The Yamaha AVENTAGE CX-A5000 11.2-channel Preamplifier/Processer and MX-A5000 11-channel Amplifier are examined by Audioholics.com in the video below. These separates are state of the art and offer every feature from soup to nuts. You can run a full 11.2 system in your main theater room which would include the conventional 7.1 speaker placement but with added height channels for the front and back of the room which Yamaha refers to as “Presence” channels. Or you can reassign the four unused amplifiers and channels to power speakers in two remote zones.
The new CX-A5000 A/V Preamplifier ($2999) is based on their flagship RX-A3030 AV receiver design with a more rigid chassis and some beefed up components, including balanced outputs (no balanced out for sub) and the ability to connect multiple subwoofers with independent controls for level, distance and EQ. Independent subwoofer controls are a really nice touch to help better acoustically integrate multiple subs into a system. You can even manually adjust the PEQ on each channel, including the subwoofer channels for finer tuning. Other noteworthy features include:
- ESS Technology ES9016 SABRE32DACs
- 11 channels, 33 DSP modes borrowed from their former RX-Z11 flagship
- 8 HDMI inputs, 2 outputs with 3D and Ultra-HD pass-thru and upscaling
- Multi-point YPAO room correction and speaker angle detection
- Fully networking with Airplay, Pandora, Spotify support
- Updated AV receiver App for ipad and android
- 4 zones of audio with advanced HDMI switching for main and 2nd zones
- Yea it has their fifth foot too!
The MX-A5000 ($2999) 11-Channel power amplifier is a powerhouse rated at 150 watts-per-channel x 11 channels. We tested this amp on the bench and it delivered quite a bit more power than its rated spec with one or two channels driven and it did quite commendably when driving all 7 of our test loads. No it’s not going to arc-weld but it certainly can deliver high quality, low noise, low distortion power to ALL 11 of your speakers in your theater room.
The MX-A5000 sports a very high quality torodial power transformer and a pair of very large 27,000uF power supply capacitors. This is one of the beefiest power supplies Yamaha has incorporated into a multi-channel amplifier to date. This explains why this baby weighs in at nearly 60lbs.
Current-feedback amplifier topology is incorporated into the MX-A5000 which Yamaha claims to help increase slew rate for increased bandwidth linearity. Like the CX-A5000, the MX-A5000 is housed in a very rigid, H-frame chassis and also sports their “art wedge” fifth foot feature.
The MX-A5000 has a bi-amp feature in-case you wish to assign additional amplifiers to bi-amp your main speakers. There is also an impedance selector switch which we typically recommend always leaving in the default “high” setting to ensure you get the most available power out of the product. The MX-A5000 does run a bit warm so do make sure to give it plenty of ventilation. If you’re pairing it with the matching CX-A5000, you’ll want to take advantage of the balanced connections to ensure the lowest noise connection paths possible. Gold plated binding posts finish off the product by providing solid speaker connections with a touch of class.
