A short stack of Jacksons: four hundred dollars, more or less. Used to be a lot of money. Today, it’ll buy one piece of chrome for your Hog, a box of average Cubans, or a decadent dinner for two in New York City. On the other hand, you might use a similar sum to buy an impressively powerful and flexible A/V receiver, setting the foundations for a serious home theater.
This is a hot bracket these days, and receiver makers are leaving no stones unturned in their quest to offer you the best bang for the buck. There are big ones, little ones, slim ones, and tall ones, but all have a few things in common: 1) plenty of power for a surround sound system with six or seven main speakers — plus a powered subwoofer; 2) decoding for state-of-the-art Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES movie soundtracks; 3) surround-processing options like Dolby Pro Logic II (DPL II), DPL IIx, and DTS Neo:6 for 5.1- to 7.1-channel playback of stereo music and of movie soundtracks or TV broadcasts using the older Dolby Surround system; and 4) a remote control that can operate all of your A/V components. Of course, to stand out from the pack each receiver also offers one or two cool features as well.
To find out just what you can get for around 400 real-world dollars in today’s A/V receiver lineups, I used and bench-tested three of the latest models — JVC’s RX-8040 ($450), Sony’s STR-DE897 ($400), and Yamaha’s RX-V750 ($650). Those are the list prices, which means they can be had for substantially less at most A/V dealers or online.
JVC RX-8040
The svelte form of JVC’s RX-8040 hides a couple of secrets. One is the smooth, drop-down door that conceals a full set of front-panel convenience inputs — great for quick camcorder hookups — including an optical digital audio input for jacking in your portables. (In fact, all three receivers have front-panel digital audio inputs, which constitutes a bona fidetrend.) A small antenna poking up from the rear betrays the JVC’s other secret: a remote-control system that works on both infrared (IR) and radio-frequency (RF) signals. The beauty of RF control is that you don’t have to aim the handset directly at the receiver or other components to operate them (more on this later).
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Other than its defeatable Compression Compensative Converter, which converts all incoming digital audio signals to a 196-kHz/24-bit format, the JVC is burdened with few oddball extras. Setup was straightforward, though the receiver lacks any onscreen displays or menus, which means basic settings are made via the front-panel display. Assigning the two component-video and five digital audio inputs to your specific source components is a bit restrictive: you have to scroll through a long list of “this-plus-this, but - not - that” options, which might not in clude every combination you’d like. Nor was I thrilled to discover that only one of the digital audio inputs is coaxial, which could be a deal-breaker if you want to connect more than one component that has only a coaxial audio output.
Once everything was set up, I found the JVC pleasant and straightforward to use — in a word, likable. The remote lays out the primary receiver functions in clear and accessible fashion, and operation is simple because JVC opted to include only basic source-component controls like play/pause/ skip, TV volume and channel up/down, and so on. And, of course, thanks to its RF capability, I could aim the remote in any direction (or none in particular) and still get exactly the results I intended. There’s an IR blaster so that when you send commands for your other components to the receiver by radio, it sends out a strong enough infrared signal to cover your component stack. When I carried the remote to another room to operate a Zone 2 system connected to the receiver, JVC’s claim of a 50-foot RF range proved to be pretty accurate.
MOVIE PERFORMANCE The RX-8040 cranked out ample power for movie (and music) listening and sounded great in every mode. Cueing up the biggest battle sequences from the demanding and consummately produced Master and Commander DVD at movie-theater volumes yielded clean, dynamic, theaterlike sound. At the other extreme, listening at very low volume in the JVC’s Midnight mode was still satisfying, because the softest passages were boosted enough for movie dialogue to be intelligible without waking the baby. And it works on all digital input signals, not just Dolby Digital.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE I was highly impressed by the quality of the RX-8040’s DPL IIx 7.1-channel playback of stereo sources, such as Music Choice on digital cable. (DPL IIx’s advance over DPL II is that it can derive a back surround channel from two- and four-channel sources, giving them as full a sound field as you get from Dolby Digital EX or DTS-ES soundtracks — assuming that you have a 6.1- or 7.1-channel speaker setup.) I was hooked by a hypnotic performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. I don’t know how much compression Music Choice’s Classical Masterpieces channel uses, but 6.1-channel playback in the JVC’s DPL IIx Music mode was magical.
At extreme volumes in surround playback, the receiver began to sound slightly metallic, signaling the onset of amplifier clipping. But that was only with superclean music productions like In Time: The Best of R.E.M. on multichannel DVD-Audio. (In fairness, the same thing happened, plus or minus a decibel or two, with the other two receivers.)
The JVC has a handful of music surround modes using digital signal processing (DSP) to simulate the ambience of different kinds of performing/listening spaces: Hall 1 and 2, Theater 1 and 2, Pavilion, and so on. All of these DSP modes added some artificial reverberation in all channels, and though the ambience effects were more restrained than in some other receivers’ DSP modes — the Sony’s, for example — the results were nothing special.
The same could be said for the receiver’s five-band graphic equalizer, which boosts or cuts only the front left/right channels. A couple of operational quirks bugged me, too, like the user adjustments for DPL IIx (and DTS Neo: 6) being accessible only from the front panel, not the remote, which means you can’t really fine-tune things like center width from the listening position. I guess JVC’s engineers wanted to keep the remote control simple to use and felt this was a reasonable compromise. Geeks like me will beg to differ.
Overall, the JVC RX-8040 receiver gets high marks. Its DPL IIx mode and its RF remote capabilities are decided pluses, and its fundamental performance in my tests was solid. Best of all, most folks will find it a cinch to use.
PDF: Features and SpecsPDF: In the Lab
Sony STR-DE897
With its STR-DE897, Sony has managed to pack a full set of A/V receiver functions into a simple, compact, and great-looking component. Besides the large volume knob, there’s a somewhat smaller knob for input selection, minimizing the front-panel button count (the Yamaha has a similar arrangement).
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Like the JVC, the STR-DE897 provides no onscreen displays or menus. You have to step sequentially through speaker “sizes,” distances, and other lists of options — some of which are a bit confusing. The good news: you only have to pass this way once. And to be fair, Sony makes the routine of balancing your speaker levels controllable from the remote, so you can make adjustments from your listening position. (My only complaint is that the manual does a lousy job of explaining this feature.)
There’s also an Easy Setup option that lets you speed things along by choosing from common speaker layouts. One unusual setup fact: the receiver sports two multichannel analog audio inputs, one with eight channels and one with six, which is great if you want to hook up, say, separate players for Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio.
MOVIE PERFORMANCE Like both of its fellows here, the STR-DE897 delivered more than enough power for most real-world home theater setups. It also includes three Cinema Studio EX modes for either multichannel or stereo soundtracks, each mimicking the acoustics of an actual Sony Pictures production or screening facility, such as the Cary Grant Theater and the Kim Novak Theater production studio.
The climactic battle scene from Master and Commander demands dynamics, precision, and naturalistic ambience, and I got all three in spades. Nine-pound cannonballs whistled overhead while bar-shot roared through the rigging (yeah, I’m a Patrick O’Brian reader of long standing), while the ranging shots echoed across the water — suspiciously so, since there’s no source of reflections on the open sea! All this let me compare Sony’s Cinema Studio EX modes (named simply A, B, and C) with “plain” Dolby Digital EX. Each of the Sony modes did a nice job of expanding the sense of space as you watch the movie and shifting the apparent locations of surround effects beyond the room. The cost is some coloration — for example, male voices took on a slight metallic quality.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE Unlike the JVC and Yamaha receivers, Sony’s STR-DE897 provides only Dolby Pro Logic II, not the newer DPL IIx, for enhancing stereo or matrix-encoded four-channel surround sources. Nonetheless, its 5.1-channel DPL II playback sounded clean and spacious on material like Billy Joel’s “This Is the Time” from The Bridge. Of course, the Sony also includes DTS Neo:6, which provides 6.1-channel playback. I found the DE897’s three DSP music modes to be synthetic sounding — in other words, stick with DPL II or Neo:6.
The Sony STR-DE897 is a fine value at its list price, let alone a discounted one. The remote is smaller and a bit more crowded than the others, but the layout is sensible and easy to follow. If simplicity was one of the chief design goals for this receiver — which seems to be the case — then Sony has hit the nail on the head.
PDF: Features and Specs
PDF: In the Lab
Yamaha RX-V750
The Yamaha RX-V750’s claim to fame is that it’s the least expensive auto-calibrating A/V receiver you can buy. This means it can automatically select speaker “sizes,” levels, distances, and all those other potentially confusing setup parameters that, when set properly, enable your system to sound its best.
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The V750 is a little bigger than the other two receivers but still more human-scaled than many full-featured A/V receivers — I liked that. The front panel is clean and simple, with only a handful of keys plus three knobs, a big one for volume and smaller ones for input and “program” (surround-mode) selection.
I was eager to try Yamaha’s auto-setup routine, and it worked first time, every time. You simply plug the UFO-shaped microphone into the front-panel mike jack, call up the Setup menu onscreen, select Auto, and step back while the system works its magic. After about 4 minutes of noise bursts and clicks, the process is complete and a “Results” list comes onscreen to show you what the V750 selected. When I deliberately wired the right surround channel out of phase and ran the setup routine again, there it was on the Results screen flagged as a “Warning.” Pretty cool.
The remote control is intelligently laid out, with a small, backlit LCD window that shows you what input you’ve selected or which source component you’re controlling and direct-access keys for both inputs and surround modes. Thanks to the variations in key shapes and sizes, and the way they’re grouped, it’s easy to learn to associate functions with their keys. A good selection of no-nonsense, text-based onscreen displays helps you keep track of what’s what and provides detailed feedback for tweaking the surround modes.
The Yamaha also delivers a pair of big pluses on the video side. First, the V750 can be set to “upconvert” incoming composite- or S-video signals to the higher-quality component-video format for output. Second, it sends all its onscreen displays to the component-video as well as the composite- and S-video output jacks — something not all receivers do. The payoff: you can make a single, three-wire component-video connection from the receiver to your TV and simply leave the latter set to its component-video input and never have to switch it — excellent!
MOVIE PERFORMANCE Sound quality was excellent across the board. Like JVC, Yamaha features Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and playback in that mode was superb. (You can even toggle between DPL IIx and DPL II: very subtle, but very interesting. Plain-vanilla DPL II is so 20th century . . . .) The V750 passed my big-action power auditions without strain, yielding dynamic, high-impact sound with volume to spare in my 350-square-foot studio. All the big battle scenes from Master and Commander proved as exciting as you could want, and power was plentiful in all of my movie-sound torture tests.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE Like most Yamaha receivers in the upper part of the line during the past decade and more, the V750 includes a pair of outputs for left and right Presence speakers, meant to be placed higher than the main front left/right pair and farther out to the sides. Many of its numerous DSP surround modes for music and its variations on standard Dolby Digital/DTS decoding for movies can generate special output signals for Presence speakers. Power is supplied by the pair of amplifier channels otherwise devoted to back surround speakers.
I did most of my listening with the Presence outputs turned off in favor of conventional 7.1-channel playback, both for more meaningful comparisons with the other two receivers and because most buyers, I suspect, won’t use them. Nonetheless, I did install a pair of small two-way speakers in the Presence positions for my last few sessions. With DSP modes like Yamaha’s Concert Hall, their presence (ouch!) does add an extra dimension — a sense of height to the sound field, which the Concert Hall mode even lets you adjust to taste. With a favorite stereo recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the Concert Hall mode was gorgeously lifelike.
Overall, even without Presence speakers, Yamaha’s DSP modes are simply the best you’ll find in a mainstream A/V receiver. And like JVC, Yamaha includes a Night mode for all digital sources, not just Dolby Digital soundtracks. Its two settings, Cinema and Music, made low-volume listening possible without earstrain.
With its RX-V750, Yamaha is working both ends of the spectrum, offering an excellent auto-setup routine for the technophobe or neophyte and sophisticated options like extensive surround modes and video conversion for the experienced buff. Seems like a recipe for success to me.
PDF: Features and Specs
PDF: In the Lab
The Bottom Line
Each of these A/V receivers will produce stellar results in the typical home theater (that is, the kind you don’t have to be a millionaire to own!), delivering plenty of power and an enveloping surround sound experience. All three also share at least one potential inconvenience: component-video inputs for only two sources. With these filled by a progressive-scan DVD player and an HDTV tuner, cable box, or satellite receiver, where are you going to connect your TiVo box? Or game console? And while I’m complaining, I’d also like to see more than just one or two coaxial digital audio inputs.
Yamaha’s V750 has the most going on — and the highest price here. Its extensive array of surround modes and its Presence-speakers option make it the best choice for the home theater buff who’s committed to the multichannel lifestyle but doesn’t want to spend a bundle — its onscreen-display and upconversion tricks themselves practically justify the price of admission.
JVC’s RX-8040 delivers the basics of multichannel audio and video, packs plenty of power, and is refreshingly easy to use — plus it has the spiff of its “use anywhere” remote control. This may not sound like a big deal, but once you get used to not having to point the remote at your gear rack, it’s a genuine boon.
With its STR-DE897, Sony has also focused on getting the basics right, offering high value and performance as well as simplicity of operation. As these three models prove, the A/V receiver may have become a “commodity,” but there’s plenty of room left for individuality, via intelligent engineering, clever design, and real value.