Yamaha R-S202 Receiver Review

[SuperDerpBro]

FINE maybe I will then! lol .. I'm still curious of the actual answer, if anyone ever sees this

 

[Angsty]

FINE maybe I will then! lol .. I'm still curious of the actual answer, if anyone ever sees this

The manual does not advise a maximum wire gauge. From my experience, 16 gauge is a good bet.

 

[DanTheMan]

You might be able to get 14 in there if you’re a surgeon.

 

[Angsty]

If you are running 12 feet or less of 16 gauge, there will be no performance hit vs 14 ga. or thicker. If your speaker EPDR stays above 2 ohms, you can run longer lengths.

Speaker Wire

 

[AayVee]

Longing for tight punchy bass! Recommendations please...


Source: Hiby R3 Pro Saber ( FLAC - Line Out 2V - 3.5mm to RCA)
Amplifier: Yamaha R-S202 - (2X100W@8ohm)
Speakers: Infinity Reference R263 Towers - 3 way (dual 6-1/2" woofers,5-1/4" flat-piston midrange, 1" dome tweeter, sensitivity 89 dB, impedance 6ohms)
Wiring: 14G OFC bi-wired using A-B speaker connectors (just coz I had the wires lying around, and also to compensate for the strands of copper stripped away to push into the flimsy speaker connectors. Speaker bridge removed.)
Room: 21X17 feet, carpeted bonus room with stair case and hallway openings.
Speaker placement - Toed in to the MLP, approx 10 feet from each speaker. 1.5feet distance on both sides and rear from the walls.

Problem: I am not getting the desired tight bass punch at moderate listening volumes (50-55 mark in the volume dial/display). Since there is no loudness control in the amp, it is not possible to get tight bass at decent volumes. Raising the the volume increases boomy bass and listening uncomfortable. I believe the R-S202 (low current amp?) is not able to provide enough power to the woofers.

Is there any economical solution to squeeze tight bass from this set up?
How about adding a Yamaha NS-SW100 10" 100W Powered Sub from Accessories4Less @ $119.00? I honestly want to keep the music set up pure 2.0.

I wish to upgrade to a Yamaha A-S701 integrated amp - but the $700 tag is pulling me back from going the audiophile way.

If I gather the courage to get the A-S701, will I get the tight bass (expectation from the 240 damping factor) from just the 2.0 R263 setup, without a sub? I missed the last week's sale for around $500.

How about Cambridge Audio AXR100 ($500) or Refurb Emotiva BasXA2 ($492 - but no bass treble controls may be a concern)?

My HT setup at living room:
Denon AVR S750H, Infinity R263C, R152 LR, Fluance 2 way bipolar surrounds, Infinity R12 sub. Audessey room corrected.

In fact, the R263 towers were LR on the HT setup and I moved them to another room for music, once I got the R-S202 in 2023 Q1, a year before Amir did this measurement. I wasnt happy with the boomy bass with the R12 sub though.

Expecting valuable suggestions from the gurus here...
Cheers
AayVee

 

[ZolaIII]

Longing for tight punchy bass! Recommendations please...


Source: Hiby R3 Pro Saber ( FLAC - Line Out 2V - 3.5mm to RCA)
Amplifier: Yamaha R-S202 - (2X100W@8ohm)
Speakers: Infinity Reference R263 Towers - 3 way (dual 6-1/2" woofers,5-1/4" flat-piston midrange, 1" dome tweeter, sensitivity 89 dB, impedance 6ohms)
Wiring: 14G OFC bi-wired using A-B speaker connectors (just coz I had the wires lying around, and also to compensate for the strands of copper stripped away to push into the flimsy speaker connectors. Speaker bridge removed.)
Room: 21X17 feet, carpeted bonus room with stair case and hallway openings.
Speaker placement - Toed in to the MLP, approx 10 feet from each speaker. 1.5feet distance on both sides and rear from the walls.

Problem: I am not getting the desired tight bass punch at moderate listening volumes (50-55 mark in the volume dial/display). Since there is no loudness control in the amp, it is not possible to get tight bass at decent volumes. Raising the the volume increases boomy bass and listening uncomfortable. I believe the R-S202 (low current amp?) is not able to provide enough power to the woofers.

Is there any economical solution to squeeze tight bass from this set up?
How about adding a Yamaha NS-SW100 10" 100W Powered Sub from Accessories4Less @ $119.00? I honestly want to keep the music set up pure 2.0.

I wish to upgrade to a Yamaha A-S701 integrated amp - but the $700 tag is pulling me back from going the audiophile way.

If I gather the courage to get the A-S701, will I get the tight bass (expectation from the 240 damping factor) from just the 2.0 R263 setup, without a sub? I missed the last week's sale for around $500.

How about Cambridge Audio AXR100 ($500) or Refurb Emotiva BasXA2 ($492 - but no bass treble controls may be a concern)?

My HT setup at living room:
Denon AVR S750H, Infinity R263C, R152 LR, Fluance 2 way bipolar surrounds, Infinity R12 sub. Audessey room corrected.

In fact, the R263 towers were LR on the HT setup and I moved them to another room for music, once I got the R-S202 in 2023 Q1, a year before Amir did this measurement. I wasnt happy with the boomy bass with the R12 sub though.

Expecting valuable suggestions from the gurus here...
Cheers
AayVee

Not even for considerable amount of money (near field oversized monitors sure but even that up to mid field). Pore people build their towers and it's still not a easy path to get there. Standalone DSP or multichannel something paird with two (or 4) 10~12" preferably closed bufel design (2.2 stereo). It doesn't have to be expensive but it adds up anyway and good standalone DSP's aren't exactly with good availability in most parts of the world and even with such you won't get more than basic equal loudness compensation and will stil nead to apply filters by hand. Other way involve PC and audio card or interface which for most creators is not a problem, add in and good part of general population which is ready to hustle with it. Today you can get a mini (ATX - TX) brick with ram and (some) storage to act as storage, server and central DSP for about 500 $ (with PCI-E audio card) tho add around 100$ for software and you are there (not really you still have to do it you only have hardware and software that far).

 

[DanTheMan]

Boomy bass is a room issue. You're going to have to move the speakers and/or listening position, get EQ, or go insane with room treatments. Usually pulling them further from the walls will help, but room modes can be tricky so don't give up if that doesn't work.

I wouldn't throw money at it unless you have exhausted all other possibilities. Listening position and speaker position are by far the biggest issues you are dealing with.

Here's the published speaker response:

 

[Power Pop 23]

Accessories 4 Less dot com is currently selling refurbished Yamaha R-S202 receivers with a 1 year Yamaha warranty for $118.

Accessories4less: High End Audio at Low End Prices!

www.accessories4less.com

 

[Sure Not]

Unpopular opinion: I like spring clips.

 

[mhardy6647]

Unpopular opinion: I like spring clips.

If you'd like some affirmation: They never really bothered me (either)

 

[aagstn]

Unpopular opinion: I like spring clips.

I never had an issue until I had one snap off years ago. Haven't had a problem with banana plugs.

 

[Rottmannash]

Oh, but the microscopic wire to clip interface... I hated them as the wires would pull out at the most inopportune moments.

 

[peterp]

We bought an R-S201 (same receiver without bluetooth) in 2016 for around $130 to replace a dead 1980s 30wpc Technics in a vacation house. We hated it from day one. I can't give the main reasons why without using audiophile terms, suffice it to say to my ears the sound was...less? There has been some discussion of the tuner; our house is rather isolated and the Yamaha has trouble getting some stations we like. We now have a vintage B&O system there as well and the tuner gets every station we like effortlessly. On the plus side the R-S201 is simple, rugged (standing up over the years to rambunctious kids, and visiting in-laws who like to pile things on top of it), and has plenty of power to handle two sets of speakers at once (though not any better than the Technics it replaced).

My son recently bought an AS501 and was reluctant to tell me because he knew how strongly I felt about this receiver.

I created an ASR account just to comment on this message -- that's how much I agree with @dr0ss. I had the Yamaha R-S201, bought brand new from Best Buy, for about one hour, and I've never heard a worse receiver in my life. Not even close to any this bad. The bass output was weak, and it sounded awful overall. I was using Polk main speakers, and even when I added a Klipsch 12-inch sub, it still sounded awful with weak bass (my thought was bass is rolled off on speaker-level outputs, so the sub didn't work as well as it otherwise might). The Yamaha worked for about 15 minutes, then it just went silent and wouldn't work at all -- never even went over moderately loud volume. I have small Nobsound and Fosi amps at half the price that I would take over this Yamaha by a million miles.

I'm new to ASR as a member, but have been a fan of the ASR testing data as a backup to my listening experiences -- but do these ASR tests actually listen to what the equipment sounds like? I'm not trying to stir the pot with this question -- but I agree with @dr0ss that this thing sounds awful. It's possible I got a dud, but when I look at detailed reviews (e.g. going through all of the reviews on Amazon, sorting by "most recent") -- there are a lot of 5-star reviews (probably from those with less audio experience given the price point) but also a lot of 1 and 2 star reviews complaining about sound quality, bass, reliability. I think those 1 and 2 star reviews are telling -- certainly reflects what I experienced.

I think Yamaha's integrated that are a few steps up are very good (including your son's AS-501). I think the "telltale" of which Yamahas are good and which suck, sound quality wise, can be seen in what they use for specs. The measurement conditions for the R-S201 are a joke (each spec is isolated -- e.g 10-100khz FR with no power info -- power ratings are peak with 1khz signal). The fact that they use radically different and meaningless specs for the low-end, and valid specs (continuous RMS, 20-20khz, at rated distortion) for the better amps, is telltale that they are hiding very poor performance.

I'd be curious of what other feel about the sound quality they hear with with receiver.

I also think Accessories4Less warning that "CAN ONLY USE 8 OHM SPEAKERS. WILL NOT ALLOW A+B TO PLAY TOGETHER UNLESS SPEAKERS ARE 16 OHMS" (https://www.accessories4less.com/ma...00-watts-natural-sound-stereo-receiver/1.html) is a telltale that this amp is not that robust. They sell refurbed units -- they'd know better than most what cause them to fail. Mine lasted 15 minutes into Polk Atriums at moderate volumes before it just stopped working. I did see another poster mention they love this receiver with their Polk Atriums -- so maybe there is something inconsistent about these receivers (some are good, some are bad).

Yamaha's R-S201 specs: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/r-s201/specs.html#product-tabs

 

[Count Dacula]

I have no complaints with my RS 202, having several much better systems in use at different places. Even with the extremely competitive market for hifi, if you add up all of the features of the RS-202, it's a better value than the sum of it's parts.

 

[dr0ss]

I think the moral of this story is: if you want to buy this receiver, buy it from somewhere you can return it. If you like it, your opinion is not necessarily wrong. If you dislike it, your opinion is not necessarily wrong.

 

[trevor_bartram]

Having studied the schematics my main problem with the RS202 was the very cheap opamp used in the BT/DAC circuit & electrolytics in the signal path. Yamaha should have spent the extra few cents & used a 5532. Instead I went with a pristine used Onkyo TX8255 ($55 Ebucks) & remote control ($13 Ebucks) because it got great reviews when new & I wanted an FM tuner. They were made from 2008-2013 so no need to recap. I've been very happy with it. Cheers!

 

[billou5767]

1/ the problem you compare different model , made in different time over 15 years ..
2/ for the amp / condo we have physical mesure made in audioscience : we are happy to have people that have no human feeling to see difference that made the produc shit

 

[Bob101]

Unpopular opinion: I like spring clips.

If you're not planning on using it in a cold and/or humid (oxidation of the contacts and the stripped end of the cable) environment and don't plan on switching cables, a simple zip-cord to your speakers and a nicely stripped, hand-twisted 1 cm termination going into spring clips will give you trouble free operation for decades. People buying this unit tend to use it in this way. It might not take 10 or 12 gauge, but simple 14 or 16 gauge copper wire won't kill your amp, spekers nor your ears, and the difference in SQ is negligible at normal volumes. Spring clips work just fine.
I don't like them, but who am I to judge?

 

[peterp]

1/ the problem you compare different model , made in different time over 15 years ..
2/ for the amp / condo we have physical mesure made in audioscience : we are happy to have people that have no human feeling to see difference that made the produc shit

The mistake is thinking that the tests, which are no doubt accurate for what they measure, are a perfect evaluation of sound quality. By your logic of looking only at data, almost nothing (of any component intending to be high quality) sounds bad, because even the worst amps specs show flaws that are largely inaudible. Music is a million times more complex than test signals, actually a billion or a trillion.

In many decades of audio, and having owned probably 50+ amps/receivers over the years, and having worked with many more, I've had two amps that sound definitively bad. One was this low-end Yamaha receiver, which I bought new, no variables there. The other was somewhat high-end Adcom separates, GTP-400 preamp and GFA-545 amp, which I bought new in the early 90's for maybe something like $1200 (a big investment for me at that time). The $1200 Adcom pair replaced a 10-year-old (at that time) $200 Pioneer SX-3700, and the Adcom just sounded like crap -- not just compared to the Pioneer, but everything I have owned before that or since (this Yamaha excluded). I was an idiot for not returning the Adcom, but I think I convinced myself that I had to get used to the "audiophile" sound. Since they were separates, and 6 times the cost of what I was replacing, it didn't seem plausible to me at the time that they just sucked -- and the "specs" were excellent. The Adcom sounded really bad -- dead sounding -- I don't think any audio person in the room would say otherwise. My buddy bought the models up from mine -- GTP-500 and GFA-565, and his sounded dead also. We both took the advice of an audio fanatic friend, big mistake, but we were working a million hours back then and didn't have time to do a proper search.

I'm certain both Adcoms pairs would measure great, and the Yamaha measures pretty good, but they sound like crap. Years ago I had a Krell HTS AV preamp feeding a McIntosh 6-channel amp that sounded absolutely stunning for Dolby Digital content and sounded like absolute crap for the 2-channel music. I'm sure the Krell would measure well for both 2-channel and 5.1, but it sounded the best I've ever heard for 5.1 content and horrible for 2-channel music. I like the ASR specs (and used them to pick a mid-priced DAC) as a supplement to listening, but things can measure good or very good and sound like crap. It's not that the tests are lying, but they just aren't comprehensive for the the complexities of infinitely complex music signals.

 

[billou5767]

The mistake is thinking that the tests, which are no doubt accurate for what they measure, are a perfect evaluation of sound quality. By your logic of looking only at data, almost nothing (of any component intending to be high quality) sounds bad, because even the worst amps specs show flaws that are largely inaudible. Music is a million times more complex than test signals, actually a billion or a trillion.

In many decades of audio, and having owned probably 50+ amps/receivers over the years, and having worked with many more, I've had two amps that sound definitively bad. One was this low-end Yamaha receiver, which I bought new, no variables there. The other was somewhat high-end Adcom separates, GTP-400 preamp and GFA-545 amp, which I bought new in the early 90's for maybe something like $1200 (a big investment for me at that time). The $1200 Adcom pair replaced a 10-year-old (at that time) $200 Pioneer SX-3700, and the Adcom just sounded like crap -- not just compared to the Pioneer, but everything I have owned before that or since (this Yamaha excluded). I was an idiot for not returning the Adcom, but I think I convinced myself that I had to get used to the "audiophile" sound. Since they were separates, and 6 times the cost of what I was replacing, it didn't seem plausible to me at the time that they just sucked -- and the "specs" were excellent. The Adcom sounded really bad -- dead sounding -- I don't think any audio person in the room would say otherwise. My buddy bought the models up from mine -- GTP-500 and GFA-565, and his sounded dead also. We both took the advice of an audio fanatic friend, big mistake, but we were working a million hours back then and didn't have time to do a proper search.

I'm certain both Adcoms pairs would measure great, and the Yamaha measures pretty good, but they sound like crap. Years ago I had a Krell HTS AV preamp feeding a McIntosh 6-channel amp that sounded absolutely stunning for Dolby Digital content and sounded like absolute crap for the 2-channel music. I'm sure the Krell would measure well for both 2-channel and 5.1, but it sounded the best I've ever heard for 5.1 content and horrible for 2-channel music. I like the ASR specs (and used them to pick a mid-priced DAC) as a supplement to listening, but things can measure good or very good and sound like crap. It's not that the tests are lying, but they just aren't comprehensive for the the complexities of infinitely complex music signals.

i have write sound bad ?

i write there is mesure here , same place , same material , before and after a change of opamp or condo

if there is change in listing , but not in data its religion

there is science : your brain , and your ear its not the same at 20 and 60 : its impossible / false to says what you hear in 1990 and 2030 is good or bad : not same source , same place , same brain

the proof : you change 100 time material because YOU change