Yamaha rx-a6a

For manufacturers trying to keep up with technology trends, the feeling of constantly playing catch-up must be acute. No sooner does a company release its latest and greatest piece of home entertainment kit than a new feature comes along and suddenly obsolescence beckons. When it comes to products such as AV receivers that have to link multiple devices, all with their own raft of constantly evolving specifications, things are even trickier.

As the hub of any home cinema, an AVR must be able to keep up with the ever-changing demands of video, sound, streaming and gaming technology – not to mention the NeverEnding Story-like tome of HDMI 2.1 protocols that provide the basis for their interface.

When Yamaha first announced its current Aventage range, in which the RX-A6A sits one notch below the flagship model, it was notable both for its benchmark-setting support of HDMI 2.1 with up to 40Gbps of bandwidth across all inputs and outputs, and for the number of asterisks attached to its specifications, indicating technology that would eventually be added by way of future software updates.

This means that users who purchased the RX-A6A when it launched in 2021 had to wait patiently for firmware updates to unlock the capability for passthrough of uncompressed 4K@120Hz and 8K@60Hz signals as well as HDR10+ across its seven inputs and three outputs. As of August 2022, gaming features such as ALLM (Auto Low Latency mode) and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) should also be supported, but there is still no date for when QMS (Quick Media Switching) and QFT (Quick Frame Transport) will be added.

While this long road of delayed upgrades will no doubt have been frustrating for some, ultimately we think it shouldn’t deter those considering one of the most precise sounding, well-specified, flexible and future-proofed AVRs we have come across at this price point.

The Yamaha RX-A6A supersedes 2019’s RX-A3080 and sits firmly in Denon AVC-X6700H territory. The Denon is a formidable What Hi-Fi? Award-winner that launched at the same price of £2299 and offers two more channels of amplification than the RX-A6A. Unlike the Yamaha, however, only one of its eight inputs and two of its three outputs are HDMI 2.1-certified (though all ports should ultimately support 2.1 gaming features such as VRR, ALLM, QMS and QFT).

Yamaha considers the RX-A6A to be the best-value AVR in its current line-up as it boasts a near-identical feature set to the flagship RX-A8A (£3299) for considerably less outlay, especially when you consider that it can