This product is years old and an incredible buy. I'm shocked you are just making a review for it now. I've owned it for a few years and could not find much info at all. It's the best thing I've added to my system. I am deep into the vintage gear and this makes it 100% modern and sounds great. Adds remote, voice commands, streaming, digital input.. etc. I use this on all of my vintage gear/ power amps with pre amp hookups and it's game-changing! My flat screen tv hooks up to my 70's receiver and I just have to use my voice to make any changes with Alexa. I can mess with the EQ and balance from the app too.
Very nice presentation. It is firm, crisp and easy to understand. Best part was the 360° presentation of all connections front and back. I am now able to select the right product. Thanks, Christian, Denmark
I just bought one this week and Amazon Music is still not integrated into MusicCast. Of course, you can still use Amazon music with it by sending it from your smartphone to the Yahama device via Bluetooth.
Hello, is this product's pre out Signal strong enough to feed a Crown xls 1002 power amp? I'm asking this because I've tried with a topping e30 dac which it's supposed to be a preamp and it's signal ended up being too weak, so I had to turn up the amp gains to the max and I'm not driving power hungry speakers, just a pair of dali zensor 3. Thanks in advance and greetings from Argentina.
Thanks for the review. So, I love my existing powered, 200-watt subwoofer from energy. I however, do not like wires. I am considering replacing my existing Yamaha RX V375 receiver with the new musiccast RX-V4A receiver. Can I connect this WXC-50 to my existing subwoofer and wirelessly connect the musiccast RX-V4A receiver and other musiccast speakers to create my home theater?
Sounds like a great setup! The WXC-50 MusicCast preamp does not offer the option to convert your sub to wireless; but, we have may other options. For help choosing, please reach out to our advisors: www.crutchfield.com/I-rYTVc921/support/ContactUs.aspx
Ok so just so I’m getting this right…I have iPad Bluetooth connected to it. But I need an amp to get sound through speakers, I can’t just connect it to speaker and iPad only? Right?
Thank you for your review of Yamaha WXC-50. Can you tell me please, Does this streamer support wireles Speakers like Harman Kardon Citation, DENON HOME ?
The WXC-50 can be connected into a preamp input on any powered speaker, receiver, or integrated amp giving it the streaming abilities of the WXC-50 as well as the ability to be linked to other Yamaha MusicCast gear.
Yamaha does not make a MusicCast preamp with a display screen. They rely of a smart device app and the device's screen to make selections and show the information.
I am tryng the wxc 50 and I am very happy but after having connected it in Coax to my Yamaha A3020 amplifier I am not able to play 192Khz music from my NAS in Coax for 2 channel audio. How I need to connect it to play hi def music (Flac) from my NAs? Tks for helping me.
This setup should work. We recommend contacting technical support to go over settings to check if the issue is in them. If you purchased your gear from us, we recommend contacting our technical support for help. Their toll free phone number is included on the order invoice.
Does this product process the music signal before playing it? I'm trying to decide which one to get between the Yamaha RS-202 and this one. My need is to setup a good system for mainly music playback at home(I already have powered BT speakers). Any help would be appreciated.
This device is not able to power speakers. In fact, this WXC-50 is a device that can be connected to one of the audio inputs on that Yamaha receiver. For what it's worth, this WXC-50 can process audio and even make changes to that audio using its audio processing. You can find more about that processing control here: www.crutchfield.com/I-rYALc227/p_022WXC50DS/item.html
The WXC-50 is one of our top selling preamp/network streamers. Excellent performance ratings, and top-notch sound quality. The Yamaha WXC-50 uses an ESS Sabre DAC. and is also fully compatible with high-res streaming services like Tidal and Deezer. If you'd like to get a little more info on the Yamaha WXC-50, feel free to reach out to an Advisor! We are happy to help! www.crutchfield.com/I-rYTVc164/contact
If I plugged my Echo Dot v3 (or if need be my Echo Plus v2) to enable me to Stream/play Amazon Music UHD (or if not Amazon Music HD) which I pay for. Does the Yamaha stream lossless music. Would I see an Improvement in sound over just plugging in my Dot to my Linn Classik. U.K resident. Thank You.
The Echo Dot's only stream the HD version. You may want to check out Bluesound gear as they can stream lossless audio including Amazon's Ultra HD content. Here's that gear: www.crutchfield.com/I-rYTVc227/fg_385750_FFBrand%7cBluesound/Bluesound-Wi-Fi-Multi-room-Audio-Systems.html?o=v
@@crutchfield Great, thank you for your help and getting back to me so quickly, that gives me some more educated information to look into. Many Thanks.
A lot of reviews say the MusicCast app is slow and clunky..and is has to be used instead of the eg. tidal app to navigate content. Is this true and is there a way to bypass using the app with this? thanks
Tidal is accessible through the Yamaha MusicCast Controller app. When listening to it or other sources via your Musiccast eco system you would use the MusicCast app for control.
I've now purchased one and can confirm tidal is barely usable through the music cast app.. very poorly integrated with some features completely missing.
If i plug usb there how will a choose what album and song to play ? My amp doesnt have display nor video output ? -quest 2.Tell me because i like my amp dac (yamaha as501) so i want this unit just to send untoched signal so the amp do all the job,is that possible ? If it is what port should i use coax or optical ?
In order to access the library of music from your USB device you will need to download the MusicCast app and pair your Yamaha WXC-50 to your phone once you’ve setup the app which is very easy to do. You can use either optical or the digital coaxial output on the WXC-50 to run to the input on your amplifier. If your amplifier has both input options; I would personally use an optical cable bc it isn’t susceptible to interference. Since the MusicCast app is only designed to work with MusicCast Yamaha products it will not control the amp volume, but should allow you to make volume adjustments on the WXC-50. To select what you want to listen to, open the MusicCast app and select your source (USB in this case) then you will see your music library broken down into (Genre, Album, Artist, Title and so forth). Hope this helps
Also, you mentioned “untouched signal”. The WXC-50 is going to send an MP3, WAV, FLAC, AIFF or whatever other types of file the track you want to play is recorded in. For example, if the track you want to play is recorded and stored on your USB drive as an MP3, then the amp will be sent an MP3 file and will play it as an MP3 file. The same applies for all types of music files. In other words the WXC-50 and the amp don’t have the ability to change the quality of the file by adding missing information. There are devices that can do this, but if possible it’s better to just buy, download or record all of your music in the highest quality format that you can. From there you can always reduce the quality to that of an MP3, which you might have to do bc not all devices are able to play higher quality recording types, like your stock car stereo for example if it’s a 2010 Chevy Truck (just an example)
@@ryanmalinovsky6504 my music is 24bit96khz and i want that audio to be converted to analog with my amp,so this player will send it as it is so the amp dac will convert it and send to speakers
@@audiophilipp That’s right. Pretty much every device we use these days that takes a signal and sends a signal to the speakers has a DAC built in since the majority of music sources we listen to are digitally formatted. Tape decks (non DAT) and turntables would be examples of devices that don’t have DACs built in.
@@ryanmalinovsky6504 Example: Amp has DAC. 1.Cheap pcie sound card sending audio to amp from coax out 2.Expensive sound card sending audio to amp from coax out WILL THEY SOUND SAME ?
hello, thank you!! but can I connect the analog surround speaker output of my oppo blu-ray player to analog-in of this one and listen to yamaha musicast active speakers as surround in wireless mode???
Well, technically the answer is yes, you could connect your Blu-ray player via the RCA inputs on the Yamaha. However, the Yamaha is configured to allow playback of the proprietary MusicCast wireless speakers only in a stereo format, not as an additional pair of surrounds. In a nutshell the MusicCast speakers would have to carry *all* of the sound output of the tv instead of just being supplementary to the rest of the system.
Looks like actually this the note on USB/HDDs: "The WXC-50 is equipped with a rear-panel USB-A 2.0 port that allows you to enjoy a variety of music files stored on a USB mass storage class memory device, such as a USB thumbdrive or portable digital audio player (not compatible with USB HDDs)"
@@crutchfield do I understand it right? I can't connect a portable hdd with all my music files? I want to play all my FLAC files from my computer on my stereo and get rid of all cd's. How do I do that?
you can only connect pendrive to WXC 50 and not HDD with cable. It is clearly written in the manual so why are you giving this misleading information? The most disappointing thing about the wxc 50 is that you can't connect the hdd
The MusicCast WXC-50 pre-amplifier supports both a wireless and wired connection to your router. From there, it supports DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) 1.5, allowing access to DLNA-compatible Windows 7/8 computers (with Windows Media Player 11 or 12) and network attached storage NAS devices allowing you to wirelessly stream the music libraries on your computer, laptop, or NAS to the Yamaha MusicCast pre-amp via your network. It also has an optical digital and a pair of analog RCA inputs for connection to additional sources. And it is equipped with a rear-panel USB-A 2.0 port that allows you to enjoy a variety of music files stored on a USB mass storage class memory device, such as a USB thumbdrive or portable digital audio player. The USB input is not compatible with USB HDDs and does not support Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad or Android smartphones/tablets. Your USB mass storage class device must be formatted in FAT 16 or FAT32.
Adds remote, voice commands, streaming, digital input.. etc. I use this on all of my vintage gear/ power amps with pre amp hookups and it's game changing! My flat screen tv hooks up to my 70's receiver and I just have to use my voice to make any changes with alexa. I can mess with the EQ and balance from the app too.
One thing to be wary of with this device is corruption of the musiccast software/ firmware. I had the bad experience of corrupted software on this device hijacking the volume and gain quality resulting of burning the left channel of a very expensive amplifier.Best to use it in player or streaming mode with a separate preamp to mitigate this or minimally having a power amplifier with a volume control.I will be dumping this device shortly after fixing my amplifier and hooking up a dedicated preamplifier .
You could easily connect the Yamaha's WXC-50 to your amp. What sources are you looking to use/stream specifically? Are there any specific features you need? Are you using any type of multi-room Wi-Fi based audio setup in your home now?
@@crutchfieldThankyou for the reply. Source could be my laptop or mobile. I want digital input option to use airplay via airport express and software I’ll be use like itunes, Tidal, spotify. So is this a good match or Wiim does better than this.
This product is years old and an incredible buy. I'm shocked you are just making a review for it now.
I've owned it for a few years and could not find much info at all. It's the best thing I've added to my system. I am deep into the vintage gear and this makes it 100% modern and sounds great.
Adds remote, voice commands, streaming, digital input.. etc. I use this on all of my vintage gear/ power amps with pre amp hookups and it's game-changing! My flat screen tv hooks up to my 70's receiver and I just have to use my voice to make any changes with Alexa. I can mess with the EQ and balance from the app too.
Very nice presentation. It is firm, crisp and easy to understand. Best part was the 360° presentation of all connections front and back. I am now able to select the right product. Thanks, Christian, Denmark
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
Good overview. Surprised you did not mention it’s amplified twin, the Yamaha WXA-50.
I am still waiting for Amazon Music to be integrated into Musiccast . Any word if that will ever happen?
I just bought one this week and Amazon Music is still not integrated into MusicCast. Of course, you can still use Amazon music with it by sending it from your smartphone to the Yahama device via Bluetooth.
@@jjquinn2004 Bluetooth is too lossy!
Hello, is this product's pre out Signal strong enough to feed a Crown xls 1002 power amp? I'm asking this because I've tried with a topping e30 dac which it's supposed to be a preamp and it's signal ended up being too weak, so I had to turn up the amp gains to the max and I'm not driving power hungry speakers, just a pair of dali zensor 3. Thanks in advance and greetings from Argentina.
you need to make that change on the crown amp through the menu, but YES this works really well with the new crown amp.
Do you know of any network streamers that include UA-cam music/premium? Musiccast like many others only includes Deezer and Spotify...
Thanks for the review. So, I love my existing powered, 200-watt subwoofer from energy. I however, do not like wires. I am considering replacing my existing Yamaha RX V375 receiver with the new musiccast RX-V4A receiver. Can I connect this WXC-50 to my existing subwoofer and wirelessly connect the musiccast RX-V4A receiver and other musiccast speakers to create my home theater?
Sounds like a great setup! The WXC-50 MusicCast preamp does not offer the option to convert your sub to wireless; but, we have may other options. For help choosing, please reach out to our advisors: www.crutchfield.com/I-rYTVc921/support/ContactUs.aspx
Ok so just so I’m getting this right…I have iPad Bluetooth connected to it. But I need an amp to get sound through speakers, I can’t just connect it to speaker and iPad only? Right?
Correct. The Yamaha WXC-50 does not include an amp. We're happy to recommend one. What brand and model speakers do you plan to use?
Can you use AirPlay to play Apple music from your iPhone?
Yes you can! 😃
Is this still considered a deent streamer to get one now??? I dnt like the looks of the wiim proolus
The Yamaha WXC-50 is a good choice as well. What sources do you want to stream? Are there any specific features you need?
Thank you for your review of Yamaha WXC-50. Can you tell me please, Does this streamer support wireles Speakers like Harman Kardon Citation, DENON HOME ?
The WXC-50 can be connected into a preamp input on any powered speaker, receiver, or integrated amp giving it the streaming abilities of the WXC-50 as well as the ability to be linked to other Yamaha MusicCast gear.
@@crutchfield What about like a sonos speaker?
Does anyone make that, BUT with a display screen?
Yamaha does not make a MusicCast preamp with a display screen. They rely of a smart device app and the device's screen to make selections and show the information.
I am tryng the wxc 50 and I am very happy but after having connected it in Coax to my Yamaha A3020 amplifier I am not able to play 192Khz music from my NAS in Coax for 2 channel audio. How I need to connect it to play hi def music (Flac) from my NAs? Tks for helping me.
This setup should work. We recommend contacting technical support to go over settings to check if the issue is in them. If you purchased your gear from us, we recommend contacting our technical support for help. Their toll free phone number is included on the order invoice.
Hi Can I pair fire stick with it?
The Yamaha's WXC-50 does not support video sources.
hello, can you use the amazon music app, with this yamaha?
The Yamaha WXC-50 does support Amazon Music.
Does this product process the music signal before playing it? I'm trying to decide which one to get between the Yamaha RS-202 and this one. My need is to setup a good system for mainly music playback at home(I already have powered BT speakers). Any help would be appreciated.
This device is not able to power speakers. In fact, this WXC-50 is a device that can be connected to one of the audio inputs on that Yamaha receiver. For what it's worth, this WXC-50 can process audio and even make changes to that audio using its audio processing. You can find more about that processing control here:
www.crutchfield.com/I-rYALc227/p_022WXC50DS/item.html
Can I connect this device to my Wadia 151 powerdac? And if so, do I use it as a pre-amplifier or as a player?
You can connect it via the Toslink-optical input as a source. You’ll find a good cable match here: www.crutchfield.com/I-rYALc921/p_120MHXT2/item.html
Can these link up and play simultaneously? Gapless?
Indeed they can! The Music cast ecosystem is for whole home audio systems!
That is an Old Unit.? Do you like the Sound ?
The WXC-50 is one of our top selling preamp/network streamers.
Excellent performance ratings, and top-notch sound quality.
The Yamaha WXC-50 uses an ESS Sabre DAC. and is also fully compatible with high-res streaming services like Tidal and Deezer.
If you'd like to get a little more info on the Yamaha WXC-50, feel free to reach out to an Advisor! We are happy to help!
www.crutchfield.com/I-rYTVc164/contact
Can WXC-50 connect to Yamaha NS-NSW100 subwoofers wireless?
Indeed it can!
If I plugged my Echo Dot v3 (or if need be my Echo Plus v2) to enable me to Stream/play Amazon Music UHD (or if not Amazon Music HD) which I pay for. Does the Yamaha stream lossless music. Would I see an Improvement in sound over just plugging in my Dot to my Linn Classik. U.K resident. Thank You.
The Echo Dot's only stream the HD version. You may want to check out Bluesound gear as they can stream lossless audio including Amazon's Ultra HD content. Here's that gear:
www.crutchfield.com/I-rYTVc227/fg_385750_FFBrand%7cBluesound/Bluesound-Wi-Fi-Multi-room-Audio-Systems.html?o=v
@@crutchfield Great, thank you for your help and getting back to me so quickly, that gives me some more educated information to look into. Many Thanks.
A lot of reviews say the MusicCast app is slow and clunky..and is has to be used instead of the eg. tidal app to navigate content. Is this true and is there a way to bypass using the app with this? thanks
Tidal is accessible through the Yamaha MusicCast Controller app. When listening to it or other sources via your Musiccast eco system you would use the MusicCast app for control.
I've now purchased one and can confirm tidal is barely usable through the music cast app.. very poorly integrated with some features completely missing.
If i plug usb there how will a choose what album and song to play ? My amp doesnt have display nor video output ?
-quest 2.Tell me because i like my amp dac (yamaha as501) so i want this unit just to send untoched signal so the amp do all the job,is that possible ? If it is what port should i use coax or optical ?
In order to access the library of music from your USB device you will need to download the MusicCast app and pair your Yamaha WXC-50 to your phone once you’ve setup the app which is very easy to do. You can use either optical or the digital coaxial output on the WXC-50 to run to the input on your amplifier. If your amplifier has both input options; I would personally use an optical cable bc it isn’t susceptible to interference. Since the MusicCast app is only designed to work with MusicCast Yamaha products it will not control the amp volume, but should allow you to make volume adjustments on the WXC-50. To select what you want to listen to, open the MusicCast app and select your source (USB in this case) then you will see your music library broken down into (Genre, Album, Artist, Title and so forth). Hope this helps
Also, you mentioned “untouched signal”. The WXC-50 is going to send an MP3, WAV, FLAC, AIFF or whatever other types of file the track you want to play is recorded in. For example, if the track you want to play is recorded and stored on your USB drive as an MP3, then the amp will be sent an MP3 file and will play it as an MP3 file. The same applies for all types of music files. In other words the WXC-50 and the amp don’t have the ability to change the quality of the file by adding missing information. There are devices that can do this, but if possible it’s better to just buy, download or record all of your music in the highest quality format that you can. From there you can always reduce the quality to that of an MP3, which you might have to do bc not all devices are able to play higher quality recording types, like your stock car stereo for example if it’s a 2010 Chevy Truck (just an example)
@@ryanmalinovsky6504 my music is 24bit96khz and i want that audio to be converted to analog with my amp,so this player will send it as it is so the amp dac will convert it and send to speakers
@@audiophilipp That’s right. Pretty much every device we use these days that takes a signal and sends a signal to the speakers has a DAC built in since the majority of music sources we listen to are digitally formatted. Tape decks (non DAT) and turntables would be examples of devices that don’t have DACs built in.
@@ryanmalinovsky6504 Example:
Amp has DAC.
1.Cheap pcie sound card sending audio to amp from coax out
2.Expensive sound card sending audio to amp from coax out
WILL THEY SOUND SAME ?
hello, thank you!! but can I connect the analog surround speaker output of my oppo blu-ray player to analog-in of this one and listen to yamaha musicast active speakers as surround in wireless mode???
Good question! What Blu-ray player do you have?
oppo 205 ! tried but no luck!
Well, technically the answer is yes, you could connect your Blu-ray player via the RCA inputs on the Yamaha. However, the Yamaha is configured to allow playback of the proprietary MusicCast wireless speakers only in a stereo format, not as an additional pair of surrounds. In a nutshell the MusicCast speakers would have to carry *all* of the sound output of the tv instead of just being supplementary to the rest of the system.
Does the app support Amazon Music?
Amazon music is supported by MusicCast! You will be able to play the service through this preamp
what's the max hdd storage supported via USB input?
Looks like actually this the note on USB/HDDs: "The WXC-50 is equipped with a rear-panel USB-A 2.0 port that allows you to enjoy a variety of music files stored on a USB mass storage class memory device, such as a USB thumbdrive or portable digital audio player (not compatible with USB HDDs)"
@@crutchfield do I understand it right? I can't connect a portable hdd with all my music files? I want to play all my FLAC files from my computer on my stereo and get rid of all cd's. How do I do that?
Does the bluetooth support LDAC ?
It does not.
@@crutchfield Thanks.
You're welcome.
you can only connect pendrive to WXC 50 and not HDD with cable. It is clearly written in the manual so why are you giving this misleading information? The most disappointing thing about the wxc 50 is that you can't connect the hdd
The MusicCast WXC-50 pre-amplifier supports both a wireless and wired connection to your router. From there, it supports DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) 1.5, allowing access to DLNA-compatible Windows 7/8 computers (with Windows Media Player 11 or 12) and network attached storage NAS devices allowing you to wirelessly stream the music libraries on your computer, laptop, or NAS to the Yamaha MusicCast pre-amp via your network. It also has an optical digital and a pair of analog RCA inputs for connection to additional sources. And it is equipped with a rear-panel USB-A 2.0 port that allows you to enjoy a variety of music files stored on a USB mass storage class memory device, such as a USB thumbdrive or portable digital audio player. The USB input is not compatible with USB HDDs and does not support Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad or Android smartphones/tablets.
Your USB mass storage class device must be formatted in FAT 16 or FAT32.
So, this preamp is for??? If i already have an integrated amp, these yamaha what can help me? Thanks
Basically adds network/internet functionality to your system if your integrated amp doesn't have it already.
Adds remote, voice commands, streaming, digital input.. etc. I use this on all of my vintage gear/ power amps with pre amp hookups and it's game changing! My flat screen tv hooks up to my 70's receiver and I just have to use my voice to make any changes with alexa. I can mess with the EQ and balance from the app too.
One thing to be wary of with this device is corruption of the musiccast software/ firmware. I had the bad experience of corrupted software on this device hijacking the volume and gain quality resulting of burning the left channel of a very expensive amplifier.Best to use it in player or streaming mode with a separate preamp to mitigate this or minimally having a power amplifier with a volume control.I will be dumping this device shortly after fixing my amplifier and hooking up a dedicated preamplifier .
Is this good as a dac/streamer for old Yamaha AX900 stereo amp (or) can you suggest the best match.
You could easily connect the Yamaha's WXC-50 to your amp. What sources are you looking to use/stream specifically? Are there any specific features you need? Are you using any type of multi-room Wi-Fi based audio setup in your home now?
@@crutchfieldThankyou for the reply. Source could be my laptop or mobile. I want digital input option to use airplay via airport express and software I’ll be use like itunes, Tidal, spotify. So is this a good match or Wiim does better than this.
The Yamaha WXC-50 is an excellent choice. It supports Apple Airplay and has an optical input and output!
@@crutchfield Thankyou