Yamaha Aventage CX-A5000 Preamplifier-Processor

Kal Rubinson has posted a review of the Yamaha Aventage CX-A5000 preamplifier-processor ($2999) in his Music in the Round column at Stereophile. His conclusions:

“Compared to the popular Marantz AV8801 ($3599), the CX-A5000 seemed to extract more information from the upper midrange and treble—and set to YPAO-Natural, it did so while maintaining an extremely satisfying spectral balance. The Marantz does offer somewhat better rendition of the low end, no doubt due to the ability of Audyssey MultEQ XT32 to control that region of the audioband all the way down. However, if one complements the Yamaha’s excellent treble and mids with additional bass EQ, that problem completely disappears, and choosing between it and the Marantz becomes very difficult. I found the Yamaha CX-A5000′s pure and natural treble completely addicting, and something rarely found for $3000. Once heard, many listeners will pounce on this excellent preamplifier-processor. ”

You can read the full review here.