Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer, We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices. I use AirPlay®, Bluetooth®, Ethernet, Wi-Fi® in my house, and turntables. The Yamaha R-N303 can support CD players and connect to two sets of stereo speakers.However, if surround sound is what you are after, you’re going to want to get a receiver that connects all your speakers. So Yamaha R-S202BL, while being a cheaper option, tends to get more favorable ⭐ reviews than the $512 Yamaha R-N303BL, as seen on the chart below. Sign up to get breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more, plus the hottest tech deals! After a chat with a Yamaha rep, we were able to reset the device and connect it to an iPhone – but still had trouble with an Android device. It was fairly straightforward to get an iPhone or iPad to play music over the Yamaha via Bluetooth®. That doesn’t mean, however, that they shouldn’t be refreshed every now and then. Overview – Perfect for music enthusiasts looking for a simple yet feature-rich stereo receiver, the Yamaha R-N303 offers a nice array of wired and wireless connectivity options, along with great hi-res audio performance. I connected my trusty Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable, Pioneer SP-BS41 speakers, which retailed for around $120US, and a Sony DVP-NS300 DVD player I bought at a garage sale for $10 about a decade ago. Yamaha R-N303 - network audio receiver overview and full product specs on CNET. Yamaha R-N803D Network Receiver Review Like a number of recent amplifier review conclusions, I have to start this one with a degree of context. With MusicCast you can control all your compatible Yamaha MusicCast products via your smartphone or tablet. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? Several turntables and 1970s receivers are in varying states of refurbishment as well. He continues to this very day to exhibit that same sort of behavior to find records. BluetoothEthernetFeaturednetwork receiver review 2018remote controlWiFiyamaha. You can listen to your favorite radio stations by connecting the wire antenna. You’ll want to make sure you have all the appropriate cables, but for speakers the unit supports both banana plugs and wire cables. Yamaha has tried to combine the classic AV receiver with modern functionality – and the result is the Yamaha R-N303. The receiver also has an optical input, which is good news for those that want to connect their TV directly to the unit. The face of the unit includes a two-line LED readout. Once you get used to how the remote works, you’ll be able to make your way around the interface pretty easily – and once everything is set up you’ll get into a routine of using the receiver. Over the years Yamaha has manufactured everything from motorcycles to pianos. 6: November 2020, What We’re Listening To. For the price, the Yamaha R-N303 receiver is a very solid option. For my listening with these tests I chose the latest album from New Zealander singer-songwriter Aldous Harding. The Yamaha did have enough power on tap to get the Pioneer speakers engaged; there was plenty enough volume and heft to fill my bedroom with music without it getting too boomy. Gene was born and raised in New Orleans, where music and food were invented. While I strongly recommend against using a weak password with anything on the Internet nowadays, I gave up on trying to enter a complicated ten-character password into the Yamaha. Black Friday deals: see all the best offers right now! So you should, in theory, be able to play music from pretty much any source. Once all your physical connections are set up, you can connect the device to your Wi-Fi network. I could not find mention of this in the Wi-Fi setup instructions, oddly enough, but only in the Bluetooth® section. He also two Playstation 1 consoles which are surprisingly good CD players, a fact he finds endlessly hilarious. I’ve heard my Harding recordings played back in a series of systems, ranging from the one I’m writing about to others in the mid-five-figure price range. Product Review: Yamaha RN303D Stereo Receiver. Here's how: The Yamaha MusiCast "master-app" for Android (and iPhones too) drives the R-N303 via your home Wi-Fi and includes many built-in "sub-app" buttons … That’s quite a list of promises, especially for an integrated amplifier selling for $349. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Yamaha R-N303BL Stereo Receiver with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & Phono at Amazon.com. But the system made me miss catching a funky brass band in the sweaty Maple Leaf Bar with an Abita beer in my hand in my native New Orleans, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. Does it? I put all of those to the test with the R-N303 for this review. Their R-N303 is the least expensive of their two Network Stereo Receivers, retailing for $349. Its big brother, the R-N803, sells for $799. https://www.techradar.com/reviews/yamaha-r-n303-audio-receiver-review Which is more than you could ask for from a receiver you’d put in an apartment or dorm room. I then auditioned the Yamaha with my Shure SRH840 headphones. You will receive a verification email shortly. Not only can you not connect stereo speakers, but there’s also no support for a subwoofer – though that’s not entirely unusual for this price bracket. But when it was attached it played music reliably. But here we are on the 2010s, and the ever-expanding portion of the universe of music listening has moved away from copper wiring toward the air waves. The Yamaha R-N303 features connectivity with AirPlay®, Bluetooth®, Ethernet, Wi-Fi®, Wireless Direct, and a phono stage. Holiday Gift Guide 2020. With that said, the absence of a dedicated subwoofer out and the unit's lack of more advanced setup tools like YPAO calibration, do limit some of its appeal. The receiver supports CD players or any other line input, as well as two sets of stereo speakers here. We test every product as a team in our bespoke listening rooms – find out more about how we test on our About Us page. We put the Yamaha R-N303 to the test to find out. It’s broken down into a few different sections. It’s titled “Party” and it’s the first of her recent multi-album deal with 4AD records. So first, I did some listening the old-fashioned way, by connecting some old-school physical components to the Yamaha with wires. The manual included with the receiver covers this well and I encourage you to download and read it from Yamaha’s web site. Near the top you’ll control power and sleep mode, below which you’ll have input selectors – allowing you to choose where your audio is coming from. I mean it done brought the funk. His insatiable thirst for new music led him to join the staffs of two university radio stations, where he got involved with local music promotion and album production. The volume dial has a satisfying heaviness to it when you adjust it, but the Select dial, which you can move left-to-right and push in, does feel somewhat flimsy. Receive news and offers from our other brands? So Yamaha R-S202BL, while being a cheaper option, tends to get more favorable ⭐ reviews than the $512 Yamaha R-N303BL, as seen on the chart below. On top of that, it's fairly safe to say that Yamaha R-S202BL is a more popular home theater receiver, based on its 500+ reviews. And if you plan on using the unit for listening to the radio, you’ll want to connect the included antennas. My house is built within an Apple, Inc. ecosphere. The Yamaha made enough power to drive the Shure headphones, and I spent quite a few hours getting lost in the music with my cans on. I keep a library of FLAC files on my iMac which I play on my network with Plex through the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) protocol. From motorcycles to grand pianos, Yamaha has had their fingers in a lot of pies since their creation in 1887. Switching between RCA and coax did reveal a difference. As an aside, using Plex to configure a computer to play music over the DLNA protocol couldn’t be easier: install Plex, point it at a directory or two where you store your music, or movie, or picture, files, and you’re on your way. But when I get home from work I’m not too keen on spending my precious free time trying to get computers and portable devices to work. But it weighs sixteen pounds, which lets you know that it has some decent metal under its skin. As mentioned, the receiver supports stereo speakers – and really that’s all it supports. And he still can’t believe he got paid to listen to records. October 27, 2017; New products; Yamaha has been around for over a century in one form or another. And now they’re selling a line of integrated amplifiers to meet the needs of those who want to listen to music wirelessly or with portable digital audio. This is a monster funk recording with Stanton’s drums right in front of the mix, and the Yamaha kept up with the rhythm. I used BlueJeans speaker cables, some silver RCA interconnects, and a coax digital cable to tie it all together. RCA inputs for MM phono, CD, and two line sources, 100Base-TX/10Base-T Ethernet port (We were told this is a rare occurrence.). It’s very much like some of Steve Albini’s quieter recordings for artists such as Low or Rachel’s. While there are some downsides, like the lack of surround sound and the buggy wireless setup, in general the receiver is pretty easy to use and sounds great. He earned degrees in Creative Writing and Journalism from LSU, which he somehow manages to use in his current career as an IT professional. Regardless, the R-N303 worked just fine after logged in to the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi network. NY 10036. If you want surround sound, though, you’ll probably need to shell out a bit more cash for a receiver that can connect to all your speakers. Full-range Speaker Systems vs. Satellite-subwoofer Combinations, Industry Insider Op-Ed Vol. As you can imagine, that presents a bit of a challenge. I intended to determine what kind of sound quality I could achieve with a system built around the R-N303 and budget components. From the app you can turn the receiver on and off, and play music from some of the better-known music streaming services, or directly from your phone. I actually renamed one of my WiFi networks to a single character, and gave it an extremely simple password, just to simplify the configuration of the Yamaha. In an era of soundbars and built-in speakers, AV receivers seem to be getting less common. The Yamaha R-N303 gives you quite a few ways to play music wirelessly. I noticed that the Yamaha will disable its speakers if there are headphones plugged in, which is a nice touch. Are Expensive outboard DACs a waste of money? Tiny pet peeve: I often like to listen to music on headphones in total darkness. Bumping up the bass and treble just a hair added some extra energy to the music without it getting too tizzy, but bumping the bass and treble too high brought distortion to the volume. You can choose either Bluetooth® or WiFi (or Ethernet, if you want to forgo wireless altogether), and from there choose which software and source you’ll use to play your music. Then any device you have that can recognize DLNA servers will see your stuff and you can play it over that device. Saxophones and both acoustic and electric bass feature heavily in this music and the Yamaha did a pretty good job portraying timbre properly. The Yamaha R-N303 offers a ton of features at an excellent price. So, at first, I set out to set up the Yamaha R-N303 in my bedroom with some entry-level components and get it playing nicely with my existing network infrastructure. And if I have to do it, it had better be easy and intuitive. After all, in 2018 CDs are well and truly on their way out, as streaming services and wireless features become standard. When you push in the Select dial, the receiver’s front metal skin flexes. We found the unit delivered decent low-end through the speakers we were using, but the bass could certainly be boosted a little. But I did manage to get the R-N303 configured to play music via Bluetooth® on my iPad Air 2. The recording’s soundstage is very open and wide, with lots of air between instruments and very good timbre representation. YAMAHA NETWORK STEREO RECEIVER SPECIFICATIONS, © Copyright 2020 Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity /, Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts, MartinLogan Balanced Force 212 Subwoofer Review, Starke Sound A8.350 Multichannel Power Amplifier Review, STAX SR-007A Electrostatic Headphone Review, SR-L700 MKII Earspeaker Review and the SRM-D10 Portable Driver Unit for Earspeakers Review, ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 Loudspeaker System Review, What We Are Watching Vol. The remote may look intimidating but, again, you probably won’t use all of the buttons. Either way, the system was thankfully still able to connect through Bluetooth – so even if you can’t get the MusicCast app up and running, you’ll still be able to play music from your phone. You interact with it with two rotary dials and nine buttons. The Yamaha R-N303 is a versatile, future-proof receiver that delivers more functionality than I’d expect for its $349 price. I put all of those to the test with the R-N303 for this review. Known as one of the few manufacturers who constantly make high quality stereo receivers, Yamaha now offers new models, that not only feature great functionality but also added network capabilities. Please refresh the page and try again. New York, Before I tried to use the R-N303 via Bluetooth®, I ensured the unit’s wireless antenna on the back was pointed upward to get the best possible reception. USB 2.0 micro-B input port for service, 17-1/8” x 5-1/2” x 13-3/8” (with antenna up: 17-1/8” x 8” x 13-3/8”), Bluetooth®, WiFi, Ethernet, Yamaha, remote control, network receiver review 2018. I straddle both sides of the HiFi fence. Bluetooth® and WiFi connectivity via Apple AirPlay and MusicCast, 100W, with a frequency range of 40Hz to 20Hz at 0.2% THD into 8ohms, 5.6 MHz, FLAC, WAV, AIFF 192 kHz/24-bit, Apple® Lossless 96 kHz/24-bit playback, Voice control using your Alexa device like Echo or Echo Dot, S/PDIF and coax digital inputs support audio sample rates up to 192 kHz The Yamaha R-N303 BL Stereo Receiver CAN receive any streaming audio service that is on the internet. Most of my audio hardware was built in the 1970s, back when the very idea of playing without wires, let alone holding a conversation over a telephone without a cord, was the stuff of science fiction. I have begun integrating the R-N303 into my home with a few budget source components to see how it delivers on these promises. I also set out to test its wireless capabilities. Play the same music on all the components or split the sound into different zones for different moods in each room; the choice is yours. 5: October 2020, Setting Up a Bryston BDA-3.14 Streaming DAC and Qobuz Streaming Service – A How-to Series, Part 2, Setting Up an AURALiC ARIES G1 Streamer and Qobuz Streaming Service – A How-to Series, Part 1, DCI-P3 Color – What It Means in Today’s Ultra HD World, AVR-Audio Video Reciever-Build Quality: Part V. Does Your Projector Display Accurate Color, and Why Is That Important? With an its all-black chassis, the R-N303 has a utilitarian look to it; of course, at this price point, you can’t expect too much. While the Yamaha did not reproduce much, if any, of the air and soundstage available in the recordings, it did put out enough power to make the reproduction sound engaging. In order to get the unit to join a network you must interact with the unit’s software with the remote control with output displayed on that two-line LED readout. From motorcycles to grand pianos, Yamaha has had their fingers in a lot of pies since their creation in 1887. If you only need an amplifier with analogue inputs, the Yamaha puts up a good fight but loses out to simpler and more dedicated models like the Rega Brio and Audiolab M-ONE. You connect the same way you would any other Bluetooth device, after which you can play music from your phone, and use the remote to control playback. So you should, in theory, be able to play music from pretty much any source. Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. When not unboxing Sony TVs he recorded MFSL albums to cassette on their Luxman components and AR turntables. The first time we tried to set up the device, it got stuck trying to connect and wouldn't link to the app. He also ended up sending cash-stuffed envelopes to Australia to addresses in the back of music magazines to get more AC/DC albums. There wasn’t much of the air around the instruments or recording space to be heard, however. Blame it on cables, the time of day, or the recording, but the sound from the coax input was more fun than that from the RCA. Product Review: Yamaha RN303D Stereo Receiver. There was a problem. TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. October 27, 2017; New products; Yamaha has been around for over a century in one form or another. My Oppo BDP-105 and UDP-205 will see DLNA servers, and both of my Apple TVs can run Plex, so it’s pretty much set-it and forget-it. I have been involved in computer support since 1989 and have held four Apple, Inc. certifications. 3: “Is Your System 24-Bit Ready?” and Q&A with Bill Dudleston, Bryston SP4 16-channel Surround Processor Review, NAD M17 V2 Surround Sound Preamp Processor Review, Starke Sound A8.350 8-Channel Power Amplifier Preview, Bluesound Powernode 2i Wireless Streaming Amplifier and Pulse Flex 2i Wireless Streaming Speaker Preview, Introducing the DALI RUBICON 6 BLACK EDITION, Cambridge Audio doubles the power with new Edge M monoblock power amplifier, BLUESOUND ADDS NEW SURROUND MODE LISTENING OPTION, PreSonus Eris E3.5 Powered Speakers Review, Andover Audio Spinbase Turntable Speaker System Review, Network connectivity through most wired and wireless methods, Both digital and RCA inputs to connect to TVs and common audio sources, Difficult to configure advance settings with front panel, Extremely versatile with virtually any contemporary input source, Plenty of power to drive small speakers or headphones, The capability to completely turn off all of its lights, USB input in the front of the unit so it could play music from a thumb drive. Vol.11 – November 2020, A Collection of New Vinyl for the Audiophile: November 2020, What We Are Watching Vol. On top of that, it's fairly safe to say that Yamaha R-S202BL is a more popular home theater receiver, based on its 500+ reviews.