Yamaha RX-A3050 Review

Design & Connectivity

Opening the packaging box was quite straightforward and the same goes for the content of it. Besides the receiver you'll get a remote control (batteries included), YPAO microphone and a small stand, FM and AM antennas, power cable, an Easy Setup Guide and Safety brochure, and the 193 page Owner's Manual on a CD-ROM. The full-size plastic remote control gets the job done, but it would have been nice with a brushed aluminum remote to compliment the looks of the amp and reflect the fact that this is a top-of-the-line $2000 AV receiver.

With a dimension of 17-1/8” x 7-1/2” x 18-5/8” (435 x 192 x 474 mm), you can tell that the RX-A3050 is a high-end AV receiver just by looking at it. The rather hefty size is of course accompanied by an equally hefty weight of 39.9 lbs (18.1 kg), which made it somewhat difficult to place on the shelf of our test room AV rack - but once in place, it will stay in place.

​The front panel is split in an upper and lower half, where the lower half is made of brushed aluminum and the upper half is covered by plastic, covering the display area. The lower half has a big flap in the center, with two large control knobs on either side - input selector on the left and volume control on the right - and the 3050 have a very clean and austere look with the flap closed.

Hiding behind the very smoothly functioning flap​ you'll find a total of 29 small buttons with various functions, accompanied by a USB-A, YPAO mic input, 6.35 mm headphones output, RCA composite video and audio inputs and a HDMI input.

Apart from the dot-matrix display on the upper half you'll also find a Standby button on the left, and a small Pure Direct button on the right.

The RX-A3050 is built in the same manner as Yamaha's more affordable AV receivers, using a single piece of metal for the top and sides, and it is not until you take a look on the inside that you will appreciate the extra effort Yamaha has put in to the AVENTAGE series. 

Poppin' The Hood

​The underside of the receiver has four solid feet placed at each corner, and in the middle is an Anti-Resonance Technology (ART) Wedge, functioning as a fifth foot in the center of the receiver, dampening vibrations from the transformer, transistors and heat sinks, as well as vibrations caused by the speakers.

​Digital-to-analog conversion is done by ESS Technology's 192 kHz/32 bit Sabre ES9016 DAC for the main channels, and ES9006 for the presence channels. A Texas Instrument Cinema DSP handles the multi-channel processing and an Analog Devices ADV7181C handles the decoding and conversion of video signals.

While the front may look clean and sober, the exact opposite is happening at the back. There's an abundance of in and outputs:

Additionally, there's an input for a Wi-Fi antenna and an Ethernet port, along with inputs for FM and AM antennas, Trigger Out 1/2, Remote 1/2 and a RS-232C. On the right is a connector for the detachable power cord, and on the bottom you'll find a total of 22 high quality speaker terminals; seven pairs for the main channels and four pairs for the Zone2/3, presence and bi-amping the front speakers.

No matter what type of speakers we hooked up to the 3050, it revealed a sound that was natural and clean across all frequencies. It handled surround effects with aplomb and certainty, and never failed to convey what happened on the screen with accuracy and precision, and the finer details in the soundscape was rendered faithfully. There is no doubt that the RX-A3050 does an excellent job at converting and processing the signals as the overall sound is cohesive, natural and refined from top to bottom. Also, the support for Immersive Sound formats, like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, makes sure that the RX-A3050 is future-proof and would be the ideal choice for anyone looking for an awesomely powerful and modern home theater.

​Moving on to two-channel music and we reveled in a very musical and detailed reproduction with exemplary authority and control, and we've heard many stereo amplifiers do a worse job than the 3050 for the same money. Paired with good speakers, the soundstage is both wide and deep, with full-bodied and powerful bass, rich and colorful midrange and smooth and detailed treble. We ultimately find it very hard to find any serious flaws as we get more and more enchanted by the musical spells that the RX-A3050 cast.

It's not just great sound that makes the 3050 such a compelling choice for home theater enthusiasts, but also the aforementioned support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X (will be available via future firmware update), 192/24 and DS128 playback via a network. Add to this Bluetooth, AirPlay and MusicCast for multiroom setup with other compatible Yamaha devices, and the ability to control the receiver using Yamaha's AV Controller App with extended functionality and adaptability to cater for just about any need you may have.