★★★★★ 5
Excellent AVR!
Style: Receiver
Our projector in our home theater died and I updated to a 4K projector. I was using a 10 year old Onkyo receiver. It was still working fine, but being that old it did not have the latest audio codecs or 4K HDMI, so I decided to go ahead and upgrade my AVR.
I had bought a relatively inexpensive Yamaha for our living room TV a few years ago and have been pleased with its performance. I looked at the RX-A2A and RX-A4A. After reading numerous reviews and tests, I decided to go with the A2A, since it was on sale and much less expensive. The difference in features were not important to me. I only need one HDMI output and only have three inputs. While the A4A has a more powerful amp and better power supply, I thought the A2A would be sufficient since our home theater is "cozy" about the same size as a living room. My speakers in my 7.1 setup are very efficient and we play music and videos at a reasonable loudness.
Still, I was concerned that the A2A would match the performance of the Onkyo with its beefier power supply and more power. My fears were soon put to rest.
After swapping out the units, I set up the A2A. It only took 10 minutes, including running YPAO to calibrate the system. I designed the room carefully and it has acoustic treatments, including bass traps. Therefore, the adjustments made by YPAO were minimal. We watched "No Time to Die", which has a well-regarded soundtrack full of dialog, music and special effects, including some beefy LFE. The A2A handled it all with aplomb, even at a higher-than-normal volume setting. I felt there was a noticeable improvement in audio quality. My adult son, who didn't know I upgraded to the Yamaha, remarked how the audio sounded more balanced and refined, which he attributed my sound treatments (he'd already heard the Onkyo after I had installed them).
Video quality is also excellent, seamlessly passing the HDR 4K signal to the projector. Although I'm frugal and didn't want to upgrade my AVR, I'm glad I did. I'm also glad I went with the A2A.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2024
