Yamaha R-S202 Receiver Review

[carlosmante]

The japanese Yamaha website does not even bother to mention this device. Guess, they don’t want to humiliate themselves.

Now you humiliated yourself..........https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/r-s202/index.html

 

[Rja4000]

I see them for 239 euro including 21% VAT.

Yes. I was looking to France prices, but they seem higher than in other European countries, for some reason.
I see it at 234€ shipped to Belgium from a reputable shop.

 

[JSmith]

https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/r-s202/index.html

ヤマハ | 製品情報

jp.yamaha.com

JSmith

 

[WILL]

Yamaha quality, this amp can be use for a decade at least.
Chinese chip amp quality, I am not so sure.

 

[Kegemusha]

There are 7 devices @78Db, only 2 are on the "green" side.
Shouldn't all 78Db devices be on green or orange side in that case if that is the presented number in the table?

 

[amirm]

There are 7 devices @78Db, only 2 are on the "green" side.
Shouldn't all 78Db devices be on green or orange side in that case if that is the presented number in the table?

SINAD of devices is different between channels. I average them and maintain the fraction. The graph tool however rounds this to whole number so a 77.6 would land in a different category than 77.2.

 

[Waxx]

it is what it is, a cheap integrated amp/FM receiver. And for that price it's more than decent. You can't compare this with the cheap chinese stuff, that often has better sinad and dsp, but is not build like a tank like this, and does not have the functionality.

This device is also not ment for the typical ASR crowd, but for the more conservative on audio general crowd who want to replace their classic integrated receiver amp. That is still a big part of the market, that is now a bit neglected by the industry. For this part, this is a great device, and they don't want to be bothered with dsp and bass managment or measurements to tune their system, they just want a plug and play device to listen to radio or music (mostly with cd's). Marantz, NAD and Pioneer make higer end devices than this, but they cost a lot more, too much for a big part of that crowd. And second hand is unreliable for them...

 

[Bob101]

it is what it is, a cheap integrated amp/FM receiver. And for that price it's more than decent. You can't compare this with the cheap chinese stuff, that often has better sinad and dsp, but is not build like a tank like this, and does not have the functionality.

This device is also not ment for the typical ASR crowd, but for the more conservative on audio general crowd who want to replace their classic integrated receiver amp. That is still a big part of the market, that is now a bit neglected by the industry. For this part, this is a great device, and they don't want to be bothered with dsp and bass managment or measurements to tune their system, they just want a plug and play device to listen to radio or music (mostly with cd's). Marantz, NAD and Pioneer make higer end devices than this, but they cost a lot more, too much for a big part of that crowd. And second hand is unreliable for them...

It's a dad-component. And that's a good thing.
When my dad's 80's Kenwood integrated amp (speaker relays and some other sh#t) failed, he just wanted basically the same black box with a similar form-factor for a reasonable price. I pointed him to a Yamaha A-S301 and he is very happy. If he'd needed a receiver, I'd have recommended this one. He just wants a component that when gently used daily will do exactly what it says it will for several decades.
I once hooked up my A-S1100 to his speakers and he was not impressed at all

 

[DSJR]

Receivers like this were not as popular in the UK as separate amps and tuners were.

More for 'us' maybe as I suggested, an A-S201 *amplifier* for the same UK price. Looks like 4mm speaker sockets, PHONO STAGE and it looks as if the amp circuit isn't so different from this one (layout is slightly different though). Claimed power output is at 4 ohms and 0.7% distortion and they quote the old fashiond peak (music power) output too (I still prefer the 8 ohm rating as well and maybe 0.1%), but I put it at a perfectly adequate 70WPC at 8 ohms and it looks as if it's not fazed by 2 ohms either.

A-S201 - Overview - Yamaha - Other European Countries

High sound quality and sophisticated design based on Yamaha’s rich experience and high-end model concepts. A HiFi Amplifi er for enjoying excellent sound.

europe.yamaha.com

An old friend has one of these, replacing a much loved Sony TA 5650 V-FET amp from the mid 70's which committed suicide (as some do apparently) and took his then speakers with it. Speakers were replaced with latest version and he bought this amp to drive them (moderate levels and classical/orchestral music only). No issues whatsoever and this amp would be used hours a day as well. He has a nice Thorens 147 Jubilee deck with V15 VMR which comes out to play on occasion although he's never had an issue with digital right from the off.

 

[DanielT]

Thanks for the test Amir.

Yamaha does it again, although this amp has been on the market for a while. They delivers a good product. A good cheap bog standard class AB amp, with for the price, superb performance and features. Surprisingly much power. Also built-in PSU. Just plug and play.

The only downside, compared to cheap class D amps, is the physical size of this Yamaha's class AB amp, but that's the only thing I can put on the minus account. Plus, perhaps a phono input would have made sense to have in view of the newfound craze for vinyl. Okay, it might have been a bit more expensive in that case, but still.

I don't think this is still on the market in Sweden, but the Yamaha R-S202D is now sold instead. I guess the D stands for Class D amplification or maybe it stands for DAB/DAB+ (which it has).Anyway, it would be interesting to know what this D stands for.

 

[ZolaIII]

@DanielT D is for DAB tuner, rest is the same.

 

[AndreaT]

I own a Yamaha A-S301. I used it for a few month years ago, and then moved to class D amps (in part, thanks to ASR). Since then it has been sitting on a shelf, to the chagrin of my wife. It never gave me the same involving experience when listening to Classical Music from CDs and FLAC files. Looking at the measurements of its less expensive brother, I am not surprised. It is a 100% personal subjective observation. However, when I dedicate my finite time to listening, it makes me happy to know I am closer to impeccable reproduction of the source with my system now than I was a few years ago.

 

[Haskil]

Thanks for the test Amir.

Yamaha does it again, although this amp has been on the market for a while. They delivers a good product. A good cheap bog standard class AB amp, with for the price, superb performance and features. Surprisingly much power. Also built-in PSU. Just plug and play.

The only downside, compared to cheap class D amps, is the physical size of this Yamaha's class AB amp, but that's the only thing I can put on the minus account. Plus, perhaps a phono input would have made sense to have in view of the newfound craze for vinyl. Okay, it might have been a bit more expensive in that case, but still.

I don't think this is still on the market in Sweden, but the Yamaha R-S202D is now sold instead. I guess the D stands for Class D amplification or maybe it stands for DAB/DAB+ (which it has).Anyway, it would be interesting to know what this D stands for.

In France, the price of the Yamaha R-S202D is 349 euros. Which is still much more than 200 euros on Amazon United States.
However, for this price it's still okay. We must say that we have an amplifier and a tuner that are better than what other brands offer for much more money...
I think that in my young age, around the beginning of the 1970s, such a receiver would have been considered a marvel... and it would have been sold for the equivalent of 2000 euros today...

 

[ZolaIII]

I own a Yamaha A-S301. I used it for a few month years ago, and then moved to class D amps (in part, thanks to ASR). Since then it has been sitting on a shelf, to the chagrin of my wife. It never gave me the same involving experience when listening to Classical Music from CDs and FLAC files. Looking at the measurements of its less expensive brother, I am not surprised. It is a 100% personal subjective observation. However, when I dedicate my finite time to listening, it makes me happy to know I am closer to impeccable reproduction of the source with my system now than I was a few years ago.

Hears the thing you are not. Even this cheap Yamaha dose cuple of things better than cheap class D amps. SINAD less degrades in highs it's best where you need it most (uper mids), has more power if needed and it's not load dependent which alone means more when you have 1% shift because of it then 0.01 THD+N @ 1 KHz. Who ever menage to have speakers with THD+N all the way down and with room treatment and digital correction to 0.1% can talk about possible higher SINAD power amplifier positive impact (and even that will be theoretical) and I like to see that. For reference under 1% THD+N for second and third harmonic is what some of the best headphones will have in lows when pushed loud. It's OK from technical aspects if you have better performing power amplifier and all across the board but in the end it doesn't mean much.

 

[beagleman]

I get this is mostly a low priced alternative to older vintage run of the mill receivers, that older guys might tend to want, but its missing one huge feature,
That most of my friends that fit this category tend to use/like

No "loudness" compensation button can be seen??

Although I tend to not use this feature, as I am sure most of us would not, I find that the typical buyer that just want to rock out to classic rock, almost always uses this. In fact its almost necessary with a lot of older rock, to give it some deep bass body to the sound.

 

[Sokel]

Although I tend to not use this feature, as I am sure most of us would not, I find that the typical buyer that just want to rock out to classic rock, almost always uses this. In fact its almost necessary with a lot of older rock, to give it some deep bass body to the sound.

A speaker with a decent midbass gives you that without loudness,loudness is more used to compensate the overall feeling but it's not entirely fixes what old rock (and classical as this is my genre) needs.

 

[dualazmak]

I own a Yamaha A-S301.

Hears the thing you are not. Even this cheap Yamaha dose cuple of things better than cheap class D amps. SINAD less degrades in highs it's best where you need it most (uper mids), has more power if needed and it's not load dependent which alone means more when you have 1% shift because of it then 0.01 THD+N @ 1 KHz. Who ever menage to have speakers with THD+N all the way down and with room treatment and digital correction to 0.1% can talk about possible higher SINAD power amplifier positive impact (and even that will be theoretical) and I like to see that. For reference under 1% THD+N for second and third harmonic is what some of the best headphones will have in lows when pushed loud. It's OK from technical aspects if you have better performing power amplifier and all across the board but in the end it doesn't mean much.

I too own YAMAHA A-S301 (Class-AB 9.0 kg, spec. here) and intensively use it for dedicated/direct drive of my super-tweeters covering 8.8 kHz to 22 kHz (in low gain, well overlapped with tweeters) in my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active audio rig (the latest setup can be found here on my project thread), together with YAMAHA A-S3000 (Class-AB 24.6 kg, driving woofers), ACCUPHASE E-460 (Class-AB 24.4 kg, driving midranges), SONY TA-A1ES (Quasi-Class-A 19.0 kg, driving tweeters) and heavy and large active L&R subwoofers YAMAHA YST-SW1000 (48 kg each). Yes, these four integrated amps and the active subwoofers are really robust stable reliable, indeed. Just for your possible interest, you can see here the inside photos of these four integrated amps.

 

[Tovarich007]

Specs are pretty good, but I don't see why you would get this over for example the recently released Loxjie A40 (which sadly hasn't been reviewed yet), unless AM/FM
support in a big box is what you're looking for. Happy to see this measure pretty well though!

The Loxjie A40 seems to be pretty attractive too, I could be tempted but hesitating. For roughly the same price, it's neater, smaller than this Yam, it has even more functionnalities than the Yam - it adds a phono input (don't know if it's good or just an added feature for following the vinyl trend), plus some basic EQs that can arguably replace the variable loudness of the Yam.

BUT (there are always buts !) : as for reliability, I don't know if it matches the Yam. And not sure service for repair can be easily found for these chinese brands in case of problem.

And also, the Yam is completely load independant, thanks to its long established schematic of class AB implementation. The Infineon class D module used in the Loxjie or other SMLS amps is rather good but not "post-filter feedback -PFFB". For a full range amp, it can cause some problems in the treble, depending on the speaker you use, of course. Used in a bi or tri amped speaker, the Infineon module works fine, but for an integrated full range amp, i'm not sure it's an universal solution.

All in all, the Yam may be a more "comforting" buy : brand reputation, service and reliability, classic looks, no problem in treble range.

 

[drmevo]

Another application for this type of receiver that I see quite a bit would be small mom and pop retail shops, dentist offices, etc. Many of them still haven’t moved to Sonos-type systems. Maybe they have a couple sets of speakers wired up already and it’s easier to just drop in another one of these boxes when the old one (which has been dutifully chugging along for 30 years) fails.

 

[dualazmak]

Let me suggest a tiny tip; I assume we may better to avoid using abbreviation "Yam" for "Yamaha/YAMAHA" for future "search hit by a word Yamaha or YAMAHA" on our invaluable discussions...