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The Yamaha R-N803 seems to be just a total winner - What am I missing...?

nemanja_t

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For me, Music Cast ist great advantage over competition. Yes, you could have Raspberry PI and etc., but for everything to work flawlessly with more users und in multiple rooms, with good UI, I have not found better solution in consumer electronics.
 

Snoopy

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MusicCast works faultlessly ! I agree
I had the Yamaha WXA50 for a few months and musiccast despite being hardwired was causing all kinds of problems.

Not a fan of musiccast.

Yamaha is great. I had Yamaha amps for the last 15 years .. nothing to complain.

With a Raspberry Pi 4 and roon I would definitely get another Yamaha
 

Marcin2000

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To current 803 owners, how do you connect power amp to this unit? When using just Out on the back, I have no volume control and blasted my speakers. Is there a setting in menu to make them preamp Out?
 

Overseas

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No main in or preout, it is fully 'integrated' in the sense that it is fully autonomous and cannot be linked to any other separates, except sources (DAC, cd, streamer, tv etc). Still, great piece of plug n play kit.
 

mr-audio

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Disappointing surprise I discovered today. Confirmed by support. The R-N803 internet radio does NOT support FLAC or anything above MP3 and AAC. As hi-res radio stations have grown that has been a favorite of mine on my NAD gear. I had planned to keep the R-N803 cause its great quality and price for a streaming receiver, but alas I think i'll be selling it now.

Interesting side note: the new Yamaha R-N2000A has 90/channel and same features (plus Vu meters). Certainly better but its $4000! Note sure if its interner radio streaming is also defanged, but in any case it seems like Yamaha now lacks a streaming product in the sweet spot of the 100/w channel market...
 

Overseas

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I see 'FLAC' specification many times I stream, but not sure about this on radio...
 

mr-audio

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Well some more info (I find complex answers like this interesting..)

According to a new response from Yamah support...

1. The R-N803 is perfectly capable of decoding FLAC audio,
2. But FLAC is not supported by Airable, our Net Radio provider We receive a curated "package" of stations from Airable
3. And yes, it is not possible to enter a custom URL for Net Radio.

So my interpretation is that weirdly... Yamaha is willing to limit the audio quality of their equipment (over Internet radio) because of their relationship with a supplier (Airable). Odd in 2023.

I'll do some more digging but as i understand it, it would mean you could but their $4000 R-N2000A and still be limited to poor quality Internet radio only because Airable does not provide an index to the FLAC quality stations.

Hmmmmm curiouser and curiouser....
 

Overseas

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I do not know about this Airable technology, my 803 has the Tunein radio portal.
 

mr-audio

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I do not know about this Airable technology, my 803 has the Tunein radio portal.
How did you get Tunein on your 803? Mine does not show that app and Musicacst does not list it as supported.

of course if you are running Tunein on your phone and just pushing it to the Yamaha via Airplay or Bluetooth that completely different.
 

ZolaIII

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How did you get Tunein on your 803? Mine does not show that app and Musicacst does not list it as supported.

of course if you are running Tunein on your phone and just pushing it to the Yamaha via Airplay or Bluetooth that completely different.
He didn't... Yamaha used vTuner but they switched to Airable as vTuner had issues and started charging it's services in mid 2019.
I don't get your complaints? It would be nice if unit suported Opus regarding Internet radio but it doesn't. I don't know much people interested in or providers broadcasting losseles radio anyway. Its a nice amplifier and regarding all additional services including streaming its nice as long as they work and you are satisfied with them. Yust look at it as a free bonus not a defining future.
 
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Overseas

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Got my 803 like 2 years ago, with Tunein listed in the Musiccast.
 

mr-audio

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So a bit more on this topic. I do like to deep dive in on things like this just to try to figure out what’s going on but here’s the latest.

I did get in contact with Airable product support and they claim they DO support high resolution streams like FLAC BUT that Yamaha does not subscribe to those from Airable. I’m trying to confirm this is what Yamaha agrees is happening, whether that’s what the intent, and whether it applies to all the Yamaha gear… Which is what arable seems to be saying.
 

ZolaIII

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Probably because it's paid and 99% of users wouldn't pay for it (nor find it important) and Yamaha wouldn't pay for it 110%. What you need to understand is that used SoC - SoM streamer is very old and more on embedded industrial microcontroller level than modern SoC.
You probably still can use vTuner with old firmware if that makes you happy but you will lose some streaming services integration.
 

TonyJZX

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yamaha has a history of not fully supporting any or all applicable codecs on their streaming products. To be fair many established companies only seem to do this as an obligation.

And theyre not gonna fix shit post sales because they can fix it with a new model.

I would be suggesting no one buy these devices expecting state of the art streaming capabilities.
 

ZolaIII

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@TonyJZX and you know better turn key solution all together than Yamaha regarding streaming at this moment on market? Eager to hear about it and please show me the user ratings.
I am curious really that you show me such and with state of art software of course. Peple buy high end AVR's that are total wracks and Dolby release new codec every couple of years and some never worked as expected. On the other end of spectrum there is no realy great streaming service up to date from technical aspect including used codec. They either use lossy old one's employ bad resampling or use losseles that is absurd and cost them (and you) an arm and a leg. Things aren't much better regarding default audio implementations in leading OS-es take Android for example.
 

TonyJZX

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buy cheap discrete devices that serve your streaming purposes and get rid of them when they dont

eg. i try not buy buy any amps with digital dacs inside if i know discrete dacs are better
 

ZolaIII

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buy cheap discrete devices that serve your streaming purposes and get rid of them when they dont

eg. i try not buy buy any amps with digital dacs inside if i know discrete dacs are better
Answer me this. If analog input line of amplifier is rated to 100 dB what's the use of 120 dB SINAD DAC? To have a headroom? You do realise that you introduce 3~5 dB noise with even great shot cable patch you connect.
Pipi board is not a turn key solution by any means and those are not up to date powerful enough to do all processing average user might use. We probably won't ever have a open development friendly SoC with great DSP for audio applications, those hopes died with Huawei ban.
You do realise there are much worse similar or more priced solo power amplifiers than one we are discussing hire that got ASR recommendation. Take Rotel RB-1070 as the last one reviewed for example.
 
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