Features:

  • 7.2-Ch Dolby Atmos, DTS: x (5.2.2-Ch) with zone 2, Cinema DSP 3D, and ypao sound optimization (rsc/multipoint)
  • Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplay, Spotify connect and music cast multi-room
  • Pandora, Spotify, Sirius internet radio, Tidal, Deezer, Napster and more
  • HDMI with HDCP 2.2 (7-in/2-out): 4K Ultra HD, HDR10, Dolby vision, hybrid log-gamma and BT.2020
  • MusicCast surround-capable: add two music cast 20 speakers to provide wireless Surrounds for a 5.1-Ch setup
A lot of "yes!" moments

Update: I really love this machine. You give a lot of things five stars if they're really good products, but this one deserves bonus. I've been slowly going through the full 200+ page manual to make sure I don't miss any features and to get the most out of this thing, and I'm continually thrilled. Also, I give a lot of things controlled by apps low ratings because I tend to hate screwing around with my phone, but in this case, the Yamaha AV controller app only adds to the value, with the best part being you don't NEED it to take advantage of all the receiver's functionality, but it's a joy to have sometimes to make fine adjustments without having to turn on the TV. I really like it for adjusting net radio stations and stuff like that or fine tuning music sounds - again, without having to turn on the TV. This also makes up for the one negative I mentioned below about not being able to change all the settings from a web page. Great stuff! Original review: Before this, I had two Sony receivers in my living room. My secondary is a much older model - about 12 or so years old - that does not have HDMI and I use it for my whole house audio system. My primary is (was - it just got replaced) a 3-5 year old Sony model that is admittedly in a lower class than this Yamaha receiver (the secondary was in a higher class in its time, I think). While I usually have all Sony stuff, I was completely willing to try another well-known Japanese brand who specializes in receivers and amps. And - it's just awesome. Totally. Not a single regret about the switch. The RX-A880 gave me back everything I lost going from my older, higher-end Sony to my newer one, AND it gave me so many nice surprises on the way! As anyone can tell you that it sounds good and looks good, I'll concentrate on this little details that I discovered during setup: 1) Besides the seven HDMI inputs, it also has a composite video, a component video, two optical audio, one extra (second belongs to component) coax audio, and two composite audio inputs, not to mention phono. The great thing is that you can assign different audio inputs to any of the video inputs. So, for example, I decided to keep my Wii around since I now have a component input (and it takes up almost no space), but the cable is component video with composite audio, but the component video input on this has coax for the audio. Bummer. But no, you can change it. Example number two is I have a computer in my telecom closet hooked up to this with both HDMI and line-out audio. For circumstances too complicated to define here, audio does not output via the HDMI. But because of this feature, I can make the audio appear when I select the HDMI input OR when I just want to listen to the audio directly (with no HDMI output). Perfect. 2) 9 Speaker outputs. First, I'm so happy to have the 2-zone thing back (my secondary receiver has it, but my other, newer Sony did not - it only had A/B speakers that shared an amp). But this one you can actually have 7.1 AND a second zone (although you can't play them at the same time. This is really cool if you want the best of both worlds. I don't know if I can find a place for two more speakers in my setup, but ...it's nice to have the option. Supposedly, this all works automatically. I imagine it could work fine, but I am unable to try it at the moment. 3) 2-zone done better. My older Sony had 2-zone, but the controls were - frankly - atrocious. It was always confusing, even for someone like me who can be a super A/V nerd and memorize anything. The way I use it now is just to keep the remote on Zone-2, and do Zone-1 on the unit itself. This Yamaha, however, has a simple switch on the remote, and you're either controlling one zone or the other depending on that switch. Simple and effective. You can also control it from the unit, unlike the older Sony. 4) 8 custom presets, all controlled directly from the remote. Another 8 for Zone 2?! The one complaint I read by a reviewer was that you have to scroll through all the inputs from the remote to get to what you want. But that doesn't matter for two reasons: first, you can change the settings to skip anything you don't want. But, second, with 8 custom presets - and each with their own remote button - you probably don't even ever need to scroll through the inputs anyway. And the custom presets are great. You can turn on and off a bunch of features like whether or not it changes your HDMI out settings, if it uses your YPAO settings, extra bass, which speakers it uses, etc. And it even can link the second zone! Two great examples: I can't stand to watch regular background TV with the surround sound on because it makes the commercials that much more obnoxious. But of course I like big booming bass and surround for movies. And it's also annoying to switch the unit off and on all the time, especially if you want to use control for HDMI. So I have one preset for very flat TV sound using just the front speakers that is clearer than-, but no more annoying than-, my regular TV speakers. Then I have another preset for surround sound and big bass for movie watching. I have one preset for straight music just in zone 1. Then I have another preset for straight music in both zones one and two. It turns on zone 2 automatically. I could not figure out how to make a preset just for zone 2, but it seems that when I am controlling zone 2 on the remote, I can make 8 more presets just for zone 2. You can not adjust these presets via menu, from what I can tell, though. 5) 14 character names on the front of the unit in dot matrix. My other receivers were all limited to 8 characters. You can see all 14 at once, which is great. 6) Much more robust networking. I haven't played with this too awful much yet, but it seems that if you start listening to a playlist or an album on your NAS, then the next time you go back to "server", it will start playing where you left off (well, the song you left off at will start over again, instead of at the exact moment you left at), but at least this way you don't have to turn the TV on just to play some music. I suppose you could create a playlist of all Death Metal, and then you just have a stream going whenever you want it. It also seems like you can actually sign into Pandora and all the other stations and listen to your own account. And all the Internet/Network stuff is a separate scroll-through than the other inputs. I really like how that is set up. 6) The "program up/down" buttons on the remote can be programmed to do about 10 different things. I picked to have the dialogue increased or decreased for when you can't hear what people are saying even though everything else is loud enough. To be clear, I think this depends on if the dialogue is known to the decoder. I haven't tried all the other options yet. 7) Remote is awesome. Besides what I mentioned above, you can also make some changes to the red/green/yellow/blue buttons, but I wish you could really program those completely to your liking. Everything is laid out nicely, and the second zone even makes sense, as I mentioned above. 8) I realize the second HDMI output would be great if you also have a projector or something like that. With it, you can have access to all your devices without having to rewire anything. Haven't used it yet, but am glad to have the extra functionality. ... There's plenty more, but I'm forgetting some of the details right now. I've only played with this thing for a few days, but I like it more and more. The one thing that is missing is that you can't change all the options via the webpage. You can change some, but I liked with my newer Sony the fact that I could look at and change all my custom presets without having to turn the TV and go through all that. I'm only comparing this to my two Sony units so you get my frame of reference, but realize this Yamaha model is in a higher class than those. Regardless, I love this thing, and it has a lot of great functionality and no serious drawbacks that I've noticed yet. Recommended (obviously).

Yamaha RX-A880

Easy to use home entertainment system. Excellent sound.

Really enjoy this receiver

I'll start by saying that this receiver has helped revolutionize our TV viewing (and to some degree, music listening) experience. So I'll admit, we previously relied on our 4K TVs speakers. Yeah, not great sound - awesome picture though :-). And with some applications, such as Amazon, we had to turn the volume all the way up in order to hear the dialogues, and even then it was a challenge to follow the shows. But you get used to this sort of inconvenience, and so did we. I was a bit frustrated, so when Vine offered this receiver, I figured "why not?" It ended up being a great choice. I'll start with set-up - being new to any type of receiver like this, I was a bit nervous. I shouldn't have been - set up was so simple it was almost comic. I understand some people may have difficulties - all I can say is just follow the directions. It's as simple as that. Linking the components together was quick and flawless. The receiver has a ton of HDMI inputs (7), plus two outputs, so there are plenty of ways to get all your devices hooked through it. Once up and running, the receiver can easily be controlled through the Yamaha controller application on my Iphone. So net-net, I hardly use the included remote control. In fact, if I had a criticism here, the remote is huge and heavy. Again, I really don't use it since I use my phone, but... One thing I truly love is the ability to stream various applications through MusicCast. Not just music channels - Pandora, Spotify, etc. It's very easy to change sources quickly, and it's nice to be able to do so. Now to the sound. I'm obviously not a true audiophile, but I can say that having surround sound really changes my viewing experience. As far as music is concerned, the sound quality is excellent, and as noted above, the receiver puts out plenty of power. Everything seems "tighter" - better bass, less tinny, sharper sounds and dialogues, etc. So I have a fairly basic set-up right now, but another thing to consider would be pairing this unit with 2 MusicCast 20 or a MusicCast 50 speaker for surround sound. I'm saving my money to do that now. In all, I have no complaints. This is a great unit, and a real game-changer for our 4K tv. Highly recommended.

Worthy step up from RX-V series

I love this Aventage receiver! This is an upgrade to me from an RX-V685 (great receiver!) and an earlier RX-V485. The 485 was a great lower end receiver, but I ended up with the RX-V685 as a capable equivalent to my old 663 in terms of power. Adding some new speakers and desiring Atmos and DTS:X with higher power to all the speakers got me to this. This fits perfectly in the lineup and the extra power for my speaker upgrade was well worth that change from one current model to another. The RX-V685 is a great receiver, I am having a hard time parting with it, but who needs two for one room, right? Yamaha, in my opinion, is one of the best digital sound system manufacturers today. Their attention to detail and function has rapidly increased lately. I have some Yamaha power sport and other tools and Yamaha consistently demonstrates that reliabilty is everything. They rarely venture into jazzy bling and prefer to rely on the tried and true. To me, their receiver lineup is the same way. It's just solid and reliable and carries out its claims solidly. The 7 HDMI inputs and 2 HDMI outputs is where you want to be in terms of number of inputs. There is a phono setup for vinyl fans. All of the digital modes are supported. Configuration is super flexible and can deal with just about anything you can throw at it. Yet, it's also easy to set up and the YPAO has improved greatly in recent years - including multipoint in this device. This allows for an optimized equalization for multiple seats in a home theater setup. My experience is this is the best sounding system I've had yet, it's just so great sounding. It's pure pleasure every time I turn it on. Any of the best sound encoders (DTS Master Audio is my favorite) sound sensation in action movies. The faithful sound reproduction of even quiet passages in music are stunningly good. Heck, even satellite TV with basic surround encoding sounds great. One of the simple joys is the input rename feature, putting a device name (see picture) instead of the input name. It's a small but valuable feature! Configuration is easy and straightforward. New users will get great sound with defaults and a YPAO setup. Changing things up when you need to is easy. Speaker connections Make sure you read the specs on what this receiver can handle in terms of speaker configuration. If you're looking for 9.2, then you will need to go further up the ladder. (Don't let the 1-star review here set you off about it, you can't expect what a receiver "should" do based on what you see - this receiver will do all it claims. Most people will not use 9.2 and it can be had at a higher price.)I use this in a 5.1 configuration currently and am planning on adding a pair of speakers to support Atmos and DTS:X, so it's a great receiver to get 5.1 now and expand later. My suggestion - use pure copper wire. CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) is a compromise for price. There are those who will claim it's as good, but considering how often you will be wiring your system - splurge on the best conductors. I also use 12-ga wire. 14 would be OK, but again - why scrimp on things with such a great receiver. Look at Monoprice for this wire. I also switched to banana plugs - while binding posts do a great job, good quality banana plugs - specifically made for audio, with 4 "ears", will do as good a job and are far easier to move. Look at Sewell for great plugs. Some "Cons" Yamaha could do better with app. There are things that can only be set on the receiver, and some are far enough down in the firmware to require that you use a special startup on the panel in order to change them. Fortunately these are only initial setup changes. But still, there are things you will still need to go to the settings screen that are not in the app - which is mostly for simple changes you might need while useing the system. The conventional remote control can handle most things and I typically don't use the app in the day-to-day. Some of the feature settings don't make sense - I can change the input name on the app, but it doesn't reflect to the receiver, I had to use their cumbersome on-screen display to rename them. I'm not sure why the app can't handle almost all of the settings (perhaps they should put it on a separate "advanced" settings page in the app. Overall... All-in-all this is a fabulous reciever. I expect it will provide listening pleasure for another decade for me. My old 663 did that easily, and the only reason for moving forward was more HDMI inputs, but the side benefit was better decoding for newer formats. The improved processing and better sound (from faster processors, no doubt) was well worth it, so you never know - feature desire my make my decade shorten up! This is just a step up from the RX-V series and in my book, it's worth it. You can't go wrong with those either - it's almost hard to make a recommendation since all of the current Yamaha lineup is excellent. They know their sound, whether making it or playing it!

Good sound

I can't get digital atmos to display on Yamaha front panel but I think it plays atmos .

Very nice receiver, the atmos and sound is amazing

This is great receiver. I am upgrading from a Pioneer Receiver from about 3 years ago. It didn't have Atmos and it is still nice. But this Receiver is a big upgrade from my Pioneer. The atmos being the most important in this new Yamaha. The set up was basic and easy if you have ever set up this type of equipment before. The sound and different options that you can choose in the menu are nice. The remote is good. Many receiver remotes are very overwhelming with lots of buttons. This one is no different. But after a while, you get used to the buttons and know where to go on the remote to get your job done. The HDMI is built for 4k. The pass thru is clean and does a good job separating the audio and video in the HDMI. This will be used for many years to come and will be enjoying the rich sound that Yamaha makes for their receivers.

Amazing receiver

The saying goes you get what you pay for. This is an expensive receiver but so well worth it. It is so versatile and truthfully you can hear every sound that it produces from the TV. Highly recommend it!

Versatile and easy to use receiver

Changing home theater receivers is a big endeavor. I combed through the stats of this Yamaha 7.2 channel system before taking the plunge and I liked what I saw. So I decided to give it a try. First off, the watt rating for the channels is a respectable 100 W per channel when rated at 20 to 20,000 KHz. It's 110 W per channel if rated at 1 kHz. The system has 7.2 channels, which drops to 5.2 channels if you decide to use a second zone. When the second zone is not in use, all 7.2 channels are devoted to the surroundsound. Setting up the system and getting everything working took about six hours for me. But I am one of those people who really has to understand what the system is doing while I'm hooking it up. Other folks may be able to do a faster job of set up if they don't go through and look at every available option on the receiver. At the end of six hours I had a system that was running 7.1 channels in the living room, could run my whole house audio system as an independent zone 2, could stream Amazon music throughout the house via my phones Bluetooth connection, and play music and video stored on my NAS. The remote and the navigation system on the receiver are fairly intuitive. Compared to the Onkyo receiver that this is replacing and the Pioneer 9.2 channel I have in my home theater system, this navigation was faster and easier to understand when it came to locating specific settings. And while the remote is fairly uncluttered for an AV receiver, simplicity has its costs. Because this receiver has so many inputs, they are not addressable by their own button on the remote. Instead there is an input scroll function which I found to be very cumbersome. Fortunately, the eight scene selection buttons on the remote can quickly get you into whatever listening or viewing mode you desire. They are completely customizable scenes that will select input, output, and listening preferences with the press of a single button. Figuring out the proper physical connections for all the components and then calibrating the speakers went very smoothly. Yamaha has its own calibration system for the surround sound speakers which involves setting up the included microphone where you will be listening to movies and letting the system run a short test. The system was able to place speaker distance to within 0.5 feet as measured with a laser measuring device. Overall, I found the sound from the receiver to be clean and balanced. There is plenty of power to drive my 8 ohm speakers and I haven't needed to turn the volume higher than -10 dB. I also like the MusicCast app for navigating all things networked that the receiver does. It makes playing music stored on the local network or streaming music and radio from the internet a breeze. I also noted it runs cooler that my other receivers. What could be better? First, Yamaha should have Amazon music as a native app. While it can be streamed via a phone and Bluetooth, this is an Alexa enabled receiver. I should be able to say "Alexa play my Amazon play list" and hear it on the receiver. Right now, Alexa can set volume, control zones and other receiver settings - but not stream Amazon music on the receiver. Big bummer. Second, the downloaded manual is poorly constructed. There is way too much virtual page flipping needed to do some tasks. Also, there is no simple menu tree to see where settings are located in the GUI. Still, at this price point, this is a nice, versatile receiver. It has some features that my Pioneer 9.2 does not have and it is about half the price.

Some say this is the best AV receiver for less than $1,000

Some say the Yamaha RX-880 AV Receiver is the best receiver for under $1,000 and it may be true. It certainly has a lot better sound quality than my old Denon AVR-E300 receiver. I was beginning to wonder if my Bose 5.1 speakers might be to blame for lack of sound quality, but I found out it was just my old receiver. I found that the RX-A880 was easy to set up. The RX-880 has a lot of features such as: 7 HDMI Inputs 2 HDMI Outputs 7.2 channels 100 watts RMS per channel. HDCP 2.2 technology ensures compatibility with 4K Ultra HD sources and Ultra HD TVs. HDR-compatible for extended picture contrast and brightness with compatible 4K TVs and HDR-encoded content. Supports Deep Color and x.v.Color content, which can display a larger color range for a more lifelike, vibrant picture. Supports 3D video pass-through (720p/1080p only) from connected 3D-compatible Blu-ray, games and broadcast devices to 3D-compatible HDTVs. Supports HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and HLG. Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround sound decoding. Two HiFi audio mode options bypass the tone & DSP processing for higher sound quality performance. Adaptive Dynamic Range Control limits the volume level on sound effects and commercials for more discreet late-night listening. Dialogue Lift and Level Adjustment for clearer, louder dialogue while watching movies and shows. Built-in Wi-Fi for listening to music from a networked PC, free internet radio, and music services. Includes a number of digital and streaming music options using Wifi, Bluetooth, AirPlay, MusicCast, etc. Eight customizable "Scene" presets for one-touch selection (for movie viewing, music, game play, etc) 2 optical and 2 coaxial digital audio inputs plus 4 analog stereo audio inputs. Phono input (MM) for a turntable. Includes outputs for 2 powered subwoofers Zone 2 / dual-source output with 5.2 home theater in main room and independent stereo output in second room Ethernet port for network connection AM/FM tuner with 40 presets Capabilities for high-resolution digital music files. Supports AirPlay, Bluetooth (in and out), and USB (Front-panel USB port for audio playback from USB flash drives) Works with Amazon Alexa voice control (I don't use Alexa) Google Home compatible Eco mode reduces power consumption by about 20% This receiver supports 4K (3840x2160 pixels) video @ 60 frames per second as well as 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, or 1080p video signals. It supports the latest HDMI standards: HDCP 2.2, 4:4:4 color subsampling, HDR (High Dynamic Range), and Wide Color Gamut (BT.2020) for full support of today's 4K content from Ultra HD Blu-ray, online video services (like Amazon & Netflix), and future TV broadcast services. (A premium high-speed 18Gbps HDMI cable is recommended for the best 4K/HDR performance.) One of the features I liked was the more than 15 sound programs that utilize Yamaha's DSP technology (CINEMA DSP 3D). It creates sound fields like actual movie theaters or concert halls with three-dimensional sound fields. Some of the options include the Roxy Theatre, the Cellar Club, and a number of options like drama, sci-fi, adventure, sports, games, etc. I was curious about how many of the music features can be accessed with the Yamaha remote rather than using the Yamaha MusicCast Controller app on an Apple or Android device. What I found was that I can listen to some internet radio stations using the Yamaha remote, but to listen to my SiriusXM radio I had to use my Android phone. There is access to internet radio through the built-in Airable by TuneIn. There are a lot of music options such as USB, NAS, Wifi, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2 (with firmware update), Spotify Connect, plus Pandora, TIDAL, SiriusXM, Qobuz, Napster, or Deezer through Yamaha's MusicCast Controller app. Enjoy.

Yamaha RX-A880 Premium Audio

Love it, my neighbors not so much. One important tip, you might want to raise the levels of the speakers, the automatic mic doesn’t always get it right.

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