Yamaha AVENTAGE 5200 Series 11CH Processor/Amplifier Review

Yamaha AVENTAGE 5200 Series Introduction

Yamaha is on their 3rd generation of separates in the Aventage line and we got our hands on their new CX-A5200 11-channel AV Processor and MX-A5200 11-channel amplifier. With their predecessors in our Audioholics Showcase home rack for the last year, we have a great reference to see just how much Yamaha has refined this package with their latest technological advancements. Are the 5200 series models a worthy successor to those they replace? Read on to find out.

Yamaha CX-A5200 & MX-A5200 Unboxing YouTube Video

Build Quality and Features

The build quality of Yamaha Aventage products is excellent. Flip the top off the CX-A5200 and you will notice their H-beam construction to add rigidity to the chassis, a nice-sized toroidal power supply and a clean layout of the circuit boards with separated digital and analog sections. Yamaha claims to have made some significant improvements in build quality with the 5200 series over its predecessor models such as a thicker plate under the transformers to reduce mechanical vibrations.

The MX-A5200 offers similarly impressive build quality with ample dual row heatsinks to keep ALL eleven 150-watt channels running cool. Like the MX-A5000, the MX-A5200 is has a symmetrical power amplifier layout, with left and right sides physically and electrically isolated to improve channel separation. The MX-A5200 features a Bridge Tied Load (BTL) option to boost output to the front-left and front-right channels to enhance fidelity and volume. The large toroidal power supply stands proud with two soda can sized power supply capacitors.

The CX-A5200 upgraded the digital section with two ESS SABRE PRO Premier DACs (ES9026 PRO), delivering 32-bit performance and balanced XLR preamp-level inputs and outputs.  Balanced XLR connections are available to connect the CX-A5200 to the MX-A5200 amplifier and source components such as high-end SACD and CD players.

Yamaha CX-A5200 Backpanel View

The CX-A5200 backpanel looks virtually indistinguishable from this model’s predecessor. The only major differences are the inclusion of an HDMI output for another zone yielding a total of 3 HDMI outputs and one less component video input for a total of 2 on the CX-A5200 model.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Backpanel View

To the untrained eye the MX-A5200 looks identical to the older MX-A5000 model it replaces. However, there is a difference. The MX-A5200 has a bridge mode option for the front left and right channels to increase available output power to those channels while reducing the amplifier channel count from 11 to 9.

Note: You see that impedance selector switch? Leave it in the default 8-ohm position and never look at it, touch it or think about it again. The low setting robs your speakers of power by derating the power so this amp can get a 4-ohm safe rating from UL by meeting their heat dissipation requirements. See the cautionary note in the bench test results for more information.

Menu System & Set Up

Yamaha CX-A5200 OSD

Yamaha refreshed their OSD for the 5200 series and I must say it's well done. Hitting the gear icon on the remote control pulls up the above screen where you can configure your bass management and multi-zone assignments, make video adjustments and other system options including networking and Bluetooth streaming.

Yamaha CX-A5200 Speaker Configuration

Like previous models, the CX-A5200 allows for independent crossover settings per speaker group. Oddly if you set the main speakers to "small", the CX-A5200 still lets you configure other speakers to "large". I personally feel if the main speakers are "small" then ALL other speakers in the system should default to "small" as well. This will ensure the user didn't accidentally forget to set up the bass management correctly for the rest of their speaker assignments. Yamaha made a big deal out of me running YPAO to get the correct angle measurements essential for AI to work optimally. I honestly don't really know if it made a difference and find it peculiar that you can manually set every speaker parameter such as level, delay, bass management but you can't do that for angle. I couldn't even find where the angle settings were saved in the web editor app.

I have to give props to YPAO as it correctly identified one of my height channels as being out of phase. If I didn't run auto setup, I may have missed this wiring mistake during installation. YPAO did identify my front speakers out of phase which is common in some 3-way speaker designs that invert the polarity of a HF driver for proper summation. In this case, I ignored the warning message and proceeded.

Yamaha CX-A5200 Bass Calibration Results
Blue - with YPAO, Purple - No EQ, Green - manual EQ

For comparative purposes, I measured the bass response of the front center seat of my main speakers plus subs with and without YPAO vs my manual EQ settings. As you can see YPAO caused a significant suckout in the 30-40Hz range that was audible as a thinning of bass response compared to YPAO being disabled. The best bass was achieved with my manual EQ'ing using the web setup feature. It takes time to manually calculate, tweak, and measure but the efforts are well worth it. With Yamaha's manual PEQ and my 5-subwoofer system, I was able to achieve bass response ± 6dB from 12Hz to 100Hz for all 6 seats across two rows. If Vader were an audiophile, I'm sure he'd say "Impressive. Most impressive!" 

Yamaha CX-A5200 Manual PEQ (left pic: OSD, right pic: web editor)

The left pic shows a graphical representation of the manual PEQ filters I engaged for my large front speakers while the right pic shows the actual filter settings I entered into the web interface. All you need to do is enter the processor’s IP address/setup (ie. 192.168.1.64/setup) into your PC browser configured on the same network and you're good to tweak. What I really liked about this setup was that I could manually adjust filter settings on the fly each time I pulled a new measurement, all from the comforts of my office chair located in a different room from my theater. Yamaha provides 7 fully adjustable bands from -20dB to +6dB for each channel. They give you finely adjustable predetermined filter settings, but in the future I'd like to see the ability to enter any frequency of your choosing for even more flexibility.

Editorial Note about Filter Settings:
These predeterminated filter settings are actually the center frequencies of a common 31-band graphical equalizer, at 1/3 octave resolution.

Speaker Set-Up & Bass Management

Yamaha CX-A5200 Frequency Response with Bass Management Engaged

The Yamaha CX-A5200 exhibited perfect 24dB/octave LPF for the sub out and 12dB/octave HPF for the bass-managed speakers. Fc tracked correctly so if I set the crossover for 80Hz, I measured its roll-off at 80Hz.

Editorial Note About Yamaha Bass Management:

There is no independent crossover setting for the subwoofer so it defaults to whatever you set the main channels at even if you set them large afterwards for 2CH music listening. If you want the sub to activate for 2CH when the mains are set to large, you will have to enable the “extra bass” feature. There is no LFE crossover setting but Yamaha defaults this to 120Hz for anyone wondering. If you set the main L/R channels to small, you can still set other channels large which is odd logic, but Yamaha has carried this through on predecessor products as well.

Yamaha "Patterns" Settings Accessible via Web Editor

It is possible to further customize for bass management settings for 2CH and multi-channel independently by utilizing their "Patterns" option found in their web browser setup. You can have a completely different speaker setup stored for Pattern 1 and Pattern 2 which can then also be assinged to different scenes and inputs. This is particularly useful if you decide you want to listen to 2CH music with fullrange speakers and no subwoofer or if you want to have two different seating locations with optimized delays and trims.

Yamaha Surround:AI

Yamaha makes a big deal of their new Surround:AI with their latest xx80 series AV receivers and 5200 series Aventage separates. The "AI" stands for Artificial Intelligence and Yamaha claims it analyzes and optimizes the DSP parameters for each scene of a movie five times per second. They claim their system instantaneously analyzes each scene in real time, focusing on distinct sound elements (such as dialogue, background music, ambient sounds and sound effects), and automatically optimizes the overall surround effect for your home theater. Yamaha goes on to tout that their Surround:AI system enhances the enveloping immersion of the soundtrack while also anchoring the center channel dialogue. 

I put this system to the test initially while listening to two-channel music and the results were less than stellar. I noted a decrease in bass response and an overall collapsing of the soundstage for my front speakers. Switching to the Dolby Surround Upmixer (DSU) provided much better sonic results while also preserving the bass levels.

Bass Response at Listening Position
Blue: 2CH; Purple: DSU; Green: AI

As you can see in the above graph, with the Surround:AI engaged, the bass levels dropped about 6dB from the regular two-channel levels whereas with DSU engaged, the levels experienced a slight elevation in bass.

I sent this to Yamaha and they informed me that their Surround:AI system should only be engaged for discrete multi-channel audio signals, specifically for movies and sporting events, not music. Oddly if you look at the audio information displayed via the OSD once Surround:AI is engaged, it reads "Neo:6 Cinema" for two-channel sources so it's no wonder why it sounds bad for music sources.  However, when Surround:AI is engaged for multi-channel sources, it reads "Surround:AI" and even shows a graphical readout of the location the audio information is being steered around the immersive surround field. I didn't see this mentioned in Yamaha's literature about the adjustability or suitability for Surround:AI, but going forward, I reserved my listening tests with Surround:AI engaged to just multi-channel movie program material. 

4K HDMI Video Compatibility
The CX-A5200 is fully HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.3 compliant which should cover all of your UHD video needs, at least currently. However, I did run into an HDMI sync issue on my 4K sources that is worth mentioning as I didn't have this problem with the CX-A5100 on the same sources, using the same HDMI cables. Both my Oppo UDP-205 and XBOX One S experienced intermittent connections and when they did connect, the picture was extremely grainy along with constant audio dropouts. Lowering the video inputs to HDCP 1.4 did NOT resolve this problem.

To resolve this problem, I had to switch the HDMI 4K Signal Format in the advanced settings from the default Mode 1 to Mode 2. If you experience a similar issue for 4K signals, make sure you alter this setting before mistakenly thinking there's a problem with the product like I initially did.

Yamaha RAV571 Remote Control

Remote Control
I really liked the backlit silver remote of the CX-A5100 with flip down access to more configuration options. I must admit when I first glanced at the slimmer black RAV571 remote for the CX-A5200 I thought it was a cost cutting measure by Yamaha since most manufacturers place less emphasis on fancy remotes these days as they assume the end user will be using a 3rd party universal remote or control system. After spending some time using it, I was quite fond of the motion-activated backlit feature and the intuitive button layout that was easy to navigate even in a dark theater room. The buttons had the retro look and feel of the old Intellivision joysticks; perhaps that nostalgia also scored some points with me too.  Unlike the remote for the CX-A5100, this remote does NOT have a small LCD display window for easy identification of what source you have selected or remote function you are using but strangely I didn't really miss it. That being said, you will still ultimately want to opt for a good universal remote or control system but keep the RAV571 handy any time you wish to dig into the advanced menus for setup or tweaking.

Yamaha MusicCast App

Yamaha MusicCast App

Yamaha has been incorporating a very powerful music management system into their AVENTAGE products for quite awhile now and they seem to keep refining it with each new generation. Although there is no hot key for MusicCast on the handheld remote, you can access this feature via a downloadable App for your iPhone or Android. Once set up, the CX-A5200 acts as a whole-home audio solution giving you the ability to push audio from Tidal, Qobuz, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, a network drive, Bluetooth, AirPlay, etc. all from the comforts of your smart device to every zone of your home without ever having to turn on your display or projector.  Yamaha also has an IP based controller App allowing full function of the CX-A5200 from anywhere in your home as long as you're smartphone or tablet is on the same network. Amazon Alexa Skill is also compatible with voice functionality allowing you to turn the CX-A5200 on/off and some basic control for MusicCAST Skill if you're invested in that ecosystem.

Listening Tests

For the listening tests I installed the CX-A5200 and MX-A5200 into the Audioholics Showcase Home Theater system. The MX-A5200 bridged channels were connected to my side surrounds while the rest of the amplifiers powered all but my main front left/right speakers which were instead powered by the Anthem STR two-channel amplifier. Cables were all Blue Jeans interconnects and speaker cables except for the front LCR's which were wired with Kimber 8TC.

My listening tests started out with two-channel music upmixed with the DSU with center spread turned on to preserve the stereo imaging of the front left/right channels. I recommend always engaging center spread when playing back two-channel music but then turning it off when upmixing two-channel TV program material to emphasize the center channel more for vocals.

Tidal: Various Artists Upmixed with DSU
I've really been enjoying streaming Tidal with the Dolby Atmos upmixer.

I started out with George Benson "Give me the Night" and noted how the Yamaha CX-A5200 projected great ambience of the backing vocals through my surround system with Benson's guitar anchored towards the front of the room. What a groove he had going on this song. "The Ghetto" had my theater room rockin’. Bass was sublime pumping through my multi-sub system properly calibrated and EQ'ed with the manual PEQ function. The MX-A5200 had no problem pumping concert level sound into my 6,000 cubic foot theater room. Listening to George Benson's tasty riffs as he's simultaneously vocalizing it is just surreal. I know of no other guitarist that does this with such mastery and it's no wonder that today's greats like Pat Metheny hold him in such high regard.

To really test the abilities of this Yamaha combo, I played the song "When I was Older" by Billie Eilish. She is literally an overnight success, being nominated for 6 Grammy's in 2019 at the age 17 years old. This song really sounds fabulous upmixed to Dolby Surround. You could hear a ticking clock in the right-side speaker with layers of ambient sounds immersing you. There is a prodigious amount of bass that digs deep testing the limits of your subwoofers. I did NOT use the volume sparingly on this track and just cut loose. I was enthralled with the dynamics and clean sound even when driving this system to its limits.

Streaming music from my network drive, I put on Lyle Lovett - I Love Everybody. The Yamaha combo had me appreciating the vocals on the "Skinny Legs" with the bass notes sounding tight and distinct with manual EQ engaged. The snare drums in "Penguins" were vibrant with a great snap to them. I loved the added reverb I was hearing with the DSU engaged and the trumpets sounded clear and crisp. Lyle's vocals when he was singing "penguins are so sensitive" were anchored dead center even though I had the center spread feature turned on to preserve the stereo imaging without forcing center pan that the DSU does on two-channel sources with center spread turned off.

The Yamaha combo maintained good composure overall. In fact, I noted that I was enjoying upmixed two-channel music more on the 5200 series separates from Yamaha than the 5100 series it replaces. I can't really attest to why this was the case, but I found myself doing most of my two-channel listening with the DSU engaged as everything just sounded right about it. Perhaps the upgraded DACs of the CX-A5200 over the CX-A5100 are partly responsible for this, or I'm deluding myself, or a combination of both?

UHD Blu-ray: Avengers - End Game
Avengers Endgame was perhaps the most anticipated movie of 2019 and it didn't disappoint. I first saw this at the local theater with my family and enjoyed it almost as much as the first Avengers movie. However, I wasn't blown away by the sound mostly due to the mediocre system at my local cinema. I was eager to get the Ultra HD Blu-ray fired up in my reference system. The Yamaha CX-A5200 showed off its superb Atmos decoding capabilities with this movie and the MX-A5200 provided theatrical level power to my speaker system. I spent a good portion of my listening tests comparing straight 7.1.4 Atmos with and without Surround:AI engaged and was somewhat disappointed that the audible differences were minor at best. For normal dialogue scenes, I could NOT discern any differences at all toggling Surround:AI on/off. However, there was a scene in chapter 7 "Assembling Avengers" where I felt the music was more enveloping with Surround:AI engaged. I was honestly expecting to hear a bigger differences with action scenes during surround pans but they were subtle or not perceptual in A/B comparisons. I guess I was relieved that Surround:AI didn't sound gimmicky like most of Yamaha’s DSP modes, and the bass was not negatively audibly impacted with Surround:AI engaged for multi-channel mixes like it was for two-channel music sources.

It wasn't until I tried out a few 5.1 Dolby Digital surround tracks on FIOS that I noted more obvious audible effects of the Surround:AI engaged. It seemed the subtle sounds were more pronounced with Surround:AI engaged over loud action scenes with a lot going on in the soundtrack that drowned out any possible audible benefits. I particularly noticed how the nature sounds in the movie Electra, starring Jennifer Garner, were more fluidic and detailed with Surround:AI engaged. From the crackle of the fireplace where Electra was having dinner with a family on Christmas day to the rain coming down on their cabin, everything just seemed to pop a bit more with detail and vibrancy with Surround:AI engaged. After a few dozen comparisons, I felt confident just leaving Surround:AI engaged and enjoying the movie.

Yamaha CX-A5200 & MX-A5200 Measurements & Conclusion

All measurements were conducted using our Audio Precision APx585 8 Channel HDMI Audio Analyzer. 

For more information about how we measure power amplifiers, please see: Basic Amplifier Measurement Techniques

Be sure to check out our YouTube video on the bench test results for the 5200 series if you want further explanations not detailed in the report below.

Yamaha CX-A5200 & MX-A5200 Benchtest YouTube Discussion

CX-A5200 Preamplifier Measurements

The Yamaha CX-A5200 analog preamp section accommodates up to 4Vrms input with a max unclipped output of 7.8Vrms via the balanced XLR outputs. This is plenty of drive to work with any external amplification.

Using HDMI input, I plotted an FFT at 1Vrms via the XLR outputs and the resultant distortion was excellent with the 2nd order -105dB below the fundamental. At 4Vrms out, 3rd order rose substantially to -76dB (though still inaudible at 0.015%).

Yamaha CX-A5200 FFT (-10dBFs HDMI in, 1Vrms out)

I wanted to take a closer look so I ran a distortion sweep vs output voltage for all channels. As you can see below, the distortion remained exceedingly low on all XLR outputs except the front channels. The higher distortion (0.05% THD+N for the front channels vs 0.002% THD+N for the remaining channels) did NOT present itself on the unbalanced outputs. This is one of those rare cases where the balanced outputs are at a noise and distortion disadvantage to the unbalanced. As you can see in the unbalanced distortion graph, the front channels had much lower distortion commensurate with the other channels, though maximum unclipped output voltage was about 1/2 at 4Vrms as expected.

Yamaha CX-A5200 XLR Output Voltage vs Distortion ACD @ 1kHz

Yamaha CX-A5200 Unbalanced Output Voltage vs Distortion ACD @ 1kHz

I wanted to verify if this problem plagued the CX-A5100 so I measured them side by side before swapping out my old CX-A5100 to review the CX-A5200.  I ran identical tests on the CX-A5100 and CX-A5200 to show illustrate the differences in distortion at 2.7Vrms output for XLR and Unbalanced. As a reference, 2.7Vrms is almost the full voltage required for the MX-A5200 to reach max rated power.

Distortion vs Frequency Response Yamaha  CX-A5100  (left pic) ; CX-A5200 (right pic)

CX-A5100:
Brown: Unbal - 90dB @ 1kHz
Red: Bal -95dB @ 1kHz

CX-A5200:
Purple: Unbal -88dB @ 1kHz
Blue: Bal -72dB @ 1kHz

As you can see there's actually about a 23dB difference in distortion between the CX-A5100 and CX-A5200 at the same drive level and test conditions via the XLR outputs. The difference in distortion between the CX-A5100 and CX-A5200 unbalanced outputs was only 2dB in this comparison.

Yamaha confirmed my measurements and discovered the culprit to this increased distortion had something to do with how the volume control IC interacts with the XLR outputs. This is something they plan to resolve in future models but cannot make a hardware change to this current model.

While 23dB sounds like a really big number, it's important to note that the overall distortion level is still quite low for the CX-A5200 model and below the threshold of audibility in my testing. While I'm not happy about this result, as it certainly is NOT State-of-the-Art (SOTA),  it never diminished my enjoyment of this product even during my critical listening sessions. However, if you want the very best performance from the CX-A5200, I recommend using the unbalanced outputs for the front channels. This is the first time I've ever said this sentence in a product review so it's a rare recommendation given the performance characteristics I've observed with this product.

Yamaha CX-A5200 Frequency Response of XLR Outputs (Pure Direct)

It’s no surprise that the frequency response was flat and linear for the entire bandwidth with a -3dB point just shy of 70kHz with ± 0.09dB deviation between channels which is excellent. In straight mode with the DSP engaged, the -3dB point was at 48kHz indicating a sampling rate of 96kHz which is great as many AV processors with room correction sample at 48kHz and thus limit the high frequency response to 24kHz when engaged.

Yamaha CX-A5200 SNR (XLR outputs at 1kHz, 1Vrms)
Note: CH3 is subwoofer channel and should be ignored.

The Yamaha CX-A5200 exhibited a very low noise floor for almost every mode of operation. In Pure Direct with an HDMI input signal of -10dBFs, the measured SNR was > 101dB (a-wt) at 1Vrms output which is excellent. The analog input driven with 200mVrms produced 95dB (a-wt) at 1Vrms output. With straight mode engaged, the SNR dropped to 81dB (a-wt) indicating that the ADC in the CX-A5200 was not state of the art in performance like the DACs that were used for digital to analog conversion. In other words, if you engage the DSP for analog sources, expect to take a penalty in noise performance.

Yamaha CX-A5200 CH-CH Crosstalk

With all channels driven but the test channel, the CX-A5200 exhibited very good crosstalk performance as seen in the graph above (-70dB @ 20kHz). Notice how the channel-channel isolation was consistent for each channel under test with the other channels driven.

MX-A5200 Power Measurements

Using our Audio Precision APx585 8-channel HDMI analyzer, we conducted a full barrage of multi-channel amplifier tests on Yamaha MX-A5200 per our Amplifier Measurement Protocol. We tested power using three methods all of which were taken at < 0.1% THD + N:

• Continuous Full Power Bandwidth (CFP-BW) from 20Hz to 20kHz into 8 and 4-ohm loads (up to two channels)

• 1kHz Power Sweep vs Distortion (1kHz PSweep) - popularized by the print magazines, this is an instantaneous power vs. distortion test at 1kHz. The problem with this test is it often masks slew-related and or frequency response problems some amplifiers exhibit at the frequency extremes, and thus inflates the measured power results. It does provide an instant gratification number for consumers to argue over on the forums, so we are now incorporating this test to please the masses.

• Dynamic PWR - 1kHz CEA-2006 Burst Method testing. This is a dynamic power measurement adopted from the car industry similar to IHF method only a bit more difficult for an amplifier and more representative of real musical content.

Keep in mind most review publications don't do continuous power measurements and they usually publish power measurements into clipping at 1% THD + N. Our measurements are very conservative as we use a dedicated 20A line with no Variac to regulate line voltage.  We constantly monitor the line to ensure it never drops more than 2Vrms from nominal, which in our case was 120Vrms. 

For more info on amplifier measurements, see:  The All Channels Driven (ACD) Test

The frequency response measured  ±0.062dB from 20Hz to 20kHz on all channels of the MX-A5200. The voltage gain of this amp is similar to that of the MX-A5200:

Av = 23dB (via balanced) / 29dB unbalanced

Oddly, bridged mode doesn't boost the gain by 6dB as we see with most bridgeable amps. Instead, Yamaha purposely scaled it back to match levels with the unbridged channels.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Full Power Bandwidth Continuous Sweep (250wpc, 8 ohms, Bridged)

The MX-A5200 packs quite a punch when the front L/R channels are bridged. Here you can see it hitting 250 watts/channel with both channels driven into 8 ohms, full bandwidth at < 0.1% THD+N. This far exceeds the 200watts/channel rating Yamaha gives this amplifier in bridged mode.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Full Power Bandwidth Continuous Sweep (388wpc, 4 ohms, Bridged)

The MX-A5200 almost doubled in power into 4 ohms which is impressive considering the strain a bridged amplifier must undergo as each half of the amp section sees 1/2 the load impedance (2 ohms). This is a lot of power from an 11-channel amp in bridged mode and certainly will give your main speakers good dynamic headroom when needed.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Power Sweep vs Distortion Test - 2CH, 8 ohms

In normal mode, the MX-A5200 produced comparable power vs distortion numbers compared to the MX-A5000 previously reviewed. We see the amp exceeding its 150 watts/channel rating at 161 watts/channel, two channels driven < 0.1% THD+N and 171 watts/channel at 1% THD+N.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Power Sweep vs Distortion Test - 2CH, 8 ohms, Bridged

When bridged, the MX-A5200 went into beast mode, producing 250 watts/channel, two channels driven < 0.1% THD+N and 277 watts/channel at 1% THD+N. Into a 4 ohm load, the MX-A5200 produced 396 watts/channel, two channels driven < 0.1% THD+N and 444watts/channel at 1% THD+N.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Power Sweep vs Distortion Test - Bridged vs Unbridged Channels, 8 ohms

If you're thinking you can be clever and just bridge one channel while letting the other channel run in normal mode so you can turn this 11CH amp into a 10CH amp with one high power channel, think again. I was going to do this for my center channel until I realized that Yamaha feeds both channels from the lower voltage tap on the transformer even if you only bridge one of the channels. This cuts the unbridged channel by more than half as you can see in the blue trace where the unbridged channel only produced 65 watts at 0.1% THD+N and 72 watts at 1% THD+N.

Note: If you're going to use the bridged feature of this amplifier, use it for BOTH channels.

I did not test this amplifier with more than two channels driven since it has a similar sized power supply and design layout as its predecessor which I thoroughly tested in that review. I borrowed those test results to tabulate below for your convenience.

Yamaha MX-A5200 (2CH) Dynamic Power Test - 4 ohms

The MX-A5200 produced 270 watts/channel, two channels driven, into 8 ohms, bridged during our CEA2006 dynamic burst testing and about 450 watts/channel into 4-ohm loads. It's a good amount of power but interesting to note the results aren't much different from our 1kHz power sweep testing indicating that the Yamaha must be hitting its limiter during these tests. By comparison, the MX-A5000 produced almost 400 watts/channel into 4 ohms for this test and that amp was not bridgeable.

# of CH	Test Type	Power	Load	THD + N
2B	CFP-BW	250 watts	8 ohms	0.1%
2B	CFP-BW	388 watts	4 ohms	0.1%
2	1kHz PSweep	161 watts	8 ohms	0.1%
2	1kHz PSweep	171 watts	8 ohms	1%
2*	1kHz PSweep	236 watts	4 ohms	0.1%
2*	1kHz PSweep	280 watts	4 ohms	1%
5*	1kHz PSweep	138 watts	8 ohms	0.1%
5*	1kHz PSweep	144 watts	8 ohms	1%
7**	1kHz PSweep	78 watts	8 ohms	0.1%
7**	1kHz PSweep	85 watts	8 ohms	1%
2B	1kHz PSweep	250 watts	8 ohms	0.1%
2B	1kHz PSweep	277 watts	8 ohms	1%
2B	1kHz PSweep	396 watts	4 ohms	0.1%
2B	1kHz PSweep	444 watts	4 ohms	1%
2B	Dynamic PWR	270 watts	8 ohms	1%
2B	Dynamic PWR	450 watts	4 ohms	1%

                  Yamaha MX-A5200 Power Measurement Table

B - bridged mode

* borrowed test data from MX-A5000

** current protection engaged

Caution:  No matter how tempted you may be to do so, DO NOT change the default "8 ohm min" impedance setting of the MX-A5200.  All this does is starve your speakers of power, simply so Yamaha could get 4-ohm certification (at a reduced power level) without making the amplifier get too hot during their power tests. We have tested this 'feature' on virtually every receiver or amplifier that offered it in the past and the results were always the same: the low impedance setting robs your speakers of power.  In our testing of this model's predecessor, the 4-ohm setting reduced the 150 watts/channel power to about 65 watts/channel with five channels driven.

For more information, see:  Setting the AV Receiver Impedance Switch

The MX-A5200 was a bit bipolar in how it measured during my FFT distortion tests. I literally got a different reading each time I took it sometimes varying by as much as 10dB for the 3rd order harmonics during the bridged mode tests. I believe this was possibly due to a current biasing monitoring circuit that drifted slightly with temperature or loading conditions.

Yamaha MX-A5200 FFT Distortion Analysis (1 watt, unbridged-blue vs bridged-red XLR)

There is a bit of excessive power supply hum at 120Hz on the MX-A5200 (a few dB worse than I measured on the MX-A5000). This wasn't too concerning as I never once heard an audible hum even with my ear close to the speaker.

In bridged mode, the 2nd order harmonic rose 5dB and the 3rd order almost 15dB in bridged mode compared to unbridged. This was surprising to see as running an amp in a BTL usually reduces distortion products. We did see residual harmonics cancel out in bridged mode, however.

Yamaha MX-A5200 FFT Distortion Analysis (150 watts, unbridged)

The MX-A5200 produced similar FFT results at full power, unbridged, that I measured from the MX-A5000 previously.

Yamaha MX-A5200 FFT Distortion Analysis (200 watts, bridged)

In bridged mode, we again see the odd-order harmonics rise slightly, but 2nd order dropped almost 10dB. This is a very good result and demonstrates the amp’s good behavior when driven hard.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Distortion vs Frequency at 255 watts (2CH, 8 ohms, bridged)

To demonstrate how well behaved this amplifier is at high power, I swept two channels driven in bridged mode at 255 watts, 8 ohms and the distortion remained below 0.05% out to 20kHz. This is impressive considering this amplifier was only rated to deliver 200 watts/channel in bridged mode which this test exceeded comfortably by 55 watts/channel.

Downside

The 5200 series AVENTAGE separates are finely crafted components well worth their price of admission but there are some improvements to be had if Yamaha takes the time and effort to do so. For one, I'd like to see YPAO updated to an app driven solution that allows the end user to connect the microphone to a laptop instead of having to connect to the processor. This is particularly useful for installations where the preamp is not physically located in the same room as the home theater. I found it a bit of a nuisance that the CX-A5200 defaults with Surround:AI engaged for EVERY input out of the box and wonder how many enthusiasts setting this unit up for the first time were underwhelmed with two channel music as a result. Yamaha should look into either defeating Surround:AI for two channel sources going forward or taking it off Neo:6 Cinema in those cases and at least defaulting to the DSU with center spread on.

The distortion problem I discovered for the front main XLR outputs of the CX-A5200, although inaudible in my testing, is something Yamaha must fix in this model’s successor. I want to reiterate that this distortion problem didn't deter my enjoyment of the product or lower the overall subjective scoring I assigned it.

I'd like to see Yamaha differentiate their AV processor from their flagship AV receiver by offering at least two additional processing channels. This would put Yamaha on par with the likes of Marantz and Arcam at least in terms of the number of discrete channels for upscale installations.

Yamaha MX-A5200 Inside View -beautiful layout of dual heatsinks and large central power supply

For the MX-A5200, I think Yamaha missed an opportunity to really step up their game with this amplifier or its predecessor. Since they are getting into bridgeable amplification, they should look into increasing the unit’s power supply capability to realize its full potential. I'd like to see the next generation model offer the ability to bridge all of the channels instead of just the main L/R channels. In addition, unbridged channels should stay on the high voltage rails to not sacrifice power like the MX-A5200 does IF you don't bridge both L/R channels. With Monoprice and Emotiva being the only affordable alternatives for 11-channel amplifiers, Yamaha has a real opportunity here to bring unique differentiating features to their product that adds to their appeal of high reliability.   

Conclusion

Yamaha's latest 5200 series separates are well constructed, offer near flawless operation and pack all the features to satisfy even the most sophisticated installs as long as they are limited to an 11-channel speaker configuration. Yamaha MusicCast is an excellent music management system if you're not running an independent control system that offers that functionality for your whole home. The video switching on the CX-A5200 seems a bit more speedy than the model it replaces which is a good thing and I never experienced HDMI handshaking issues or operational hiccups after I switched to mode 2 for 4K UHD signals in the advanced setup.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sonic results of every audio source I threw at this Yamaha separates combo and can safely say without a doubt you probably will as well if care is taken for proper setup and calibration. YPAO still needs refinement but the manual PEQ really helps to tune your system into sonic bliss. Surround:AI offers a subtle improvement in the immersive impact of multi-channel audio sources but should NOT be used for two-channel sources until Yamaha addresses the shortcomings I noted.

The bottom line is the Yamaha 5200 series of separates provide a well-built two-box solution that handles all of the latest in HD audio and video superbly with enough configuration flexibility to satiate the desires of even the most critical audiophile. I truly believe they are a worthy successor to the 5100 series they replace and look forward to seeing if Yamaha takes some of my suggestions under advisement when building this series’ successor.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Frequency Response Linearity
Measured Power (8-ohms)
Measured Power (4-ohms)
Multi-channel Audio Performance
Two-channel Audio Performance
Build Quality
Fit and Finish
Ergonomics & Usability
Features
Remote Control
Performance
Value