Jamsbond
Member
Ten years is how long the WXA-50 and WXC-50 sat in the lineup, which tells you roughly how much this category moved in that time. The replacements are the WXA-70A streaming amp and the WXC-70A network streamer, and the spec I care about is that both of them carry HDMI eARC and a dedicated subwoofer output.
That combination is the quiet argument against buying another soundbar. A small stereo amp with 70 watts of Class D per channel into 8 ohms, an eARC connection to the TV, a sub out and Yamaha's YPAO room calibration on board covers what most people actually want from TV sound: dialogue that is intelligible, real stereo width from proper speakers, and bass that comes from a box on the floor instead of a slot in a plastic bar. YPAO showing up on something this size is the part I did not expect, since room correction usually gets stripped out of the compact models first.
What is not addressed anywhere is what happens to a multichannel stream arriving over that eARC link. This is two-channel gear, so something has to fold Atmos and DTS down, and nobody has said what or how well. If you are running it as your only TV audio path, that matters.
Pricing is $1,300 for the amp and $1,000 for the streamer, both in November. The amp is flagship-soundbar money, which is exactly the comparison Yamaha is inviting.
If you have run a WXA-50 on TV duty, how did the handover between TV and streaming sources behave day to day?
That combination is the quiet argument against buying another soundbar. A small stereo amp with 70 watts of Class D per channel into 8 ohms, an eARC connection to the TV, a sub out and Yamaha's YPAO room calibration on board covers what most people actually want from TV sound: dialogue that is intelligible, real stereo width from proper speakers, and bass that comes from a box on the floor instead of a slot in a plastic bar. YPAO showing up on something this size is the part I did not expect, since room correction usually gets stripped out of the compact models first.
What is not addressed anywhere is what happens to a multichannel stream arriving over that eARC link. This is two-channel gear, so something has to fold Atmos and DTS down, and nobody has said what or how well. If you are running it as your only TV audio path, that matters.
Pricing is $1,300 for the amp and $1,000 for the streamer, both in November. The amp is flagship-soundbar money, which is exactly the comparison Yamaha is inviting.
If you have run a WXA-50 on TV duty, how did the handover between TV and streaming sources behave day to day?
