It is a great It’s time to double down on stereo sound. Multi-speaker formats like Dolby Atmos are making headlines, but if you’re building an all-in-one stereo or a 2.1 system to enhance everything from your turntable to your TV, there have never been more options.
With so many stereo streaming amplifiers and receivers popping up all over the audio world (not to mention the countless powered speakers on the shelf), it can be difficult to know where to start. The R-N1000A makes it easy. Sitting a notch below Yamaha’s flagship R-N2000A, it’s expensive but still affordable, offering a robust blend of versatile connectivity, excellent performance, and rock-solid usability.
In the streaming age, you might expect consistent performance across all inputs from any conventional audio brand, but as our extensive testing has shown, combining traditional audiophile components with conveniences like Wi-Fi and HDMI ARC is no walk in the park. Proving you can have it all in one box, the N1000A offers uncommon stability in a powerful and thoroughly enjoyable package tailor-made for the modern stereo era.
Old school, new curriculum
When I took the massive yet elegant R-N1000A out of the box, my first question was: Where’s the display on this thing? Don’t get me wrong, I love the receiver’s sparkling front panel with its tactile dials, especially on the silver model I tested, but even the coolest retro design demands modern concessions.
It wasn’t until I turned the unit on that I realized the plain black strip on the bottom is the display, which offers a small but easy-to-read readout for source, volume, and other settings. It’s not as convenient or versatile as the large screens on more expensive streaming amps like Rotel’s RA-5000 (7/10, WIRED Pick) or Naim’s Uniti Atom (8/10, WIRED Pick), but it gets the job done without disrupting the vintage aesthetic. It helps that Yamaha’s MusicCast app, required for Wi-Fi setup, displays conveniences like album art and digital file resolution.
Photo: Ryan Waniata
Style aside, the R-N1000A was designed with performance in mind. It uses Yamaha’s TopART (Total Purity Audio Reproduction Tech) design with a “meticulously symmetrical left/right circuit layout” and “special resin” to block vibrations. A double-bottomed chassis with a 1mm iron damping plate and anti-resonance feet further dampen unwanted noise. The unit’s ventilated frame weighs a whopping 27 pounds and measures 6 inches tall, over 17 inches wide and 15.5 inches deep, so you’ll need plenty of console space.
While the R-N1000A doesn’t have the huge toroidal transformer of the R-N2000A (and other more expensive competitors), its powerful custom transformer and blocking capacitors provide powerful A/B amplification, with a claimed continuous power of 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 140 watts at peak. Yamaha doesn’t publish continuous power figures into 4 ohms, but claims a peak power of 220 watts per channel. A 384 kHz/32-bit SABRE ES9090Q DAC provides premium high-resolution digital transmission for high-resolution sources, with support for WAV and FLAC files up to 384 kHz and DSD files up to 11.2 MHz.
Loaded and unlocked
Although stereo network receivers and amplifiers seem to be popping up all by themselves, you’d be hard-pressed to find one with better connectivity than the R-N1000A. The rear panel is fitted with three dedicated digital inputs (two digital, one coaxial), a USB-B port, AM and FM tuners, three RCA line inputs (one for a CD player), HDMI ARC for your TV, a subwoofer output, Ethernet, and stereo pre-outs for a second amplifier. There’s also a solid phono input, although I actually preferred my Orbit Theory’s built-in preamp. Up front is a 6.3mm headphone output.
A handy second speaker zone below the A-Zone’s gold-plated stereo terminals lets you connect two pairs of speakers rated at 8 ohms at once. One more note on impedance: If you’re hooking up a single pair of 4 or 6 ohm speakers like I did, Yamaha recommends navigating to Advanced Settings and changing the impedance. It’s not particularly tedious, but it only takes a few seconds.
If you have other MusicCast devices, you can wirelessly create additional playback zones from any connected sound source in the app. You’ll also find plenty of built-in streaming services there, including internet radio stations, Pandora, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Sirius XM. Rounding out the wireless package is AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 4.2 in a pinch. Chromecast is missing, but with so many services supported, including both Spotfy Connect and Tidal Connect, Android users should be well set up. The receiver is also “Roon Tested” for Roon’s dedicated server system.
