2023 may go down in history as the year that audio files finally accept HDMI into their hearts, so let's find out if Yamaha's new RN2000a stereo receiver, now with HDMI, is the perfect blend of convenience and Hi-Fi sound. [Music] The RN 2000a is a network-enabled stereo receiver. Yes, it has an FM tuner that produces 90 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 145 watts into four in short bursts. The 2000a can produce as many as 215 watts into 2-ohm loads, but again, this is dynamic power. If you need more, the Yamaha has a pair of preamp outputs for use with third-party amplifiers. You get a host of analog and digital inputs, which include a built-in phono preamp as well as USB, not to mention an HDMI with Arc input enabling it to be the centerpiece of a 2.1 stereo and home theater setup. Along with preamp bounce, there are also dedicated subwoofer outputs for maximum flexibility.

also has Bluetooth, AirPlay, Wi-Fi, Yamaha MusicCast app support, and auto room correction, and more. The A-S2000A takes a lot of design cues from the already stellar AS1200, but it adds a dash of modern convenience. The subtle piano gloss stripe along the bottom of the silver amp appears decorative at first, but in reality, it is actually the amplifier's screen, which to me is a very clever way to integrate the display. There's also an all-black chassis for an even more streamlined look, but regardless of the finish, similar to Yamaha's costly or integrated amps and receivers, the A-S2000A is built to a very high standard and exudes confidence. Despite being a modern component, it still feels mechanical, dare I say old school, which I absolutely love. Now setup is pretty straightforward, speaker terminals, inputs, and outputs, they're all clearly marked and well spaced, making connections easy. The presence of HDMI is an absolute godsend, using the Yamaha with our 98-inch TCL TV to stream both music and movies through our Apple TV 4K.

was definitely a highlight. Now, one of Yamaha's more unique features, besides HDMI, is the inclusion of Auto room correction. Now, while this is commonplace with home theater receivers, there are only actually a few stereo components with this ability. The 2000A comes with Wipeout, which is Yamaha's proprietary room EQ, which may help those of you with acoustically problematic rooms, shall we say. Unlike their AV receivers, the Wipeout process here is limited to a single position. It is 100% automated and doesn't allow for much manual adjustment, so you're just going to plug in the included mic, select the YPAO menu option, and execute. But if you use a subwoofer, YPAO will handle the bass management. Set your subwoofer's crossover to its highest setting, put the volume at about a 12 o'clock position, and then let the receiver do the rest. Just know that if you switch between Yamaha's stereo and pure direct sound mode, you will be deactivating YPAO and all of its bass management. This may

result in your system suddenly sounding very bass-heavy or worse boomy. If this happens, you can deactivate your sub or manually adjust the subwoofer when in pure direct mode to achieve a better blend between your speakers and the sub. One more note that is probably obvious to most of you, but if you make any changes to your speakers or subwoofer, let's say you get new speakers or you change their place in your room, you're going to have to rerun YPAO. While I evaluated the Yamaha with and without YPAO for this review, I am going to be describing the sound of the 2000A with YPAO turned off. We used a variety of speakers, including our Polk R700s, Q Acoustic Concept 50s, Bowers and Wilkins 805 D4s, the Klipsch RP8000F Mark II, and Martin Logan's brand new Motion XTF100 towers and B100 bookshelves. The Yamaha drove all of them to perfection.

making it very difficult for me to pick a favorite because well they all sounded great. The Yamaha epitomizes neutrality like a lot of Yamaha's more recent crop of amplifiers and receivers. The 2008 does not impart a lot of flavor, if any, into the mix, making it an ideal candidate if you're shopping for an amplifier that isn't going to color the sound of your favorite speakers. Where the Yamaha sets itself apart isn't in its tone or character, but in its control, spaciousness, separation, and detail retrieval. For example, the 2000 A's control of Martin Logan's New Motion speaker, the F-100, and its triple woofers resulted in bass that was equal parts depth to detail. Even the mildly more bass-heavy R700s exhibited terrific reflexes down low, regardless of the pairing. Bass notes are not accentuated or made to feel grippier than what the recording calls for. Instead, low notes are well dampened and full of texture, similar to the Denon PMA A110 and the

Audio Lab 9000a, which puts the Yamaha in great company. The Yamaha's colorless mid-range and neutral treble performance was an ideal pairing for Martin Logan's fmt Tweeter, Klipsch's titanium Tweeter, as well as Bowers and Wilkins Diamond. One allowing each speaker to retain their trademark sound. In other words, if you are looking for an amplifier to be a tone control for a troublesome speaker, the Yamaha ain't it. Now, when it comes to detail retrieval and separation, here's where the Yamaha steps to the front of the pack. The Yamaha excels at presenting performers and instruments with greater contrast and separation. The Audio Lab 9000a is its closest competitor, but both amps give you that sort of exploded view of the recorded event regardless of the format. And this is also heard throughout the sound stage where the Yamaha possesses what I can only describe as the deepest, widest, and most separated stage we have in-house. Imaging isn't hindered at all. If anything, recordings appear from one of the starkest backgrounds I've heard.

this side of the Technics r1000. That said, if you like a more forward, or say, front-of-stage presence, similar to say, the Rotel 1592 Mark II, the Yamaha may come across as a little bit more laid back, placing performers and instruments a step or two behind your speakers' front baffle in comparison. Now, dynamically, the Yamaha is not explosive. It is not an amplifier that shouts, grabs, or shakes you like with the Audio Lab 9000a and Denon A110. Dynamic swings are lifelike in their scale and build but stop just short of being exaggerated or outright explosive. Crescendos build so that you're able to hear all of the nuance and texture behind the note hit or explosion, rather than being just smacked in the face by it. As for the rest, there was nothing I found objectionable with the 2000. The phono preamp performs at a high enough level that tables fitted with higher-end cartridges like the Ortofon Black will be able to discern a difference. Now for

me. I actually preferred listening to records using its Bluetooth connection with our Alva TT using the Music Cast app. The HDMI implementation was flawless. Actually, the responsiveness to CEC commands was notably better than our Anthem receiver we have in for review, so imagine that. Now, I have made a number of direct comparisons throughout this video. So, to wrap it up, I would place the Yamaha RN2000A in the same league as the new Audiolab 9000A, and it should also be crotched up alongside the Denon PMA A110, and to a degree, the Technics R1000, though I'll argue the Technics has a more clean or digital tonality compared to the Yamaha's more organic quality. Now, where the RN2000A pulls ahead is inconvenience and connectivity because none, not even the Technics, comes close to matching the features and value in the high-end space as the Yamaha. Now, if Yamaha's asking price is out of reach, the new Audiolab 7000A does compete with

the Yamaha RN2000A has a built-in phono preamp, DAC, as well as HDMI connectivity. Similar to the Yamaha, sonically, though, the 2008 is superior, especially when it comes to the fine details. I'm going to save the rest for my full review of the Audio Lab, coming soon, but at roughly half the price, I wouldn't fault any of you for choosing the Audio Lab over the Yamaha. Not saying I had a hand in the development of the Yamaha, but Lord knows I have been begging manufacturers to come to market with an integrated amp or stereo receiver like the RN2000A. I wanted an amplifier that had a little bit of old school meets new, you know, Class A/B amplification, but has HDMI streaming, room correction, you know, things people actually want and need. And while the Yamaha isn't the first to market with such a product, the RN2000A ranks among the better examples currently available and is no doubt a reference for which all others will be judged. I love it and I consider it an

answer to my personal audiophile prayers. So that's it. That is now my review of Yamaha's brand new 2008 stereo receiver. But before we go, we got to ask you, what'd you think of it? So yeah, so like I was saying, this is a difficult, difficult for me, mostly because I really feel like the 2008 and the Audio Labs, the 3000A or the 9000A. Sorry, the 2008 Yamaha and the 9000A. Or are you talking the 7000? I'm talking both Audio Labs or both of them. Yeah, both of them. I feel just the Audio Lab sound and this sound of the 2008 is pretty close. Yeah, yeah, I'll go there with you. So when we were doing direct A/B testing, there were a lot of times that I honestly couldn't really tell the difference between the two amps, you know, two brands. Okay, with the exception of certain music, right? You know, and we talked about that about some of the differences and you go

over this in the review about how there's just a little bit more detail and separation with the Yamaha, but with some music, you may find that you actually prefer the sound of the Audio Lab because you know maybe uh the lead singer or something might feel like they take a step forward, yeah, and I tend to like that, you do you do, and that was that was something that we observed regardless of the speaker too, so it's not the speaker doing it, um, I'll agree, I think I think the Yamaha in the 9000a audio Labs current Flagship, they have a lot more in common, those two for me get way harder to tell apart, um, in that it is about that separation, that detail, that exploded view the 7 000, I can hear a difference, I'm not saying it's a twice the price difference, but I'm saying that that is the one that steps a little bit more forward, seems a little bit more dynamically sort of Punchy, um, likely due to the fact that it's not that dual mono construction, it doesn't

have as good of the as good a DAC as the 9000a and stuff like that um which the Yamaha also kind of has going for it which is why the 9000a and the 2000 a yeah from Yamaha have very similar traits same same kind of as the Denon PMA one A110 that one really also had that separation thing on lock um which you may or may not like I'm glad you addressed those because I felt like you kind of rushed past the 9008 and the Denis A1 10 10 yeah got these names yeah um I felt like you rushed past those two in the comparison section so hopefully your little revisit there will uh satisfy yeah I mean I I personally if I had to rank those three the 9000a is the cheapest at three grand uh then you're in the four thousand dollar territory with the PMA A110 from Denon and now the Yamaha the Yamaha is just the most value for money not to mention high-end sounding uh of the

three the Audio Lab can totally hang it absolutely can and it's an HDMI input away from being the Yamaha's equal, in my opinion. Um, you can always add something like a node to the 9000a, but you lose some of that kind of elegance and streamline single chassis, uh, sophistication that I think the Audio Lab has in spades. Like, that design is just so nice. Oh yeah, I 100%. This leads me into what I was going to discuss next. It's just completely subjective. I absolutely prefer the look of the Audio Labs. What? Yes, I know. What? Yeah, despite my absolute fondness for meters, you know it has meters. I know, I know it does, but it also has that black stripe across the bottom, which I know. I know there's a reason for it, and I know you personally like the implementation. I mean, yeah, look, I'm not saying like I get why they did it. I just don't like it. Okay, um, I probably would opt for the all black. I know. I'm who are you? I know.

I would probably go with the all-black 2008 in this particular instance. Okay, for me, I think the black bar across the bottom of the silver chassis is a distraction. I do not like it. Um, I think it's very readable. It works. Like, yeah, there's nothing physically or like you from a user standpoint. No, it's like there's something wrong with it. I just don't like the way it looks. Okay, um, but overall, I think it's a very, very, very good product. I'm so glad to see that they came to market with this because that tells me that they are listening, yeah, to their customers, you know. Um, now there's a couple of products that I think you missed in terms of the comparison section that I know people are already, they've already typed asking about the Marantz model 40 in like at least half of them. Oh, okay. So elevator pitch between, you know, comparison. Yamaha is better. The Yamaha is better. It is admittedly more expensive, so it should be.

um you have more flexibility and more expandability with the Yamaha that the Marantz does not have. Um the Marantz and I have room correction, the Marantz does not have internal. Uh has limited internal base management. Uh HDMI that works and that and it works great and that's fine. Uh if I'm not mistaken, the Marantz does not have preamp outs. It has amplifier in letting you use the 40n as a amplifier to say a receiver setup but it does not let you add an amplifier to it for more power. I don't believe it has a tuner, no I don't believe it does. I don't think it does so you are getting a more power with the Yamaha. You are getting more features and potentially of those features you're getting more features that are going to help a lot of people in the modern era specifically that room correction. I think is going to really be I don't want to say game changing but is definitely going to open your eyes and potentially make your two channel rig.

sound that much better if you're not able to have you know like a perfectly treated room and who who does um I think that could be a big help and maybe you know worth the added investment. I totally agree. I would choose the Yamaha over the Marantz. Both are exceptional products but I think the things the what you just stated like the room correction. Alone um I think would really be helpful to a lot of people. Okay on to the next one and this is going to be really quick because I don't think in today's market it's remotely competitive and that's the name Unity atom with the price increases it's received at thirty eight hundred dollars. I don't even know what name is thinking at this point um. I will say I think from a design standpoint like out in the open you know piece of audio furniture and sculpture the name Unity atom is better looking than the the Yamaha. I don't know if it's better constructed per se. It's more it's impressive that they fit all of that.

into you know a small little square um. I do prefer the streaming aspect of the name to that of the Yamaha Music cast app. It is great. It has arguably gotten better but names uh streaming application I think is right up there with blue OS. Outside of that, no I don't feel that the name is really competitive here. I think you do get an awfully lot more for your money even though you are spending just a little bit more to get the Yamaha. I think that little couple hundred dollars added investment is more more than pays off here. Okay moving on to NAD NAD okay okay so there's the m33 and I'm at six thousand dollars. I'm not saying it's a bad product but has it always been that expensive. It has it's been in it's been in the mid fives I think it's gone up 500 bucks too but I think when we reviewed it might have been 55 5600 it was pricey it was pricey um look the m33 is nearest makes no different it's perfect.

I just, for whatever reason, I've never really liked listening to it. I don't know why. It was overly clinical. It is pretty clinical in my experience, or my recollection. The M10 is probably a closer facsimile to the 2000A from Yamaha, but we can't talk about the M10 because we've never heard the M10 or the version two, so I have no idea how they compare. NAD with the M10 and the M33, you do get to Rack, which is room correction. You get HDMI. You get all of that. So, I would say the M10 V2 is probably the closer facsimile here, but I cannot guide you subjectively in any way, shape, or form because NAD has never sent that to us, okay. Lastly, lastly, you know, people are going to ask, well, how does it compare to the Yamaha AS1200, which is essentially what this is from a power standpoint. I would have to go out on a limb and say that more than

90 percent of both of these the 2000 or the AS1200 are going to be close to, if not the same power-wise. The 2008 has a toroidal transformer, blah blah blah. Um, so the AS1200 does not have a built-in DAC. It is an entirely analog affair for three grand. So when you take into consideration, you could take an AS1200 and add something like a Bluesound Node, and that's going to bring you up into about the 3500-3600 range, to which I will argue, while that will give you 90% of what you can do with the, um, 2000, we've reviewed here, I would still splurge and go with the 2000, because you're going to get room correction, you're going to get an all-in-one integrated chassis, um, as well as HDMI that has the ARC volume control inside the Yamaha, whereas if you add a Node, yes, you will be getting HDMI connectivity, but now you're going to have to rock potentially two.

different remotes. And when it comes to Blue sound, that means you're going to have your phone at the ready, as well as your Yamaha remote at the ready, and kind of double fisting that experience. Probably isn't the most streamlined or fun. And so I think this is me. I think Yamaha did an excellent job here, unlike Rotel in their new S14, where they took a platform in the as1200, which is great, absolutely great, and made it better in terms of features and stuff that people are actually going to benefit from, and charging a fair upcharge for that, whereas like the S14, they really did take a much cheaper amplifier, still a great one, and then they put basically a weem streamer in it and then added fifteen hundred dollars to the price. That makes no sense. But going from three thousand to four thousand or a little bit over three thousand to four thousand, given all of the extra goodies they give you, Yamaha did a great job in keeping it manageable but also being

able to point to things saying, This is what your money is buying you. That's our review, guys. That is now our review of Yamaha's brand new 2000A stereo receiver with HDMI and all the fixings. What'd you guys think of it? Let us know down in the comments below. And the question of the day is, did Yamaha succeed here? And stylistically, are we a fan of the hidden screen black bar at the bottom? Are you Team Christy? Are you Team Me? And you're like, you know what, if you're going to have a display, it's one of the better ways to hide it. Let us know down in the comments below, and we will pick a winner. I already know it's me, but we'll figure out who's right. If you like this video, please do give it a thumbs up, like, and subscribe. Go ahead and ring that bell so that you're notified when new videos come out. If you use any of the links that Christy left.

for you down below. Know that that is a great way that you have continued to show your support for this Channel, and the work that we do here. And both of us thank you very much for doing that. Follow me on Instagram at recovering audio file. That's it for us today, so remember, the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you. So happy listening everybody, thank you so much for watching. We'll see on the next video, bye.

The FUTURE of HiFi! New Yamaha Amp! Yamaha R-N2000A Review

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