Yamaha RX-Z7 7.1 Design Overview

Introduction

When Yamaha announced a new RX-Z receiver was coming, I was a bit perplexed that they were planning on replacing their current Z-11 flagship halfway into its four year production run. To my surprise this was not the case. Instead, Yamaha was introducing a second model in their RX-Z line known as the RX-Z7. While it could be considered a scaled down sibling to the RX-Z11, I actually found that not to be the case in some key areas of performance. At nearly 30lbs lighter, ½ the retail price of its big brother, could the RX-Z7 live up to Z name traditionally donned by the Yamaha flagship model? For the answer you're gonna have to read my review.

Design Overview

The common question I was seeing on the forums well before I received my sample of the RX-Z7 for review was "how does the Z7 compare to the Z11 and RX-V3900?" Tabulated below are the major feature differences among the three receivers in question.

Although the power ratings look the same on paper, how these receivers actually deliver the power is another story. Due to the enormous power supply of the RX-Z11, it really shows its brute when driving 4 ohm loads. While the RX-V3900 and RX-Z7 seem similar in size and ratings, the RX-Z7 is 2.2lbs heavier and slightly bigger. Yamaha has been known in the past to offer slightly bigger power supplies on the more expensive of the two models with similar ratings. Make no mistake, this is the case here as well and although a modest difference, the RX-Z7 has more juice available under the hood than the less expensive RX-V3900. This can translate to improved fidelity depending on your listening habits and the type of speakers you are running.

Unlike other Yamaha flagships, this is their first Z series receiver to be manufactured at their Malaysian facility. Had it not been for the markings on the back panel that indicated this, I would have never known. The chassis seems rigid, partly thanks to the horizontal support beam underneath the hood which took me 22 screws to get to.

Inside, the RX-Z7 sports many of the attributes that defines their Z heritage, big meaty power supplies (large E-core and 2 x 18,000uF 71V capacitors), a big finned and tapered heatsink towards the front of the receiver to house all of the power devices. Past Z receivers have two rows of heatsinks but they were also rated at higher power and had additional amplifiers for presence channels. Although very compact, the layout of this receiver is clean and methodical, something I've grown accustomed to with Yamaha.

Bottoms Up

Back Panel View of the Yamaha RX-Z7

The RX-Z7 is certainly not connection deficient. The four HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs are vertically aligned on the far left of the receiver with an additional HDMI input on the front panel. Component video connections are grouped in close proximity to the right of the HDMI with S-Video / Composite video horizontally located right of the component video connections.

There are 11 high quality WBT speaker connectors on this receiver where two pairs can be used for assigning the internal amps to other zones, or presence/back channels or bi-amplification for the main channels. iPod and Ethernet connections are available to support network and streaming functions. With six memory settings for the main zone and four for the other three zones, the sky is the limit with configurability not just for where you assign the speaker groups but how you customize and configure any parameter in the receiver. There are two switched power connections, and this receiver comes with a detachable power cord which is a real handy convenience during installation.