Skip to main content

Hi-Fi Corner: Yamaha’s powerful new R-N602 takes multiroom up a notch

By Ryan Waniata Nov 29, 2015 5:00 AM

Yamaha’s powerful new multiroom audio platform, MusicCast, has yet another new family member. This week Yamaha released the R-N602, the latest network receiver capable of integrating with a whole host of Yamaha audio components for a seamless whole-home music experience.

Priced at a suggested $650, the dual-channel N602 is priced to move, and it’s got plenty of tricks up its sleeve. That includes the ability to stream high-resolution tracks at up to 24bit/192kHz resolution, as well as native DSD files at 2.8MHz and 5.6MHz from a computer or NAS storage drive. And thanks to MusicCast, the component can then beam those tunes — along with virtually anything else connected to your system, from your TV to your turntable — to any compatible MusicCast speaker over Wi-Fi.

Recommended Videos

Related: Yamaha’s YSP-5600 is the Rolls Royce of sound bars

While MusicCast speakers are just hitting the market, Yamaha has added some impressive pieces to the party already, partnering the debut WX-30 mono speaker with the audiophile-grade NX-N500 desktop speakers last month. The company has plans to release 20 components in all, including a bank-busting Dobly Atmos sound bar coming in December for $1,700. Each piece in the MusicCast system is able to use receivers like the R-N602 as a high-resolution wireless hub to stream to any room in your home.

Of course, MusicCast is just one piece of the R-N602 puzzle. The receiver comes complete with on-board support for Pandora, Spotify, and Rhapsody, Bluetooth or Airplay connection for even more ways to stream, and even the ability to re-stream Bluetooth signals to other speakers outside of the MusicCast family. Other features include nine total inputs — including four digital, and 5 RCA analog — along with dual-zone wired output.

Power for the receiver is supplied by dual independent power supplies for analog and digital sound sources, and the unit also boasts Yamaha’s Total Purity Audio Reproduction Technology (ToP-ART) to add some razzle-dazzle to your low resolution audio files.

Yamaha’s new R-N602 network Hi-Fi receiver is available now at authorized Yamaha dealers.

This post first appeared on our “brother site” Digital Trends.

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

Elevate your elegance: Choosing your first cigar

Face, Head, Person

Earlier this year, I was strolling the streets of New York and ended up sitting in the Carnegie Club with an Old Fashioned in one hand and a cigar in the other while My Way by Frank Sinatra played from a speaker flanking leather-bound books behind the couch I had been using as my perch. It was my first cigar, but it led to a slight obsession that recently found me on the back deck of a lodge in Kenya, staring at Mount Kilimanjaro and smoking a stick while giraffes meandered by. Admittedly, there has been no intention in my budding hobby; I am aimlessly choosing the cigars that look good (the ones that look like those smoked by Arnold or Stallone in the movies, obviously). But I have decided to approach these in a new way, with a little help from my friends over at La Aurora, who graciously decided to navigate my ignorance with some info compiled by Brand Manager John Gaglio, with input from Master Blender Manuel Ynoa, CEO Ed McKenna, and Brand Manager Elvis Batista.

What to look for in your first cigar

FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Is Uglifying the Beautiful Game With $20 Billion Plot — But the Global Soccer Community’s Punching Back

People, Person, Crowd

For the better part of two decades, perhaps even more, corruption has allegedly run rampant within FIFA. Sepp Blatter, in particular, became the face of alleged extortion schemes, and he operated with impunity while at the helm of the organization for 17 years, from 1998 until his forced resignation in 2015 amid an FBI corruption probe. He’s banned for life from all football-related FIFA activities. If you’re new to the organization’s alleged deep connection to corruption, Netflix offers a brilliant 2022 documentary, FIFA Uncovered. In that documentary, Gianni Infantino appears in his previous capacity as Secretary General of UEFA (2009-2016) and later as the newly elected FIFA president, who vowed to root out corruption and hand the beautiful game back to the people where it belongs.

That, as it turns out, was all wishful thinking.

Escobar Cigars, Co-Owned by Nas, Drops Four-Profile Robusto House Blend Collection

Blade, Knife, Weapon

Imagine that, Nas is getting closer to ruling the cigar world. The legendary rapper’s Escobar Cigars, which he co-owns, is making waves with the launch of a new four-profile House Blend collection. The launch is in partnership with Cigar Chief, one of North America’s largest premium cigar retailers.

The Manual has not yet had the chance to do a taste review (a pack is on the way), but Escobar Cigars says the four-profile House Blend collection (Maduro, Premium Blend Connecticut, Habano, and Connecticut Robusto) “has its own distinct wrapper, filler, and strength profile,” and that “all four are rolled in 5 x 52 Robusto format using classic Cubano entubado construction.”