"Official" Yamaha RX-A1000/RX-A2000/RX-A3000 thread - Page 13

I'd be interested to know if DSD is compatible with Pure Direct mode, which employs zero processing other than signal conversion (Pure Direct will convert digital to analog on even my old HTR-5860).

Can the A2000/A3000 use the Cinema DSP modes with TrueHD or DTS-HD source material?

I don't known if anyone has actually tried it yet, but it should be supported. Unlike the A1000, the manuals for the 2000/3000 do not mention a limitation, and the reason would be that the 2000/3000 have two DSPs instead of just one in the 1000.

If the A1000/2000/3000 use the same DACs as the V1067/2067/3067, then there's some info in the link posted here.

It says the 3067 uses the DSD1796 DACs, which were used in the Z11 and accept DSD directly with no conversion. But the 1067 and 2067 use PCM1789 DACs which do not accept DSD directly. The service manuals are nowhere to be seen, so I can't verify that this applies to the A series, but I would guess it does (i.e. probably only the A3000 can play DSD without conversion to PCM in Pure Direct mode).

I own the RX-A2000

It bangs.

Compared directly to my old HK AVR-745 the overall sound is much more in your face... Watching movies on this with the sound even at around 10.0 db's you will jump anytime something blows up :-)

I am very verrrrrry impressed so far. I've been busy with work but I have a ton of pictures... and yes you can go to town tweaking the setup crossovers are all independent per speaker (and sub's - I use 2 subs and I can change it for either) The UI for the entire setup is great. I've used the AVR for long enough now to really enjoy the features. Should have some more free time soon but this things great so far. 0 issues.

Oh and it does do a great job turning a basic 480p signal into a clean looking 1080p signal. (same for 720p and 1080i) 480p just has the largest impact on my setup.

Overall - VERY - happy with this unit. I blow my shampoo bottles off of the shower 2 rooms away watching the intro to swordfish. It was awesome.

Did you try using the Cinema DSP modes with TrueHD or DTS-HD source material?

2 subs is a plus :-) and the UI on the screen for the manual setup of the bass management and bass boost on this unit make it easy as pie to crank the entire bass up when you really want to show off to your buds.

however the pure raw power I get out of this unit to punch the bass into the room (you know the feeling) - surpasses the older HK unit. So i've been noticing the largest gaps from my older receiver during any and all action scenese and explosions... yamaha always does great at that but this really shakes the house!

best $1,000 bucks i've spent in a while. (If your looking for this unit call ahead I got a few hundred off of MSRP just by 1 phone call)

Yes - worked fine. I was messing with the virtual cinema DSP 3d mode the other night... however i was a few beers deep at the moment so I can't recall exactly how it sounded... it worked fine though.. I got sound from ALL Cinema DSP modes.

The True HD still sounds the best imo... but the different modes are fun to screw around with... but really they are for 2 channel signals.. makes listening to Pandora (or any internet radio) a blast.

I found that using zone's with some of the DSP modes really complement each other and the house when in party mode. Like for example some of the club / warehouse modes sound great as they echo through the house.

Fun features and easy to change through - definately different with the 30 or so DSP modes they give you now... lol

Now my next step would be to add the front pressence and try out the Cinema DSP 3d mode - havn't done that one yet. Just need some extra time to rewire some speakers and run some setups.

Oh - not sure if anyone else has messed with the "seating" position setups????

I did and then switched back but the unit lets you setup up to 8 seating / listening positions... I havn't messed with that feature yet...

I might run the setup for that this weekend...

Thanks froh. Always good to hear user impressions.
I'm also looking into RX-A2000 as a replacement to my trusty old
RX-V2095. I hope more owners will post their impressions (both + & -)

I got the A1000 about 2 weeks ago and have been absolutely loving it. Fantastic piece of gear, nothing but the best things to say about it. So I got home after a very long day today and grabbed a beer and threw on a record. Apparently I had not played a record through it since I bought it (it replaced a RX-V2065) and wow, what an instant noticeable difference. I dont know what quite it is but the record instantly sounded better then it ever did on the 2065. It totally caught me off guard. Just wanted to throw that out there.

This is good news. Tx!

thanks for your mini reviews guys, keepem' coming. just adding to our anticipation.

These mini-reviews are leaving me with high expectations of the A3000.

deadnbrkn84,

Glad to hear your thought on 2 channel audio. Surround sound is surround sound, but an AVR must have a competent 2 channel audio section for my money. If is doesn't, then it's just like any other AVR in my opinion.


Willie

+1

So on the A3000 looks to me like you can have a 11.2 system AND still have Zone2 using external amplification. However I don't have any desire to run rear presence speakers.

But I might later add front presence speakers. Who has these and how much benefit do you get from them? How good of quality do front presence speakers need to be? I have 3 large very good quality main speakers, will adding some piddly little front presence speakers ruin my sound? Would a 60-watt amp be plenty for something like that as well?

Yes, I dont know what it is but I recently purchased a Pro-ject Debut III and have started a record collection. I honestly never thought I'd purchase a record in my life (being 26 years old) but there is just something about the sound of vinyl and the tangible feel it has, grabbing a record putting it on the player etc. This all being said I feel like when listening to vinyl or critically listening to any musing for that reason I feel like 2ch is the only way to go. It would be nice to have a mode on the AVR to shut the sub off and just listen with ONLY the right and left channel (I dont think this is possible is it?).

This AVR really does a fantastic job of 2ch music, I couldn't believe how good that record sounded last night when I put it on. It definitely sounded the best a record has ever sounded on my system.

My older RX-V730 "speaker set" menu (I think it is) gives you the choice of outputting bass thru the mains, the sub, or both. Not sure if these have anything similar, aside from the crossover setting (small/large). Pretty sure it's not something that can be done easily on the fly in any case.

If you select 2Ch Stereo, or push the Pure Direct with a 2 ch input - it will only play the front 2 channels and not send signal to the sub.

I know I can go through the menu's in the speaker settings and turn off the sub and just point the bass to the mains but it would be nice to be able to do this quickly without having to go through a bunch of menu's.

Pure Direct doesn't use a sub? Interesting, well that will work. Whats interesting is that when you use Pure Direct mode I know it's the "purest" route with no signal processing but why does it turn off the front screen etc.?

it says sound programs, tone control, PEQ Select and Adaptive DRC are all disabled in Pure Direct, as well as the on screen.
Also from Yamaha:
Pure Direct bypasses the units’ decoders and DSP processors as well as shuts down the video circuitry, allowing for the highest possible audio fidelity from analog and PCM sources. Direct Stereo bypasses the units’ decoders and DSP processors to allow for the highest possible audio fidelity from analog and PCM sources. Straight switches the sound fields off and bypasses the DSP processor.

Why don't you configure your front speakers as "Large"? Then only the LFE channel and low-frequency components in other channels will go to the sub AFAIK. Of course that only works if your speakers can handle the low frequency components in the music you listen to.

I've got Paradigm Monitor 11's so they are fairly large and should be able to handle a decent amount of bass.

So to get this correct, whatever speakers I set to large will receive LFE and the ones that are set to small will have their LFE sent to the sub? How does this work when the crossover frequency comes into effect? For example if they are all set to small but the global crossover is set to 60hz then will they still take lows down to 60hz then pass it off to the sub? As of right now I have them all set to "small" but the global crossover is set to 60hz, so I was under the impression that the speakers where handling the lows down to 60hz then passing it off to the sub. Am I wrong? So what's the point in setting the speakers to small vs. large?

Thanks for the help.

That that would be correct then and as long as your surrounds can handle 60hz fine, then thats what I would do as well. Remember, if you select 2Ch Stereo then the fronts will get full range regardless of size you set. You can test this by setting our xover to something very high and turning your sub off and switching it back and forth.
With my speakers, if I set the fronts to large then in surround modes I sometimes get too much bass with the fronts and sub both pounding away.

I'm playing with that now, so then what does the "Extra Bass" setting do. It's greyed out until you set the fronts to Large then the feature is available. Know what it does?

The LFE channel is a separate channel in (movie) surround sound, it's the .1 in 5.1 en 7.1. If a subwoofer is connected, it will output the LFE channel, regardless of other configurations. This channel contains frequencies in the range of 3-120 Hz, according wikipedia at least. Stereo music (left and right channels) is supposed to be audible I guess so only contains frequencies of 20Hz and higher.

The "small" speaker setting + crossover frequency is used if the left/right/center/surround speakers cannot reproduce all audible low frequency content. AFAIK music doesn't usually reach 20Hz but only 30 or 35Hz so most floorstanding speakers qualify as "Large"...

IMO front presence is a necessity if you use a front projector, the dialog lift is very effective and the 3d effects work very very well. The dark night is a great example as it has a very eerie high pitched sound through alot of the movie to add tension, with front presence this is projected high over your head and kind of looms down on the audience. Obviously effects such as rain etc work very well too, but that eerie sound from the dark night really took me by surprise probably because it only exists in the front sound stage so was very apparent.

as for speaker match i chose a small pair of bookshelf speakers from the same range as my fronts, really you want to try and match the tweeters as there is not really any bass coming through them. For that reason a 60 watt amp would be ample and the z11 only has 50 watt on hand for presence.

up untill now the only receivers that had the ability to run front presence with a 7ch theater at the same time was/is the Z9 and Z11. Its a great time to be in the market!

any speakers used for presence will be an improvement IMO over no presence, try to match tweeters/ upper frequency response.





my understanding is extra bass used to be bass out both, effectively sharing lfe with sub and front speakers, this means that in all modes but pure direct the sub will kick in, another thing to consider is 2ch stereo mode will utilise the room correction from the YPAO and can sound very very good.