YAMAHA R-S202BL Stereo Receiver

The media could not be loaded. 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.

Once I realized a $149 Sherwood had a nice six year run, twice the warranty, I made the plunge for a new Yamaha. My old speakers did not sound as good, so I added the Killer Polks. If you have a turntable, for this receiver you must buy or have a pre-amp. I bought a cheap one with good reviews and it is enough for a good vinyl sound. If you have CD's this receiver loves to make your CD's sound even better! I realize there are more powerful receivers for more money, but I like to fit in a budget of $1400-$1800 for receiver, CD player, turntable, and speakers.

Yamaha amplifier is just what I was looking for. Works great. Got it for the bluetooth capability. Use it to run my TV sound and streaming video.

Nice for the price. Very easy to setup everything. My Bluetooth devices works very well on this receiver. I hooked up the FM antenna output to my rabbit ears and the reception is great, and I don’t have to extend the antenna rods at all. Being that I’m at sea level, and no mountains around me, but surrounded by many high rises. The remote is easy to understand and works well. The sound quality is good but not that great. It has more of a warmer tone with the bass and mid-range being stronger, and the higher tones are very soft. The bass is strong and at times need to turn it low or in the negative settings which for both the treble and bass controls allows you to set it from -10 to 10. Even with the treble set at its highest 10 setting, the higher tones are very soft. So, I can’t hear the higher sounds of cymbals, and snare drums. I found in the manual that the highest setting for the treble is rated at 3.0kHz. The higher tones start at 6.0 kHz. So, this explains it. I have my old Bose speaker system that I had for over 25 years, the one with the right and left satellite speakers and the floor bass unit hooked up. For vocals, it sounds great. But if you want more individual control of the tones, especially the higher tones, this is not the receiver for you. With all this being said, everything else I would rate it at a 5 star. My 4-star rating is from this lack of higher tones. In conclusion, I’m satisfied with this receiver, as all other features and sound qualities check off for me. I may buy a stereo equalizer to boost up the higher tones.

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.