11/9/2012 [Audio & Visual]
Yamaha launches AVENTAGE Series III in Australia at the Sydney Opera House
Since its inception in 2010, the AVENTAGE Series has signalled a new era in home entertainment, bringing studio-grade performance and cutting-edge functionality to the home. Befitting its position as Yamaha’s premier home theatre series, the iconic Sydney Opera House hosted the launch of the new AVENTAGE Series III in Australia on 28th August to an audience of specialist retailers and media. The third instalment in the range capitalises on Yamaha’s unrivalled musical heritage and rich traditions of craftsmanship and innovation to deliver the ultimate home entertainment experience.
AVENTAGE Series III is defined by state-of-the-art design, sophisticated versatility and uncompromising construction. Comprised of five AV receivers and a Blu-ray player, the range presents a perfect harmonisation between time‐honoured hi-fi performance and leading‐edge technologies. The receiver line-up, comprising of five models, includes new features such as AirPlay and 4K video support while building on enhanced app control and versatile multi‐zone functionality.
The RX-A3020 positions itself as the principal receiver in the AVENTAGE receiver line‐up. With nine channels at 150 Watts per channel, the RX-A3020 is expandable to an immersive 11.2 channel home theatre configuration utilising an external amplifier to power the additional two channels. Inheriting many of its attributes from the RX-A3020, the 9.2 channel RX-A2020 delivers commanding surround sound with 140 Watts over each of its nine channels and is capable of expanding this configuration so that the front speakers are bi-amped using an external amplifier. The RX-A1020 features an expandable 7.2 channel configuration with 110 Watts per channel, enabling the front speakers to be bi‐amped while utilising an external amplifier to power the surround back or front. With 100 Watts per channel, the RX-A820 delivers 7.2 channel home theatre performance while the RX-A720 at the entry‐point to the range provides 7.2 channels at 90 Watts per channel.
All AVENTAGE models employ a discrete amplifier configuration for each channel and utilise 24-bit/192 kHz Burr Brown DACs in delivering superior audio performance. This dedication to highend audio is mirrored in Yamaha’s patented CINEMA DSP 3D technology and CINEMA DSP HD3 for the RX-A3020, providing industry-leading surround sound programs and reproduction of worldrenowned acoustic environments.
Unique to Yamaha’s AVENTAGE Series is the Anti‐Resonance Technology (A.R.T.) Wedge - a signature fifth foot located in the centre of the receiver footprint which improves the chassis’ rigidity and reduces vibrations that can cause distortion and loss of fidelity. On the RX-A3020, RX-A2020 and RX-A1020, a double bottom construction further dampens vibrations to yield optimal audio performance.
A new feature on the RX-A3020 and RX-A2020 is Yamaha’s High Resolution Music Enhancer which improves the quality of not only compressed music but lossless audio including CD and FLAC as well. Utilising high‐sampling augmentation of audio up to 24-bit/96 kHz, the listener is presented with an unprecedented level of detail and clarity in sound quality.
Demonstrating a continued commitment to develop the home theatre experience, Dialogue Lift has been improved on the new receiver range with more precise location of dialogue in the centre of the television or projector screen. In addition, Dialogue Level Adjustment enables audiences to manipulate the balance of dialogue and surrounding audio for clearer vocals.
For video, all models within the AVENTAGE receiver range support the next‐generation 4K video format which promises to be four times the resolution of Full HD 1080p. All receiver models will also upscale standard and current high definition formats so that they are displayed at 4K video resolution, utilising all pixels on a 4K projector or television for unprecedented picture quality.
Advanced network connectivity on all receivers in the AVENTAGE Series provides enhanced operation via Yamaha’s popular AV Controller app for iOS and Android devices. App control opens the door to integrated home entertainment, utilising an intuitive interface that is familiar to a large portion of users. The free app provides control of the receiver’s functions from anywhere in the home and facilitates seamless access to music and movies* stored on a networked PC, Mac or Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. Music Play, a feature of the AV Controller app, enables users to wirelessly push audio stored on the iOS or Android device directly to the receiver for convenient enjoyment of their favourite music while thousands of radio stations from around the world are also able to be intuitively navigated and accessed via the Internet.
New to this year’s AVENTAGE Series is AirPlay. Utilising a wireless network within the home, the Apple technology provides convenient wireless streaming of audio from iTunes on Mac or PC, or directly from iOS devices through an ever‐growing list of AirPlay-enabled apps including Music, YouTube, Spotify and Rdio. iTunes users no longer have to tolerate inferior audio from their laptop speakers while working from the couch, instead being able to stream audio to the home theatre system wirelessly.
Ensuring integrated entertainment throughout the home, the AVENTAGE line of receivers feature versatile multi‐zone functionality. The RX-A2020, RX-A1020 and RX-A820 boast dual HDMI outputs for Zone B video, simultaneously streaming high definition video over HDMI to two areas of the home. For the first time Zone 2 HDMI is featured on the RX-A3020 which enables two independent video sources to be streamed to different areas of the home at the same time, ensuring the RX-A3020 is the centre of the home’s audio and video entertainment.
Ensuring a trouble‐free set‐up, all AVENTAGE Series receivers feature an advanced version of YPAO (Yamaha Parametric room Acoustic Optimiser) which automatically calibrates the home theatre system to any listening environment by measuring and analysing speaker capabilities and the room’s acoustic qualities. Reflected Sound Control (RSC) refines this calibration process by negating any interference to the direct sound caused by early reflections from hard surfaces such as coffee tables and adjacent walls. On the RX-A820 and above models, multipoint measurement optimises audio for up to eight listening positions enabling larger audiences to enjoy the best possible sound. At the forefront of YPAO technology, the RX-A3020 utilises an additional angle measurement which compensates for non‐symmetrical placement of speakers. The RX-A3020 and RX-A2020 also include a newly designed YPAO microphone that measures speaker characteristics with more accuracy when placed at different heights.
Each AVENTAGE receiver within the range comes with a bonus YWA-10 wireless network adaptor for wireless connectivity to a home network. The YWA-10 eliminates the requirement for the receiver to be hard‐wired to the home network. Instead, the YWA-10 provides two Ethernet ports enabling up to two devices to be connected to the wireless home network at one time.
The new AVENTAGE Series is available exclusively at Yamaha Specialist AV dealers are backed by a four year warranty with twelve month replacement warranty.
For more information on Yamaha’s integrated home entertainment solutions, visit au.yamaha.com or call 1300 739 411.
*requires Yamaha network Blu‐ray player
