Yamaha R-S202 Receiver Review

[Putter]

As an old school analog guy, I appreciate the bass control centered on 50 hz which gives an extended bass for most bookshelf speakers rather than the more common 100 hz which simply makes them more boomy. Also the bass and treble controls are on the front, what no menus to navigate through! I'd still probably come up with the extra 50 to 100 bucks to get a 5.1 receiver because I'm also a multichannel guy. Yes I know that's digital.

 

[Billy Budapest]

You don't consider sending them to this site and to loads of youtube 'influencers' marketing?

Compared to the marketing budget and advertising spend for Yamaha? No, I don’t.

 

[Tangband]

You gotta love Yamaha, (almost) everything they do they do it well. This amp costs peanuts, looks nice, works well and probably will last and be seriously customer supported more than most of the current low cost SINAD wonders.

Yamaha are generally very reliable and will probably last more than a decade. But they are stuck in the -80. Both with design and technology. A WiiM amp has better performance and also have a streamer . To me Yamaha products seems to be reliable but only ” good enough” in the sound department in their budget gear.

 

[pavuol]

Service manual is available online;

View attachment 352799 View attachment 352801 View attachment 352802

this!

1. the level of precision/detail of the manual
2. now show me the service manuals of "baby" brands! [if there are any]

 

[Hart]

Not a bad bang for the buck. I always liked the old NAD 7100/7400, I think I would buy a used one for around the same money. I think it had one of the best aesthetic designs for a receiver as well. Also professional materialist Ken Rockwell likes it.

 

[Golf]

This is what Yamaha states about the tuner section:

40 Station AM/FM Preset Tuning

All your stations. Register up to 40 favorite FM and AM stations, then conveniently select them from either the receiver or the remote control. Auto preset lets you automatically search for and register FM stations. Frequencies appear on the display, so when you want to listen to a new station, you can quickly and easily dial it in.

 

[thewas]

Yamaha are generally very reliable and will probably last more than a decade. But they are stuck in the -80. Both with design and technology. A WiiM amp has better performance and also have a streamer . To me Yamaha products seems to be reliable but only ” good enough” in the sound department in their budget gear.

Personally and especially in that price class "good enough" is enough for me and reliability and support count much more than the confidence of a high(er) SINAD. Also this class AB amp doesn't change the FR as much depending on the loudspeaker impedance as the WiiM you mention, which can be actually a really audible issue!

 

[3125b]

Needs a Sub out and base management

It has preamp output, and any sub I‘ve seen has a low pass filter.
Can‘t really expect a crossover at that price, actual AVRs start at about double this.
Edit: Not sure if those are line or pre outputs, actually. The latter are usually labeled as the former, but who knows. I can measure that if I don‘t forget.

it is a pitty that the tuner section has not been tested.

I‘ve bought the version with DAB for a workshop (paird with some old Arcus speakers), it works totally fine, just like any other radio tuner.
As far as FM goes I'm not sure about the situation in the US, but over here unless you're outside and armed with a good antenna, reception is terrible, making the performance of the tuner secondary.
Digital radio is nice to have at work though and it works well even with smaller stations. Internet radio of course is more versatile still - I listened to Bongo Radio from Tanzania just recently (it's exactly what you would expect), but can't ask for that built in for 200 bucks.

Perfect for the Garage or Basement with your basic 2 channel setup. For $200 you are getting quite a nice receiver.

It is. Good connectivity and digital radio tuner (R-S202D, paid about 185€ a few months ago), plenty of power and hopefully good reliability.
IN Europe it‘s by far the cheapest product in its class from an manufacturer that I have any confidence in.

And no, even if it weren‘t for digital radio, buying some 20 year old higher end receiver is not an option for a business. Sure, it could last another 20 years, but it could break tomorrow and then I‘m right back where I started wasting more time on it.

 

[TonyJZX]

104w class a/b at $200 isnt bad

its a dirty 104w but its still 104w

also at $200 maybe save up a bit more for the AS501 etc?

to me the built quality is.... errghhh.... not something i want to deal with at any price

another way to go is a lightly used RN600a

Yamaha R-N600A (Black)

Stereo receiver with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Apple AirPlay® 2

www.crutchfield.com

i've seen these new at very good prices and even better 2nd hand

it seems people upgrade from these a lot?

 

[Tovarich007]

All in all, that's a good device, with a lot of functionnalities. By a good brand well distributed all over the world, with a good reputation of reliabiity (having owned several Yam products for decades without any serious problem, I can assume this).

As for me, the only problem is the audible "on/off pops", this could be easily corrected by Yam, i hope they'll do it.
The PS noise in the bass isn't so much an issue on music or soundtracks. Of course, that's far from perfect but audibly not so crucial.

For 200 €, maybe a little less, what could we ask for more ?

 

[pavuol]

reddit:

 

[amirm]

reddit:

I got a kick out of using single sided board and having to put all those jumpers in there. Years ago there was a big difference in cost of single vs double sided PCB. I think it is a lot less premium today, making that choice dubious. With double sided PCB they could optimize the layout much more than with jumpers.

 

[Golf]

Looks like the »feet« are nothing less but heavily embosses portions of the bottom plate

 

[AudioSceptic]

Poor pot?

I don't think so. I've seen this before, if only I could remember where. In any case, I wouldn't expect to use either "tone" control.

 

[DSJR]

This is ridiculous value. I can remember when 100 W/ch, 8Ω, was very serious power, and 0.01 % distortion an impressive figure. Shame about the speaker terminals, but then you also save on not needing banana plugs.

I'm old enough to remember the top model (before the exalted classic pre-powers came out) CA800 and CA1000 having those nip-up speaker connectors. Amazon here do some sturdy pigtails with 4mm sockets and I use them on the second system currently with a Sony TA-S2 'La Scala' amp which came to me cheap with the usual speaker relay fault easily fixed.


I've not read the posts in between yet, but can anyone suggest how this compares with the 201 amplifier which may still be available? The specs are far-east naughty quoting power at 10% (FFS!) but I assumed it to be a typical 70WPC or so at more conventional distortion levels.. I ask because *most* FM is pretty dire in the UK these days and not as much the high fidelity source it once was, sadly.

 

[AudioSceptic]

This is ridiculous value. I can remember when 100 W/ch, 8Ω, was very serious power, and 0.01 % distortion an impressive figure. Shame about the speaker terminals, but then you also save on not needing banana plugs.

For some perspective, see <https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/quad/405.shtml> and <https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/quad/606.shtml>. There are many others I could pick, but those are so well known.

Edit: those are power amps, of course with *no* preamp functions, but I'm just comparing power & distortion.

 

[DSJR]

Not sure I agree with this but it is an interesting question. Who is the average buyer for this thing, in this price and feature bracket, with 5 input devices that they want to feed with analog RCA? What in the world are the analog outs going to? It's not even a tape loop.

I suspect in real life these spend a lot of time on Bluetooth duty, and at the same time I suspect their Bluetooth implementation and codecs are ancient.

You can compare this to a WiiM, I bet for the target market's needs they'd be better off going to Craigslist and finding a much fancier AVR a few years older.

Vintage simple system owners like me who don't have the free dosh to spend on exalted audio confectionary and need an amp/receiver. No interest in AVR's of old here although our market never really embraced AV larger format as the US did.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Trying to think if Yamaha is the only Golden Age hi-fi vendor that hasn't repeatedly traded hands, gone defunct or just broken up for parts. Denon and Marantz merged and were bought out. Pioneer came apart, the home audio part merged with Onkyo, that's been passed around and is barely hanging on. What's left of Harman is under Samsung. Sony remains, but Sony Home Audio is barely a going concern. Kenwood merged with JVC but I don't think they've made home stereo gear for decades.

Maybe the secret is also selling pianos? Outboard motors?

Are there any other companies that make such a disparate range of products, all pretty good and some SOTA? Or is just a "badge"?

 

[milosz]

No test of the tuner? Tsk tsk. Even Stereo Review tested tuners. What's this world coming to? I'll tell ya, back in my day.... etc and so forth.

But- no test of Bluetooth. Hmmm.

And - I'm surprised there no phono input. You'd think a stereo receiver would have a phono stage, even at these low prices.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Thanks for the review.
Interesting device.
That's plenty of power for the price !

In Europe, I see the R-S202D (the same but with with DAB tuner instead of AM, if I'm not mistaken) around 300€.

Yes, "our" version has DAB. (AM is unlistenable anywhere but in a car, and maybe even that's a stretch.)