Will the musical pedigree behind the latest in Yamaha’s long line of AV receivers give it the edge over the many other options currently available?
The RXA660 is the direct upgrade from 2015’s the highly reviewed RXA550, which in my opinion was a little under spec’ed for the money. It did sound great, but was missing a lot of key features. Thankfully the RXA660 more than makes up for that.
This 7.2 channel amplifier is an absolute power house at 80W per channel, which may sound a little lack lustre – but don’t be fooled into thinking Wattage is everything. It sounds incredible; a really nice introduction to Yamaha’s high-end AVENTAGE range, and offers something extra special from its lesser siblings, such as the RXV681.
As far as future proofing yourself from the ever growing minefield that is home cinema, the RXA660 has you covered. With full 4K Ultra HD video pass-through, with HDCP 2.2, HDR and BT.2020 support, as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X codec compatibility, not to mention AirPlay and Bluetooth.
But one of the real heroes is Yamaha’s fantastic multiroom technology MusicCast. If you consider yourself to be a bit of a Yamaha fan boy and want to decorate your house with most of their products, then taking advantage of MusicCast you can have full control over all the music in your house from a phone or Smart device.
Bells and whistles aside, let’s get down to the important things. What does it sound like, what’s the picture like? Having an entire shop full of suitable equipment to test it with, I opted for Monitor Audio’s Radius package. I paired this up with the Panasonic ’DX902 TV and DMPUB900 4K Blu-ray player, and my favourite demo disc, Mad Max.
I skipped right ahead to some of the more dramatic scenes and I was really impressed with how immersive the sound was. I’ve often found on some of the lesser Yamahas, that they can almost miss very small aspects of the detail, which leaves me craving a little more. The RXA660 did not disappoint. It offered a huge, punchy sound.
After a good hour I reluctantly had to call it a day.
The RXA660 is an exciting AV receiver that did nothing but put a smile on my face. If you would like a demo, please feel free to call ahead and we’ll get one set up for you to hear yourself.
Author: Garrett, Plymouth store.
