Yamaha RX-V3900BL 7.1-Channel Network Home Theater Receiver (Black)

Great Deal Yamaha RX-V3900BL 7.1-Channel Network Home Theater Receiver (Black)

I have long been a Denon Fan and when it came time to replace my Harmon-Kardon receiver I had every intention of picking up a Denon as I had been pleased with other Denon products in the past. When I did a head to head comparison between the V3900 and the Denon 3808, I just prefered the sound of the Yamaha better. I had already made up my mind and wanted to like the Denon more, but the Yamaha sound just had more presence.

I have had the V3900 for 3 months now. The sound is great paired with my Pardigm speakers. The dialog for movies seems clearer than with my Harmon-Kardon unit. I have my own sound meter and have been disappointed with the auto setups in the past, but Yamaha EQ was almost spot on. I had to tweak the base a bit, but that is more personal preference. I think the effectiveness of the setup is somewhat room dependent as I set up a room for my neighbors house and it just did not work well.

The onscreen menus are a breeze and fairly intuitive. Firmware Updates can be done either over the network or via a USB key. It is a very simple process and Updates at this time are free.

Video upscaling is unexpectedly terrific. My wife has an old collection of Disney VCRs and the upscaling was near DVD quality. The same thing happened when I played my Ipod Videos on my 50 inch plasma. I was expecting dismal image quality as Ipod videos just are not designed for the big screen. Instead I got very good video quality--not DVD Blueray quality but non-high def cable TV quality images. Apparently the Anchor Bay chip is capable of doing alot. How much of that power is accessible to the user depends on the software implementation used by unit in which it finds its home. In the V3900 Yamaha chose not to unleash the full power of the chip. Want more features from the same chip? Then you have to go up to higher Yamaha models.

The Ipod interface is also good, but has a few quirks. When the Ipod is connected the menus for the Ipod don't come up automatically. You need to hit the display or menu button. The IPOD onscreen menus in my opinion work better than the Menus using just the unit itself. Perhaps future firmware updates will clean that up a bit.

The only real downside--and it is a minor annoyance is the slow switching. For example when I turn on the TV cable box and receiver, the receiver takes a noticible time to find the right inputs. I would have liked to see the dynamic volume implemented by Yamaha as well. I really hate having the volume cranked by commercials. It is a feature I really liked on the Denon. But the Yamaha sound pushed me over to the dark side.

Aesthetics: Well it's a big black box. My wife misses the sleek look of the Harmon-Kardon with its glowing blue dial. But this is a problem for Denon as well.

Overall Great Receiver.
YAMAHA 3900 RECEIVER - venkata -
I have been using Yamaha receivers for the last 5 years, starting with RX-V 1500. RX-V series are superior in sound quality to the other receivers by yamaha. My Yamaha 1500 and 1600 did not allow volume monitoring on Samsung 40 inch LCD TV. Sound quality of 3900 is by far the best i have listened to. One set back is the receiver gets warm and this was the case with RX-v 1600. I installed a small electric fan at the rear end of the receiver and it helps. In summer i do not use Ac and 1500 and 1600 models used to become warm in half an hour.
The HDMI is in my opinion is the best thing that happened to music after the discovery of stereophonic sound. Zune MP3 players
share in the market especially after the introduction of HD 32 and 16GB players has increased. Hoping in future Yamaha will come up with a dock for them
Fantastic Audio and Video - Smooth Audio -
Pro's: Everything the RX-V3900 has to offer.
U won't find a better AVR at 50% off.

Con's: None here.

Rating : 4.0

Price on Sep 20, 2010 22:34:25 : $1,899.95

Offer Price : $799.00

Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours

Best Deal Today @ Amazon Check Price Now !

Yamaha RX-V3900BL 7.1-Channel Network Home Theater Receiver (Black) Features

• 4 HDMI Input and 2 HDMI Simultaneous Output
• HDMI to HDMI Upscaling to 1080p
• Newly designed icon-based graphic user interface
• HD Radio with iTunes Tagging Function
• Network Receiver with Ethernet connector, Internet Radio, PC music streaming, USB port, Web Browser Control

Yamaha RX-V3900BL 7.1-Channel Network Home Theater Receiver (Black) Overviews

Yamaha's next generation 7.1-channel Network AV receiver offers unsurpassed versatility, access to today's most popular music sources including Internet Radio, Rhapsody online music service, music streaming from PC, HD Radio with iTunes tagging, XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio ready, USB, iPod and Bluetooth compatibility, as well as extensive multi-zone custom installation and convenience features, plus a Web Browser Control.

Related Products

• Yamaha YDS-11SL Universal iPod Dock for Select Yamaha Home Theater Receivers (Silver)
• Cisco SR2016T 16-Port Rackmount 10/100/100 Gigabit Switch
• Yamaha RX-V567BL 7.1 Channel 630 Watt AV Receiver (Each, Black)
• Klipsch HD 500 Compact 5.1 High Definition Theater system (Set of Six, Black)
• Klipsch HD 300 Compact 5.1 High Definition Theater system (Set of Six, Black)