We asked Yamaha if they could make this – and they did! A fully integrated amplifier with power galore, wireless and analog with digital input, turntable input, and audio calibration system.
All in one box, weighing around 22 kg, and looking exactly like the high-end amplifiers in the 3000 and 5000 series.
It’s equipped with the Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer (YPAO), which, like the receivers, uses a microphone to calibrate the sound in the room. It worked, you can say, for just where yours truly sat, I had the calibration turned off and on, and the sound was clearly best with it activated.
The amplifier, which also comes in black, has HDMI input with audio return (eARC), turntable input for MM pickup, a 32-bit, 384 kHz ES9026PRO DAC from ESS, USB DAC input, two optical and one coaxial digital input, Ethernet, DAB radio, subwoofer and pre-out.
It also has Yamaha’s MusicCast, which is their wireless variant with streaming over Wi-Fi, and it supports AirPlay 2, as well as pretty much every streaming service.
The amplifier part of the RN-2000A, is a mix of the integrated A-S1200 and AS2200, with fully symmetrical built circuitry, a quite generous toroidal transformer, and components of a quality not found in the more affordable Yamaha amplifiers.
The design is classic Yamaha, with a black area below the switches and potentiometers, where among other things an OLED screen shows setting selection and input. Yamaha specifies the power at 2 x 100 w in 8 ohms, or 185 w in 4 ohms.
The amplifier will not be in stores until the third quarter of 2022, estimated price is around 3500 Euro.
NS-2000A
Around that price also the upcoming NS-2000A, a pair of floorstanding passive loudspeakers. A pair will end up at 7000 Euro.
The speakers, like the amplifier, should be loyal to Yamaha’s True Sound concept. Which is about creating lifelike and harmonious sound, with realistic dynamics. In concrete terms, this means that the loudspeaker has Yamaha’s Harmonious Diaphragm, which is a combination of the artificially produced material Zylon, and spruce in the diaphragms.
Keen readers may notice that the NS-2000A has a completely new midrange driver, an 8 cm dome, which, together with two 16 cm woofers, and a 30 mm dome tweeter, makes up the speaker’s drivers.
Which also features Yamaha’s J-shaped acoustic absorber on the inside of the piano lacquered cabinet, which should manage to attenuate standing waves while not having to cram the speakers full of damping material. That also dampens the dynamics.
Yamaha specifies the frequency range to 34 Hz-65 kHz (-10 dB), the crossover frequencies are at 750 Hz and 3.5 kHz.
The dimensions are 33 x 113 x 46 cm and the weight 32 kg.
