ADDITION TO PREVIOUS REVIEW: I figured out how to assign the DVD function to the coaxial input. Thanks to all that showed me how! I guess it helps to read the manual every now and then to figure out how to do things!

Power / Channel, Latest surround standards, Quality.

No THX, Poor user guide, difficult user interface, Bulky housing (Way too deep to fit into anything)

There are many receivers on the market with a good sound.
Yamaha has always been on the forefront in digital audio manipulation for consumers. The choice seemed to be easy to me. But ...

The Yamaha user interface is absolutely stupid - No, don't get me wrong I can handle it - But ; a lot of people can't be bothered to read a 40 pager manual to get this thing started.

User interfaces should be intuitive. Yamaha needs to improve this. Why is there no RS232 port to connect to a laptop with a software GUI?

The receiver sounds great with lots of power - 78watts on 8ohm per channel (not the claimed 100watts...)

The overall sound profile is very clean sounding. Don't expect any miracles - Digital processing does not make a bad recording any better. Garbage in / garbage out.

Similar Products Used:

none

Excellent sounding amplifiers with no sonic grain. Super flexibility

I recently was asked to help a good friend buy a new stereo / home theater setup and set out first to buy a good receiver that will hold up to not only the dynamic demands of home theater, but be acceptable to pretty discerning ears on the music side. Initially, we looked at and auditioned receivers from Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo with a price target of under $600. These manufacturers were selected based upon several reviews I have read and some research into the makeup of their receivers at the mid to high end of their lines. The models that were narrowed to were the Denon AVR-2801, Onkyo TX-575X, and the Yamaha RXV-800.

The baseline criteria that was used in auditioning and selection were:

- High quality Dolby Digital and DTS decoding.
- High quality / low noise / smooth yet dynamic sound from the amplifiers.
- Spatial decoding capabilities beyond basic DD and DTS, i.e. for watching normal stereo TV, watching DVD concerts, CD music listening.
- Quality of construction.
- Capabilities of the remote.
- Ease of use

All, at their discounted prices, were within $15 of each other at approximately $500.

First off, all are great choices at the $500 discounted price point. The main, and little known reason is in the quality of the power supplies / output amplifiers at this price point, and not below, for all 3 manufacturers. Many people look at lower priced receivers and say, " The specs are the same, why pay more?" But this is a mistake if you do anything more than listen to background music or watch movies at dentist waiting room levels. The positive effect on the clean dynamic, natural sound is a very noticeable difference. In my strong opinion, the difference is well worth the small amount of extra $$$ if you are going to live with a receiver for many years in the center of your audio and video entertainment. You want something that does not cause fatigue and will actually cause you to want to listen or watch more movies you really need to consider the quality of the power supplies and output amplifiers. The main reason you pay more is a much beefier power supply and better output devices on the amplifiers. You can tell immediately just by lifting a receiver. A better power supply is much heavier due to much higher quality power transformers and more filtering capacitance (which also leads to MUCH more powerful bass and cleaner dynamics).

Between the 3 choices, all were very good on both music and movies, and not radically different in terms of sound, bass extension, punch, and general ability to decode multi-channel Dolby Digital or DTS. However, after some extended auditioning with a good cross-section of material, I found the Yamaha to be a bit smoother sounding without loss of detail, dynamics or punch, and less fatiguing in listening to music, and better in terms of surround sound decoding and flexibility. Some good tests are the Steely Dan DVD in DTS and Fleetwood Mac "The Dance" DVD in Dolby Digital at "reference" levels. The ability of the Yamaha to keep things clean and differentiated with a ton of detail even with high bass dynamics was excellent. Watching and listening to Fleetwood Mac at high levels (with a good, non-boomy subwoofer, and with some tweaking of the surround sound to add a bit more hall ambience was almost like being there. High quality concert videos are a really good test as you are more familiar with what live music perhaps should sound like. The more you end up tapping your toe or grooving to the performance, the better the conveyance of the performance. The best auditioning DVD's I have found for this are Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" (check out the "Jack of Speed" cut), Fleetwood Mac "The Dance" (open cut plus several others are a knock out), Tony Bennet "MTV Unplugged" (1st cut), VH1 Diva's Live with Shania Twain, Celine Dion, others. Celine's live performance of "My Heart Will Go On" from The Titanic will move you like you may not have been moved before, even if you are not a Celine Dion fan. The bass on this cut is incredible. Wow.

Anyway, here's how my ratings broke down:

Quality of construction: Yamaha
Amplifier : Yamaha / Denon
DSP Decoding, movies: Yamaha / Denon
DSP Spatial, music: Yamaha (hands down)
Ergonomics: Denon
Remote: Denon / Onkyo
Flexibility : Yamaha
Ease of use: Denon

The choice ended up being the Yamaha, but it was not an easy choice.

The Yamaha as unpacked is very well built and hefty. Does not feel cheap out of the box like so many receivers these days. The ergonomics are very clean with a concealed panel that hides all the manual controls except for the master volume control. Setup was very straightforward with a clean rear panel layout and good speaker connectors. Basic control of the unit is very straightforward with a well thought out remote that is MUCH better than the remotes on Yamaha's lower priced receivers. It is a universal learning remote that is almost as good as the Home Theater Master SL-9000 I have. Getting to a point where you can watch DVD's and listen to stereo music was easy, but this is where perhaps some of the minuses begin.

One thing to keep in mind is that I am a pretty advanced "technoid" and can figure things out with electronics as quick as anyone. Well, the Yamaha was a unique challenge for me to try to squeeze more performance out of the setup. It is a double-edged sword of sorts. The capabilities and intelligence programming into this receiver is awesome, but it might take a special course at the local community college for the average person to figure it out. It is super flexible, but almost ridiculously complex to understand, even with the in depth manual provided. The DSP spatial controls are virtually limitless enabling one to get VERY realistic and seamless customization of surround sound in any room. Also, there are some pretty sophisticated bass equalization and test tones that are very effective in adjusting and determining location of your subwoofer. Most people are not aware of how much better bass you can get with a bit of tweaking, and the Yamaha delivers it better than pretty much anything I have seen. Being a technoid, I was in nirvana ... but could not help pity the average person struggling with this. I think the average person would / should leave it to someone who really knows what they are doing, or perhaps consider another receiver.

In the end, I felt that the RXV-800 receiver is a better performing and even better sounding receiver than my RXV-2092 that I purchased 3 years ago as Yamaha's top of the line receiver ... at 1/2 the price !!! Cleaner sound, much improved DSP decoding / spatial performance, DTS decoding. Yamaha really pays special attention to the quality of its amplifiers and the ability to deliver non-fatiguing sound for both music and movies. Further, the DSP spatial capabilities are unparalleled at this price point, and if tweaked, can really transport you to the theater or concert venue to a truly amazing extent.

Denon perhaps has a better reputation than Yamaha, but I think you have to really look closely under the hood to determine if it is best for you. Either is a strong choice. I would recommend the Denon if you are intimidated by a lot of options / capability of setup. If you are a technoid like me and like to tweak, the Yamaha is the way to go. Keep in mind my rating is biased by this fact about myself. Others might give this receiver lower marks because of this.

high power output comparing with those Amp. with similar price. Perform good in both playing movie or listening music.

For an Amp. at price $420, its performance is really good. Performent is excellent in playing movie, good in listening music. Very low THD and high power output comparing with other Amp. with similar price.

S video and plenty of I/0, great on screen info and adjustments

none

Ive had Adcom , Sony, Jvc..etc But Yamaha out did them selfs.They went all out and made one of the best sounding Av amp ever. There back ground on DSP has made movies enjoyable to stay at home and watch. This unit does everthing. It sounds great and all of the Movie modes works with not over down like some , well most of the Av receivers do. The sony is the worse on that part.The pre-amp is very quiet and no bleed thru either.DTS and DOLBY DIGITAL work with out strane......Thats all ive got to say about this unit "ITS GREAT "for the money and value.If the ratings could go higher i would make 10+

Similar Products Used:

Sony de str845

Dolby Digital and DTS decoding. 6.1 Phantom

for music sounds muddy and dull

I know for HT Yamaha is one of the best but for serious music this stuff not as good as my Integrated Amp.

Excellent 5channel music, clear sound, lots of inputs overall VERY impressive

Not really. I even like the remote, though read comments below.

I am just an amateur not a pro. Before buying HTR-5280 (which is exactly the same as RX-V800) I read all the reviews on this board.
This receiver is perfect in its price range for listening
to the music, I like different music-dsp modes, 5channel stereo is amazing.
My only problem so far is: When watching movies if I switch to 5channels stereo sound - the sound is EXCELLENT and RICH ..I feel like I am in a movie theater.. BUT if I switch back to dolby/dsp decoding the sound decreases around 30% in front/center and almost not present in rears. I tried different settings for speakers.
I am going to try other speakers too to make sure it is not because my fronts are too powerful and rears and center are not matching them, but so far - I only own this thing for 3 days- I am not impressed with center/rear channels amplification for movies sound at all. Could anyone advise me on center channel and rear speakers? I would really appreciate your comments, especially if you are using same receiver.

My config right now:
Receiver RXV-800 (HTR-5280)
Front Speakers - DCM 10A (Excellent for bass)
Center Speaker - DCM 6M
Rears - Sony 100H (cheap ones)

Very good base response

The remote

For the price the sound quality and features are awesome.
The difference between my previous amp (Sony) and this one is unbelievable. I really had no idea how bad my Sony sounded or may be this amp just sounds that good. I use the main speaker outs and run them through a tube power amp and into 15" JBL pro speakers. The detail this amp has revealed in the base is amasing. If your looking for a home theater amp you must check out the Yamaha RX series.

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Sony GS8ES

Good connections, DD + DTS

remote before you learn it, no 6.1 output to rear center

I am very happy with the sounfields, and dts + dd sounds, but i can´t understand the 6.1. matrix, is it any good. In 2 channel listening it dosen´t sound as good as my old amp (DSP-A780), maybe it it inside my head??
Anyway i am very happy with this receiver.

Similar Products Used:

DSP-A780

home theater performance, more than sufficient stereo performance, flexibility, solid construction

remote could be better (then again, I like the slim profile)

I thought I should wait a while longer before I write my review, but these jokers posting below clearly have no clue when it comes to this product.

Budi/Sim/Andrew (unless someone diagnosed you as schizophrenic, yes, you are all the same person): let's see now, only one rating of 1/1 since this model was introduced in November, and now we suddenly get THREE 1/1 reviews in a single week? And all written in the same grammar-impaired prose ... HMMMM! You're not fooling anyone. If you really don't like the product, spell out the reasons why and let it stand on its own merits. Masquerading as three people to try and drive down the average is pretty weak. Oh, and if you knew anything about this model, you would know that it does not come with Burr-Brown DACs.

Andrey K: trading an RX-V800 for a Bose Lifestyle 30? Hey, it's your money and you're more than welcome to waste it however you want. Had you ever stopped to consider that maybe it was those DCM speakers that impaired the sound of your system? That Lifestyle system may sound like clarity to you, but try out the Yamaha with any quality speaker (B&W, Dynaudio, PSB, Paradigm, Energy, Infinity, Polk, Klipsch, etc.) and you'll find that that old phrase "no highs, no lows, must be Bose" rings truer than ever. If you still have time to return that system, I encourage you to do so and start over, you'll be far happier in the long run.

Now about the RX-V800 - I love it! I think this system flat out destroys with both music and home theater. The sound is very dynamic without being overpowering. It handles all of the formats I use and can easily expand as I add to my system. It's not as good as separates, but at $600 I can't think of any receiver that can even come close to the performance, flexibility, and quality that this model has. After I live with it for a few more months, I will write a more detailed review. For now, I'm very impressed with what Yamaha has produced.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR 2801, 3801, Onkyo, Marantz