Yamaha R-N301 Network Receiver - Silver

Cheaply put together. Had to return due to fault

I bought this as part of doing a household media system - which when I started a few years ago during my house rebuild has changed in application considerably. Then it was all about Philips Pronto and similar and I was just beginning to set this up when suddenly it all stopped and no more products were released. Of course Philips could see things were going the way of tablets effectively rendering Pronto obsolete overnight. And, I didn't want compromised amplifier either so that knocked the likes of SONOS and similar off my list. I wanted proper amps - but remotely controlled. Wiring wasn't a problem because I ran everything in the walls during the renovation work - all I needed was control. And here I am. A proper amp that has all the attributes of a decent separates unit - at this price point I may add - with the ability to control it over WiFi using an APP. Seriously what's not to love? Well, one small niggle. The selection of A and B speakers can't be done from the Yamaha APP - which is irritating because my plan was to fit three of these units covering six rooms. You can turn them on and off via the app - at least from standby (which is only 0.1w/hr) so in theory using my tablet I could individually have sound in each room with far higher quality than a really expensive wifi system or multi-amp. Basically an entire whole house audio system amp system for around £600. Now that is cheap. But the damned A + B speaker selection has to be locally as far as I can work out. Not a major issue but one that means it's not quite perfect. I've run this via my NAS drive which has music on it stored in various formats, mainly WMA Lossless - which isn't supported. FLAC is, however and as I'd already started down the process of changing over to FLAC this isn't a huge problem. Internet radio us native to the device and the APP controls it well so that's another box ticked. Sound is impressive using decent KEF speakers. Clean, precise and engaging. Enough bass to give power to rock music without being overwhelming. To be honest, this is a steal at the price. There are of course much, much more expensive amps out there but I'd bet in a blind listening this modestly priced unit wouldn't perform badly in comparison. Top value and top quality.

It's big -a 1980's style big hifi box, a throwback to when having big gear meant high quality. But it is also good in sound and features on first impressions. Plenty of drive for my big speakers and an exceptionally comprehensive device. As well as all the digital stuff it also has AM/FM radio which means it is good for almost all home listening needs. It has tape in/out for us legacy types. Finally, for the audiophile tendency, it's fully analog(ue) for the power amps, so much today is class D digital. (for the tech-heads half its size is power supply and heatsink, so it's generously designed) Because of the size you need plenty of room so I suspect it's staying in my den and won't get admission to the living room where compact and tidy rules supreme. It is exceptional value for money; if it was half the size I would buy 2 more and have one in every room. Important note though it doesn't have WiFi or Bluetooth, you'll need to cable the network and Yamaha have a bluetooth accessory. As an IT person I prefer physical Ethernet to WiFi where possible as I like rock solid connections.

100 WPC! As per usual, Yamaha deliver a (mainly) nicely built and hi-fi sounding unit. The controls are positive although I find I use the remote or iPad/iPhone control for almost everything. The Network card however was loose in the unit… but again, for the price, maybe it should be a DIY job. It's absolutely wonderful having Airplay on the network and internet radio. Soundwise, it sounds like a Yamaha… It's a sterile sounding amp with hardly any colouration which you may or may not like. I'm driving ESL's and Cones and so it is working a little hard but for now, it's a fantastic amp for the price. A sub output would be nice so I could bi-amp but for this price you really can't complain at all. I would highly recommend, specially for a single pair of traditional cone speakers.

This was a great all round amp until 2019 when all the net stations all stopped working unless you paid for a monthly subscription to Vtuner. Yamaha’s firmware upgrade to change the radio network from Vtuner to a free service was not included for this model, so stay clear of it. Yamaha could of included the firmware upgrade for this model because it is a very good amp but i think they thought the 4 digit priced amps were more worthy of the update. Shame on you Yamaha!