Yamaha RX-V2500, The ultimate challenge

YPAO

• It has everything it takes to become the heart of an ambitious home theater system.

• Price: €1,099

• Specialists' rating: 5

• Text: Jorge Wuhrmann

After the excellent impression made by the DSP-Z9, its top-of-the-range A/V integrated amplifier, there was great anticipation for the next model down the ladder, the RX-V2500, since it sits in an interesting market segment, incorporating some of the technological advances of its big brother at a more affordable price.

Designed to be the heart of a fairly serious A/V system, the RX-V2500 aims to have practically everything. For a start, it offers more connections than most users could ever need. We had better refer you to the picture on the next page but, to sum up, apart from DVI inputs and outputs, there is absolutely everything. Worth highlighting is its ability to switch and convert (with good quality) all kinds of video signals, converting from S-Video to composite video and vice versa, and from both to component video.

But besides extensive connectivity, the RX-V2500 is generally well built. Our only criticisms are that the RCA connectors are not gold-plated and that the binding posts for the "presence" speakers (also assignable to Zone 2) are of lower quality than the rest. These channels, exclusive to Yamaha, are placed to the sides of the front speakers at a height of 1.8 m and are an alternative to the surround back channels. Otherwise, the remote control looks somewhat "dated", and its main practical flaw is the poor labeling of some buttons, which detracts from the usefulness of its backlighting.

Continuing with the list of our guest's virtues, it is worth pointing out that it can decode or process in multichannel every format currently available. It also has all of the brand's characteristic DSP processing capability, for both music and movies, including a multichannel emulation for headphones called "Silent Cinema", which is reasonably effective for watching movies without disturbing others. It does not match a full multichannel system, but it substantially improves on the experience of plain stereo. In addition to all these formats and DSP emulations (up to 34 different ones), the RX-V2500 is THX Select certified, another first for a Yamaha.

It features a lip-sync function to adjust dialogue delay and the ability to virtually "raise" the center channel to screen height when using a projection screen with the center channel placed below it. Its YPAO automatic setup system also gives excellent results.

For stereo listening, the RX-V2500 has a "pure direct" mode that shortens the audio signal path as much as possible, switching off video processing, the multichannel decoders and so on, resulting in a clear improvement in soundstage and definition.



Tested



For the tests I connected our guest to a loudspeaker set made up of System Audio SA1250 front speakers, an SA220 center and SA505 surround back speakers, together with B&W DM303 surround speakers and a Kef PSW2000 subwoofer. As a DVD-Video player I used a Toshiba SD900, and as a display a 32" Loewe Vitros TV.

There is a widespread prejudice about the excessively bright character of Yamaha electronics, so that although they are acknowledged to be very effective with movies, they are not considered very suitable for stereo. Well, with Yamaha's new designs, it is high time to revise that prejudice: there is neither brightness nor aggressiveness in the highest frequencies. In fact, this RX-V2500 is a very pleasant amplifier to listen to, driving speakers like the SA1250, with a nominal impedance of 4 ohms and a sensitivity of 89 dB, with complete ease. Both the smooth jazz of Jane Monheit and the complex string and wind textures of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto K622 were rendered with more than remarkable naturalness and effectiveness. Even the classic dynamics test of the finale of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 was passed without any sign of compression. And as if that were not enough, the music DSP modes are interesting in this case, as I found with Paco de Lucía's "Live in America" in "Hall in Vienna" mode.

But if its performance with music must be rated as very good, it is when we move on to multichannel movie audio that the Yamaha unleashes its full power. The channel separation, dialogue focus and sense of immersion in the on-screen action that Yamaha achieves is exceptional and superior to other competing units. It does not matter whether we use DTS (the opening battle of "Master and Commander" or the music and fights of "Kill Bill Vol. 1") or Dolby Digital (the battles of "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King"), because every movie creates a spectacular, grandiose atmosphere in which we feel trapped, both in the standard modes and using the THX circuitry. And if you also give in to the temptation of Yamaha's "Movie Theater" DSP modes, you will probably be surprised to notice the surrounding sound field widen, especially when using the additional front channels. Here we can no longer speak of clichés or prejudices, but of brand prestige, earned through good work and consistency, which the RX-V2500 honors with simply extraordinary movie performance.

The Yamaha RX-V2500 has everything it needs to become the heart of an ambitious home theater system: it is up to date in both connectivity and multichannel format processing, and it also has a reasonably powerful amplifier section for driving fairly serious loudspeaker sets. Its results are very good with music and spectacular with movies, making it the benchmark in its price segment. Give it a listen; it will not disappoint you.

YPAO

The automatic parametric acoustic equalization system that Yamaha presents under the acronym YPAO is very useful and accurate. With the supplied microphone placed at the listening position, the system generates acoustic signals that allow it to check speaker phase, speaker size, distance to the listening position and levels. These steps can be carried out all together or selectively, one by one. The process takes barely 2 or 3 minutes, and the accuracy of distances, speaker sizes, etc., is very high, except for the subwoofer distance, which is excusable given the frequencies at which it operates, difficult for any microphone. In addition, equalization can be applied based on the average values of all the speakers ("flat" setting), slightly rolling off the highest frequencies ("natural" setting) or, finally, leaving the front speakers' equalization flat and equalizing the rest relative to them, the setting whose results were the most convincing.

Yamaha RX-V2500, The ultimate challenge

Specifications

Output power: 130W per channel continuous (into 8 ohms, 20 Hz-20 kHz, THD <0.04%). Frequency response: 10 Hz 100 kHz. Signal-to-noise ratio: 100 dB. Damping factor: 140. Other: AM and FM RDS tuner. Audio decoding: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, DTS ES 6.1 discrete and matrix, Dolby Prologic, Dolby Prologic II and Dolby Prologic IIx, DTS Neo:6, DTS 96/24. D/A conversion: 192kHz/24 Bit on all channels. Connectivity: 5 EIAJ-TosLink, 3 S/PDIF.

9 analog source inputs (incl. Phono MM/MC). 1 7.1 analog input for external decoders, 7.1-channel preamp outputs. 1 RS232 port. Outputs for 4 analog recording loops.

Dimensions and weight: 435 x 171 x 434 mm, 15.5 kg. Distributor: Gaplasa (917482960).

Price: €1,099