Yamaha RX-V3800 Receiver

What we have here is the most significant affordable receiver to be released in the last 10 years. Big statement but I'm looking at it as a consumer as well as a retailer. I love my toys and I'm generally the first person to get hold of new products, take them home and test them in a genuine domestic environment so I can compare to other pieces of equipment of the ilk. The RX-V3800 embodies all of the major benefits incorporated into the Yamaha receiver range over the years. The audio output has strong ties to the now defunct RX-V4600 which, at it's release, was one of the best sounding A/V receivers on the market under $5000. Running the RX-V3800 with my Paradigm Studio 60's and UltaCube 10 Subwoofer, the stereo reproduction and imaging was almost as good as the Cambridge Audio 840A stereo amplifier I had at home for testing. That's a big call as the 840A sells for $2200 and is very highly regarded in (dare I say it) Audiophile circles. No longer can critics claim Yamaha has a "harsh" or "clinical" sound.

Before I rabbit on about the sonics however, we'll get the boring technical bits over with - only the bits that differentiate it from most other A/V receivers however as I'm not really a spec. person, I'm more interested in how a unit sounds in the real world and how the video circuitry improves (or not) over the original source. Power output is stated as 140 Watts RMS X 7 - this is an "in your dreams" rating of course as when more than one channel is driven simultaneously, it drops to around 110 Watts for two channels and 85 Watts when all 7 are blasting. All inconsequential unless you have speakers of less than 84 dB (1 Watt/ 1 metre) in which case you should be reading Stereophile Magazine and not trolling this web site. The most power you are ever likely to call upon, even with high dynamics, is 10 Watts RMS. The rest is there for the explosion at the start of Terminator 3. Supported audio formats include Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio (confused yet? - I sure am) The HDMI section has four inputs, one output and is compatible with HDMI 1.3a, refresh rates are 120Hz/100Hz and 24Hz (that's to sync with the latest Blu-ray discs which are mastered at 24 frames per second)

There's a LAN input for music streaming from your PC either from the hard drive or internet radio (fun). The USB input allows music from your flash drive or USB portable audio player and there's an iPod dock - normally an option but as a promotion, Yamaha are supplying it free of charge. I'm not sure why you'd run an iPod however unless it's just for party or background music. Even ripping at 320 kbs the sound, during my test, was not good enough to sit back and listen to the music, you're always aware of a harshness due to the compression. The video output of the gen 5 iPods doesn't work either thanks to Apples paranoiac approach to copy protection (don't blame yammie for that one) - earlier generation video iPods will stream their video content however. Then there's the Compressed Music Enhancer circuit, said to compensate for the shitty sound from the iPod or MP3 Players - yeh, sure it will - maybe next century. There are 22 DSP Program modes from "Hall in Munich" to "Roleplaying Game" - each one more useless than the other.

There's the YPAO automatic set up system via the supplied microphone which is absolutely bloody useless, unless you have no hearing or are so technically inept that you really shouldn't be buying a product this advanced. Analogue video signals of 480i/480p or 576i/576p (Australian TV standard) can be up converted to 1080p. Don't fall into the trap of thinking your DVD's or HD TV will look better as most DVD players already upscale or process the video output and you can't upscale a processed signal (unless you downscale or deinterlace blah blah). The most useful aspect of this feature is if you have Foxtel, the resultant up conversion and up scaling can make an improvement in picture quality of up to 20%. The processing on the 3800 appears to be an improvement over the RX-V2700 (albeit small) , which in turn was light years ahead of Yamaha's first up scaling effort in the RX-V2600.

After trolling the DTV Forum this morning, I noticed several people saying that they didn't see a difference when playing Foxtel via the 3800. Before I did anything else, I went back home and tried it again, first running component from the Fox Box directly into the TV then via the 3800. On Box Office, there was bugger all difference but as the source quality degenerated (on channels such as History and Discovery) there was a significant improvement in picture quality so I stand by my previous paragraph. My panels were a 55" Fujitsu Plasma and a 40" Samsung/Sony LCD, both were used in the interests of fair comparative objectivity.

Enough of this drivel, we're here to test drive the beast.

My initial testing was done sitting in my favourite chair, forming an equilateral triangle with the two Paradigm Studio 60's and placing the receiver in Direct mode (that cuts out all the video processing and other extraneous circuitry). Using the new Cambridge Audio 540D V2 as a source (yes, yes, I know it's not a dedicated CD Player but it does use Crystal DAC's for a bloody good sound) I played my reference test discs, Sheffield Labs, Lincoln Mayorga and Amanda McBroom's "Growing up in Hollywood Town" and Rebecca Pidgeon's "Retrospective". Track 5 (Dusk) on the Sheffield Lab's disc has a triangle tinkle that really sorts the men from the boys, on cheaper A/V amps (notably the cheaper Sony and Pioneers) it sounds like a bicycle bell gone feral, on the more lay back amps (Denon/Marantz) it sounds lazy, on the RX-V3800, it's just there in the room with you. Rebecca Pidgeon's lilting vocals on Primitive Man (track 7) show how well a combination of high quality audio equipment can really stir the emotions, the singer was actually singing to ME standing about 2 metres in front of my ugly face. It was almost an ethereal experience, hearing the breathing and intonations from audio that I'd normally associate with a high quality dedicated stereo amplifier. That test was done using analogue cables - hence utilizing the DVD players internal DAC, I then hooked it up with a digital optical cable to check out the Yamaha's own DAC's, surprisingly, I thought the result was slightly better. This was a big plus for the Yammie in that one could use a relatively inexpensive DVD player for music and not worry about the audio being crappy - just use the digital connection and let the Yammies DAC's do all the work.

Just as an aside, I had an RX-V1800 handy so I swapped receivers for a quick comparison. Although the RX-V1800 gives a well balanced and musical performance, it just wasn't as dynamic nor as fat in the mid range as the 3800. I'd put the 3800 at around 10% - 20% improvement on music over the $500 cheaper 1800. Now for the surround sound bit. My set up disc, The Shadows - The Final Tour, was as good as I've ever heard after playing around with the levels. shadows I was using Paradigm Studio 60 mains, CC590 Centre, Studio 20 surrounds and UltraCube 10 subwoofer. Yes folks, good old 5.1 for me (and until my arsehole grows an ear or two, that's how it'll remain). The new GUI was easy to access and change levels on the fly until I was happy with the mix. The Shadows isn't my definitive test, only my ideal set up disc. The actual test was performed using Elvis Costello and the Attractions Live in Memphis Elvis Costello Imposters The sound mix on this is extraordinary and complex, the subtle surround and variation in dynamics offering a great way to judge the ability of an amp to define and clarify each sonic nuance. It's easy to bullshit your way through a review and quote things like "32 minutes into the second scene gave a clarity to the train running through he station like I've never heard" but I find reviewers who use that type of hyperbole have no real clue as to what makes a good surround sound Amp/Decoder. To test the definition and presence of each channel, there's nothing to beat a good musical interlude. The RX-V3800 scored extremely well in this test with Elvis and his sidekicks giving as good an account of themselves as I've heard, given the limitations of the speakers and room characteristics. For testing the dynamics of the amp, there's absolutely nothing to beat the atomic explosion at the start of Terminator 3, I've destroyed more speakers with that 30 seconds of expanding air than any other part of any movie. Fortunately for my Paradigms, the 3800 was able to give out prodigious amounts of clean "grunt" without frying the speaker coils (I played it very loud).

One very strange manifestation was that, having just changed from the older RX-V2700, I noticed an increased clarity and presence from the centre speaker. So much so that I took the trouble of replacing the 3800 with the 2700 just to ensure my ears weren't full of wax the last time I listened. Sure enough, after checking the levels with a sound pressure meter, the 2700 sounded just fine but when replaced once more with the 3800 the vocals just sprung out at me. There's no reason for this as I can't find any literature relating to an upgrade in audio processing (this was DTS) and I wasn't using any of the parametric EQ onboard. I just call it as I see it (or hear it in this case). So what's the rub here? The RX-V3800 will do justice to any mid to high end speaker set up and display panel. It's by far the best A/V receiver Yamaha have ever released (the RX-Z9 included as the 3800 is more musical). I'm sure the RX-Z11 will be better when released next February but I'm not sure how much better it could get. It's very hard to give a definitive comparison with other brands such as Denon, Onkyo and Marantz (the only real world competitors) but I can say that, personally, I prefer the sound of the Yammie to those others, and remember, it is only a personal opinion and when used with aggressive speakers such as Klipsh or JM Labs, the other brands may well sound better. For the record, I also tried the 3800 in store with Mission Elegante's, KEF iQ9's and B&W 604's - all sounded as good as I've heard them with any A/V amp/receiver.

Me? I'm sticking to my Yamaha / Paradigm combination.