# Yamaha Releases an Aventage Series Blu-ray Player (BD-A1040)



## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Yamaha’s 2014 Aventage Series is proudly carrying the company’s premium badge, collecting accolades and critical acclaim as it has trickled into the hands of review outlets and homes alike. The hallmark of Aventage gear is build quality for performance, with some serious attention to detail and the inclusion of high-grade materials. Earlier this year, we witnessed the rollout of the series’ AVR and component offerings...now we can add a Blu-ray player to list.

Last week, Yamaha unveiled its new premium Aventage BD-A1040 universal Blu-ray player. Not surprisingly, the BD-A1040 fits in seamlessly with its Aventage brethren, sporting sleek looks, a jet black finish, and high grade materials. The player represents Yamaha’s fullest featured Blu-ray disc player to date, including its first inclusion of onboard Bluetooth capability.









_The Aventage BD-A1040 (Top) has all the looks._​
The exterior of the BD-A1040 is fronted by a topside display panel and a high grade aluminum plate designed to dampen vibrations. On the inside, it has symmetrical audio circuitry, a 192 kHz/32-bit Digital Audio Converter, and gold-plated terminals. Into Hi-Res audio? The BD-A1040 has you covered with playback of WAV, ALAC, and FLAC files (top resolution of 192 kHz/24-bit). Of course, let’s not forget about our favorite HD movie codecs, TrueHD and DTS-HD...it can handle those, too.

"The same painstaking craftsmanship and attention to detail our engineers place on our AVENTAGE AV receivers has been applied to the BD-A1040, giving consumers the purest audio and video quality for all TV watching and home theater experiences," said Bob Goedken, general manager, AV Division, Yamaha Corporation of America. "The superior performance, convenience and flexibility of this universal Blu-ray Disc player cannot be overstated."

On the video front, the BD-A1040 can replay 3D Blu-ray films. It also features 1080p/24 Hz HDMI video output with Deep Color compatibility, noise reduction capability, and 1080p upconversion of less than HD material (including home videos, pictures and DVDs). It can handle almost every format conceivable, including MPEG PS, MPEG TS, MPEG-4, VOB, AVI, WMV, DivX Plus, and AVCHD. It also has onboard access to streaming services such as VUDU and Picasa Web Albums through built-in Wifi.

The BD-A1040 isn’t priced as high as other high-end Blu-ray players, but its $449 MSRP price tag makes it nearly four-times as expensive as standard fare players. The unit became available for purchase at the beginning of August.

_Image Credit: Yamaha_


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Interesting, I think this is the first I've seen a non-Apple device advertise ALAC playback.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Hasn't Pioneer?

Or...perhaps they just promote apple connectivity. But I thought they started advertising ALAC on their Elite gear a year or so ago...


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

I didn't know that. Makes sense though since it seems Pioneer has been pretty Apple-friendly for a few years at least. This Yamaha looks like a really nice player though. The Aventage line has some great contenders these days.


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## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

Very nice. Pioneer makes some great looking equipment. I own a pioneer car Audi receiver and I am very pleased with how it sounds. It is in a golf cart though so my opinion may not be a good one


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## AU26 (Apr 12, 2014)

It doesn't look from outside any different to BD-A1020, from last year offerings. How does it fare against likes of OPPO in sound and image quality?
Cheers from Australia


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