! Hey what's that cool lil box that's lit up on the right side?
 
S

sk11vengeance

Enthusiast
Congratulations! Hey what's that cool lil box that's lit up on the right side?
If its the white one your referring to that would be my att fiber internet modem/router. Its the latest one they have right now that will support 5gbit speeds when its available here but I doubt I will get that anytime soon, 1-2gbit is plenty for me.
 
AllenB

AllenB

Enthusiast
So my A6A arrived today from Best Buy. First impressions are good, sounds great, I like all the additional settings that my Denon doesn't have such as more control over the speaker placements and better visual indication of that each setting is doing. Also the Dac setting for sound with the different roll offs is nice. Its sort of hard for me to try out a lot of settings right now till the firmware for 2.1 comes out since I use Pc's with 4k 120hz so I am anxiously waiting on that.
If I had to nitpick anything right now I'd say the front display is a bit small to see at my seating distance of about 10ft. Also the remote not having dedicated input buttons for each source like my Denon remote will take getting used to but I like that its backlit.
Congrats, sk11vengeance. Agreed: sound & setttings (e.g. DAC) are great.
Front display is too small, but you'll find you don't rely on it for much. I leave it set to show which speakers are active, and use the MusicCast app for most of the rest. You'll also want to load the webapp on your phone/tablet while you're setting it up, including reassigning the Scenes to the sources & settings you want (much more productive than Denon's sources).
 
AVR Enthu

AVR Enthu

Full Audioholic
Do you seriously believe every single engineer out there is stupid and that's why they can't manage the 120dB SINAD that would make Amir happy??? Amir is talking out his muffler about something he cannot fix, let alone design and it's that hypocrisy that really grinds. The fact these things are inaudible and people like yourself talk about "no excuses" when you probably can't even change a shower head without calling a plumber is what bugs me. You have no clue what you're talking about so maybe you just shouldn’t.
Discussion is purely academic. There is no need to go personal with shower head nonsense and certainly no need to patronise others by trying to play an expert and belittle their input. If you want to win an argument that has impact, you do it on merit, and not on negative emotion, bullish self-assertion and personal remarks. Please temper your comments. So, there's that.

Now. I am not an expert in the field and I do not need to be, to be able to form or voice an informed view. I have expertise and measurements in front of me and discussion is the matter of interpreting engineering, methodology used, real life usage and market conditions. It's complex. As I said before: "Buyers are at liberty to ignore Amir's findings and that's ok too." If I wanted to buy this particular model, I would actually go for it, as there is nothing shocking or very alarming in his review. Measurements do not look barking mad. Knowing that he is DAC-purist also allows us to have some distance and exercise own judgement.

In fact, Amir placed DAC of this particular Monoprice model in 'Very Good' category. See below. His list of Fair, Very Good and Excellent DACs is ~3/4 of all devices he has ever tested, and ranging 90-123 dB. So, surely, a dominant majority of engineers are doing a great job in this respect, both in simple devices and in complex devices; and not only with headphone simple DACs. Even in several 'poor' measurements, near the cut-off category point, it cannot be said that engineers are "stupid". That comment of yours was baseless.
Best vintage DAC review.png

Other reasons drove him not to recommend the unit and he is entitled to voice those reasons, even if we disagree with it. Since when disagreeing with someone's conclusions has become so intolerable? Gene also found shortcomings with A6A unit, but that does not prevent people from buying it, if they wanted to. And it certainly does not make Yamaha fans feel as if they want to cancel or crucify Gene for speaking his mind. We need more people like Gene and Amir to measure devices and expose potential issues, giving us more information about products, even if we disagree with some of their conclusions.

Another reason why DAC measurements, expecially in expensive products, need to be top notch is quality assurance. It's always good to play some analogies and give more context. Below is the link to two expensive Tesla models. Both have modern infotainment hardware. One model has Intel Atom CPU inside and another model has AMD's Ryzen CPU. If you click on the link below, you will find out that AMD's processor significantly outperforms Intel's CPU in buffering and loading times. Maps and other applications work with both processors, but loading times and processing are faster with AMD's CPU. Now, if you are happy to wait 15-20 seconds for Maps to show up, instead of 4-5 seconds, you will not pay too much attention to this feature and buy whichever model you prefer for their other features, such as battery mileage, design, etc. The same applies to Amir's conclusions. He pays more attention to certain features and forms his judgement. You are welcome to disagree with it in respectful manner, as no judgement is ever perfect, however, pouring buckets of BS on him and his work is not going to help audio community in any meaningful way.

Even if I can't change shower head, I could, at least, be aware of the fact that a plumber may try to replace it with Intel Atom in it only. When I pay serious money for a device, I deserve AMD Ryzen to light up all RGB in the shower head. ;)

 
Last edited:
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
Discussion is purely academic. There is no need to go personal with shower head nonsense and certainly no need to patronise others by trying to play an expert and belittle their input. If you want to win an argument that has impact, you do it on merit, and not on negative emotion, bullish self-assertion and personal remarks. Please temper your comments. So, there's that.

Now. I am not an expert in the field and I do not need to be, to be able to form or voice an informed view. I have expertise and measurements in front of me and discussion is matter of interpretation of engineering, methodology used, real life usage and market conditions. It's complex. As I said before: "Buyers are at liberty to ignore Amir's findings and that's ok too." If I wanted to buy this particular model, I would actually go for it, as there is nothing shocking or very alarming in his review. Measurements do not look barking mad. Knowing that he is DAC-purist also allows us to have some distance and exercise own judgement.

In fact, Amir placed DAC of this particular Monoprice model in 'Very Good' category. See below. His list of Fair, Very Good and Excellent DACs is ~3/4 of all devices he has ever tested, and ranging 90-123 dB. So, surely, dominant majority of engineers are doing a great job in this respect, both in simple devices and in complex devices, so not only headphone simple DACs. Even in many 'poor' measurements it cannot be said that engineers are "stupid". That comment of yours was baseless.
View attachment 53086
Other reasons drove him not to reccomend the unit and he is entitled to voice those reasons, even if we disagree with it. Since when disagreeing with someone's conclusions has become so intolerable? Gene also found shortcomings with A6A unit, but that does not prevent people from buying it, if they wanted to. And it certainly does not make Yamaha fans feel as if they want to cancel or crucify Gene for speaking his mind. We need more people like Gene and Amir to measure devices and expose potential issues and give us more information about products, even if we disagree with some of their conclusions.

Another reason why DAC measurements, expecially in expensive products, need to be top notch is quality assurance and personal experience. It's always good to play some analogies and give more context. Below is the link to two expensive Tesla models. Both have modern infotainment hardware. One model has Intel Atom CPU inside and another model has AMD's Ryzen CPU. If you click on the link below, you will find out that AMD's processor significantly outperforms Intel's CPU in buffering and loading times. Maps and other applications work with both processors, but loading times and processing are much faster with AMD's CPU. Now, if you are happy to wait 15-20 seconds for Maps to show up, you will not pay too much attention to this feature and buy whichever model you prefer for their other features. The same applies to Amir's conclusions. He pays attention to certain features and forms his judgement. You are welcome to disagree with it in respectful manner, as no judgement is ever perfect, however, pouring buckets of BS on him and his work is not going to help audio community in any meanigful way.

I do have expectations of how a modern flagship AVR should measure, but I'm still rocking my 2015 model Denon AVR-X4200W driving 4 Ohm speakers.

Instead of buying a new receiver I installed room treatments and replaced the horizontal 2.5 center speaker with a bookshelf, something that has audible differences. Pictures of my living room with treatments in post #32 below:

https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/trells-home-theatre-living-room.121330/post-1505058
 
clone1008

clone1008

Full Audioholic
Last edited:
AVR Enthu

AVR Enthu

Full Audioholic
A new A8A review over at AV Nirvana...
Todd is in a combative mood: "If given the opportunity, I'd happily rack the RX-A8A and go to battle with it at my side." Is he going to invade Kazakhstan with Yamaha? Seriously... :D
 
clone1008

clone1008

Full Audioholic
Todd is in a combative mood: "If given the opportunity, I'd happily rack the RX-A8A and go to battle with it at my side." Seriously... :D
Kind of refreshing to hear a reviewer say something positive though...huh?
 
sollyemmy

sollyemmy

Enthusiast
Well, my A6A arrived today and couldn't be happier. I waited about 6 months to get this in so I can listen how my HT sounds(I have been building my first HT for over a year and this is the final piece to get everything together). I will get this setup tomorrow and just enjoy my system.


Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Well, my A6A arrived today and couldn't be happier. I waited about 6 months to get this in so I can listen how my HT sounds(I have been building my first HT for over a year and this is the final piece to get everything together). I will get this setup tomorrow and just enjoy my system.


Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
Awesome! You gotta show us some pics when you set it up. Love to hear your impressions of your Yamaha as well once you get it up and running
 
Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
Well, my A6A arrived today and couldn't be happier. I waited about 6 months to get this in so I can listen how my HT sounds(I have been building my first HT for over a year and this is the final piece to get everything together). I will get this setup tomorrow and just enjoy my system.


Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
Oh yeah! The worm has turned for you man! Photos, pics!
 
SithZedi

SithZedi

Audioholic General
Finally got my hands on a scratch and dent A6A from Crutchfield arriving today. It arrives today, release the pigeons!
Will try to post photos of my A3000's retirement ceremony.
 
SithZedi

SithZedi

Audioholic General
Retirement photo of my A3000 after 12 years of awesome sound, service and dependability...and her replacement.
A bit more heft and size to the A6A.
As sailors would say, "She was yar..." Am flying flags at half staff today.
 

Attachments

clone1008

clone1008

Full Audioholic
Well, my A6A arrived today.....
Finally got my hands on a scratch and dent A6A from Crutchfield....
I'm not sure how much you guys have read up on these but don't forget to register your unit for the additional 2 years of warranty here...

 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top