Actually as some who has owned a few Yamaha pieces over the years(currently a 11.2 CX-A5000 pre-pro)for the record, Yamaha never had a "front wide" speaker option nor the Audyssey room correction system in any of their models. It has always consisted of elevated front and where possible rear "presence" speakers and their own YPAO room set-up system. In their latest line-up the top two models, the 2050 is 9.2 and the 3050 is 9.2 with the option to go to 11.2 IF the owner wishes to add an external amp. The CX-A5100 is fully 11.2, however, being a pre-pro it, of course, requires external amplification for all channels.
In the case of the above models, while implementing the DTS and forthcoming DTX formats, Yamaha just chose to go the route of using the existing presence speakers and with the front presence in particular giving the owner the option of elevating them over one`s head. I am somewhat surprised though that other than Denon, no one else has chosen to offer the "Auro" option which, after hearing a couple of demos, I was quite impressed. Since they, in particular, have developed it with music in mind as well, their system leans towards a total envelopment experience as opposed to primarily directional cues.
Owning a Marantz and Onkyo in previous years, for my particular option choices, I ultimately gravitated back to the Yamaha because compared to similar models of other mainstream manufacturers, they were a little better value, their "Aventage" line in particular, has a better warranty and I always preferred their DSP and in particular, the full parameter adjustable movie sound fields that none of the others even had in their feature set.
Last edited by casey01; 01/27/16 05:16 PM.
