R- series vs CR- series stereo receivers

Are ones better than the others ?

You might want to be a bit more specific about the years of the R series you have in mind. Yamaha made R- receivers right after the CR- series and kept the name until they went with RX- in the A/V era so it is impossible to make any blanket statements about them as there were many very different series.

Was thinking about the R not the RX series . The ones right after the CR , R-300 , R-3, R-5,R-700,R-50
I believe they were produced in 1980-1985? '87?

Well the R series and the CR-x40 (not 2040) all use STK i/c amps which tend to die at some point and are hard to find or unobtainable. For that reason many folks here stay away from them.
Also some don't find the tuner sections in the early digital attempts to be as good as the analogue tuners.
On the other hand the CRs have 40 year old caps in them so may be starting to go. But that can be restored with readily available replacements, just takes money, skill and time.
So on a reliability scale, the CRs are better.
Sound wise, I can't comment other than I find my R-900 to be pleasing and has been for the 32 years that I have had it. Lately it baked an STK and some related resistors, but it was fixed. It still has some other issues that I haven't pinpointed yet, FM can get noisy sometimes, intermitted distortion and a pretty noisy phono section. I like it enough that I will have it recapped some day.

For me, I would be happy to own a CR 2020, 2040, 1020 and I would give an R-1000, R2000 or R-9 if the price was right. The bigger R series have even more reliability issues than the lower line models but selling prices usually reflect that.

I am especially looking for a solution to drive my AKG 612 headphones and instead of a dedicated headamp I'd prefere a good receiver for half of the price , that can drive speakers also ,if needed
But how about the Yamaha receivers of the RX series ? (titan series and newer )

To the first point: I picked up an admittedly rough R-700 and was really not impressed with the construction compared to earlier models. I did some cleaning on a friend's R-300 and it was OK for something that cam probably be had cheap, but I would vote for the CR series. The CR-800/1000, CR-1020/2020 (if it has been given the dealer service bulletin mod) are fine choices. I have had most of them and I would say the best CR is the 2040. Not everyone agrees but it has a good fan club here.

Of the later models things probably start to get interesting again with the R-8 which has MM/MC phone, pre-main couplers, a very good tuner section and a remote. The R-9 adds some power and the very rare (and probably useless) Class A capability. The follow up RX-1100 is worthwhile also. I have the RX-1130 and it might be the peak of the newer receivers before they went all out for A/V. At 32 lbs it is heavier than the others I mentioned and still has the MM/MC phono and Wide/Narrow capable tuner features which were dropped afterwards. Styling is quirky.

Don't rule out some of the newer A/V models. If you can find a TOTL pre HDMI like the RX-V1 or maybe RX-V3000/3300 they tend to go for a song and are great receivers with the bonus of excellent inboard DACs which can come in handy these days.

To the second point: no experience with how any of them drive your headphones, sorry.

I had a R-90 for nearly 20 years; it was quite powerful with the characteristic Yamaha sound; clean and detailed. The eq adjustment was awkward in that you really needed the manual to understand how it worked...I lost the manual
That being said, from a pure sound perspective they were very nice...:yes:

Look at the production year instead of model number. Generally, mid to late 80's Yamaha amps are better fidelity-wise than their late 70's counterparts. Yamaha had also moved away from STK modules by then, instead using top quality discrete transistors throughout. This practically makes them immortal.

I have an R-700. It's cool-looking and I like it. The tuner doesn't sound half as good as my CR-420 and 620 though and in general it's just not as nice.

ZOOM said:

Look at the production year instead of model number. Generally, mid to late 80's Yamaha amps are better fidelity-wise than their late 70's counterparts. Yamaha had also moved away from STK modules by then, instead using top quality discrete transistors throughout. This practically makes them immortal.

Click to expand...

The RX-V850/870 and 1050/1070 would be good examples. Some nice integrated amps as well from that era.

ZOOM said:

Look at the production year instead of model number. Generally, mid to late 80's Yamaha amps are better fidelity-wise than their late 70's counterparts. Yamaha had also moved away from STK modules by then, instead using top quality discrete transistors throughout. This practically makes them immortal.

Click to expand...

So , to look for gear made after 1982-83 ?


Does anybody the electrical caracteristics for the headphone output of the yamahas ? My AKG is 120ohm I have an eye on a cr420....

I got an R-2000 at a yard sale for $10. It's got gobs of power but weighed less than an entry level CR series. I gave it to my niece for her college rig, she loves it.

The CR-2040 is the best of the bunch. The CR-2020 needs power supply mods per service bulletin and is bass shy. The CR-3020 is impressive looking but not a great achievement considering how much size and weight it takes to produce only 165 wpc. All of the R-2000 series run hot and have STK modules which are no go for me. The lesser CR-xx40's are also STK or T-03P (plastic clad) output so no go as well. I will say the CR-2020 is very nice to look at but that is not the point for audio gear.