Yamaha R-N803 Smart Receiver Review

[GXAlan]

You can get them in the U.S. from Yamaha Parts’ website.

 

[reggiegasket]

I have a 803D and I've found the YPAO does change the sound slightly, but not so much 'improve' it. The sound is a tad smoother with it engaged but in my room (my workshop) it's not a big deal so I tend to leave it switched off, as I sometimes alter the tone controls when I'm listening really loud

I've been impressed with the 803 though. It has plenty of grunt, has a decent DAC, is well built, and has nice controls and plenty of options, such as a USB HDD input. The MusicCast app is a tad clunky, and sometimes falls out with Tidal, but on the whole it's a good amp, in my view. I still lust after a 2000A but that's beyond my budget.

 

[bdvan]

The new replacement for N-803 is N-800A which is now going for $999, there are few used N-803 units in $800+ range most from Japan which carries the risk of serviceability. Besides the features and cosmetic changes, does the new model do better in audio quality? something similar to quality offered by A-S701/801.

 

[ZolaIII]

The new replacement for N-803 is N-800A which is now going for $999, there are few used N-803 units in $800+ range most from Japan which carries the risk of serviceability. Besides the features and cosmetic changes, does the new model do better in audio quality? something similar to quality offered by A-S701/801.

Nope, try to find A-S700 for cheap and pair it with great DSP.

 

[bdvan]

Nope, try to find A-S700 for cheap and pair it with great DSP.

I purchased a A-S701, however I am finding all the workarounds one need to do to get a good quality integration for modern times (less physical players and more digital sources) is daunting. Even with miniDSP + Umik etc. it adds up $500+ cost on top of the amp and time spent to learn SW/integration is not trivial. If there was a good DSP that is user friendly to implement and has reliable interface I would probably keep the A-S701. Thoughts?

 

[Bernard23]

I purchased a A-S701, however I am finding all the workarounds one need to do to get a good quality integration for modern times (less physical players and more digital sources) is daunting. Even with miniDSP + Umik etc. it adds up $500+ cost on top of the amp and time spent to learn SW/integration is not trivial. If there was a good DSP that is user friendly to implement and has reliable interface I would probably keep the A-S701. Thoughts?

Use Roon as your source and do your dsp there, or Wiim? You shouldn't need more than 4 filters to fix the worst room nodes, all of which will be under 200Hz.

 

[Bernard23]

Nope, try to find A-S700 for cheap and pair it with great DSP.

It's got a pre out / power in?

 

[bdvan]

Use Roon as your source and do your dsp there, or Wiim? You shouldn't need more than 4 filters to fix the worst room nodes, all of which will be under 200Hz.

Roon starts at $1400 (and looks like out of stock)

 

[Bernard23]

Roon starts at $1400 (and looks like out of stock)

I'm referring to the software, not their hardware. You can subscribe monthly to it and install it onto a PC. It can connect to multiple "Roon ready" devices as end points, but it has a really comprehensive DSP suite.

 

[ZolaIII]

I purchased a A-S701, however I am finding all the workarounds one need to do to get a good quality integration for modern times (less physical players and more digital sources) is daunting. Even with miniDSP + Umik etc. it adds up $500+ cost on top of the amp and time spent to learn SW/integration is not trivial. If there was a good DSP that is user friendly to implement and has reliable interface I would probably keep the A-S701. Thoughts?

Well then it adds more, Dirac will work rather fine. Get a MiniDSP Flex HT and plug WiiM mini to it. WiiM alone can handle one to two room modes and one or two peeks but it will hardly be enough, eventually if you are lucky (regarding room and placement).

It's got a pre out / power in?

Didn't get you there? You meen loop? What ti have is best unbalanced analog inputs Yamaha has to offer and you probably can find used one's for less than 250 $/€ or around 500 for a new if you are lucky to find one. Amplifier is the same with newer A-S 70x/80x line.

 

[ZolaIII]

I'm referring to the software, not their hardware. You can subscribe monthly to it and install it onto a PC. It can connect to multiple "Roon ready" devices as end points, but it has a really comprehensive DSP suite.

It's a garbage even compared to much cheaper JRiver and far less usable but I whose talking about stand alone ADC-DSP-DAC with very good performance and 4 to 8 output chenels.

 

[Bernard23]

It's a garbage even compared to much cheaper JRiver and far less usable but I whose talking about stand alone ADC-DSP-DAC with very good performance and 4 to 8 output chenels.

Are you saying Roon is garbage? I've not heard / read that claim anywhere, and Amir uses it for corrections (if that means anything)

 

[ZolaIII]

Are you saying Roon is garbage? I've not heard / read that claim anywhere, and Amir uses it for corrections (if that means anything)

Can't be applied to everything, doesn't have equal loudness, work's much worse (use a lot more CPU resources for nothing) and of course costs more (much more over the time) and now it's a part of Samsung so who knows what will happen with it. Actually even EQ-APO is better and costs nothing at all.

 

[Bernard23]

Well then it adds more, Dirac will work rather fine. Get a MiniDSP Flex HT and plug WiiM mini to it. WiiM alone can handle one to two room modes and one or two peeks but it will hardly be enough, eventually if you are lucky (regarding room and placement).

Didn't get you there? You meen loop? What ti have is best unbalanced analog inputs Yamaha has to offer and you probably can find used one's for less than 250 $/€ or around 500 for a new if you are lucky to find one. Amplifier is the same with newer A-S 70x/80x line.

Wiim have already confirmed they will add at least 2, possibly 4 more filters. That's more than enough to mitigate the worst room acoustics. I use 4 channels to eliminate the biggest spike / trough in my room and makes a huge difference. Far more than swapping a as501 for an as700 I'll bet.
Pre out / main in is a loop yes. You need that to add MiniDSP device for example. Tbh, I'm happy using Roon or Wiim to make the corrections, I'm not after perfection, I just want to eliminate 3 obvious bass spikes that I have, most likely due to floppy floors and hollow walls.

 

[Bernard23]

Can't be applied to everything, doesn't have equal loudness, work's much worse (use a lot more CPU resources for nothing) and of course costs more (much more over the time) and now it's a part of Samsung so who knows what will happen with it. Actually even EQ-APO is better and costs nothing at all.

EQ APO only works in the Windows kernel process though, so not much use for exclusive / direct output? I looked at it a while ago and dismissed it.
Agreed Roon is expensive unless you appreciate it's library features, but I find it works perfectly adequately with my desktop headphone setup as well as main system.
I never use volume levelling so a non issue for me, and the only sources it can't be used with is vinyl and my FM tuner, neither of which are deserving of significant investment. Of course, ymmv etc etc

 

[ZolaIII]

Wiim have already confirmed they will add at least 2, possibly 4 more filters. That's more than enough to mitigate the worst room acoustics. I use 4 channels to eliminate the biggest spike / trough in my room and makes a huge difference. Far more than swapping a as501 for an as700 I'll bet.
Pre out / main in is a loop yes. You need that to add MiniDSP device for example. Tbh, I'm happy using Roon or Wiim to make the corrections, I'm not after perfection, I just want to eliminate 3 obvious bass spikes that I have, most likely due to floppy floors and hollow walls.

Well probably 4 PEQ's are enough for one room mode and two peaks (which is exactly what you have), but no not even comprehensive PEQ (with all filters) and infinite numbers of filters is enough. As long as you don't use high pass (and sub's) loop will work and yes A-S700 have old fashion one with mechanical input source selector for it. I do digital crossovers for the sub's (of course use high pass on mains) and lot's and lot's of stuff.

EQ-APO applies to most sources and JRiver to all trough intermediate WDM driver and of course on Windows only. That's why self stand solution is so much valued (even it's under pair in capabilities). If you didn't understand I tried to explain how to get it all for 600~1200 $/€ and standalone. Even the much cheaper MiniDSP 2x4HD (170~200 $/€) will more than do the job. And now we are talking about 500 $/€ or a bit more for second hand A-S700 and 2x4HD and UMIK-1.

 

[bdvan]

Didn't get you there? You meen loop? What ti have is best unbalanced analog inputs Yamaha has to offer and you probably can find used one's for less than 250 $/€ or around 500 for a new if you are lucky to find one. Amplifier is the same with newer A-S 70x/80x line.

@ZolaIII can you please elaborate this point (helps this new to amplifier user). There is no pre-out on A-S701, but the N800A has pre-out to connect DSP's etc.

Well then it adds more, Dirac will work rather fine. Get a MiniDSP Flex HT and plug WiiM mini to it. WiiM alone can handle one to two room modes and one or two peeks but it will hardly be enough, eventually if you are lucky (regarding room and placement).

MiniDSP FLex HT alone is $600 + Wiim mini $89 - for an extra $300 I can get a new N-800A which comes with room correction. What I would like to know is the internal amplifier setup of N800A is it same as A-S701. Means will I get S701 quality with N8000a.

I'm referring to the software, not their hardware. You can subscribe monthly to it and install it onto a PC. It can connect to multiple "Roon ready" devices as end points, but it has a really comprehensive DSP suite.

thanks, looked up their SW suite looks nice. I am not sure if I have a use case right now to pay monthly subscription. Major feature I want now is to be able to do room correction which YAPO can handle.

 

[ZolaIII]

@bdvan A-S701 has loop but only on input line 2 & 3. In order to do DSP correction to the let's say line of speakers with sub's you need multichannel DAC (each speaker and sub use its own chenel) and I believe you will want sub's. Even if amplifier has variable high pass sub out it's different when you really can shape the slopes as you want and to the math model precisely.
If you reed R-N803 review you see you get 60 W clean and same goes for R-N800A (I am speculating hire) on other hand A-S 70x & 80x give about 110 clean W (@8 Ohms of course) while max output is about the same (but with different THD).
A-S700 has old loop with mechanical source switch but you don't use loop filter whatsoever on any as it cannot hold high pass filter. A-S700 has old proprietary unbalanced analog inputs which differ from rest of 70x and 80x lines which use new less clean one (6~10 dB SNR difference) and that makes it more subtle for use with potent analog input DSP. Ypao ain't great and does cause performance degradation (as shown hire). If you can get MiniDSP Flex HT at such price consider your self lucky I can't (even for considerable more) but I can get A-S700 new for 460€. Anyway that's the best combo and worth the money if you want comprehensive DSP and really good amplifier. The quality is not an issue with Yamaha. With the cheap streamer like WiiM mini you don't really care when it stops being supported or stop working, you unplug it and plug in a new one as such thing advance fast. Of course with MiniDSP you also need UMIK-1 (preferably) and you can pass without Dirac but you have to work, if you don't want to work mostly then you pay for Dirac which does most of work for you.

 

[SiriusCanopus]

Hi guys, maybe this is not right thread, apologies if that is the case. I trying to choose between Yamaha r-n800a and Marantz 7000n. I liked the sound of Marantz, and waiting for yamaha to arrive to compare them. Can you please let me know if there any build quality issues or feature, where Marantz is preferable option? I am leaning towards yamaha even I haven't heard it yet.

 

[Overseas]

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