Transcription
[Music] [Music]
Yeah, hey everyone, welcome back to the channel!
So, is the Golden Age of Hi-Fi, you know, the 1970s, where they were pumping out receivers that had everything you needed in it? They looked beautiful, they sounded great, they had power, and it didn't cost you $10,000 or $20,000 to acquire. Those were the Golden Age; those were the golden times.
Yamaha has recently released a new receiver. Notice I didn't say integrated amp; this is a Network receiver for the modern-day Hi-Fi enthusiast who doesn't want to worry about boxes, streamers, DACs, and all kinds of stuff. Everything—and I mean everything—is included in this receiver, even room correction. It comes with a microphone.
I want to tell you guys about my experience with this receiver from Yamaha. I've had it for the last several weeks, and I've been listening to it with a variety of speakers. I've listened to it with its built-in streamer and DAC. I've listened to it with an external streamer and DAC. I've listened to it with my Daniel Hertz Amber speakers, which it's still hooked up to right now, and I've heard it with some smaller bookshelf-style speakers as well.
All I can say is that as of right now, mid-October 2023, this Yamaha might be my product of the year. I've had a couple that were in the running, but the value that this offers for the money and what it gives you means this receiver punches well above its price point—and I mean well above.
Now, I've had Yamaha integrated amps in the past. I had the Yamaha S3000 many years ago; that was $6,700, and it was a beautiful piece of equipment. It had a phono stage built in. I don't believe it had a DAC built in, going from memory; I could be wrong. But it had 90 watts per channel of power, those nice VU meters, beautiful construction, and it had power, balls, and drive, as well as that natural Yamaha sound. Yamaha always pushes out that their amps have a natural sound, and the RN 1000 Network receiver is no different.
But the sound is a little different from my Yamaha memory—and in a good way. This thing is for those of you who don't want to spend a fortune, say under $2,500, for your complete Hi-Fi system, but yet you're going to have things that would normally cost you a lot more money. For example, this has internally its own ESS Sabre DAC. I used to not be a fan of Sabre DACs, but I'm telling you, the last couple I've heard have sounded really, really nice, and this one in the Yamaha is no exception.
There are all kinds of inputs on this thing: there's analog, there's CD, there's USB, coax, two opticals, there's preamp out, there's a subwoofer out. It has two speaker connections, so you can run two speakers, meaning you can wire a setup in a different room and play those, and have your power center with the receiver in one room. You can run them both at the same time; you can run speakers A and B, you can run A or B, or you can turn them off altogether.
It has bass and treble controls that work really, really well. It has a loudness dial, so if you're listening at low-level late-night volume—which I do a lot—you can bump up the loudness to add some more of the lower frequencies to give that lower volume a little more body and therefore more musical enjoyment.
There's a headphone amp on this thing, and did I mention it has a streamer built in? Yamaha MusicCast lets you stream almost any music service to it, and with Spotify and Tidal, you can stream right to the Yamaha without having to use the Yamaha app.
Speaking of the Yamaha app, the MusicCast app from Yamaha is really, really good. It's about equal to all the other ones; every manufacturer has their own app these days. I didn't have any issue with the Yamaha app—really, really nice.
This thing also has a built-in AM/FM radio, and that is what reminds me so much of that golden age of Hi-Fi. If I want to listen to an FM or AM station, I just click on the radio and set my dial to the station I want, and it's playing music from FM/AM radio. It even comes with an FM antenna.
Now, I did the room correction. I listened without the room correction, and it sounded really, really good. I then did the room correction using the microphone. I placed it on a tripod in my listening seat; it took less than 60 seconds. The sound became a little more open and a little bit different. The bottom bass lightened up a little bit, and it gave me what the system thought was the best sound for my room. That is invaluable—it's an invaluable setup tool.
I've seen this with amps from Yamaha before; I've seen this with amps from other manufacturers where they include a microphone, and it measures the sound frequencies in your space after you set up everything, and it tailors the sound to your room and your space. That's pretty cool, and it did make a change. I don't know if it was an improvement; maybe after I listen more long-term.
But I've had this thing a few weeks, and I've been listening to it in every configuration. This has a phono input, meaning you can plug your record player into it. It's a moving magnet phono input only, so if you have a moving coil, that's not going to work. But this is perfect with tables like those from Fluance, the RT85, or the U-Turn turntables. They just refreshed their line; I should be getting one here soon to review. Those are beautiful tables to pair with the Yamaha.
As far as the built-in streamer, I tried it out, and everything sounded really, really good. If I compare it to the high-end stuff, like the $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 gear—which I shouldn't because it's not in the same league—I do notice a little bit of that digital hash sound when using the built-in streamer to the built-in DAC. The high-end has a little grain to it.
But I hooked up a Hi-Fi Rose RS130 streamer to the Yamaha, going into the USB input, so I used the Yamaha's DAC, and that really smoothed out that treble, plumped up the bass a bit, and gave me a fuller sound. That Hi-Fi Rose RS130, which I've had here for a little while, is without question now the finest streamer I've experienced to date. It really is something that makes a difference in some systems.
But going back to the Yamaha on its own, you don't need anything else with it. All you need is a pair of speaker cables and some speakers, and I don't think it's going to be too fussy with what speakers you choose. I listened to it with those Alexandria Audio monitors—two-way speakers—and still had that beautiful musical sound coming from them. I sat there and said I wouldn't need more with these speakers, right? It sounded really lovely.
I hooked up the CSS Typhs; there was a little bit of that hash in the top end, but even so, it sounded beautiful and filled not only my room, but if I opened the door, it was filling the rest of the house as well. With the Daniel Hertz Ambers, I'm still getting that pinpoint detail. The imaging isn't as pronounced as it is with the Daniel Hertz amp; the bass isn't as clean, taut, and tight; the treble is not as smooth and extended as the Daniel Hertz amp.
But I have to say, these ERS sound really, really, really good with the Yamaha 1000 receiver. I just love this thing to bits!
Now, it comes in silver or black. I would have loved to see the silver in the flesh because, to me, in pictures anyway, it looks absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me a little bit of that Luxman 595 ASC, but this is five to six times less expensive. This comes in around $1,700.
Hold on, guys! Look at this—I just went to Amazon, and you can get the RN 1000A right now for 31% off, $1,241. Let's say you want the silver one; it's 14% off, $1,545. This is a steal of a deal for this piece! Getting a great price here, and I'll have a link in the description below directly to this page.
Sounds really, really good! It even has anti-resonance feet on the bottom to soak up vibrations. It has an extra plate of iron in the chassis on the bottom to reject unwanted vibrations. There's so much thought put into this. The wiring inside is done with big thick wire and screws instead of soldering, and this is said to improve the connection. Therefore, any improvement in the connection will bring better music.
There is a pure direct button if you want to bypass the bass and treble—even if they're off—or you want to bypass the room correction that you set up. Press pure direct, and it will give you the pure direct sound as it's coming from your source stream or source playback—say it's vinyl, say it's streaming, say it's from a computer hard drive, whatever.
I love the pure direct mode, and even the little display at the bottom turns off when you press pure direct. If you don't have that on, the display shows you the input you're in. It's very nice, very modern. If you're using the DAC and the USB input, for example, it will show you the sampling rate or the resolution of the music you're playing.
This DAC inside is a high-res DAC; it can handle high-res music from, say, Tidal or Qobuz. But Spotify, which I use a lot, sounds awesome through it as well.
The Yamaha RN 1000 is a bang for the buck; it's the deal of the year! I think after going back and looking at everything I reviewed this year, there were some exciting products that I loved, but this one right here is such a value for the money.
I think those of you looking for something—whether it's to upgrade from what you have or to downsize to just one box—don't be afraid of the Yamaha 1000 receiver. Even Yamaha says it was designed for Hi-Fi music, for those people who want to hear two-channel stereo in its finest form.
Another thing this thing has—this keeps popping into my head—is HDMI ARC for your television. I mean, what does this thing not have? This has everything you could ever want for playing music, whether it's records, streaming, or from a hard drive from your computer or whatever.
Beautiful, beautiful piece! The black is a little dark in my room; it's hard to see the dials and the writing. If I were to buy one, it would have been the silver. This is a review unit sent to me by Yamaha, but they said, "Here it is; give your honest thoughts on it. Let us know what you think."
So, I've not been paid to do the review; I haven't been told what to say. This video wasn't approved by Yamaha before I posted it. I don't do those kinds of things. I just give you the words right from my heart to your ear.
So, I can highly recommend the Yamaha without question. Without question, it's a powerhouse—probably in my top two products of this year—simply due to the fact that you're getting this quality piece for a really great price.
So, hope you enjoyed this video, and I will see you guys in the next one. If you thumbs up this video, it's greatly appreciated; it helps YouTube to spread it to more people.
So, I want to thank all of you, and I will see you guys in the next one.
[Music] Bye! [Music]