Both are Yamaha, from different ranges - the engineering approach is shared and the differences are mostly in power, connectivity and price.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Yamaha RX-V6A has more power - 100W against 70W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.5dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Speaker load rating | B | Yamaha RX-V6A is rated down to 4 ohms against 6, so it is the safer partner for a low-impedance speaker. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (3). |
| Phono stage | depends | Yamaha RX-V6A has a built-in phono stage and Yamaha RX500A does not. Decisive if you own a turntable, completely irrelevant if you do not - and an outboard phono stage is easy to add later either way. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Shelf space | depends | Yamaha RX500A takes up about 15% less shelf area (1396cm² against 1651cm²), and it is 59mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Yamaha RX500A costs less - $600 against $850 at list. |
A Yamaha RX500A B Yamaha RX-V6A
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
The usual trade-off: Yamaha RX-V6A measures better, Yamaha RX500A costs about 29% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here. If you play records, Yamaha RX-V6A saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely. Think about the whole system: the roughly $250 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.