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Review and Measurements of Yamaha RX-A1080 AVR

SynthesisCinema

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The protection activates easily with Yamaha receivers when sine wawe is pushed to all channels continuosly and the power output figures drop, this won´t happen with real world material as Gene has told cause the ACD test is very different to real world material like movies.

Audiovision site has got the ACD test done on A3060/A3070 so that the protection circuit won´t pull back power. On A3080 it did!

Here you can see RX-A3070 doing 129watts for 7 channels continuosly 4 ohm. And for 2 channels 4 ohm 252watts, that´s almost as much as Denon X8500H managed to get at 260w and more than any competitor shows! I won´t link everyone below, you can put model in to right box search on the site.

https://audiovision.de/yamaha-rx-a3070-test/
https://audiovision.de/yamaha-rx-a3060-test/

7 channels continuosly 4 ohm load which should be brutal test for powersupply, so 129watts for Yamaha!

Denon X6500H - 100watts
Marantz SR8012 - 113watts
Arcam AVR-850 - 134watts
Denon X8500H - 140watts

Yamaha 3000 serie has 18,000uf caps which are larger than in 6000 serie Denon for example and the continuos power for 2 channels alone shows there is large powersupply by todays standards. It´s a shame that @amirm haven´t got the flagship Yamaha to ASR! :(
 

3dbinCanada

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The protection activates easily with Yamaha receivers when sine wawe is pushed to all channels continuosly and the power output figures drop, this won´t happen with real world material as Gene has told cause the ACD test is very different to real world material like movies.

Audiovision site has got the ACD test done on A3060/A3070 so that the protection circuit won´t pull back power. On A3080 it did!

Here you can see RX-A3070 doing 129watts for 7 channels continuosly 4 ohm. And for 2 channels 4 ohm 252watts, that´s almost as much as Denon X8500H managed to get at 260w and more than any competitor shows! I won´t link everyone below, you can put model in to right box search on the site.

https://audiovision.de/yamaha-rx-a3070-test/
https://audiovision.de/yamaha-rx-a3060-test/

7 channels continuosly 4 ohm load which should be brutal test for powersupply, so 129watts for Yamaha!

Denon X6500H - 100watts
Marantz SR8012 - 113watts
Arcam AVR-850 - 134watts
Denon X8500H - 140watts

Yamaha 3000 serie has 18,000uf caps which are larger than in 6000 serie Denon for example and the continuos power for 2 channels alone shows there is large powersupply by todays standards. It´s a shame that @amirm haven´t got the flagship Yamaha to ASR! :(
Dam I wish I could read German
 

rccarguy

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The protection activates easily with Yamaha receivers when sine wawe is pushed to all channels continuosly and the power output figures drop, this won´t happen with real world material as Gene has told cause the ACD test is very different to real world material like movies.

Audiovision site has got the ACD test done on A3060/A3070 so that the protection circuit won´t pull back power. On A3080 it did!

Here you can see RX-A3070 doing 129watts for 7 channels continuosly 4 ohm. And for 2 channels 4 ohm 252watts, that´s almost as much as Denon X8500H managed to get at 260w and more than any competitor shows! I won´t link everyone below, you can put model in to right box search on the site.

https://audiovision.de/yamaha-rx-a3070-test/
https://audiovision.de/yamaha-rx-a3060-test/

7 channels continuosly 4 ohm load which should be brutal test for powersupply, so 129watts for Yamaha!

Denon X6500H - 100watts
Marantz SR8012 - 113watts
Arcam AVR-850 - 134watts
Denon X8500H - 140watts

Yamaha 3000 serie has 18,000uf caps which are larger than in 6000 serie Denon for example and the continuos power for 2 channels alone shows there is large powersupply by todays standards. It´s a shame that @amirm haven´t got the flagship Yamaha to ASR! :(

6ohm 1khz test is bit of cop out..not FTC?

That 18,000 is for all channels... dedicated amps have that or more per channel
 

beagleman

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6ohm 1khz test is bit of cop out..not FTC?

That 18,000 is for all channels... dedicated amps have that or more per channel

FTC is more conservative and was used for many years, but the EIA rating while tending to boost the power rating about 10-15% above FTC, was adopted by most companies, not only to show higher numbers, but as a more realistic test of power.

Multi channel amps, that are used almost exclusively for home theatre settings, almost never use the full bandwidth of 20-20,000 Hertz, as 99% of the time subs are used and the amp channels are only producing material from the sub crossover frequency and higher.

So yes the FTC number is more "stringent" of a test, but in most all cases, less accurate as in how most home theatres are actually used.

Either way, the difference is around 15% more power shown when using the EIA method.
 

3dbinCanada

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6ohm 1khz test is bit of cop out..not FTC?

That 18,000 is for all channels... dedicated amps have that or more per channel
Show some evidence of your claims instead of trolling which you are currently doing.
 

SynthesisCinema

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Dam I wish I could read German

Just use google translate when you enter the site. Although i don´t think they speak much about the measurements there. More about the usual stuff features and how it sounds. Still i find those intresting as we can directly compare each models done by same site. Some of the figures are posted so damn small that not sure who can read that. They do 2,5,7channel test with 6 and 4ohm only, bit suprising but maybe the 6ohm is decent compromise if you consider speaker impedance and how it varies. The main thing here was that Yamaha receivers aren´t underpowered compared to competitors. :)

Main consideration at this point is have they made some changes to YPAO with the new models arriving next year. Pioneer & Onkyo getting Dirac Live and we have NAD and many others, Audussey with the app showing greater results and for many the main reason they choose D&M brand product. Easy to run and good results with auto setup, while Yamaha needs knowledge with PEQ and REW.
 

Ade333

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wow... I came here looking for a little info on the Yamaha 1080 and now my brain is busted trying to keep up with all of this analysis. I spent 3 days just trying to digest the info in the original article and first few comments and a few more on the following pages. I didnt get too far... soo many sub topics. Anyway, I blame all of you for my paralysis and now, and since I cannot think with this broken brain, I turn to you for answers.

I’ve got a Yamaha rxv1900 and I love it... the sound profile(clairty, seperation), power, reliabily, even YPAO has worked pretty well. I have a 5.1 setup and likely wont change that for a long while. My speakers are small (mirage nanosat) (wife factor), but sound great (to me) when well driven. The sub (svs sb-2000) helps considerably. All that said, there are some capabilities I‘m looking for... 4K, second hdmi zone, AirPlay 2, better zone
2 controls (mobile app), 120 refresh rate... 4k and second hdmi out are musts, others are flexible. The Yamaha 1080 seemed like a good fit but felt a bit beyond my $ comfort. So....I tried the Yamaha TSR-7850R because feature-wise it was decent, price was great, and power looked good at 110w. But.... man did it sound horrible. Flat, off balanced, and just hard to listen to... it wasn’t headache inducing but it was...bad. I tried hours of setup adjustments and just couldn’t get life out of it. Turning it way up was better, but still not great. This surprised me because I though my nanosats just needed power and a decent receiver... and the power seemed to be there (at least spec-wise) and the 7850 seems decent. Nope. So I was just about to buy a 1080 until this article and comments. The Denon 3700 seems better now, but its even more....So, hitting the pause button to ask this: What do I need to keep this setup sounding good and add some of the features noted above.

many, many thanks from a humbled old man.
 

3dbinCanada

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wow... I came here looking for a little info on the Yamaha 1080 and now my brain is busted trying to keep up with all of this analysis. I spent 3 days just trying to digest the info in the original article and first few comments and a few more on the following pages. I didnt get too far... soo many sub topics. Anyway, I blame all of you for my paralysis and now, and since I cannot think with this broken brain, I turn to you for answers.

I’ve got a Yamaha rxv1900 and I love it... the sound profile(clairty, seperation), power, reliabily, even YPAO has worked pretty well. I have a 5.1 setup and likely wont change that for a long while. My speakers are small (mirage nanosat) (wife factor), but sound great (to me) when well driven. The sub (svs sb-2000) helps considerably. All that said, there are some capabilities I‘m looking for... 4K, second hdmi zone, AirPlay 2, better zone
2 controls (mobile app), 120 refresh rate... 4k and second hdmi out are musts, others are flexible. The Yamaha 1080 seemed like a good fit but felt a bit beyond my $ comfort. So....I tried the Yamaha TSR-7850R because feature-wise it was decent, price was great, and power looked good at 110w. But.... man did it sound horrible. Flat, off balanced, and just hard to listen to... it wasn’t headache inducing but it was...bad. I tried hours of setup adjustments and just couldn’t get life out of it. Turning it way up was better, but still not great. This surprised me because I though my nanosats just needed power and a decent receiver... and the power seemed to be there (at least spec-wise) and the 7850 seems decent. Nope. So I was just about to buy a 1080 until this article and comments. The Denon 3700 seems better now, but its even more....So, hitting the pause button to ask this: What do I need to keep this setup sounding good and add some of the features noted above.

many, many thanks from a humbled old man.

I also have an RX-V1900 in my second system and like you, I love its capabilities. I also had an RX-V1800 for my main system which like the 1900 was a top performer but I wanted to update it to 4K. I bought a used RX-A3080 for $1200 Cdn. I would look at used high end Yamahas if I were you. Get yourself an account on hifishark.com and set up search engines to look for Yamaha RX-A AVRs.

My bedroom system is being driven by a RX-V1500 which predates HDMI. I recently purchased an RX-V1075 (RX-A1030) used for $325 Cdn to replace it so I can get 4K video and lossless audio out.,I haven't had time to set it up yet. Found both using hifishark.com's search engine.
 

beagleman

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wow... I came here looking for a little info on the Yamaha 1080 and now my brain is busted trying to keep up with all of this analysis. I spent 3 days just trying to digest the info in the original article and first few comments and a few more on the following pages. I didnt get too far... soo many sub topics. Anyway, I blame all of you for my paralysis and now, and since I cannot think with this broken brain, I turn to you for answers.

I’ve got a Yamaha rxv1900 and I love it... the sound profile(clairty, seperation), power, reliabily, even YPAO has worked pretty well. I have a 5.1 setup and likely wont change that for a long while. My speakers are small (mirage nanosat) (wife factor), but sound great (to me) when well driven. The sub (svs sb-2000) helps considerably. All that said, there are some capabilities I‘m looking for... 4K, second hdmi zone, AirPlay 2, better zone
2 controls (mobile app), 120 refresh rate... 4k and second hdmi out are musts, others are flexible. The Yamaha 1080 seemed like a good fit but felt a bit beyond my $ comfort. So....I tried the Yamaha TSR-7850R because feature-wise it was decent, price was great, and power looked good at 110w. But.... man did it sound horrible. Flat, off balanced, and just hard to listen to... it wasn’t headache inducing but it was...bad. I tried hours of setup adjustments and just couldn’t get life out of it. Turning it way up was better, but still not great. This surprised me because I though my nanosats just needed power and a decent receiver... and the power seemed to be there (at least spec-wise) and the 7850 seems decent. Nope. So I was just about to buy a 1080 until this article and comments. The Denon 3700 seems better now, but its even more....So, hitting the pause button to ask this: What do I need to keep this setup sounding good and add some of the features noted above.

many, many thanks from a humbled old man.

I am truly having a hard time understanding this post. If the TSR-7850 truly sounded "Horrible", as you describe it, there must be something else wrong. I have never even heard this receiver, but ANY major manufacturer does not make Horrible and Great sounding products all within the same line of products (AVRs)

I have now heard a handful of Yamahas, including their bottom of the line cheapest one, and it sounded VERY neutral and clean sounding, with nothing immediately negative about it at all.
If the bottom of the line one sounded fairly good to me, not sure how another could sound utterly horrible. Or are you exaggerating how you perceived it to sound?

I think either something was drastically set up wrong and so on, as no modern receiver would sound utterly horrible. In my experiences, and from hundreds of reviews I have read, if anything they would all tend to sound fairly similar.

So think you may be barking up the wrong tree if you had horrible sound with that unit. Try to regroup and figure out what was wrong, and could you expound on what exactly sounded horrible...?

I would hold off on buying something new, as I highly doubt that Yamaha truly just sounds horrible.
 
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Ade333

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I also have an RX-V1900 in my second system and like you, I love its capabilities. I also had an RX-V1800 for my main system which like the 1900 was a top performer but I wanted to update it to 4K. I bought a used RX-A3080 for $1200 Cdn. I would look at used high end Yamahas if I were you. Get yourself an account on hifishark.com and set up search engines to look for Yamaha RX-A AVRs.

My bedroom system is being driven by a RX-V1500 which predates HDMI. I recently purchased an RX-V1075 (RX-A1030) used for $325 Cdn to replace it so I can get 4K video and lossless audio out.,I haven't had time to set it up yet. Found both using hifishark.com's search engine.
Thanks - had not heard of hifishark! That said, ebay seeems to have dried up in regard to the x080 line the last few months. Glad to hear you like your 3080. Did you notice much of a difference in terms of sound quality.
 

Ade333

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I am truly having a hard time understanding this post. If the TSR-7850 truly sounded "Horrible", as you describe it, there must be something else wrong. I have never even heard this receiver, but ANY major manufacturer does not make Horrible and Great sounding products all within the same line of products (AVRs)

I have now heard a handful of Yamahas, including their bottom of the line cheapest one, and it sounded VERY neutral and clean sounding, with nothing immediately negative about it at all.
If the bottom of the line one sounded fairly good to me, not sure how another could sound utterly horrible. Or are you exaggerating how you perceived it to sound?

I think either something was drastically set up wrong and so on, as no modern receiver would sound utterly horrible. In my experiences, and from hundreds of reviews I have read, if anything they would all tend to sound fairly similar.

So think you may be barking up the wrong tree if you had horrible sound with that unit. Try to regroup and figure out what was wrong, and could you expound on what exactly sounded horrible...?

I would hold off on buying something new, as I highly doubt that Yamaha truly just sounds horrible.

It was horrible given my hope and expectations of it being something comparable. The primary issue was that my fronts were flat. Vocal clarity was reduced, instruments had little separation. The 1900 opens things up... if the sound were a flower, it would be fully bloom. With the 7850 it felt closed. Vocals also didn't center well... if you closed your eyes and tried to point to the lead singer, you couldn’t really do it... it was everywhere but nowhere. The nanosats play a role in this a little, but with the 1900 you can do this effortlessly.

As for setup, I tried a lot. A few different days with different approaches. 5.1, 2.1, no sub, etc. EQ level adjustment, speaker size adjustment, YPAO ( with and without tweaks)... EQ felt like it helped some (but still bad enough I wouldn’t have kept it) but after 15 mins it felt like the treble was maxed and dailing it down didn’t help. In each case, Id setup the 1900 the same way and every time the difference was immediately noticeable... especially with quieter, acoustical sounds. Pop sounded cut off at the top end, classical sounded bound.

Hope that provides some more insight?
 

3dbinCanada

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Ade333, Beagleman is correct. Yamaha doesnt make good and bad sounding AVRs. I really think that your issue is a setup problem. If you have scene setups on your AVR like my RX-A, then you will have to rethink how the AVR setup works. Setup and configuration is so different from the 1900. It was a major paradigm shift for me and Yamaha documentation sucks. What I can do is send you a document that I wrote describing what I did to setup my AVR. One thing I did notice on my AVR is that when I run YPAO, results are stored in memory which you dont have access too. The AVR will recall the YPAO parameters and apply calculations on the frequency settings and such depending on what curve (flat, natural, or front), you select. No need to rerun YPAO when changing curves unlike the 1900. The curve is part of the speaker configuration menu. It could be that you are making changes in the scene setup instead of the speaker configuration menu which is under manual configuration. It could also be that you have defective unit as well. Either way contact Yamaha support.
 

beagleman

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It was horrible given my hope and expectations of it being something comparable. The primary issue was that my fronts were flat. Vocal clarity was reduced, instruments had little separation. The 1900 opens things up... if the sound were a flower, it would be fully bloom. With the 7850 it felt closed. Vocals also didn't center well... if you closed your eyes and tried to point to the lead singer, you couldn’t really do it... it was everywhere but nowhere. The nanosats play a role in this a little, but with the 1900 you can do this effortlessly.

As for setup, I tried a lot. A few different days with different approaches. 5.1, 2.1, no sub, etc. EQ level adjustment, speaker size adjustment, YPAO ( with and without tweaks)... EQ felt like it helped some (but still bad enough I wouldn’t have kept it) but after 15 mins it felt like the treble was maxed and dailing it down didn’t help. In each case, Id setup the 1900 the same way and every time the difference was immediately noticeable... especially with quieter, acoustical sounds. Pop sounded cut off at the top end, classical sounded bound.

Hope that provides some more insight?


I am still confused. If both were set to neutral, no tone controls, no DSP, no equalizer and so on, they should sound quite similar instead of totally different.
There is so much set up stuff on the newer yamahas, I think I would have to see it in person, to understand relate to the sound and settings.

Are you saying with the new Yamaha, you did not like, that you heard far too much treble, or not enough?

Do you still have that unit?
 

3dbinCanada

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I am still confused. If both were set to neutral, no tone controls, no DSP, no equalizer and so on, they should sound quite similar instead of totally different.
There is so much set up stuff on the newer yamahas, I think I would have to see it in person, to understand relate to the sound and settings.

Are you saying with the new Yamaha, you did not like, that you heard far too much treble, or not enough?

Do you still have that unit?

I think Ade333 hasn't made the paradigm shift in how different the configuration setup is between his 1900 which I also have and use and his new AVR. They are substantially different.
 

beagleman

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I think Ade333 hasn't made the paradigm shift in how different the configuration setup is between his 1900 which I also have and use and his new AVR. They are substantially different.


I agree. The AVRs from the last decade or so are fairly complicated to set up, but once learned, quite easy to alter or use to change things.
My first look at the multiple menus, made my eyes cross almost.

But I agree, there should not be a huge disparity in sound between any similar line of AVRs.
 

Steve Dallas

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I may have stumbled upon an undocumented feature in at least some Yamaha AVRs. My Yamahas have no menu option to switch amps off, but... YPAO seems to shut off unused amps automatically.

I have an RX-A780 driving a pair of KEF Q100s in the living room. A few days ago, I decided to hook an XTZ EDGE A-200 amp up to it (for no particular reason), then decided to run YPAO for the first time. As it tested speakers it attempted to test the front pair, and there was a the loud click of 2 relays, as no sound immediately came forth, then sound was routed to the pre-outs. As it tested each missing speaker, another relay clicked for each one.

After that series of events, the AVR started running cooler. Before, it would run warm to the touch. Now, it runs cool to the touch. At first, I thought it might be switching the pre-outs on, but the change in heat signature leads me to believe it was switching unused amps off.

If it really is shutting off amps, the DAC performance may improve, assuming its low performance is caused by power supply stress.

I have a 3060 in my media room. I have never run YPAO on it either. I'll try it today and see what happens. It also uses an external amp to drive the front pair and runs warm. It should help clarify, as it is powering surround speakers. I should hear the click on the external fronts and missing center, but not on the surrounds. I will take before and after temperature measurements with an IR thermometer. That won't provide direct evidence, unfortunately.

[get yer rotten eggs ready]

Just as an aside, I have always thought the Burr-Brown DAC in the 780 sounds better than the ESS DAC in the 3060. Perhaps Amir needs to test a Yammy with the 'lesser' DAC for objective comparison.
 

David Harper

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Forgive me for asking a dumb question (if that's what it is) but on the Yammy aventage AVR if I increase either the "volume trim" or the "speaker level" adjustments in the AVR menu (the AVR is being used as a preamp only feeding an external power amp) does that increase the output voltage level of the AVR's pre-outs?
 

pedrob

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Now I'm curious how the Yamaha CXA5200 (top of the line pre-pro) would measure here. I think its predecessor measured quite well on other sites, such as Audioholics.

But even just using these receivers as a pre-amp with an external amp won't give the best sound quality (though how audible the difference would be is probably minimal at best).

Hmmm. I currently have the A2070 driving my Revel F206 and I know in some songs it misses some subtle detail. Perhaps worth upgrading my pre/pro/Amp at some point in the future.

Very curious to see what else you'll measure that's more in the "high-end" audio equipment world vs the desktop dacs and headphone amplifiers that was a more prominent focus of this site until recently.
I'm thinking it wouldn't be a pretty sight seeing the pink panther in pieces.

https://www.audioholics.com/av-preamp-processor-reviews/yamaha-cx-a5200-mx-a5200/conclusion reports a massive increase in noise in the balanced output when compared to unbalanced output.

Then quotes:

Yamaha confirmed my measurements and discovered the culprit to this increased distortion had something to do with how the volume control IC interacts with the XLR outputs. This is something they plan to resolve in future models but cannot make a hardware change to this current model.

Amir would rightly be disgusted it was put into production and worse still not recalled and fixed. Waiting for the next model to be addressed is disgraceful. I can't help feeling disappointed purchasers are being treated with contempt.

Having said that, if you can cope with unbalanced outputs it could be a worthwhile contender.

Interestingly it seems Surround:AI is best not be used with stereo music but is worthwhile with movies.
 
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amirm

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Forgive me for asking a dumb question (if that's what it is) but on the Yammy aventage AVR if I increase either the "volume trim" or the "speaker level" adjustments in the AVR menu (the AVR is being used as a preamp only feeding an external power amp) does that increase the output voltage level of the AVR's pre-outs?
I am pretty sure the answer is yes.
 
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