Yamaha Aventage RX-A8A, RX-A6A and RX-A4A

All Images Credit: Yamaha

Yamaha’s new premium Aventage AV receiver range, the RX-A8A, RX-A6A and RX-A4A AVRs have taken one giant leap for mankind by offering full HDMI 2.1 connectivity and  support for all of their seven HDMI 8K inputs. This is a major leap over all of their competitors who only offer one HDMI 2.1 8K input connection. Furthermore, these new offerings avoid the 2.1 bug found in their lower cost RX-Vx and TSR-x series receivers and several Denon and Marantz receivers, by fully supporting pass through of 4K at 120Hz from Xbox Series X consoles and NVIDIA RTX30 high-end PC gaming cards.

With all seven HDMI 2.1 ports supporting 8K all models are a gamers dream being able to simultaneously connect to high-end PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and NVIDIA RTX30 high-end PC gaming cards with plenty of ports to spare.

Yamaha has promised that all seven HDMI ports of this series will support all of the key next-generation gaming features of 8K at 60Hz; 4K at 120Hz; variable refresh rates; Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) for switching displays into game mode when a game source is detected; Quick Frame Transport to decrease display latency; and the VRR-based Quick Media Switching feature for eliminating the black out period that you often get when switching between different video modes/frame rates. They are also ready for 8K video should these sources ever appear, as well as allowing pass-through of both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ premium HDR formats.

While these video features are truly top of the line, Yamaha have not skimped on the audio side either. All three models support DTS:X and Dolby Atmos object-based sound processing using a brand new Qualcomm QCS 407 smart audio chip. This quad-core audio decoder and processor supports a vast range of formats and provides Auro-3D support for the RX-A8A and RX-A6A. Both of these models also using Dual ESS SABRE ES9026PRO Ultra DACs for the ultimate high-performance audio conversion and a 120dB dynamic range.

All three models also support:

• Yamaha’s proprietary Surround:AI. A realtime analysis feature that is said to pick out and enhance various sound elements in order to maximize impact.
• Yamaha’s Parametric room Acoustic Optimiser (YPAO) that works in tandem with Reflected Sound Control (RSC), multi-point measuring, precision EQ controls and a new low-frequency mode, all designed to optimize your rooms acoustic performance.
• A compressed music enhancer.

All Aventage models offer the latest convenience features you’d expect to find in 2021 high end AVR’s, to include:

• Wi-Fi playback
• AirPlay 2
• Spotify Connect
• Amazon Music HD/Deezer/Spotify/Tidal/Qobuz streaming,
• Multi-room audio
• Voice control via Alexa, Google and Siri
• Two-way control via software integration drivers connecting to home automation and smart home control systems.

Optimized symmetrical audio signal paths and plenty of low distortion, fast power is available from the new ‘high slew rate’ power amplifiers that are said to deliver twice the performance level of the power amplifiers used in the previous Aventage models.

Attention has also been given to each receivers mechanical construction, with a newly designed internal H-cross frame improving rigidity and the newly designed Anti-Resonance Technology (A.R.T.) Wedge, which together with double bottom structure dampens much more vibrations from the internal components like the power transformer, heat sinks, as well as vibrations that might be caused by the sound from the speakers. All these improvements, Yamaha says helps in, “providing dynamic sound and focused, accurate reproduction”.

Let us hope that the promised features* listed below, that are part of a future firmware upgrade, do not run into any “buggy” issues!

For further technical details visit the Yamaha web site.

See here for my first post of three on the HDMI 2.1 bug.

See here for details on the Yamaha HDMI 2.1 bug fix.