Yamaha DSP-A2070
Surround Amplifier

Yamaha DSP-A2070 review

Yamaha DSP-A2070

Widely admired for its AV technology, Yamaha has already taken the 1993 European EISA Award for Home Theatre with its DSP-A2070.

The amp’s features are unsurpassed, thanks to an all-digital Dolby Pro-Logic decoder and soundfield processor. Standard DPL is provided with an Enhanced 35mm Movie mode which adds further soundfield processing to the rear channels for that big screen feel. This is bolstered by an extra pair of front effects channels.

Yamaha provides some 12 pairs of soundfield programs, the most advanced controlling such things as directional enhancement, simulated front/ rear room size and the reverberation level, delay and time. By modifying these preset soundfields you can create, and memorise, personalised acoustic environments for later recall.

Sound quality

Listening to the Yamaha DSP-A2070 as a standard two-channel stereo amplifier is a bit of an anticlimax, for its music is detailed but lacks vigour. Switching into DPL mode could not disguise this underlying character, one that dredged oodles of subtle detail from our film clips but presented it in a peculiarly academic manner.

Yamaha’s Enhanced mode, by contrast, was voted a vast improvement. Sure enough, the grey disposition of the amps was still apparent but there was now a far greater sense of ambience, of front-to-back imaging and transient detail. This is achieved by making any natural acoustic sound far bigger and brassier than is strictly plausible.

The cramped acoustic of the submarine (Abyss) took on cinematic proportions while the kitchen scene (at the start of Terminator 2) echoed to the sound of guns and keys being exchanged. In these instances, the acoustic representation was clearly bolder than the visual image itself would suggest. But blow reality. This is great home cinema.

Conclusion

To assess the Yamaha DSP-A2070 purely on its performance as a 4-channel Dolby Pro-Logic decoder would be an injustice. The plain fact is that Yamaha’s digital effects are very much more enthralling than the detailed but uncharismatic sound of its on-board amplifiers. Consequently, the DSP-A2070 is recommended for its matchless flexibility rather than ultimate sound quality.