Yamaha RX-V1800

The Yamaha RX-V1800 is a high-end home theater receiver that uses new kinds of technologies and capabilities like HDMI, upscaling, support for high definition audio format for signals, an adaptive DRC and DSP level, and Network Receiver capabilities. The product weighs 37.5 pounds and has a width of 17.1 inches, a height of 6.7 inches and a depth of 17.3 inches. It supports radio AM and FM Radio bands and uses Digital Tuner Technology.

Features

One of the features of this product is the on-screen Graphical User Interface or most people refer to as GUI. This feature makes it easy to operate the receiver. This product is also compatible to gadgets such as iPod and Personal Computers. Another great feature of this product is Yamaha’s YPAO Sound Optimization. This feature makes the system analyze the acoustics of the room so that the speakers could be adjusted to give the best possible sound quality. The product also has HDMI Digital Upconversion that enables the product to give out better video quality. It also uses auto lip-sync compensation that monitors the delay time for the audio and video and eliminates the difference between the two.

Review Summary

Just recently Yamaha announced three new AV receivers: the RX-V1800, the RX-V3800, and the RX-Z11. The RX-V1800 is the least expensive of Yamaha’s high-end receivers. For its price range it provides many features, including four HDMI inputs, onboard Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and multiroom functions. Its key features are a 7.1 receiver at 130 watts per channel, a 4 HDMI 1.3a inputs with HDMI upconversion, XM-ready and Multiroom functionality for three zones, video upscaling to 1080p, iPod compatibility,YPAO Auto Setup with Quick Start and multi-zone custom installation support. The amplifiers in the RX-V1800 are capable to drive a complete 7.1-channel system pretty well. However the multi-zone capabilities are limited to audio only. So if you’re more interested in ultimate theater performance rather than multi-zone distribution, you can set up a 5.1-channel system and use the spare pair of the internal amps to bi-amp your front speakers. Yamaha’s "Pure Direct" mode is a plus for those who want to extract the maximum audio from an audio/video receiver. The receiver’s sound is warm and easy to listen to due to the attention that Yamaha gives to the internal signal path and the overall construction of the chassis. When set on straight-through playback of the Dolby TrueHD signal, there is nothing in the amplifier that gets in the way of the music or the feeling. There are two other audio items worth mentioning. One is the quality of sound from the external XM tuner, especially when using the Neural-THX Surround mode. Many channels, especially the XM HD Surround-encoded channels sound quite good. The second thing is the RX-V1800’s Compressed Music Enhancer. Even though the RX-V1800 isn’t perfect its overall performance is superb. It has almost everything with the highest levels of sound and video quality and convenience for total home theater enjoyment.