Yamaha RX-V6A User Manual

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ISSUE 338

MARCH/APRIL 2021

A$9.99

NZ$11.99

“A SEQUEL WOULD BE EMBARRASSING”

SPIELBERG ON JAWS

audio-visual

smart AV receiver

	Yamaha RX-V6		V6 movie engine
	networked AV receiver

Yamaha’s RX-V receivers get a sprucing up as they celebrate 30 years since their first appearance.

SUMMARY

Yamaha RX-V6 networked AV receiver

Price: $1299

+Very solid surround performance

+Decent stereo performance

+First-class network audio

–Speakers other than front stereo pair must be at least six ohms impedance

Well, well, well. Yamaha is shaking up its home theatre receivers for the first time since the Aventage line was launched a decade ago.

And here’s one of the first two results of that shake-up: the Yamaha RX-V6A.

Equipment

Yamaha RX-V receivers have been around for a good long time. We looked back through our reviews and found we’d reviewed an RX-V receiver back in 1999… our own digital records get sparse beyond that, but to save us searching

in basement filing cabinets, Yamaha reminds us that the 1999 model was far from the first of the breed, as Yamaha began shipping the RX-V850 and RX-V1050 receivers in 1991. They were radical back then, because all other Dolby Pro Logic decoders of the day were analogue, “with mediocre separation and steering between the left,

centre, right and surround channels” says the company, whereas the first RX-V receivers were built around a digital surround decoder IC developed by Yamaha. Their success was immediate.

Thirty years on, then, what has changed in this new range seems initially largely cosmetic.

IN THE BEGINNING: the first RX-V receivers in 1991 introduced digital surround processing for the first time.

But that’s welcome. Most AV receivers have square corners, a large display in the middle with blue or amber lettering, and a couple of knobs on each side. As we said, it may be cosmetic but the new facade changes the look of the Yamaha RX-V6A rather significantly. The verticals to the left and right of the front are curved, while at centre rests a very large volume control. To the right of the knob there’s still a display showing similar information to that of earlier models, but this appears to be an LCD, perhaps OLED, monochrome display with soft blue lettering over a black background. The input selector is to the right of that: a knob, but fairly small. Underneath the display and selector knob are a set of six touch-sensitive spots on the front panel which replace the push buttons of yore. Four of those are for scene selection, one invokes the menu, while the

final one backs out of things.

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