Great sound and DSP fields.

Remote Control

Excellent receiver, especially for the money. I currently use the receiver in my living room for movies and music. The DSP modes are fantastic and 2 channel listening is accurate and can easily consume a relatively large room. Movies are also a great experience. I notice a world of difference between this and my old Sony. I will be using a Denon for my basement theater.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR 3803

remote, refinement of power, subtlety.. smoooth midrange!range of adjustments, and center EQ

mmmm, i would say,it seems to be abit weak on power...but only SEEMS! also abit bright

very good reciever,which takes abit of getting used to, especially if new to yamaha... they have a distinctive sound..highly defined,alittle bright, muted and refined in midrange as opposed to the harsh sounding cheaper brands... and finally there is the soft bottom end,bass is refined and restrained,yet can show surprising depth and power at times..it is also very low in distortion and not at all muddy..the initial impression of reciever is that it is a bit underpowered..feels like60 watts ,not 100! yet at times it shows its power and is very startling! a word to describe it would be "soft power"...its there, yet does not hit you in the face as cheap recievers do with their overboosted and distorted bass...volume progression is slow building,,, will give impressiom that you need to turn it up higher than other machines to get same volume..but this has Nothing to do with overall power output! its just how the volume control feeds in the amp...very progressive..i find myself liking it lots at times and other times dislikng it,the reason being that it reveals only too well the Quality of whats its given! and poor quality dvds sound aweful! while great ones ,such as Lord of the rings, sound mindblowing! so really , one cant blame it for what one hears! it depends what you feed it!major plus is the center channel EQ...you can tailor the harshness out of overbright tracks..or enhance dull dvds dialouge to make awesome clarity..remote is fantastic! never even need to turn the damn wheel! just tap input button at top of it and then choose which input you want...overall great machine,highly refined..what you get out of it will depend on what you put into it!...refined,subtle,surprisingly powerful when it needs to be... give yourself time to appreaciate it and become attuned to it.

Similar Products Used:

yamaha rxv870,harman avr7000,technics, sony many models,sherwood,TeacAG-D8900- a truly fantastic little machine for the 100.00 i paid for it i am awed for what it does!harman avr120- a great reciever

Sound processer very accurate.AMAZING!! Remote can be programmed to control everthing you own. It can be frusrating to do it but once it is done you'll love it.

I have noticed this on all newer yamaha recievers.When You Are ABout To Watch A DVD In DTS, The CLip FROM DTS WILL HAVE NO SOUND. ONLY A FEW DTS ENCODED MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED WILL PLAY SOUND CLIPS.There is nothing wrong,the movie will play in DTS thereafter.

I have to say this is the best receiver I have owned.Let's say that movies that i have seen before on other recievers that I have owned, I need to see them again on the 5280. Things you never heard before will come to life suddenly. One of the tests to put through is the Eagles Hell Freezes Over. Put it in Hall mode and listen to the sound stage. Overall it is the best value on the market. The next model is the 5490 which retails for about 800$.The main difference is that it has pro-logic2.Which you really don't need! It gives you true 6.1 sound at 80 watts a channel. the 5280 has 5.1 sound at 100 watts a channel. Also the 5280 has preamp capbilities which the 5490 does not. This means it can be used a processer only with separate amps powering each channel. I would recommend this for the person who is building their first home theater.You are also able to rename each input to your liking i.e. cable input could be direct tv input and so on.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood,Sony,Technics,Aiwa {Never buy aiwa av receiver}Trust Me the worst sound processor of all.

Great for movies

Not so great for 2 channel (I am sure most buyers wont worry too much about this part)

I will not repeat what others have said. In short this receiver works well for movies. Compared to receivers from other brands at the same price, the Yamaha wins.Even in two channel....... But for me, when I switch to 2 channel mode, the sound while laid back, is still full of hash and grain, and the bass is weak. So, for 2 channel, I will recomend a seperate power (and maybe pre/power) amp.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 5140

Power, sound clarity and number of inputs.

Yamaha's famous ugly orange display, and the tiny remote.

I feel the Yamaha 5280 is one of the biggest bangs for the buck on the market today. I paid alot less with my discount but you can find this model all over for less than $800. The DTS and Dolby Digital sounds are great. Plenty of inputs, S-video, and component switching.

Similar Products Used:

Technics and Sony....if you can call those similiar

all most everything

none i can find after this amount of use

this is a really top notch reciever its a really good all rounder plenty of dsp modes. dd &dts lfe levels i like to be able to get in and change levels for each mode, the rear of this machine is pretty much fully loaded for future add ons, this machine is for anyone wether plug & play or more complexed listening only one problem i wish it had different speaker settings for each mode but for all the advantages this is not a disadvantage the rest of my system includes mains psb 4t centre psb 8c rears psb 1b s subwoofer psb subsonic 6 toshiba 5700 tele jvc 32

Similar Products Used:

kenwood harman/kardon both good recievers

Power, connections aplenty, DSP''s are best in business. Processor direct button allows you to bypass all DSP''s and hear the pure, unaltered, sound coming from your source. Price

Remote, Remote, Remote. It does everything you want it to do...just not very well.

Awesome receiver at an awesome price. Open box purchase at Best Buy. I almost felt guilty paying this little. The DSP modes are superb. I''m sorry it doesn''t have PL2 bu that would''ve cost me another $300 for a similar quality reciever. Optical and Coax digital connections are programmable to any input. Component, s-video, and composite video connections have no noticable loss of signal. I have an XBR vega... I would notice. Sound is amazing. I have klipsch RF3''s, RC3, Quintet Rears, and a KSW-15. This reciever works them all wonderfully. Plenty of power for all the speakers for superb action scenes... and incredible finesse for the slightest rustle of grass sound. Highly recommended. If you don''t need PL2 but want amazing DTS and plenty of connections. You can save a lot of money by picking up this previous year model.

Similar Products Used:

Demo''d: Sony 555es, HK-520, HK-7000, Onkyo 696.

Good Sound, easy connections, enough I/Os.

Yamaha should have a training class on using the remote

I have not owned the 555es but studies the sounds from both receivers carefully...while there may be more DSP modes and effects on the SONY, it was nothing worth paying $400 more for. The sound was comparable..actually I felt Yamaha's reproduction of the type of music I listen to (Indian classical, Smooth Jazz & New Age) was better than SONY's..it was fairly easy to connect the components, but I quickly realized that I am not doing justice to the receiver by not connecting good speakers..that's next on my shopping list.

On the whole, if you're not picky like and all you're interested is in is listening to a good reproduction of audio and video sounds, then look no further..but if you want to get involved with distortion and frequency and crossover and other similar details, then my review will be of no use.

My system includes:
Yamaha 5280
SONY 36XBR450
SONY S550 DVD
An old but good Hitachi VCR
Two AIWA speakers which I will be shortly upgrading to something better

Good luck!

Similar Products Used:

SONY 555ES

Sound Quality, Low Thd, Simplistic Front plate.

Have to turn up volume to less than 40db to get any authoritative sound.

Loved the sound quality and how natural it was. Straight stereo sounds great, but you have to turn the volume all the way to past -35db to get any authoritative sound. I suppose they use a different volume control method. Anyways it has a full load of connections , including a front optical connection which could be useful for a portable dvd or cd player, md? Setup is simple for "get it done" setup, but to get everything right u have to use the onscreen display, which requires the hookup of a rca jack. Nice features for the price, which it costs $799 but I can acquire for $425. Be nice if it came in gold thou. It is a powerful receiver with plenty of juice 110x5watts if pushed. While not one of the higher end receivers it does carry its weight.

Similar Products Used:

HTR-5230, 5240, 5250, VSX-906s, VSX-39TX, Sony 135 to 945 series, Kenwood 1090VR, Sony 555ES.

D-A converters, Very Clean power, On-Screen programming, and a large selection of sound fields

The remote... Of course! But I am getting accustomed to using it. once you figure it out, it truely can do a lot of stuff!

Absolutely love this unit! It matches up well with my Audio Source Sub and the Klipsch Quintet speakers... I was seriously looking at some Denon receivers before I heard this one. The Yamaha soundes SO much better with the Klipsch speakers. Between the D-A's and the mutiple sound fields All of my sources can sound outstanding... Even my crappy AT&T Digital (what a joke) Cable service. Yeah, there are better unit out there, but only if you wnat to pay a lot more!

Similar Products Used:

Denon 1801, Denon 3801, Pioneer VXS-D608