Yamaha RX-A870 AV receiver

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costidraghia

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Hello,
In the beginning, please excuse my broken english, I'm not a native speaker.
Because I want to combine the useful with the pleasure, I would like to buy a Yamaha RX-A870. At the same time I felt in love with analog sound so I would like to know how would I record a stereo sound from this AVR to an external Akai deck.

Especially when I feed the AVR with multi channel digital streams like DTS, Dolby Digital, LPCM, AC3, DSD64/128 and a downmixing to stereo is a must.
Another words, a stereo analog output can be configured ?

Many thanks, greetings,
arhivarul
 
Solution
If you select stereo or direct as your "surround mode" the receiver should mix down to stereo and send that through the front preamp outputs.
As you have noted the volume of the receiver will affect the signal going to the recorder so you would have to set the receiver volume and adjust the record level on the cassette so that tape wouldn't overload.
You would not be able to listen in surround and record at the same time.
If you recorded any non analog input of the receiver it would be a digital signal that the receiver would convert to analog. That wouldn't really be real analog. You could split the output of any analog source and connect one pair of outputs to the cassette record input. You would also use an input selector if you had...

tsnor

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You can take a line level signal out of the pre-out RCA sockets and record that analog. You will need to tell the RX-A870 to generate a stereo signal, not any of the dolby surrounds. Likely teh akai deck will only capture the left and right channels.

Note the pre-out connection is a variable output so set the volume correctly when you are recording (high on the amp, then leveled correctly on the recording deck to avoid peaking too high).

AFAIK all receivers that can decode multi channel streams downmix to stereo to support configs where only two speakers are configured or headphones are used. If that was the question checking the manual to confirm is a good idea.
 

costidraghia

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Tsnor, thanks alot for your answer but the manual lack in offer solutions in my issue. That was the reason I asked the tomshardware community.
At the same time I've doubts that pre-out levels are variable, as you stated. It would be the first AVR to behave that way.
All AVR's I owned till now had constant level on REC-OUT connections. There wasn't influenced at all by the volume control.

 

tsnor

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The RX-A870 does not have a REC-OUT. REC-OUT is constant level. Instead the RX-A870 does have PRE-OUTs. PRE-outs typically apply sound shaping and volume controls. That's why I mentioned the difference, and that you would have to worry about record output levels being effected by the master volume control on the amp. (Consider using the pre-outs to connect to a power amp. You know the master volume controls the output of the power amp. )

Sorry I cannot confirm that the RXA870 downmixes. AFAIK they all do, but I can't confirm it. Perhaps someone else can. Good luck.
 
If you select stereo or direct as your "surround mode" the receiver should mix down to stereo and send that through the front preamp outputs.
As you have noted the volume of the receiver will affect the signal going to the recorder so you would have to set the receiver volume and adjust the record level on the cassette so that tape wouldn't overload.
You would not be able to listen in surround and record at the same time.
If you recorded any non analog input of the receiver it would be a digital signal that the receiver would convert to analog. That wouldn't really be real analog. You could split the output of any analog source and connect one pair of outputs to the cassette record input. You would also use an input selector if you had more than one potential source and wanted to switch without pulling cable.
 
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costidraghia

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@americanaudiophile - thanks alot for your suggestions, you say if I will select STEREO instead of SURROUND, the AVR will downmix all multi-channels.
Allright, I will try after I buy it.
Unfortunately, my setup is not so rich, I have a Akai deck, a Technics turntable and a Kenwood cd player, so the interconnecting possibilities are limited. As I stated in the firs post I woul like to record only from analog sources (of course after the DAC of the AVR do his job).
The new LP's are too expensive for my buget so I have to find alternative sources.
Here is a link with the back panell of Yamaha, if I understood, the FRONT outlet of the PRE OUT section will cumulate all digital multi-channels. Now the only issue will be the master volume level. Badly, nobody can tell the min/max voltage/amperage/impedance at those RCA out connections. Not even the manual.

http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/yamaha-rx-a870-av-receiver-musiccast

Thanks again.
 
The maximum of the preamp outputs is probably not much more than two volts.
Start with the receiver at the volume you want to listen at when recording and adjust the record level on the Akai. If you can't get the record levels high enough or it's noisy then you would need to raise the receiver volume.
If your TT has a built in phono preamp or you use an external one then you could connect it directly to the Akai for recording. That will eliminate the analog to digital to analog conversion in the receiver so it would sound better and stay analog all the way. You might be able to split the output and connect the receiver too.
 

costidraghia

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@americanaudiophile - No, the Technics turntable hasn't a built in preamp, is a SL-1301, very robust one. But the real problem is to figure out a stereo analog output. The AVR have 2 HDMI outputs, now I'm thinking how to extract a analog signal from one of them.
 
HDMI is always digital.
TVs have one HDMI-ARC "input" that uses two extra wires inside the HDMI cable to get audio from the TV to the receiver without having to add an additional cable. That means that the HDMI output of the receiver can be used as an input but
the HDMI inputs can't be used as output.
 

tsnor

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"...Vs have one HDMI-ARC "input" that uses two extra wires inside the HDMI cable" HDMI-ARC uses standard digital HDMI cables, no extra wires. ARC allows sound to go both ways ... so the receiver can send sound/video to the TV and the TV can send sound back to the retriever when the TV is getting a signal from an external source like it's built in tuner. ARC also transfers control signals like volume so that you can control things like powered sound bar volumes if the sound bar happens to support Audio Return Channel (ARC).

Audio Return Channel (ARC) cannot generate an analog signals.

OP Costidraghia,

If you want to generate analog output from your receiver then you should use the pre-outs, setting volume as described in either of the two posts above. Here is the flow, it is good.
1. Receiver gets the analog signal from your turntable
2. Receiver applies tone and volume to the signal <bad>
3. Signal goes to pre-out where you can feed it into the line level input on your tape deck.


If you want to use the HDMI outs then this is the flow. It is ugly.
1. Receiver gets the analog signal from your turntable
2. Receiver converts the analog signal to digital using its excellent analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D)
3. Digital is shaped by tone controls on the receiver <bad>
4. Digital is placed on the HDMI output
5. An external DAC (digital to analog converter) reconverts the signal from digital to analog. This is a lossy process <bad>. Here is one device that will do this: https://www.amazon.com/ViewHD-Extractor-Optical-Toslink-Converter/dp/B00KBHX072/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1510711026&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=audio+capture+from+hdmi&psc=1
6. Signal from the RCA outs on the external DAC can now go into the line level input on your tape deck.


This is not a solution you want to use.
 
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