Excellent with my JBL ND-310 speakers. It is clear and clean.

Ugly remote.

I got a good deal from Sears because they matched the internet price. As a beginner, I am completely satisfied with the performance of this receiver and of course with a set of my JBL ND-310 speakers. I use it pretty much for music and Karaoke. I got a Panasonic Karaoke VCD player hooked up with this receiver. I feel like I am in concert everytime when my family sing karaoke. The music certainly feels up our entire living room.

I will soon get my center channel, sub and a pair of rear speakers to be able to enjoy the 6.1 channels for movie.
I would strongly recommend this receiver.

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This is my first receiver

this is a a/v receiver. do not confuse it with a stereo audio receiver. if you enjoy accurate steophonics through two large speakers get a stereo receiver. the low frequency sounds are not routed to the main speakers even in normal stereo mode with no effects. the sound is loud and clear but simply lacks bass when used in a two speaker stereo manner.

sears matched the lowest price I could find on the internet. draw back is that you do have to pay tax at sears and whatever shipping charge the internet company was going to charge.

set up easily with my infinity hts-20 speakers. connected a toshiba 3205 dvd player opticaly. to save on an additional s-video cable I connected the dvd player directly to my tv. otherwise you have to take s-video cables from both the dvd player and the tv to the reveiver. cables are around $40.
set up features built into the receiver make it simple. this was my first experience and it was simple and fun to adjust levels, delays and stuff. don't be intimidated by the process, but DO IT. once my system was set up properly i could not beleive my ears. the "hell" seen in the Gladiator never sounded like this befor. literaly the room was rumbling and the sound from the tiny infinity surrounds was UNBELEIVABLE.

i highly reccomend this receiver and the HTS-20 speakers. the speaker system comes with a BU-120 sub. 12"-150 watts. I was leary because of the price of some other subs, but not any more. i over paid for the HTS-20 system ($729.00) but i did not want to wait for mail order.

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sony db series

Great sound and looks. Plenty of connections. Lots of Digital soundfields, very flexible

Remote is awful

Very good reciever for the price. On screen display is interesting ans easy to use. The supplied remote sucks, so I might buy a smart remote for everything. Casing looks high tech and Yamaha has a history of good reliability. I only wish it had true DTS 6.1 decoding, not the fake matrix 6.1, otherwise a great reciever!

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First Yamaha, used to use a Sony and a Pioneer

Bascially for me it was between Onkyo TXDS-696, Yamaha RX-V800, and the THR-5280 but selected 5280 based on features vs price. No regrets. Excellent sound on DTS ES (Gladiator - Hell Unleashed) with Polk Audio RM6600 and PSW350.

Learning Remote, however I was expecting much worst.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU..I would like to thank all who posted comments about buying from ExpressCameras.com. I almost made the mistake of buying from them when I saw them on Pricescan.com. I then found Pricegrabber.com and found out it would have been a Big Mistake. Hopefully others will follow and put these guys out of business.

DSP modes, # of inputs, impedance selector

Remote

I have been searching for a new receiver that contained an 4 ohm impedance switch for awhile now. My 3 year old Sony receiver had this feature but it was only Dolby Digital ready. I stumbled upon the Yamaha HTR-5280 and I absolutely in love with it. I own a pair of 4 ohm Cerwin Vega RE30s which hit a lot harder with the Yamaha. Also, the rock concert DSP mode is by far superior to the rock concert mode on my old Sony. The remote, in my opinion, is useless. I plan on purchasing a universal remote with a touch LCD screen shortly. The number of optical inputs is just incredible when you first lay eyes on the back panel. No more Sony receivers for me......Yamaha is definately the way to go.

awsome power, tons of inputs, on screen menu, looks great

Could have a better remote (what do i care i use a Marantz RC2000mk2 with RF-2 adapter)They fixed that with the new model, the HTR-5490

This is the hub of my system and it dose it's job well, it has all the power i need to drive my system, i love all of the fine tuning that i can do with the handy on screen menu, it has enough inputs for anything that i can think of, i use a Toshiba sd-4250 DVD player and the two really sing, You can't go wrong with Yamaha recievers!

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Yamaha HTR-5250

everything

remote,really bad remote

just about everything you want from a -a.v receiver. good bass,great output,for the price i paid for it you cant beat it.the guy down below named mark,i think he has #hit in his ears. haa-haa mark your nothing but a low life.

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sony de-945--pioneer elite 35tx

Excellent 5.1 decoding and playback

No prologic II. Only phantom center rear.

When I ran across this display model at Sears a few weeks ago for only $320, I had to buy it. If I didn't like it I could always get rid of it on Ebay and get my money back out of it. Well, it's staying in my audio rack. Even though it does not have the white lettering, I will keep it. As you can tell, I have been a little eliteist in the past. But HTR-5280 and the RX-V800 are the same models and you can't tell what color of letters are on it when it is behind class in my entertainment center. Oh well, let's get on to how this thing performs.

Performance:
Now this isn't on par with seperates, but it is on par with 90% of the receivers on the market. When you consider I paid only $320, it is the dollar for dollar heavyweight champ of the world! Well, at least middleweight. I was a little concerned that Yamaha had exaggerated the power ratings. 100x5 - 100 watts per channel driven in pairs. I didn't think it would be any more powerful than my RX-V795a at 85x5. I was mistaken. You can notice a difference! This unit's amplifier section is superior to the RX-V795a. The sound is definately Yamaha. Very detailed and clean at moderate levels. Thin and a little less tight at higher volumes. It may not play as loud as some, but it is much more refined and it does not get too loose at high volumes.
The soundfields are excellent, if you are into that. The Cinema DSP fields are excellent for providing a little airyness to old movies or cable/satellite movies. It's fun. The Cinema DSP fields do not have the overabundance of reverb like many others have. 5-channel stereo! Thank you! This is awesome! All DSPs have numerous adjustments available for you to adjust. Yamaha is the king of recreating likelike sound fields that do not overpower you with reverb. No other manufacture can compare in this regard.

Flexibility/Set-up:
Not as extensive as the most expensive, but it does provide sufficient optical digital inputs, as well as S-Video connecitions. It even has two component video inputs.

System:
Yamaha Receiver HTR-5280
Yamaha CD Player CDC-575
Proscan DVD Player 8680z
Proscan VCR 73
RCA DSS (dd 5.1)
Sony 53" Television
Paradigm 7seMkIII
Paradigm CC-300
Paradigm ADP-150
Paradigm PS-1000
Sony AV2100 LCD remote control
Monster, IXOS, Street wires, Audiostream cables and speaker wires

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Yamaha RX-V795a, Kenwood

Outputs, DD, DTS, DSP

Tuner, Sound, Look

I've always owned Yamaha receivers so the 5280 was a disappointment. My old 902 sounded better than this in 2 channel. The 5280 sounds listless, almost too laid back, and so bright it is nearly harsh. I listen to lots of radio, and the tuner was lacking. Again, my older Yamahas beat the 5280 in this department using the same FM antenna setup. I went back to J+R and confirmed that previous Yamaha receivers had more sensitive tuners giving better radio reception with clearer sound. I have to also wonder why Yamaha got rid of the tuning meter which is more valuable than a volume scale. I thought 5 channel stereo sounded strong but who wants to listen to that all day? I wanted to upgrade to DD and DTS, and I think this and DSP is where the 5280 shines. There is a great variety of inputs, probably the best array of any receiver in its price range. The remote was moderately confusing, but not as bad as I've read here. And the display, even with the black panel door still looked cluttered. This is an average product, not up to Yamaha's past standards. I didn't consider this a worthwhile upgrade so I returned it after about a week and upgraded to an Onkyo TX-DS696 which is considerably better than the 5280 for my purposes (although it did cost about $80 more). If you want to use the 5280 primarily for DD, DTS, and DSP, and as the a/v hub of your video and audio toys, the Yamaha would probably be the way to go. If you also want to listen to 2 channel and like using the tuner, the Yamaha will disappoint.

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Older Yamaha Receivers, Onkyo

Lots of inputs

Developed constant level noise in right front channel independent of input or volume control setting.
Keeps video inputs source type competely seperate.

After having this reciever for 7 weeks, it developed a very loud scratchy noise in the right front channel. The noise was not affected by input source or volume control setting. Best Buy would not repair the unit so I had to take it to an authorized Yamaha warranty shop. After six weeks, I got it back. They replace a slew of parts WITHOUT fixing the problem.
I don't like the fact that the video inputs: composite, s-video or seperate are kept seperate all the way though. I was hoping that if I feed the seperate output from my DVD player in, it would provide that signal on any or all of the output jacks (composite, s-video, or seperate). This just means I have to have a ton of cabling to use the various input modes. And even then my TV or VCR may not have access to the video signal if it lacks the appropriate video input jacks.

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Pioneer 503