A review of the new Yamaha R-S201 Stereo receiver

Thanks, my Polk Monitor 30 and PSW10 combo are with my son-in-law. I am using new Dayton Air speakers with the R-S201 in my living room now. The credenza has limited space and I need front ported or sealed speakers. The Daytons at 6 ohms impedance are no problem for the R-S201 to drive and the sound is really good!
 
I wonder if anyone has tried re-capping this thing with nice Elna Silmics or Nichicon Muse caps to see if the sound quality improves? I venture to guess it would maybe cost $30 in parts, Would a new unit like that benefit from such an upgrade?
 
Ikorman, I really think you would need to listen to the R-S201 before deciding on whether to play with the electronics. Mine sounds very clean and compares favorably with my A-S500 amp. I have played it with KEF Q300, AR 215ps, Polk Monitor 4a and Dayton B652 Air speakers and it did a great job with all of them. My rule is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
 
Ikorman, I really think you would need to listen to the R-S201 before deciding on whether to play with the electronics. Mine sounds very clean and compares favorably with my A-S500 amp. I have played it with KEF Q300, AR 215ps, Polk Monitor 4a and Dayton B652 Air speakers and it did a great job with all of them. My rule is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

I understand it sounds clean, but is the sound involving, interesting? Do you hear all the details? I am just wondering if those "higher functions" can be obtained with a few bucks spent on audio caps.
 
I don't notice anything missing and the sound with different speakers sounds good to me, but YMMV. I think the character of sound depends more on speaker choice.
 
Latest update: The R-S201 has been moved to the study. Have CD, Grace Digital Tuner, Grundig Satalite 750 and Denon DP300f hooked up. The Denon is using it's internal preamp. Listened this afternoon to a Violin concerto by a Phillip Glass using the Grace digital internet tuner via the Pioneer BS22 speakers. Beautiful sound!
 
Latest update:

I have purchased the Yamaha R-N402 internet receiver which has the same performance as the R-S201 with the addition of internet capability. I just reviewed that unit in this forum, and it has replaced the R-S201 in my living room credenza system.The A-S 500 is now in the study.

I decided to use the R-S201 in my study as the AM/FM tuner for my A-S500 amplifier, and connected the tape out from the R-S201 to the tuner input on the A-S500 amp. I also connected the Grace Digital tuner to the R-S201. The idea was to use the 201 as the hub for tuning activity. The A-S500 will handle the turntable, CD player and will drive my KEF Q300 speakers.

The only weird thing about this setup was that the remotes for both units had the same frequency! When I turned on the A-S500, the R-S201 also turned on! That was fine, but source inputs were affected, and volume settings were also affected. Since the R-S201 was being only used as a tuner, I had the speakers turned off and the volume at zero.

The only way around this glitch was to use the remote to turn everything on and off, but use the individual controls and not the remote for volume and switching.The study is a small room so that works.

Film at 11!
 
Update: 2020

Because of some age/ health related issues I have reconfigured my system. The treadmill is no longer active in our basement and we will be cleaning the basement out. The Yamaha AS 500 and assorted tuners have been put in storage. My Yamaha AS201 AM/FM receiver is now doing all the work in my study. The tuner on the receiver is doing an excellent job and I am using the Audioengine Bluetooth adapter for getting audio from my iPad’s internet reception. My speakers are the Pioneer BS 22LR. The RS201 has been replaced by Yamaha. They now have the RS202 which is essentially the same unit with Bluetooth built-in. I am listening right now at 2am to a classical piece on WMNR via internet and the sound is beautiful. The receiver does not have any problems driving my Pioneer BS22 LR speakers. I am using 16 ohm speaker wire which barely can fit in the speaker connectors and I do wish I could use banana plug connectors. I have to check the RS202 out to see if they improved this. ( Nope. No Banana plugs for this baby either!)I am using the built-in preamp on my Denon DP 300 F turntable and a set of isopropyl pads to isolate the turntable from vibrations. One thing; when listening to the tuner, I have noticed that the announcers voices are perfect, you would swear you are in the recording booth with them! That is something I did professionally for many years, so I DO know how they should sound.


If you are trying to keep your costs down, the Yamaha RS202 and Pioneer BS22LR speakers are really a good choice.
 
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