Yamaha RX-V383BL 5.1-Channel 4K Ultra HD AV Receiver with Bluetooth

This is my second, lower cost Yamaha receiver and they don't disappoint. With a good set of surround speakers and current-standard HDMI cables these things really kick out the volume with crystal clear sound, rich bass and a stunning picture. You can spend $6-800+ on higher end receivers and for some people maybe they're necessary, but honestly for the average TV, music, movie watcher I just don't see the need. Yamaha packs a lot of technology in at really decent price points. The only reason I upgraded to this receiver is because although my prior recvr. (RX-V477) did allow for 4k pass through, it did not have HDCP 2.2 HDMI connection ports which you need to enjoy 4k in HDR or Dolby Vision. The best I could get out of it was 4k SDR at 60 Hz which was still nice, but I wanted to take full advantage of the best 4k can offer. I have this unit paired with an LG 65" LED/LCD 4k tv and an Energy 5.1 home theater surround kit with subwoofer. Peripheral devices include a 4k Apple TV box, Amazon Fire Stick and a Sony BluRay player that barely get used anymore. The Dolby Vision coupled with DTS surround sound is stellar. My first 4k test movie was the latest Star Trek and let me tell you....WOW! It really pops.The unit comes with a brief set up guide which is good enough for the basics. The user manual comes on a CD ROM which is useless if you are a MAC household...you can find the full user manual online easy enough however. Once all the connections are made on the back, power it on and follow the guide. You will want to plug in the included YPAO sound tuner and follow the instructions to optimize sound for your room. Once that's done you're basically ready to go. You can fine tune in the settings if you like but the YPAO works quite well, and I was more than satisfied with the results. You will want to turn on the 4k upscale function if you have 4k devices. My LG smart remote and Apple tv remote both paired with the unit right away enhancing ease of use. If you have a smart tv with video apps like Netflix, AmazonPrimeTv, Vudu, Xomo, etc. make sure you plug the HDMI out cable into the ARC ready HDMI connector on the back of your TV. The recvr. will automatically recognize the ARC and output your sound accordingly (AV1 typically). If not, you will need to use a digital optical cable to get sound out of those apps. Tested the Bluetooth using iPhone X; connected and played no problem. Upper right corner of remote has Enhancer and Bass buttons. They recommend turning on the Enhanced setting for streaming music which I did. Sounded great with no issues. I just leave xtra bass on all the time 'cause I likes it!Couple points to note: there is no Ethernet port which is a little odd since there's no Wi-Fi card either. Updates are accomplished by downloading a zip file to USB stick on your computer and then load onto the recvr. Somewhat cumbersome and my only real complaint with this model. This is a 5.1 system so you'll need to spend a little more if you want 7.2. Make sure you have the latest up to date HDMI cables...HDMI 2.0, ARC, HDCP 2.2, 4k, UHD etc...these are the specs you want to be looking for. Out of the box the firmware needs to be updated using a USB stick-mentioned earlier. This update is required to get Dolby Vision 4k.Well as you can tell I really like these Yamaha receivers. Yamaha has been around forever manufacturing instruments and stereo equipment. They know what they are doing and they produce a quality product that you don't have to break the bank in owning. The unit being replaced is still in fine working order and will be relocated to the garage paired with bookshelf speakers so papa has tunes during those outside work days around the house!

My mom had an Onkyo 7.1 Receiver which simply stopped working well. The HDMI ports and board had a recurring loud popping/crackling problem. Since the receiver was several years old, it was out of warranty and they do not support it anymore with replacement parts like the faulty HDMI board. There were several online threads which stated was a well documented problem, and Onkyo does nothing anymore for the repair of the product. Because of this, it was time to get a new receiver since all the speakers work well.I purchased the Yamaha RX-V383BL 5.1-Channel 4K Ultra HD AV Receiver with Bluetooth, and it was very easy to set up. Since 7.1 is overkill for my mom’s needs, I simply set up her system like I did with the Onkyo, and used the receiver and HDMI functions as the switcher for the system. We omitted the two additional rear speakers and matched the 5.1 setup for the Yamaha RX-V383BL.Set up was easy, and since we already had her old system set up with a Harmony remote, all I had to do was switch the amplifier device in the remote set up and match the HDMI inputs on the Yamaha to how I had it set up with the Onkyo.The sound is great, and worked right out of the box! The nice thing too is the unit auto-detects whether or not the signal is 2.1/stereo and 5.1 Dolby sound, so my mom doesn’t have to do any switching or figure out if the rear speakers are working or not.Because the rear speakers are on the other side of the room, I set it up with a 3rd party rear-speaker wireless kit, and the rear speakers work well with the transmitter hooked up to the Yamaha RX-V383BL.While I tried to get Amazon Alexa hooked up to the speakers via bluetooth, they didn’t work because the Alexa units are in other rooms. While they initially worked, the streaming cut in and out because of the distance from the receiver. In the future, I will try out another Alexa in the same room as the receiver so my mom can enjoy streaming music.All in all, the unit was easy to set up (since I already had the speakers) and simply followed the input/output HDMI setup we had on our old Onkyo unit. The Yamaha sounds great too, and now I’m interested in buying one to upgrade my own home theater set up!

This was almost a 5 star rating (wish they had 10 point system/halves). The functionality of the unit is great and while it's not as powerful as my stereo from the 80's and 90's, it's plenty powerful to fill our living/great room with terrific sound and was pretty economical compared to many units on the market. I'm not clear whether the things I have problems with are related to what I've got hooked up to the AV receiver or to the unit itself but they are all minor concerns (e.g. we have an older DVD player which does not support ARC and if it's connected to the receiver, central power-on/volume/etc control seems to be defeated and sometimes pressing volume on the AV remote is shown on TV screen, sometimes it is not even within the same viewing session). One tiny beef I have is that I got things set up well (including fixing issues like telling the system exactly what speakers are connected - in my case no center channel/speaker) then moved the unit and speakers to their permanent location a few weeks later and things still worked even after disconnecting and reconnecting everything; then I connected the YPAO and ran the feature to try to calibrate settings better than my random + or - .1 on a setting here or there, but when I did, it turned on the center channel speaker setting again which took me a long time to figure out -- the result was that I couldn't hear ANY dialog on most program settings until I corrected the problem the YPAO function introduced. Moral of the story is always make sure you tell it what is connected, don't let it tell you ;-)...

Muy buen equipo, facil instalación

Solid receiver for the price. Great sound paired with my Yamaha NS-SP1800BL 5.1 speakers. 4 HDMI inputs is plenty, and it's nice to have the 1/4" jack on the front. Also I configured the speaker level adjusts with the YPAO feature, and found it to be pretty accurate in its ranging. Good power too. Running most content at around -25dB and its plenty loud. Would definitely recommend if you're looking for a good 5.1 system for a fair price.

Best bang for the buck that I can find now !-The look of this receiver is pretty neat.-There is a lot of ajustement available to tune your speakers from Bass and treeble ajustement to fine EQ ajustement for each of your speaker.-Very easy and fonctionnal interface.-Is very powerfullCan't find any con for now.

Solid, well made and performs well. There are a few features on more expensive versions I might have wanted, but at the price point the RX-V383 is quite hard to beat.Easy set up. Still fiddling with some of the detailed custom settings, but it's up and running.I've edited this review after having it for 8 months now, and I just keep loving it. The bluetooth is seamless and surprisingly useful in my life. The remote is clean and intuitive. This is a really nice unit.

Excellent for home theater. Sound good and very easy to use