It’s great It’s time to go all-in on stereo. Multi-speaker formats like Dolby Atmos are the new rage, but if you’re building an all-in-one stereo or 2.1 system to enhance everything from your turntable to your TV, there have never been so many options.
With the emergence of stereo streaming amplifiers and receivers all over the audio world (not to mention tons of powered bookshelf speakers), it can be hard to know where to start. The R-N1000A makes things easy. It sits a step below the Yamaha flagship R-N2000AThe R-N1000A is expensive yet affordable, with a rugged combination of versatile connectivity, excellent performance and consistent ease of use.
You might expect any mainstream audio brand to deliver consistent performance across all inputs in the streaming age, but as our extensive testing has confirmed, combining traditional audiophile components with conveniences like Wi-Fi and HDMI ARC is no easy feat. The N1000A proves you can have it all in one box, displaying rare stability in a powerful, downright fun package tailor-made for the modern stereo era.
Old school, new curriculum
Unwrapping the big, sleek R-N1000A from its packaging, my first question was: where’s the display? Don’t get me wrong, I love the receiver’s shiny front face with its tactile selector knobs, especially on the silver model I reviewed, but even the most attractive retro design demands modern compromises.
It wasn’t until I turned the unit on that I realized the unobtrusive black strip along its base is the display, which offers a small but legible guide to source, volume levels, and other settings. It’s not as handy or versatile as the large screens on more expensive streaming amps, such as Rotel’s RA-5000 (7/10, WIRED recommends) or Naim’s Uniti Atom (8/10, WIRED recommends), but it gets the job done without disrupting the vintage aesthetic. It helps that Yamaha’s MusicCast app, required for Wi-Fi setup, displays handy items like album art and the resolution of digital files.
Photography: Ryan Waniata
Styling aside, the R-N1000A is designed with performance in mind. It uses Yamaha’s TopART (Total Purity Audio Reproduction Tech) design, with a “meticulously symmetrical left/right circuit layout” and “special resin” to block out vibrations. A double-bottom chassis with a 1mm iron damping plate and anti-resonance feet further attenuates unwanted noise. The unit’s vented frame weighs a healthy 27 pounds and measures 6 inches tall, over 17 inches wide, and 15.5 inches deep, so it’ll need plenty of console space.
While the R-N1000A does not have the giant toroidal transformer found in the R-N2000A (and other, more expensive rivals), its custom transformer and block capacitors deliver powerful A/B amplification at 100 watts continuous power per channel into 8 ohms and 140 watts at peak power. Yamaha doesn’t publish continuous power specs at 4 ohms but claims 220 watts per channel peak power. A 384kHz/32-bit SABRE ES9090Q DAC provides top-of-the-line high-resolution digital pass-through for Hi-Res sources with support for WAV and FLAC files up to 384kHz and DSD files up to 11.2MHz.
Ready and set
While stereo network receivers and amplifiers seem to spring up on their own, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one with better connectivity than the R-N1000A. The back panel is equipped with three dedicated digital inputs (two digital, one coaxial), USB-B connectivity, AM and FM tuners, three RCA line inputs (one for a CD player), HDMI ARC for your TV, a subwoofer output, Ethernet, and stereo preouts for a second amp. There’s also a solid phono input, though I actually preferred the built-in preamp on my Orbit Theory. On the front is a quarter-inch headphone output.
A handy second speaker zone located below the gold-plated Zone A stereo terminals lets you connect two pairs simultaneously, rated for 8 ohms only. Another note on impedance: If you’re connecting a single pair of 4- or 6-ohm speakers like I did, Yamaha recommends that you go into Advanced Setup and change the impedance. It’s a minor process, but it only takes a few seconds.
If you have other MusicCast devices, you can create additional playback zones from any wirelessly connected sound source in the app. You’ll also find plenty of built-in streaming services there, including internet radio stations, Pandora, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Sirius XM, among others. The wireless set is rounded out by AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 in a pinch. No Chromecast is included, though with so many supported services, including Spotfy Connect and Tidal Connect, Android users should be in good shape. The receiver is also “Roon tested” for Roon Dedicated Server System.