Yamaha R-N803 Stereo Amp with Room Correction
We’ve been waiting a long time for something like the R-N803. Billed as a serious stereo receiver, it also happens to have microphone room correction built-in. Is the wait over? – We put the the R-N803 through its paces here in our Wellington store to see if it really is as good as the marketing material will have us believe.
Hint: Yes, it’s the best choice for anyone wanting to achieve great performance in an acoustically unfortunate room or for those without the space for separate components. It’s also pretty good for anyone simply wanting reasonable performance with streaming in a single box.
What’s it supposed to do?
Powerful Stereo Amplifier (Rated at 100W / Channel)
Yamaha MusicCast Streaming (Including Spotify / Airplay / Multi-Room etc.)
Digital Inputs (Including high-end Sabre DAC)
High-Quality Phono Section (For connecting turntables)
Room Correction using Yamaha’s YPAO system
YPAO: Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimiser
Powerful Stereo Amplifier
The R-N803 is rated at 100W a channel. It’s one of our pet peeves when an amplifier with massive power ratings on paper can barely power a pair of small bookshelf speakers. That’s why we tested the R-N803 with some serious speakers.
Dynaudio’s Emit M30 Floorstanding Speakers ~ A tricky 4 Ohm load for any amplifier.
” I thought the R-N803 really did a great job powering the M30’s considering its price-point. It brought the top-end to life and gave the bass better timing, while keeping Dynaudio’s trademark open, natural mid-range. Normally I would recommend something a bit more grunty for the M30’s but the R-N803 does a fine job.” – RW
YPAO Room Correction:
Room correction systems are common place in today’s home theatre receivers, and a few exotic high-end stereo amplifiers implement it as well. For some reason, almost no reasonably-priced amplifier has implemented a decent room correction system.
The R-N803 uses the same well-regarded YPAO technology seen in some of their higher-end AV receivers. This allows you to tailor the speakers’ response to your room, minimises issues with bass and reflection in the room, and most importantly, perfectly blends your subwoofer and main speakers together.
It’s really easy and quick to get the room correction done, I had it all set up and running in about five minutes flat. It’s also simple to switch off and on in the app.
It also has the convenient feature of being able to remember room correction with A and B speakers for those bi-wiring their system.
A screenshot of the YPAO MusicCast Interface
Overall Conclusion:
For the price, this is a fantastic all-in-one product. It packs in just about every possible audio feature, is very easy to control and integrate as part of a multi-room system, and most importantly, it sounds great in just about every situation. Of course it will have the reliability and timelessness of any Yamaha-produced amplifier.
Pop into one of our stores, and we will help you build the perfect sound system to enjoy your music again!
Watch Crighton unbox this on our Youtube channel – you can subscribe to our channel if you want to see more.
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Richard
