R-S202BL Stereo Receiver

Got this for my classroom. Not an audiophile by any means and certainly didn't need the latest greatest features (along with accompanying higher cost). For what I paid, $150 on Amazon before sales tax, I'm very impressed with what it offers and can do. Installed it in my classroom today. Connected it to a pair of old Sony bookshelf speakers which I got around 10 years ago. Specifically got this receiver because the old Onkyo I previously used (still working even though it must be from 1980s or 1990s) was unable to handle audio input from my classroom desktop computer even though I had gotten an adapter cable that had a 3.5mm jack on one end and two RCA (red/white) plugs on the other end. Wanted to use the bookshelf speakers instead of the weak external speakers provided by school for whenever I would need audio during a lesson, video clips, etc. to be heard by students at the back of the classroom. After setting up this receiver and putting it through its paces, I am pleased with its overall performance. I connected my classroom's desktop computer to the receiver using that adapter cable previously mentioned and this receiver had no problems at all picking up the signal and transmitting it to my bookshelf speakers. Tried out the radio tuner and was pleasantly surprised by both how clear the sound quality is for many local stations (compared to the Onkyo I had previously been using) and for even decoding signals from distant stations (I'm using a spare cheap external FM radio antenna, not the wire antenna provided with this unit) which the previous Onkyo receiver (and even my car radio) can't pick up clearly if at all. The Bluetooth feature is nice. There's a cheaper version of this receiver without the Bluetooth feature but I decided that the extra $20 was worth it for providing additional possibilities. Had no problem pairing this receiver with my Nexus 6 smartphone. No problems streaming music from my smartphone to the receiver. So far, I've only encountered one problem. I thought about docking one star off for this problem but in the end decided not to do so because the overall functionality and performance of the receiver isn't significantly impaired by this issue. When I first powered up this receiver (after making all the necessary audio connections to speakers and computer), I thought I might have had a defective unit because I couldn't hear anything even though the volume was clearly set at 40 (out of a 0-99 scale). After some trial and error, what I discovered was that any setting below 45 is practically impossible to hear coming out of my speakers. Once I cranked up the volume to 50-55, sound was clearly discernible to anyone near the speakers. From 55-65, sound fills up my entire classroom nicely. From 65-75, it gets loud in my classroom and when I walked out into the hallway (and then continued walking down the hallway) I could hear the sound clearly from several classrooms away. I can only imagine how loud it might be (and how far the sound may travel) if I cranked up the volume beyond 75. So, for all intents and practical purposes, the sound on this unit works but I'm essentially navigating between 45 (quiet) and 80 (really loud) instead of the full range of 0-99. Like I said, functionality and performance doesn't seem to be impaired by this discrepancy, so I ultimately decided not to knock off a star. Not sure if this issue is particular to the specific unit I received or a recurring pattern in more units beyond mine. Not a deal-breaker and not worth going through the hassle of a merchandise exchange since it gets the job done. Looking forward to seeing how well this unit works out for this coming school year (and hopefully for many years beyond). If anything should arise to warrant editing this review, then I'll update as needed.

I’m very glad I found and purchased this receiver unit. My primary use is for AM/FM reception to listen to my radio stations during the day. The radio broadcast reception here is a bit weak. I have high-end AM and FM antennas to gather more signal strength, but that is only part of the solution. The quality of the design and circuitry inside the receiver plays a key part in solid radio reception, and here this unit excels. The resulting reception is far stronger than other receivers I have used. I also noted a high signal to noise ratio; I can detect no audible noise levels. All this speaks of the high quality and engineering that YAMAHA put into this receiver. The resulting sound quality is also top notch. Crystal clear sound all the way down to the lowest volume levels. No distortion is detected – gosh not a darn thing to even nit pick at. Power amp of ~200 watts are more than adequate for my needs. Too often manufactures sell their high power but skimp on everything else. This is my perfect solution at a price point that can’t be beaten. As an added benefit, the user interface is simple and intuitive. While many manufacturers go way overboard and load up their receivers with endless and complex (mostly unnecessary) features and functions, the ‘keep it simple approach’ from YAMAHA is very welcome. It’s a stereo receiver after all, not Mission Control. If you are in the market for a stereo receiver and are not interested in sound blasting your walls (and your ears) down, this one is for you.

I'm kind of an audiophile, really picky. I got this while on sale for $150 and I am really surprised with how good it sounds, it doesn't compare to the Niko amp I was using in the barn, but it powers my KX12 speakers really well, shakes the walls of the barn. I'll be taking those speakers inside for the winter along with the Niko amp and be using the YAMAHA NS-6490 speakers I bought at the same time as this. I'll be reviewing those speakers soon, they also surprised me. The bluetooth connected easily. I had to use a 3.5mm Aux to 2 RCA Adapter Audio Cable to connect my laptop to it. Some stereos come with a 3.5mm input, this doesn't, but neither did my Niko Beta 30 preamp, so no big deal, the adapter was less than $8. The tuner is really good, I have this in my pole barn that is all metal, including the roof and 18 miles out of town yet it picks up several stations with the supplied antenna, my portable stereo doesn't pick up anything when in the barn. The specs say it plays 10 Hz – 100 kHz, that seams a little much, the best ears can hear is up to 20kHz, and nothing you connect to it will go higher than 30 kHz, so why would this play up to 100? I use an equalizer to shape the sound and it does play to my satisfaction for the price, both sound quality and volume. For the $150 I spent, this is a really good deal.

I used this receiver as the brain of an outdoor/patio sound system I built for my friend as a wedding present. It performs very well. The bluetooth works like a BOSS. We have tested in all corners of the yard with no signal loss. I might also mention that the receiver is housed inside the garage just off the yard. I was very impressed by this. The remote works wonderfully and allows you to access all of the features very easily while also being very user friendly. I bought this along with the 4 speaker package from VM Audio. The sound is very clear. Time will tell how long it lasts. Though I have only ever had one amp go out on me, I know this thing is going to be getting a ton of usage. My only complaint is the power generated by this amp. The sound is crystal clear; however I expected more volume. I realize this is only a 100w amp, but ran this beside a 100w Technics receiver I bought back in 96 and the Technics just pushes a full beefy sound exceeding that of the Yamaha. The features of this amp win out but I wish it had a little more oomf, ya know? I could've probably solved that by purchasing a stronger amp, but this was for a friend. Although I will obsess over this my friend is very happy with its performance.

This system is really nice and I mean it! Not a lot of information on this unit but what I can say is this system gets extremely loud to the point where you can lose your hearing from it. There is no distortion from this system even at max volume. I like music loud but this loud is on the next level and this is coming from a guy who has a lot of audio equipment and experience in the audio and FM broadcast industry! The nice thing is FM sounds wonderful on this unit. FM radio sensitivity is just wonderful like a high end receiver or like a good car FM radio. The wire provided to get radio reception wasn’t the best but a good tip is to put the wire next to the speaker wires to act like a ground plane but I highly recommend to get a good FM radio antenna that goes on your roof of your house for superior reception. AND no, the speaker wires don’t interfere with reception!!! I was skeptical due to the lack of information on this Yamaha, but I took that risk. I always knew Yamaha always been a very premium brand for audio and receivers but then you watch videos online about this unit they hate on it for being a cheap system when this isn’t true. This unit is for someone who wants a: Basic Semi Audiophile Stereo (Left and Right Sound) FM Radio, Line In or CD Playback, if you buy the cd reader separate. The video I provide is this stereo shaking my cheap old school 80s 8 inch bookshelf speakers. The only con is no sub out port. Irrelevant information starts here: The setup you see in the video is only temporary as we are remodeling the house and garage this stereo is currently in. Are new house is being currently being built in the country and after are new garage is built I’ll be putting this stereo in there and be setting this up with 2 outdoor Yamaha AW-350s on our back deck by the fire pit and the 2 old school 80s speakers in the garage. (Also a FM antenna mast for extreme FM radio reception.) The idea is the backyard would have good audio for music and are front yard would also get some good ported sound from the garage. Overall me and my family spends a lot of time outdoors no phones and little to no internet time just hanging out listening to music. The reason I am sharing this is because this is what I see a unit like this being used for.

I had a 30ish year old Yamaha receiver that was demoted to garage duty. It was a great receiver, though the controls were all getting sketchy. They display went out, the base/treble sometimes worked, it was time for a replacement. I just needed a decent receiver with bluetooth and this one was perfect. It's smaller size (compared to it's replacement) was great for my shop. I got the speakers hooked up, connected through bluetooth, and it sounded great. I like that it has an easy to use remote and the A/B selector was a must for me as I have two sides of the garage and wanted to turn one half off. Now it is more of a budget minded receiver, so it uses spring connectors rather than banana plugs for the speaker connections, but for my use it's fine.

My Insignia NS-STR514 suddenly died after a year of glorious sound (device still turned on, switch inputs, etc, just no sound), and I had to find another stereo receiver to replace it. Yamaha seemed to be a pretty popular brand, especially among musicians and home theater enthusiasts, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. Wrong. From the minute I hooked this receiver up I noticed a significant drop in power, range, and overall quality. This device is advertised as having the same 100w of power per channel, so this is really surprising for a major brand. I used to have to turn the Insignia up to 20, but this device has to be turned up to 44 to get the same loudness. When you do get this device cranked up enough to hear something, the sound is very flat. There's no other way to describe it. There's no range. Even if bass cranked to max you can barely hear it. The treble is weak, flat, and distorts at high volume. This device is literally making my stereo speakers that cost $300.00 each sound like a boom box from the 90's. I was considering upgrading my turntable to a higher quality one, but now, what's the point? On the flip side, the sound is clean, crisp. But man oh man is it flat. These days I mostly listen to music on high grade headphones and watch movies and streaming on my projector so it's not a huge loss (high fidelity sound on video games and movies isn't a huge deal to me), but don't buy this for your entry-level audiophile needs. There's got to be better options out there than this. The weak bass especially is unforgivable. *Update 04/25/17* My wife finally grew so tired of this piece of junk that I got rid of it and bought another Insignia Stereo Receiver. Unreliable as it is (dead after 2 years) it's still better than this garbage. The bass response is absolutely horrible, and the neighbors started complaining about the "booming". That's pretty much the only bass you get from this device. A loud, cheap-sounding thumping. The frequency response of this device is so poor, and the sound so thin and tinny, that even my wife couldn't stand it! Do yourself a favor and avoid this one.

First: YES, you can use this as an AV receiver *IF* you have a simple home theater setup and are willing and know how to run a digital to analog audio converter from your TV to the inputs of the receiver. BestBuy sells an inexpensive and intuitive unit. HOWEVER, if you have several devices associated with your home theater (i.e. more than 2 -- then this probably isn't a great option for you). I generally prefer Vintage Stereo equipment -- My ideal receiver was the Yamaha CR-2020. But sadly, those are hard to come by and have are more expensive and like a used car -- you don't really know what maintenance you have ahead of you. I had inherited a Sony AV receiver that pre-dated HDMI. It worked and I could even program my Logitech remotes with it. However, it really didn't bring the best sound out of my speakers -- a pair of original Large Advents. Plus, it seemed like it was starting to give up the proverbial ghost. My AV setup is pretty simple since I dumped Time Warner -- or whatever they are calling themselves these days. I have a TV, Roku Streaming stick and that's it! I don't have a living room that would accommodate 20 speakers and a sub without tripping over them (my cats and dog and kids shoes provide enough of an obstacle field). The downside -- this isn't really intended to be an AV receiver. No Optical Audio in... no HDMI ports... you have to make it work if you want to use it for your TV as well. I purchased an Insignia Digital to Analog Audio converter -- you plug in the HDMI cable from your TV into the input and use RCA cables as the output to plug into the receiver. This little gizmo was about 25 bucks so I was still saving quite a bit of money over "full-featured" AV receivers. The sound for the TV is fine -- You aren't going to be fooled into thinking you are in an IMax theater or anything. But that wasn't my primary concern. I really wanted my music to sound great. And playing music is where this receiver really shines! I *REALLY* like the Bluetooh connectivity so that I can play from my computer, cell phone without having to use a patch cable to plug into the receiver. It has a very simple interface -- mainly because there just isn't that much functionality. push a few buttons and you'll be able to figure it out without a manual. I know several reviewers have commented on the flimsy clips for the speaker wire but I have some fairly heavy gauge wire and it doesn't works just fine. I don't use banana plus -- just run the copper straight in. Once you get it set up, you shouldn't have a problem -- it isn't like you are constantly re-wiring your speakers. I was able to purchase this for less than 120 bucks and it drives my vintage Large Advents really well. It provides a beautiful full sound for a wide variety of musical genres. Maybe one of these days, I'll stumble across another great vintage receiver. But for the money and the convenience of a remote and bluetooth, this receiver can't be beat. [NECAR}