YAMAHARN303D MusicCast Stereo Receiver with Airplay and Bluetooth - Black

Bought to replace ageing NAD amp primarily for radio and amp. However, the other features are great. Reassuringly well built. Looks fab.Without repeating too much of others' comments let me address the main criticisms I have seen as I exhaustively researched all comments on reviews and forums in our www thingy: The remote is fine but lacks only tone adjustments; almost everything else is there and works well. In fact preferable to use even when sat adjacent to the amp.Lack of USB. True, and I had considered paying the £100 or more for the 402, but glad I did not. All the other features, taken together well make up for it: sound, Spotify, internet radio, wireless direct, Musiccast, DAB/VHF, streaming from phone/laptop/pc, ...... I set them all up inside an hour or so. Who new there is a 'birdsong' DAB radio channel? Problems with wireless initial connectivity: Yes, only because of default settings in my Virgin hub. An easy fix via forums/Virgin call and I had to use the full ID number and password. You only do this once even if it is fairly slow process of keying Virgin's extremely fun passwords (loads of letters in lower case).My main everyday gain, going forward, since my old Yamaha HDD lacks capacity, is that I can stream from my entire music collection on my laptop using Windows Media Play highest WMA, and of course Spotify. Plus, my record deck (for my most my special music) works brilliantly too.There is talk of heating. The top grill is there for a reason so do not cover it. Turning volume to '11' is not something most folk need, so my 4ohm huge JBL 320s rock fine with no smell of flames.I suppose the only thing to look out for is, as with all modern complicated multimedia devices - support/updates/varying compatibility with other services, and contractural issues. This is a gamble anyone takes and for £250 quid delivered I believe (having compared the sound and great power with other straight £200+ amps) that even as a standalone amp with DAB and VHF - it is great value for that alone.One last thing. There is only 1 aerial to fit which is a combo DAB/VHF - not two as in the instructions and ads. for UK. This works fine. There is no AM in the UK model. Not a problem for me but just saying as I did not realise until I opened it and could not locate the am aerial. Doh.Update November 2020. Since the review above I have today added Amazon echo dot and now control the receiver by voice via Alexa. Took 5 minutes to set that up. A wonder and and joy to stream Spotify and Amazon Music. Of course I can also stream my entire MP3/WMA collection from laptop. More fun via Alexa though, for some reason. Sadly this version not avail on Amazon UK but the similar NPS is (without DAB but with AM)Update December 2020. Glad to see it is available again. This a great piece of kit. I have listened to other straight amps at the same price (i.e. entry hifi) and now think the radio and streaming together with Musiccast and Echo control are like dream freebies. The sound is worth it alone. I cannot recommend it highly enough at this price (although it has now gone up significantly from the £250 I paid back in June. I'd buy again at new price.Update January 2021. Price now up again. £250 was a bargain but current price .. better off getting the 402.

Superb sound, excellent features, good value for money, and highly recommended!

I was a little bit wary of this product as I was pairing it up with and a pair of 30 year old wharfedale 504.2 speakers. So I was pleasently surprised by the clean crisp sounds it produced. All thats missing is Alexa control, but that would just be a bonus for an already great product. Loudness function was the only option that was really missing but I don't think that is an issue. Overall, I should have bought this sooner.

I just set this up today, and the sound quality is excellent even at high and low volumes. It has A&B speaker outputs, which means you can bi-wire suitable speakers. It picked up all DAB stations easily, and sound quality from DAB is excellent. Two caveats: If you plan to connect a turntable, you'll notice that there's no phono input, so you'll need a pre-amp for this. You can get a good one for about £60 or so. And the power cord doesn't detach from the unit. Not a big deal, but if you want to send the cord through a barrier such as a desk top, as I did, you'll need hole saw. Finally, the internet radio presets on the unit itself are, by my lights, pretty crummy. Download the MusicCast app to your phone, and you'll find it easy to identify and store internet radio stations. The app is pretty easy to use, and it also allows you to use your phone as a remote. Overall, an excellent product, and I'm very happy with it. It replaces a Denon M39 micro system, and the sound quality of very much improved.

Had this around about a month now so feel I have got an understanding of everything. This is a quality piece of kit that is worth every penny. I would like to give it 5 stars but there are a few minor tweeks I'd make to get it to that level. Firstly it would be nice if there was a built in graphic equaliser, or failing that, a bit more ability for sound adjustment than just treble and bass. The reason for this is the different inputs such as a turntable, DAB etc all come with varying levels and quality of sound. Some need more adjustment than others. To get over this I have run a separate graphic equaliser in, which gives the turntable a lot more adjustment. I found the phono input to be the one that required the most balancing. Second thing that would be nice is for each input to be able to store the levels set by the bass and treble. This is not possible, so every time you change input, you have to adjust the levels again. This is a bit of a faff and becomes a little tedious after a while. It would be nice if they were stored and remained at those levels when you changed inputs.The European version of this amp does not have a separate phone input as is available on the US version. Instead you have to use one of the Line In inputs. The European version also does not support banana plugs for the speaker connections. Again this is only available on the US version. I did find this rather a backwards step by Yamaha. I could not get my WiFi to connect so had to hard wire instead. Not really an issue as the modem was not far away. DAB reception via the included cable aerial was pretty poor, but that could be more to do with my location as I am surrounded by trees. Direct connection via an external aerial gave no issues. Excellent reception. The only other issue with DAB is how long it takes to change channel when selected. There is quite a considerable delay. The same happens with Internet Radio. The MUSIC CAST app from Yamaha works brilliantly and I like the fact it can be fully tailored to how you want it. Another nice addition is the Volume Trim facility that lets you set the individual volume levels of each input. That way they all match levels and you don't blow your speakers or shock your neighbours when you change input and the volume comes blasting out.All in all an excellent buy. I teamed the amp up with a pair of Yamaha NS-F51 speakers which produce fantastic sound and bass. It would be nice if the amp had a separate input for a subwoofer, but this is available on other models from Yamaha and you can't have everything for this price.