While Yamaha’s AV receivers brim with smart functions and streaming options, the Japanese company has hitherto kept its premium stereo hi-fi amplifiers fully analogue. Indeed its top 5000 Series is a fully analogue system from end to end, with a giant turntable as its only source component: no streaming in sight.
That’s all now very sensibly changing, with a group of ‘smart’ and networked amplifiers rolling out, the toppermost of which is this Yamaha R-N2000A.
How ‘in-yer-face’ do you make the modern stuff? Yamaha’s answer is ‘not much at all’. So while some smart amps are fronted by a giant colour touchscreen proclaiming their modernity, Yamaha has been significantly and successfully subtle in the merging of analogue and digital.
As part of Yamaha’s 2000 Series, the integration of traditional and modern here includes the thoroughly audiophile design concepts of the higher 3000 and 5000 Series: symmetrical ‘folding book’ circuitry, the ‘Mechanical Ground concept’ to minimise vibration — and a focus on ‘True Sound’ musicality. True Sound is an evolution of the tonal and
