Yamaha unveils slim but strapping network receiver with MusicCast multiroom audio

By Ryan Waniata October 3, 2015

After quietly unveiling a revolutionary new take on multiroom sound with the new MusicCast system this summer, Yamaha today revealed a sleek and slim receiver packing MusicCast along with high resolution audio support, 4K passthrough, and a whole lot more. Introducing the new RX-S601 5.1 channel network AV receiver.

At just over 4-inches tall, the RX-S601 casts a diminutive profile, but that shouldn’t cast any doubts on the bounty of features locked within. With MusicCast, the receiver is capable of streaming audio from virtually any source — be it a Blu-ray player, live TV, a turntable, or your smartphone — throughout the home to any of Yamaha’s 20 new MusicCast components. Those include receivers, speakers, speaker bars, and even professional grade monitors.

In addition, the receiver offers Airplay, DLNA, and Bluetooth support, the latter of which with an added twist. Not only can users stream audio to the receiver via Bluetooth, the receiver can also send the signal back out to other Bluetooth enabled speakers — Yamaha, or otherwise.

Of course, the RX-S601 also comes loaded with the same feature set we’ve come to expect from top receivers in the ever-evolving home theater landscape, including support for streaming multiple hi-res audio file formats at 24bit/192kHz resolution, decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as Yamaha’s Cinema DSP 3D and 17 DSP effects. Digital-to-audio conversion is covered by a 24bit Burr-Brown converter. On the video side, the system is equipped with the latest HDCP 2.2 copyright protection for 4K UHD passthrough at 60Hz.

Other features include Yamaha’s YPAO speaker calibration technology, and Compressed Music Enhancer designed to improve the sound quality of streaming music and MP3s. Pandora and Spotify are also built right in. Power is rated at 60 watts per channel.

Yamaha’s new RX-S601 AV receiver will be available this month at a suggested retail price of $650.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…

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