Specifications

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Build Quality

Just as in the tradition of all past Yamaha

flagship products, the RX-Z11 uses state

of the art construction and parts. I was

relieved to see the old modular design

and horizontally mounted heat sinks of the

RX-Z9 not find its way into this unit. The

RX-Z11 utilizes about the largest E-core

power transformer that I’ve seen, instead

of the more space efficient toroidal found

on its predecessor flagship receiver. The

RX-Z11 screams flagship with its hefty

and rigid chassis, huge power supply and

ample heat sink area. E-core and Toroid

transformer designs can be equally good

provided they are used within their limits

but an E-core typically takes up more real

estate which Yamaha managed to cleverly

tuck neatly into this hulking chassis. The

heat sink is tapered to minimize resonance

and also provide for optimal heat dissipation

and the bottom of the chassis has two

relatively large fans to keep the unit cool

during high sustained output levels. The

input fuse to the power transformer is

rated at 15A / 250V and the power supply

consists of two 27000uF/75V capacitors for

the seven main power amplifiers and two

8200uF/50V caps for the presence channels.

The audio pre-amp section, utilizes a bulk of

capacitors that sum to about 30000uF. The

amplifier is a wide bandwidth design utilizing

current mode feedback with virtually no

phase shift to keep phase compensation

to a minimum. This contributes to the

RX-Z11’s excellent transient response

allowing frequency response to remain

unchanged even when the gain changes (as

you will see in my test data), to help create

a warmer, texture-rich sound. With such

a large power supply, plenty of heat sink

area and ample cooling, and THX Ultra2

Yamaha RX-Z11

A/V Receiver Review

11.2 Network A/V Receiver

with iPod Connectivity,

XM HD^3 Surround, & YPAO

Review by Gene DellaSala of Audioholics.com

• HDMI1.3asupportandswitching

including audio and 1080p deep color

• HDMIupconversionwithOSD

• DolbyDigitalPlus/TrueHDandDTS

HDDecoding

• iPod&XMradioconnectivityand

Network audio support

• 11.2channelHD^3DSPprocessing

with amplification on all channels

• TheindustriesfirstTHXUltra2Plus

receiver with THX listening modes to

optimize sound at low listening levels

The question that now remains: Do all

of these features justify the long waiting

process for diehard Yamaha and home

theater aficionados? Keep reading to find

out…

review

02.21.08

Introduction

Ever wonder why some special events

seem to happen once every four years?

Every four years we get an extra day, we have

apresidentialelection,wehaveanOlympic

game, and, incidentally, Yamaha seems to

release a new flagship receiver. I can’t tell

you how thrilling it is to be at the tail end

of the 4 year cycle and it’s also pretty cool

that Yamaha finally has a replacement to

their venerable RX-Z9 which still sounds

fabulous but has gotten a bit long in the

tooth over the past couple of years.

There are too many changes to note

between the RX-Z9 and Z11 but a few key

ones include:

Summary of content (12 pages)

PAGE 1
review 02.21.08 Yamaha RX-Z11 A/V Receiver Review 11.2 Network A/V Receiver with iPod Connectivity, XM HD^3 Surround, & YPAO Review by Gene DellaSala of Audioholics.com www.audioholics.coM Introduction Ever wonder why some special events seem to happen once every four years? Every four years we get an extra day, we have a presidential election, we have an Olympic game, and, incidentally, Yamaha seems to release a new flagship receiver.
PAGE 2
RX-Z11 Home Theater Receiver Manufacturer: Yamaha Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars Value Rating: 4/5 Stars MSRP: $5499 http://www.yamaha.
PAGE 3
I decided to really torture the RX-Z11 by powering the integrated subs of my T-30LSE system off the main channels (speaker B) of the RX-Z11. These speakers dip down to 2 ohms so if the RX-Z11 can deliver enough oomph in my nearly 6,000ft^3 listening space while powering all 11 speakers and 2 of my 4 subs, then it will earn my respect as a “Flagship” product.
PAGE 4
Manual Calibration After YPAO was completed, I manually adjusted speaker size, subwoofer distance, PEQ, and crossover frequency for greater accuracy. I also went into the bass management menu and engaged “Bass Out” for the main channels + the subwoofers. I even used the manual EQ mode to help smooth out the bass response of my system for the sub and main channels.
PAGE 5
Bass Management In the great tradition of excellent bass management, Yamaha offers a variable crossover point from 40Hz to 200 Hz and +- phase adjustment for the subwoofer(s) so you can determine the best setting without having to go behind your subwoofer(s) to change it. Yamaha also provisions for subwoofer output in 2CH mode if the speakers are set to “Large” via the LFE/ Bass Out set to “Both”.
PAGE 6
Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results Perfect Score is 130 Yamaha RX-Z11 Benchmark Score: 90 (Average compared to many displays and source components. In comparison, my Silicon Optix enabled Denon DVD-5910CI scored a 130.
PAGE 7
Listening Tests only can you distribute audio all around the house, but you can do video as well. The DSP “Party” mode is a must have feature for those hosting social events. It allows you to play the same source through all of the speakers in the main zone and any or all of the other zones simultaneously. The RX-Z11 offers some of the most comprehensive multi zone / multi source options in a receiver that I haven’t seen the likes of since the Denon AVR-5805.
PAGE 8
www.audioholics.coM vocals dead center as they should be with plenty of width and depth to the soundstage. The drums had a the requisite pop to them while the saxophones exhibited a nice bite giving you that “live” feeling. Next up was Fourplay’s “Chant” track which is slams with a dynamic kick drum sending wimpy woofers to oblivion and lesser designed amps into hard clipping.
PAGE 9
Concert DVD’s This is where I really enjoy Yamaha receiver products the most. The ability to transform a concert event into a lifelike experience is something only Yamaha DSP processing can convey to its fullest realism. I got a kick out of listening to Pat Metheny’s - The Way Up HD DVD and Eric Claptons Crossroads DVD in “Music Video” and “Village Gate” DSP modes.
PAGE 10
I measured a ruler flat frequency response with a -3dB point around 173kHz in “Pure Direct” mode. Once the DSP was engaged, I noticed a +1.8dB bump centered around 80Hz in DSP mode which puzzled me for a moment until I realized I was the one that caused that bump when I manual edited the PEQ on the main channels. It’s reassuring that I confirmed Yamaha’s manual PEQ adjustments work exactly as expected. With 200mVin, I set the master volume until I reached 1Vrms out of the preamp.
PAGE 11
With two channels driven at full load, I measured about 55% efficiency which is quite good for a linear Class A/B amplifier. When the unit was idling with all amplifiers turned on, it consumed about 126 watts. When I engaged “preamp mode” which shuts off the amps in the main zone, the idle power dropped to about 90 watts. FFT Distortion Analysis At 1 watt into 8 ohms,the RX-Z11 displayed excellent results (+9.056 + 82.271)dBv = 91.3dBv or 100*alog^-1(-91.3/20) = .003% THD + N.
PAGE 12
crosstalk on two adjacent channels where one channel was the disturber and the other was the DUT. The Audio Precision plotted crosstalk of both channels over frequency by varying the Distruber/DUT channels.You can see the RX-Z11 produced great crosstalk measurements (90dB at 1kHz) with only a slight increase up at the frequency extremes (low frequency because of magnetic coupling and high frequency because of capacitive coupling).