Review on 🔊 Yamaha WXA-50 MusicCast Wireless Amplifier for Streaming by Ashley Ray

Based on my extensive past experience with Yamaha devices, I chose this amp over a comparable Sonos device. When I unpacked it I was surprised and impressed at how heavy it is for its size. The buttons (and knob) feel nice and the box stays in place when you interact with it. (Household trouble: devices that move when you press buttons.) Connections were easy, and the manual explains the process fairly well. I had some trouble setting up the app on my Samsung Note 10. When trying to connect the booster to my WiFi, the process was blocked by anti-spam software pre-installed on my phone. Closing the generated popup caused the MusicCast installation to fail. It wasn't until I turned off the "Security" warning (and restarted the amp) that I was able to complete the setup process. Once I did that, I was enjoying a Pandora stream within minutes. I found the sound quality to be very good, especially at high volumes, but you probably need to think more about speaker placement to get good sound at low to medium volumes. The MusicCast app has a long history of one-star reviews on Google Play. Store (as of this writing) but it seemed stable and reliable to me. It turns the device on remotely and always connects to my latest music source with no issues. The advertising copy for this amp says you can stream from any music service, which is technically correct. However, the MusicCast app directly supports only two main services: Pandora and Spotify. (Services like Deezer and TIDAL are also supported, but I've never heard of them.) Other streams must be accessed via Bluetooth or other input methods. I am a Google Play Music subscriber so this was a bit of a disappointment. So far, however, the Bluetooth connects reliably and stays connected even when I'm out of earshot with my phone. However, I think that all essential services should be included right in the application.