New Age, new decade
It’s been longer than usual in the waiting, delayed by the pandemic, but now it’s ready for launch — Yamaha’s 10th series of Aventage receivers. First launched in 2010, they were the result of Yamaha rethinking every element of their longstanding receiver designs, a grand reset for a new decade — Aventage is a portmanteau of ‘AV entertainment for a new age’. They gained instant success, followed each year by iterative improvements that have maintained the momentum through the addition of Dolby Atmos height channels, Yamaha’s MusicCast streaming multiroom platform, and the endless other pieces and abilities that go to make the model of a modern receiver. Their success can be gauged by an Aventage receiver having won the top Sound+Image receiver award every year possible.
Now we have a new decade, and here is the first receiver from Aventage Series 10, the relatively humble Aventage RX-A2A. In a great many ways it’s pretty much exactly what we would expect. In others it surprised us, and in one particular way, it reversed an antipathy we’ve held for nearly 30 years.
Equipment
Junior Aventage model the RX-A2A may be, but it’s a substantial receiver at more than 10kg, and with the usual full-width double-height, even though there’s a little empty space on the back these days, thanks to the neatening effect of HDMI connections over multi-cable AV. The unit sits not on four legs but on five, the fifth central support (or A.R.T. Anti Resonance Technology) having long been an Aventage differentiator providing extra rigidity to the construction. Only the top panel with its venting slots presents an obviously plastic surface.
There is a distinct restyling here for Aventage 10. Gone is the wide central display with endless small lights and logos, shortened now and shifted to the right, allowing the main volume knob to go dead centre, larger and more tempting to use, further encouraged by its nicely weighted mild resistance to moving. Gone is the big flap hiding front inputs and controls, largely redundant in this age of app control and on-screen menus. The only front-panel socketry remaining is a full-size headphone socket, a USB-A slot with 5V charging,
