ljones

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $640.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
Great sound and DSP fields.

Weaknesses:
Remote Control

Similar Products Used:
Denon AVR 3803

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Price Paid:  $525.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
This unit is a 5.1 channel AV receiver and will be reviewed as such. I'm not going to ding it because it doesn't handle 6.1/7.1 or the like. If 6.1 or 7.1 is important to you, then do not consider purchasing a 5.1 unit of any make or model at any price! If you don't yet know what you need in terms of 5.1/6.1/7.1, then I suggest finding some of the excellent home theater guides on the net and reading up a bit. They have wonderful info. Also, other than the required response I have to provide for value, I wish to avoid attempting to decide value in the review. My job is to review performance, capabilities, build quality etc. You can check current pricing and decide for yourself the reletive value. Okay, that being said let's get to the review! Amplification: Great unit. Low noise floor. Very clean sound. Almost no coloration of sound, to the point that I think some people not used to such quality might perceive it as "flat" sounding. Make no mistake though, the unit has a good power supply and amp stage, and can dynamically deliver very stong current when called upon to do so. Even so though, I use a powerful Crown amp to power my 2 main speakers. Fortunately the Yamaha HTR-5280 has preamp outs for any/all the channles so it's easy to accomodate this. I'm a bit of a glutton for amp power, but most I think will find the 100 watts per channel of the HTR sufficient. I think I am qualified to say this because I did run purely off the HTR for some time. Only reason I added an external amp was because I just feel comforted knowing I have gross amounts of headroom when I'm doing my old fashioned 2 channel thing. Inputs & outputs: Lots of them! Analog, digital coax, digital optical. Really nice feature is that the unit can be configured to pair up the digital jacks with whatever source is desired. The same goes for the component video inputs. Video signal cross conversion is not done in this unit. That means for example that something coming in on s-video will not route out to the VCR on composite. The easy solution here is to make any of your composite only devices into s-video devices using inexpensive and effective adapters. Part # 180-141 found at www.partsexpress.com is one such product (which I use to advantage). One nice thing is that it has a phono input. These days many people do not care about this, but if you do, it is getting harder to find this on equipment. It will save you the expense of a dedicated phono preamp box. Tuner section: Functional, but not up to what the tuner section in my old NAD 1700 preamp could pull off. Then again, not much out there ever was up to that. Still, performance was way less using the same dipole antenna that I used on the NAD. I suspect that as radio becomess less important to consumers, that modern equipment might start to cut corners and cost in that dept. I just can't say because I've had only the NAD to compare to (which I still use just for it's tuner). Build quality: Pretty darn decent. It's not mil-spec and field ready but on the better end as concerns home equipment. Sheet metal all around with a thick metal plate for the front. Simple placement of controls with additional buttons and inmputs hidden behind a metal door on front. One thing I wish it had but that most people these days won't give a rip about... I wish it had a tape monitor loop (or external processing loop). I would love to use my 14 band EQ again but am unable to. I'm forced to rely on the simple bass bost button and the parametric tone controls (1 each) for bass and treble. The remote: Not as bad as some gripe about here but yes it leaves something to be desired. No back lighting, just glow in the dark on some buttons. Like why does anyone do that? The glow fades after a few minutes so I find it useless. Turning the bright lights on every few minutes to freshen the glow capabilities is not my idea of a solution. Anyway. Remote can effectively control virtually all function of the HTR-5280. As for controling your other devices though, there are a few problems. Yes, it is a learning remote but "teaching" it can be tough. Even being very careful it often took many tries to get it to learn certain funtions from some other remotes. Also, there just aren't quite as many buttons as you might like to be able to handle some of the extra features of some devices. Bottom line, handles the HTR gereat but only is good for basic controls on other devices. I therefore do not count it as a weekness, but certainly consider it a strength of this unit either. DSP: I find the DSP in this unit to be excellent. Far cry from some of the Sony units I have heard generating loads of hiss. Acuracy is great with no noticeable noise or distortion. I am in agreement with most of the other reviewers comments on the superbness of this units DSP.

Strengths:
Quality amplification. Numerous and flexible inputs/outputs. Fabulous digital signal processing. Phono input, yeah!

Weaknesses:
- No monitoring/processing loop. - No cross conversion on video signals. Not a problem if using solution mentioned in review body.

Similar Products Used:
NAD 1700 preamp NAD 2400 power envelope amp Crown CE-1000 amp

Price Paid:  $399.00 from best buy

Summary:
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.

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

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

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

Price Paid:  $199.00 from best buy

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
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.

Weaknesses:
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.

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood,Sony,Technics,Aiwa {Never buy aiwa a\v receiver}Trust Me the worst sound processor of all.

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
Great for movies

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

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha 5140