You really didn't cover the powerful features of the MusicCast application and the MANY music services that it supports, natively! Your video makes it appear as though you are dependent on the phone app (in your case, Spotify) to get and stream the music. What you did NOT mention was that this WXA-50 has a both a ESS Sabre ESS9006 and PCM Burr Brown PCM5101A Digital-to-Analog-Converter (DAC). Finally, you did not mention the THD of 0.003%.
This was really helpful. I have been agonizing over this vs the sonos amp for a whole house audio solution and your video made me more comfortable with the yamaha as I would be hard wiring the connection. Question: do you power the units on and off each day or leave them on at all times?
If you connected to preout to another amp could you power more than 2 speakers - e.g. the WXA50 powering 2 speakers and the ext amp powering another 2?
May I ask, do you think the streamer version of this would be able to output the soon to be available lossless audio from Apple Music using the airplay to the optical output. It seems like it should but I guess we won’t know until Apple start streaming in lossless next month. At the moment I’m using the old Apple TV box which has the optical output for Apple Music lossy but I think it will not output lossless. The new Apple TV box will output lossless but it has no optical output which I want. I have read that a HDMI audio extractor may degrade the audio so that may not be a great option.
Been using the WXA-50 for 5 months now with 3020i and yesterday for the first time I noticed that the amp is sending out a very mild but noticeable static noise on the speakers when AUX is selected. Does your unit do the same? Is this supposed to happen?
Great overview on the Yamaha Streaming Amp. I hope on the next generation of this amp it add HDMI with ARC.
Great review Jonah!!!
J, nice review! I always like your laid back demeanor when reviewing gadgets, and very concise. 🙂
Thanks! I appreciate it!
You really didn't cover the powerful features of the MusicCast application and the MANY music services that it supports, natively! Your video makes it appear as though you are dependent on the phone app (in your case, Spotify) to get and stream the music. What you did NOT mention was that this WXA-50 has a both a ESS Sabre ESS9006 and PCM Burr Brown PCM5101A Digital-to-Analog-Converter (DAC). Finally, you did not mention the THD of 0.003%.
USB port? Thought I saw one on the back?
Could you take a picture from the wiring behind these units?
This was really helpful. I have been agonizing over this vs the sonos amp for a whole house audio solution and your video made me more comfortable with the yamaha as I would be hard wiring the connection. Question: do you power the units on and off each day or leave them on at all times?
I'd like for them to be powered off each day, but they are basically left on 24/7. Rarely turned off or rebooted. Glad this was helpful!
If you connected to preout to another amp could you power more than 2 speakers - e.g. the WXA50 powering 2 speakers and the ext amp powering another 2?
May I ask, do you think the streamer version of this would be able to output the soon to be available lossless audio from Apple Music using the airplay to the optical output. It seems like it should but I guess we won’t know until Apple start streaming in lossless next month. At the moment I’m using the old Apple TV box which has the optical output for Apple Music lossy but I think it will not output lossless. The new Apple TV box will output lossless but it has no optical output which I want. I have read that a HDMI audio extractor may degrade the audio so that may not be a great option.
is there an updated version with airplay 2?
yes, what type of microphone can connect to this amplifiers?
Can it be controlled remotely? Did any one tryed
You can connect to the amplifier with your web browser and change the settings, as long as you're in the same network.
Are your speakers wired?
Been using the WXA-50 for 5 months now with 3020i and yesterday for the first time I noticed that the amp is sending out a very mild but noticeable static noise on the speakers when AUX is selected. Does your unit do the same? Is this supposed to happen?
Jonah is so handsome! Such pretty eyes.
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