kriebe's Full Review: Yamaha HTR-5280 5.1 Channels Receiver
I'm just gonna start by saying that this receiver is awesome. Okay, got that out of the way.
When building your home theater, whether you have a lot of money or not, do yourself a favor. Buy a Yamaha receiver. They start at about $300 by itself. If you are on a budget, you can get the HomeTheater-in-a-box. Which would be inclusive of the receiver, dvd(maybe), and the 5 speakers and subwoofer.
Getting down to it:
This receiver is gonna right off the bat have less distortion than any other Sony at this price range and upwards to $1000. Actually less than half. And I'm talking normal prices, not what this page says. You can buy this at anytime at Best Buy for $599, not the $799 prices that I see posted.
One of the most important features to me when I bought this at Best Buy was that it has what's called 5 Channel Stereo. Any receiver you get now a days, has all of their DSP modes to make it sound as if you are at a Rock Concert, Disco, Concert Hall, etc. etc. These all give you the effect with echos, etc. that make you feel that you may be at the venue. Yamaha was the only one that will take a stereo signal like a CD, MD, Radio and will put the vocals in the center speaker and give you stereo in both the front and surround speakers. No echoes.
Gladiator started something with DVD's that was not there before. 6.1 Dolby Digital EX and 6.1 DTS ES. What this does is give you a rear center channel. The receiver can decode these signals and and give you a rear phantom center. Mind you, there is no output for the rear center. You have to pay the extra $300(from the $599) to get the rear center amplification, amongst other things on the HTR-5440.
Go to your local store like Best Buy and look at the front of the receivers. With as much functionality as the 5280, you will not find was as simple to use as this. Especially when you get to the extremely easy on-screen menus that this receiver has to offer. All speakers are adjustable, all DSP's are adjustable, you can assign all 7 digital inputs(5 optical, 2 coaxial). Speaker test mode. All in the onscreen menus.
The 5280 is 100 watts by 5. It includes Component Video switching for HD, DVD, and other component devices. There is a six channel input for those new competing formats of SuperAudio CD and DVD-Audio. Large, heavy-duty speaker binding posts that except heavy gauge wire(and small gauge), banana plugs, and spade connectors.
The remote takes a little getting use to, but with any receiver with this many functions, you are always gonna have the same problem. This is a learning remote, so you can have it learn any function from any other remote that universal remotes may not understand.
One other thing that I love about this machine is what Yamaha calls Silent Cinema. Late at night when my roomates and neighbors are sleeping, I still want to be able to listen to the movie at normal levels(read loud), so with the 5280, I plug in my headphones and all speakers are turned off. Nothing significant there, but with my normal stereo headphones, I still get a realistic surround effect.
40 radio station presets
Multi-room audio capability
4 audio and 6 AV inputs
Sleep Timer
5 channel preouts including subwoofer
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.