Description
9 OUT OF 10 MINT CONDITION VIRTUALLY NEW! SELLER WARRANTY! Yamaha RX-A3080 AV Receiver Review What happens if you watch T2 in Surround:AI? by Phil Hinton Jun 28, 2019 Review Specs Discussion (89) Home AV Review 89 Dolby AtmosDTS: XHigh Dynamic Range (HDR)Dolby Vision (HDR)Yamaha FANTASTIC REVIEWS ACROSS THE BOARD. TOP OF THE LINE A FEW YEARS AGO RETAIL 2.2K MSRP Yamaha RX-A3080 AV Receiver Review > Yamaha RX-A3080 AV Receiver (2019) MSRP: £2,199.00 What is the RX-A3080? The Yamaha RX-A3080 is the latest flagship AV Receiver from Yamaha for 2019. If you have been following the AV Receiver market for any length of time you could be forgiven for thinking that this is the same product from five years ago in terms of the design and layout. Things have certainly taken a back seat when it comes to the model refresh cycle. Indeed, at one point I actually forgot that this was a new unit in for review as I have had an A3050 in my system for a number of years now and basically forgot I had set up and had been using the A3080 for a few weeks instead. Still, this is good from an ergonomics and intuitive angle as it took me no time at all to get stuck into using the RX-A3080 and enjoying its performance. So, if you are an owner of a Yamaha receiver, like the A3050 from a few years ago, and looking to upgrade, what are you getting that is new in the A3080 and can it still be described as a flagship product? Lets find out. Yamaha RX-A3080 Video Review Watch our full in-depth video review: Design & Connections Yamaha RX-A3080 > So, not to waste any time beating around the bush, the design of the A3080 has been around for at least the last five years and has no major changes around the front to report. It is a nice design with a glass section to the top of the front plate which houses the large, central display with Power, AI notification light and Pure Direct buttons placed either side of this. To the bottom left is the input selector knob and to the right side is a large volume dial. In the middle of these is a large metal flap that covers over more connections and menu buttons. We will look at these in more detail later in the review. The chassis of the A3080 is made from metal and well screwed together with an excellent level of build quality. The front face is aluminium, which helps with adding a nice rigid feel to the unit. It also features an Anti Resonance Technology (A.R.T.) Wedge, which is a fifth foot in the centre of the unit that is designed to dampen vibrations from the power transformer and elsewhere. The A3080 is available in the black finish here or the lighter, titanium-silver finish. Around the back are the connections. Yamaha RX-A3080 > For new users, the rear end of the Yamaha A3080 may be a daunting sight with all of its connections and binding posts. However, it is logically laid out with each type of connection placed within an area of similar connections. So all the HDMI ports are to the top, component video is below these with analogue inputs to a section on the left rear side and pre-outs to the right. Network and control are placed to the top right with digital and XLR connectors to the bottom left and the speaker binding posts take up the rest of the back plate. The layout is logical enough but not colour coded like the Denon approach, so some care is still required to make sure you wire up your speakers correctly. Moving back to the top of the connections we have the 7 HDMI inputs and 3 outputs. These are all HDCP 2.2 compliant and full bandwidth at 18Gbps with support for 4K 4:4:4 60p signals and HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG pass-through. The three outputs can be designated to separate displays in either the same room or in a separate room for Zone 2 so you can watch different content. ARC is available on output 1. Below the HDMI ports are 4 composite and 2 component inputs with assignable audio inputs, analogue inputs for stereo devices and a dedicated phono input with ground. Added to this are three optical and three coaxial digital inputs along with a balanced set of stereo XLR inputs which are unusual on an AVR of this level, but are here for use with Yamaha’s own disc player. Finally, in this section of the rear is the DAB/FM antenna. Moving to the top right of the receiver we find the control section with an RJ45 network port, two 12v triggers and IR in and out, along with an RS-232C port. While the RX-A3080 is only a nine channel AVR, it does have full 11.2 decoding and pre-outs so you can add a separate two-channel amplifier or even do all your channels of amplification off-board via the pre-outs. There are also balanced XLR outs for outputting the front left and right channels into a balanced connection on a separate amplifier. Finally, we have the 11 sets of binding posts that will accept spade, bare wire and banana plugs for all channels. These are not laid out in the logical manner you would expect, so make sure you can clearly see which channel is which when wiring up your system. Control Yamaha RX-A3080 > Finally, Yamaha has seen fit to provide the 2019 Aventage range with an all-new remote control, and it is almost perfect. Gone are the hundreds of small fiddly buttons that made everything overly complicated to use and in comes a rubberised feel with slightly raised buttons for main controls only. This is the one thing that we don’t like as the buttons are not raised enough to make it simple to know which key is which in the dark without looking down. Muscle memory is important when it comes to using AV kit in the dark. The remote is backlit and it comes on every time you pick it up. The most used keys are positioned to the centre of the remote body with the directional and Enter keys. Setting, List and Back keys are also here and use icons to tell you what they are. Below these are small Home, Top Menu and popup buttons for use with a player and below these are the Program and Volume rocker controls. Small keys between these are used for the AI, Surround Decoder and Enhancer. Mute is a small key under the Volume rocker and Straight mode is under the Program rocker. At the top of the remote are 8 keys you can assign as Scenes along with Source input selection keys and direct access for Tuner, NET, USB and Bluetooth connections. Overall, it is a welcome addition to the 2019 AVR range and a huge improvement over what was offered in previous generations. The slight issue with the small rise in the rubberised keys is something we got used to over our months of long term testing the A3080. Features The A3080 is a 9.2 channel AV Receiver so you can have a 7.2.2 Atmos set up using the provided amplification, or a 7.2.4 set up by adding a separate two-channel power amp. It has 11.2 decoding built-in along with the usual suite of Yamaha DSP sound fields for you to play around with. In terms of power, Yamaha doesn’t divulge all-channels-driven data, but with two 8 Ohm channels driven you will see 150W per channel according to Yamaha’s own figures. In testing, we had no issues with the power on tap for all types of content using our MK MP300 4 Ohm reference system. The Cinema DSP HD3 processing also works along with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive formats adding extra presence and width to those formats. New for 2019, in terms of features, is the Surround:AI which Yamaha claims uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to create the optimal surround experience for individual content types. This AI instantaneously analyses scenes and focuses on distinct sound elements such as dialogue, background music, ambient sounds and sound effects, to automatically optimise the surround effect in real time. When switching to Surround:AI there is a small AI logo that lights up just left of the main display. Yamaha has always put the quality of its DACs at the centre of the performance of their higher-end products and that is no different here with the use of ESS SABRE PRO ES9026PRO Ultra DAC for the main channels and SABRE ES9007S DACs for the presence channels. These use technologies to reduce noise and ground effects, giving the A3080 clean and crisp sound quality from all sources. YPAO-R.S.C. (Reflected Sound Control) analyses your room acoustics with the included microphone to automatically adjust the audio to fit with your rooms acoustics. It employs R.S.C. to correct early reflections and YPAO 3D provides automatic sound parameter optimisation that maximises the 3D sound field with CINEMA DSP HD3 as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. The system uses a 64-bit high precision EQ calculation to reach its results. While we found it turned up the same results as we achieve with the traditional pink noise and SPL meter, the bass results are again the weak point for us in this system which lags behind the likes of Audyssey and DIRAC for outright performance. With the A3080’s wireless system it is also possible to use MusicCast speakers, like the 20 or 50 as wireless rear speakers in your system. MusicCast can also be used as a multichannel music system for your home with the A3080 as its hub. Plus, the AVR has all the major streaming services built-in and syncing your accounts and playlists is incredibly easy. The A3080 can also be controlled with the AV Controller app which is available for mobile and tablet use, as well as full voice integration with Alexa on MusicCast. One of our longest running complaints about recent Yamaha AV Receivers has been the dated looking menus which, thankfully, on the A3080 have been given a refresh in terms of the design. Everything now looks and feels contemporary with a traditional list to the left which opens up to provide more detailed levels of the menu to the right side of the screen. Here you can set up speaker systems and patterns along with assigning the power amplifiers depending on your speaker arrangements. You can manually set up the distance, levels and crossovers as well as use the EQ and test tone built-in. You need to connect the mic for the full YPAO set up procedure. As you can see, it is possible to dig down deep into the menu system and make all sorts of adjustments to performance, which is great for a die hard AV enthusiast but, at the same time, the menus could be incredibly daunting for those less experienced with such a setup and system. As such, even after the designer facelift, we find the A3080 menu system to be tad intense and not as user-friendly and accommodating as some of the competition out there. But you can’t argue with the flexibility on offer during set up, and almost everything the Yamaha can do is adjustable in some way. Performance Just like the A3060 and A3070 that have gone before, the Yamaha RX-A3080 is capable of producing a highly dynamic and assured performance over a wide variety of soundtracks and genres. It didn’t struggle at any point driving our reference MK MP300 system and its 4 Ohm load, retaining a nice headroom at sensible volume levels for fast moving transients. Diving straight in with Dolby Atmos, the opening number from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is dealt with easily. There is a nice sense of weight to the surround mix with excellent musicality and bass performance for the ELO track playing, as well as superb effects placement as the fight with an inter-dimensional beast carries on in the background. Dialogue remains tight and intelligible within all the chaos. Then, sliding swiftly to a more relaxing jazz filled soundscape in La La Land, the Yamaha manages to again produce a fantastically believable sound stage with sweeping strings playing loud, but never sibilant, and brass instruments feel real and lifelike. Obviously, Yamaha makes musical instruments, so it is reassuring that their AVRs can play them back well enough to sound realistic. The world of Pan is also brought to life with superb sound effects and music panning, while dialogue again remains natural and central. Adding in the various DSP effects for movies did nothing for us at all, we found the original soundmix to be good enough in all cases, but, if you do like the effects of DSP, you will be kept fully entertained by what the Yamaha can offer you. We found the same to be true with Surround:AI and what it brings to existing soundtracks. It is possible to hear the widening of the soundstage and more obvious placement of effects around the room with AI engaged, and we’re sure some users will really like this effect. For us, we again felt that the filmmakers are best at deciding how a scene is supposed to play out effects wise and as such preferred to bypass the AI, but again this will come down to personal preference. There is no doubt though that even with all the DSP and AI switched off, the Yamaha was still capable of excellent dynamics, surround effects placement and musicality and, while not a giant leap forward compared to previous years products, it still sounds fantastic. Conclusion Pros Excellent sound quality with all sourcesSuperb immersive audio performanceExcellent new remote controlSuperb build qualityMusicCast and streaming services A nine-channel amplifier, it lends itself to a Dolby Atmos configuration of 5.1.4 or 7.1.2. There’s actually processing for 11 channels, but if you want to run 7.1.4, you’ll need additional amplification. Alternatively, you could opt for a more conventional 7.2 layout, redirecting the remaining stereo channels to a second room. So, given that similarly priced rival receivers offer 11 channels of welly for much the same outlay, just how does Yamaha plan to win us over? Yamaha RX-A3080 ? Build and design There are no surprises here when it comes to design. The aluminium fascia is familiar but elegant, with input and volume knobs either side of a drop-down door hiding front-facing controls. There’s no forward-facing HDMI input, although we do get a USB port, full-sized headphone jack, YPAO mic input for room EQ, and a pair of phono inputs. The RX-A3080 has seven HDMI inputs, all of which are HDCP 2.2 4K 60p 4:4:4 compatible, so it will play well with everything. In addition, there are three HDMI outputs. This means you can run a TV using HDMI with ARC, alongside a projector in a single room, with the third HDMI serving a nearby room, along with analogue stereo for zones 2 and 3. There are also six digital audio connections (three coaxial, three optical), plus AV and component inputs, although you might struggle to find things to hook up to them these days. There’s also a pair of XLR inputs, and a full set of channel pre-outs, again with an XLR stereo output. The inclusion of XLR connectors is quite high-end. We suspect they’re mainly there so that the AVR can be partnered with Yamaha’s audiophile CDS2100 SACD player. Network connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi with Ethernet, Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay. There’s also a DAB FM tuner and a phono preamp (MM). At 17kg, this receiver is clearly built to last. The internal design adopts a classic H-shape, supported by an Anti Resonance Technology (ART) wedge foot to minimise vibration. ESS Sabre PRO ES9026PRO Ultra and Sabre ES9007S DACs cover main and presence channels. Yamaha RX-A3080 ? Setup and features AV receivers continue to be one of the most complicated pieces of home tech you can own (one reason for sales having slowed since the advent of plug-and-play soundbars). But while some manufacturers have gone out of their way to simplify installation, Yamaha still keeps things obtuse. Once you’ve worked out that you need to assign channels (and translated its on-screen terminology into English), you can run YPAO-R.S.C. (Reflected Sound Control) room EQ. Just connecting the mic triggers the routine. Once it’s done its thing, you’ll want to go in and offer a guiding hand, not least because YPAO seems determined to assign all speakers as Large. Regardless of physical size, it’s nearly always best to assign speakers as “small” in a home theatre, and allow the subs to crossover at 80Hz (and yes, there will be exceptions to this, but using “large” as a default is nearly always a bad move). If you don’t much like what YPAO-R.S.C. has done, you can always assign a manual profile, then choose a crossover and apply YPAO parametric EQ (Flat, Front, Natural). This is old-school home cinema tweaking. Nothing very AI about this at all. Yamaha RX-A3080 ? Performance Naturally, the RX-A3080 is compatible with both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X codecs. And in true Yamaha fashion, there’s a host of Cinema DSP HD3 post processing available too. You can alter the sound field with a little reverb and pixie dust, as befits presets dubbed Spectacle, Sci-Fi, and Sports. What’s new, though, is Surround AI. This allows the AVR to analyse and optimise audio processing on the fly. On-board AI analyses content such as dialogue, sound effects and music dynamically. The effect can be a little unpredictable, but often adds height and width to the soundstage. The good news is that you can access it easily via the remote control. Related: What is Dolby Atmos? Power output is rated at 150W per channel (into 8-ohms), and this isn’t a paper-thin claim. In full multi-channel flight, the RX-A3080 sounds thrilling. Its sonic character is upfront and dynamic, perfect for big blockbuster TV shows and movies. Courtesy of that Sabre Ultra DAC, the front soundstage bristles with detail, it’s wide and deep. And the surround sound field is totally immersive. Running through Game of Thrones “The Long Night” (Dolby Digital 5.1, upscaled with Dolby Surround), Ramin Djawadi’s pounding, ominous score chills the blood, yet the clash of weaponry is distinct and chilling. In full-blown Atmos, the soundstage becomes even more vivid. Hard, fast transients get a huge workout during the rain-drenched climax to John Wick (Blu-ray) – confirmation that the receiver can get properly visceral. The various DSP presets are good fun, although finding the right mix for the right content is an ongoing chore. As a rule, we tend to prefer the genre-based concoctions (Adventure, Sci-Fi) for movies to the actual sampled acoustics of real venues for music. Why buy the Yamaha RX-A3080? This Yamaha doesn’t falter when it comes to performance. It’s a fast and exciting listen, perfectly at home with high-octane TV and movie mixes. It’s also perfectly fine with two-channel music. The addition of Surround AI is a welcome wheeze. It’s a fresh new way to add DSP post-processing, and for the most part works well. If you’re putting together a Dolby Atmos sound system, be it 5.1.4 or 7.1.2, this receiver won’t disappoint. Verdict Powerful, with a penchant for drama, the RX-A3080 is an AV receiver with a top-class, home-theatre pedigree. It’s loaded with excellent functionality, most notably MusicCast multiroom compatibility and advanced AI-driven post-processing. This receiver is capable of wireless setup across multiple zones/rooms of the house. It has 7 HDMI inputs and 3 HDMI outputs. It does also support 4K video and can connect to devices via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can use it with an Amazon Echo device. It is a premiere, high-end device designed to replicate cinematic levels of audio quality whilst providing you with substantial freedom to simplify and reorganize your entertainment setups.The following excerpt is taken from Yamahas website. (https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-a3080_u/index.html)Born from Engineering Performance. Our flagship 9.2-channel (11.2-ch processing) AV receiver was bred for versatility and engineering performance with two ESS SABRE DACs (one ES9007S and one ES9026PRO), seven HDMI inputs, three HDMI outputs, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, Multi-Zone functionality, Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A3080 Crutchfield customer from Rancho Cordova, CA on 10/19/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) First home theater receiver, would never have imagined spending this much on one. Over 2K This unit has endless features, proper studying is helpful. This unit is powering a pair of Elac UB5s, more than enough power at the moment. If you need to readjust the impedance levels, I recommending googling how to do so, the Quick Start guide is poorly written and wasnt helpful. Havent been able to test the cinema capabilities of this unit yet. Otherwise, for listening to records or music in general, this unit is rock solid. Highly recommend. Was this helpful? Gilbert Jesse from Gilbert on 10/18/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Im using it to run our home theater, sonos play 5s in multiple rooms and backyard patio TV and speakers. It has worked flawlessly. Beautiful music and easy controls and set up. Definitely recommend! Was this helpful? High End and innovated AMP Crutchfield customer from Aylett, VA on 8/23/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Great AMP thus far. Multicast is a bit complex to get going so have patience and contact Crutchfield support . Source 2 PreAmp out can be tricky to run to another AMP. Great Apple and Google APP to control the Yamaha Aventage. Pros: Great Sound Great number of options for video and audio. Awesome internet services Remote Control can be programmed with multiple other devices. Cons: Multicast option a little complex to get going. Setting up additional zones to work with other AMPS is tricky. Was this helpful? Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A3080 Crutchfield customer from Athens, GA on 8/9/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Very nice, great audio output, at high volume and especially low volumes. Was this helpful? Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A3080 customer from Kennewick, WA on 7/14/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Great product Was this helpful? Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A3080 customer from Reno, NV on 7/2/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Does all I wanted easy to setup. Download the full user manual Was this helpful? Yamaha RX-A3080 customer from Nyack, NY on 6/18/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Loving this new Yamaha RX-A3080. I upgraded from the Yamaha RX-V2065 to take advantage of the wifi and the ability to stream Qobuz at hi-res quality. Unfortunately, you have to use the MusicCast app instead of the Qobuz app. Spotify is baked in and is much easier to use but doesnt sound nearly as good at a top mp3 res of 320kps. It would be nice if Yamaha could give Qobuz the same attention as Spotify. If Yamaha truly cares about hi-res audio they would do this. That said, Qobuz hi-res sounds awesome. I use a 5.1 set up and will be adding a 2nd zone in my kitchen with the MusicCast 50 (WX-051). The remote is nice but it doesnt replace my cable box remote, another minus. Was this helpful? Accolades customer from Rochester, MN on 6/9/2020 Verified customer (Whats this?) Most Excellent. Why did I wait so long for a Yamaha. It never stops amazing me. Sounds incredible. Pros: The sound. Cons: Nothing
Live search