Yamaha RX-V1900BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

by Yamaha

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 17.1 x 6.8 inches ; 37.7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 45 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B001E5CDS2
• Item model number: RX-V1900BL
• Batteries: 6 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,365 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

The Yamaha RX-V1900 Brings Excitement to Your Home Theater System

Yamaha’s latest 7.1-channel AV Receiver offers superb HD Audio and Video realism, with the most extensive multi-zone custom installation compatibilities that will bring new versatility and excitement to the home theater entertainment experience.

---

Extensive and Versatile Control

High Picture Quality
The RX-V1900 features 1080p-Comaptible HDMI. High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is the first and only digital interface to combine uncompressed high-definition video, multi-channel audio and intelligent format and command data in a single digital interface. HDMI switching, providing the most advanced method of delivering high quality video signals to a home theater system to enable the reproduction of DVD and satellite TV sources with HD quality. HDMI can also send the digital audio signals from sources such as DVD Audio, CD, Dolby Digital and DTS to provide simple components connections.

CINEMA DSP adds another dimension to your sound

3D CINEMA DSP for Surround Realism
The RX-V1900 features surround sound processing with the enhanced capability of 3D CINEMA DSP. By using two presence speakers in addition to the two front and two surround speakers, the sound field is given an extra vertical dimension. Pressing the 3D DSP button provides a sound field that expands both upward and downward. Hi-Fi DSP programs sound more natural, closer to the feeling of actually being in a concert hall with a high ceiling or a small live house where the sound seems to bounce up from the floor. CINEMA DSP programs have an added dimension of height that was previously difficult to achieve, so sounds coming from above have precise localization. When volume is low, CINEMA DSP effects may be difficult to hear. Adaptive DSP Level overcomes this problem by evaluating the difference between the volume level and a reference level, and adjusting the DSP level to ensure optimum effectiveness--that is, the best possible sound.

Superior Custom Zone Control

Power up to three rooms at the same time

Users can enjoy audio in three rooms as well as video in the second room with an extensive array of custom zone control features. These include Main/Zone 2/Zone 3 power controls, front panel selection of XM/FM/AM tuning, volume and input source, Zone 2 video output and on-screen menu display, and Zone 2/3 tone and L/R balance controls for ceiling or wall-mounted speakers. A separate Zone Remote Unit is provided and there is also an RS-232C interface for a touch-panel controller.

Adaptive Dynamic Range Control
Adaptive DRC is a new volume control technology that is effective for low-volume listening, such as at night or with headphones. It applies DRC processing to eliminate the volume differences between loud commercials and ordinary programming and to take into account our ears' loss of sensitivity as volume decreases. The compensation is performed automatically, so all dialogue is heard clearly even at low levels, and there are no sudden loud bursts of sound.

Superb Convenience
The RX-V1900 features YPAO automatic system calibration. Yamaha’s YPAO system uses a small microphone and sophisticated equalization to automatically set the best sound for any room, no matter where the speakers are. First it checks the speaker connections and phase of each speaker. Then, it sends out tones which are captured by the microphone to analyze the room acoustics and sets a variety of parameters, such as the speaker size, the distance of the speakers and even the sound pressure level, etc. Until it achieves the best sound conditions for your room and you don't have to do anything!

---

What's in the Box?

• Remote Control
• Simplified Remote Control
• Four (4) AAA Batteries
• Power Cable
• Optimizer Microphone
• AM Loop Antenna
• Indoor FM Antenna
• Speaker Terminal Wrench

---

Optional Accessories for the RX-V1900 Receiver

YBA-10WH	The RX-V1900 is equipped to use the YBA-10WH Bluetooth Wireless Audio Receiver that lets you connect the dock to the receiver and supports A2DP audio streaming. With the optional YBA-10 Bluetooth dock, you can enjoy music wirelessly from Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, portable devices, or personal computers.
YDS-11SL	The YDS-11SL Yamaha Universal iPod Dock lets you connect your iPod to the RX-V1900 receiver. With the optional dock you can listen to your music and operate the iPod via the remote control while at the same time charging the battery on your iPod.

---

Technical Specifications

• Power Output: 130W x7
• Tuners: AM/FM, HD Radio, XM/Sirius (with subscription)
• iPod Compatibility: Yes (with optional YDS-11SL)
• Bluetooth Compatibility: Yes (with optional YBA-10WH)
• YPAO System Calibration: Optimizer Microphone Included
• HDMI Up Conversion: Scale to 1080p
• Dolby TrueHD: Included
• DTS-HD Master Studio: Included
• Dolby Digital Plus: Included
• DTS-HD High Resolution Audio: Included
• Frequency Response: 10Hz - 100kHz
• Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.04%
• HDMI Inputs/Outputs: 4/1
• Component Video Inputs/Outputs: 3 (fixed and assignable)/1
• Digital Inputs/Outputs: 5 Optical Inputs, 3 Coaxial Inputs/ 2 Digital Outputs
• RS-232C Interface: Included
• +12V Trigger Output: Yes (2)
• Remote Control: Learning and preset capable remote unit and simplified remote unit
• Dimensions (WxHxD): 17-1/8" x 6-3/4" x 17-1/4"
• Weight: 37.7 lbs

Product Description

Yamaha's latest 7.1-channel AV Receiver offers superb HD Audio and Video realism, with the most extensive multi-zone custom installation compatibilities that will bring new versatility and excitement to the home theater entertainment experience.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Near-Excellent AV Receiver, November 23, 2008

By 

H. S. Jacob (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yamaha RX-V1900BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Electronics)

I purchased this receiver to replace my older Yamaha RX-V1000 which I liked a lot and had no problems with the entire time I had it. I purchased this receiver to get HDMI, HD Radio, and Zone 2 amplified sound. I have the amplifier set up to drive an LCD HDTV via HDMI and a projector w/ component video.

Sound Quality: This was high priority for me as I primarily listen to music. I was VERY happy with the sound quality and I feel like it sounds better than my RX-V1000 (which I feel sounded much better to the Denon 38xx receivers and was on par w/ a B&K receiver my friend has). I don't use any of the different DSP effects for sound stages, etc. The surround sound (at least 5.1 as that's all I use) audio sounds better than my RX-V1000 too. Sound from the center channel is much more defined and clear. Not sure why but it's nicer. BOTTOM LINE....excellent sound!

Connections: The receiver could have a better layout for connections but in the end, I really don't have any problems with it. There are a lot of connections so you should be fine. I would have liked dual HDMI outputs but you get that w/ a more costly receiver and it wasn't that important to me. Note, as with many other multi-zone receivers that I have used/tested, only the main zone can handle digital audio inputs, other zones must have analog inputs so you must connect all your audio sources to analog (or digital + analog) if you want audio in Zones 2 or 3. Bottom Line....very good quantity of connections of course I would like vendors to "drop" support for composite and s-video....I mean, c'mon, who really needs those connections w/ this type of amp? :) Also, it's difficult to get to the speaker terminals and would be better if they were all in one line at the bottom of the receiver. BOTTOM LINE....good array of connections.

Setup: Typical Yamaha on-screen menus. I did not use the YPAO to set up the receiver yet so I can't comment on that. I set it up manually and it wasn't particularly difficult. I like the fact that the amplifier has a "maximum volume" setting as I use this for Zone 2 so I won't overdrive the amp by accident. I also like the fact that the the main zone and 2nd zone are completely separate. The main amp can essentially be "off" while zone 2 is playing or vice-versa. Granted, not all electronics are off when you do this but turning off the main zone keeps the amp running cooler if all i need is audio in the 2nd zone. BOTTOM LINE....setup is average and probably just as easy/painful as one might expect.

Surround: I find the Surround Settings to be odd. I obviously need to play w/ the amp some more but it's not clear to me when dolby digital or DTS sound is being played as I can make the "dts" sign light up even if it's just Dolby Digital. Still, I confirmed that DTS works at least w/ regular DVDs. I'm sure Blu-Ray dvd's will be fine but I'm still fine-tuning this portion. BOTTOM LINE.....the audio from Surround sources sound great, getting the Surround settings configured correctly is a bit confusing.

Tuner: I really only listen to 1 station that supports HD Radio but strangly enough, I can't pick up the HD signal from this station but I can from others. Being public radio, I'm guessing that they don't broadcast w/ as much power as many other stations so I think I'm too far to pick up the HD Radio signal from this station as I understand that the HD Radio signal is like 1/10 of the power of the normal analog signal. Oh well, it still sounds good but tuning stations w/ this receiver is as painful as my previous receiver. Again, this should normally only be done during initial set-up so the pain should only be front-loaded. BOTTOM LINE.....it's a tuner and does its job, just a somewhat painful setup.

Remotes: Somewhat standard Yamaha remote controls.....average, poor, confusing. I definitely like the Zone 2 remote control and really wish that it had a "sleep" button on it like the main remote does. I mean, if I can set Zone 2 to a sleep timer with the main remote, it seems like I'd like to have this feature on the Zone 2 remote, right? :) Ultimately I don't use the remotes all that much except for simple things so it's not too much of a pain for me. BOTTOM LINE.....somewhat painful main remote but zone 2 remote is nice.

Summary: I am very happy with this amplifier and would recommend it to anybody.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great sound, poor OSD implementation, February 12, 2009

By 

Michael J. Christensen (Palatine, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yamaha RX-V1900BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Electronics)

I was looking to update a previous Yamaha receiver with one that has support for HDMI and Dolby True HD/DTS Master sound formats. With a nice coupon code, I was able to purchase for under $1k from 6th Ave Electronics. Here are my thoughts:

First of all, the sound is terrific. I have a small place, and was afraid the amp would overpower the room, but it has a beautiful resonance whether you're listening to music at low levels, or cranking it. For video acoustics, I popped in The Dark Knight. The Dolby True HD soundtrack was incredible! No complaints.

I'm also not a hardcore configuration guy (I tried the microphone setup on my previous unit, and wound up manually tweaking it anyway), but I must say, it's not too difficult to manually configure and setup this unit to your liking. The major adjustments I made were to adjust the individual speaker levels and speaker distances from the receiver. No problems here.

And now for the bad. In a nutshell, I've abandoned using this receiver as a video device. The recommended hookup is to run all your components through the receiver via HDMI connections, and then one HDMI from the receiver to your TV. There are two major design flaws with hooking the receiver up this way.

Call me crazy, but I like the choice of playing sound through either my receiver, or the TV (i.e. for late night listening). There is an option to allow sound through both the receiver and TV simultaneously, but here's the caveat. You will only get stereo sound to both!! I've noticed this on blu ray as well as cable. My guess is, since my TV won't be able to accept a "digital" sound signal, the receiver "dumbs down" the audio to the lowest level that both can accept (i.e. stereo). Thus, no 5.1+ surround formats to the Yamaha if you'd like to have sound output to your TV. The way around this (which i've reconfigured my stereo to handle) is to run all HDMI/video inputs directly to your TV, while outputting just the audio to the receiver via optical cables from your components. However, if you configure this way, the HD sound formats mentioned above (Dolby HD/DTS Master) are disabled, as they can only be carried by direct HDMI cables to the receiver. What a bummer...

Second, and perhaps more annoyingly, the receiver, which is supposed to have on screen display (OSD), does not show volume control on-screen when you adjust the volume! If you're listening to the radio or playing your IPOD it will, but not while adjusting volume for video sources. Yamaha's consolation for this is to show a generic crappy looking volume bar on the unit itself. Problem is, other than "blocks" to show what volume you're at, it's nearly impossible to see the actual decibel level on the unit unless you're two feet in front of it, because it's displayed in tiny font in the upper right corner of the receiver. I'm aware that the step-up RX-V3900 solves this problem (with a much nicer OSD and volume display for video), but seriously, for a receiver that retails at $1,400, this is beyond ridiculous.

While these issues have frustrated me a bit, I still have to give this unit props for its excellent sound, which is a bargain if you can find it for under a grand. However, the amateurish looking OSD, and related issues render it frustrating to use the Yamaha as your video centerpiece. For consumers looking for an all-in-one video audio solution, Yamaha got it half right.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sounded great but broke 5 weeks after purchase, October 6, 2010

By 

Dave (CHILLICOTHE, OH, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yamaha RX-V1900BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Electronics)

I purchased this unit on August 9, 2010 as a replacement for a DENON AVR-4802 7 Channel Surround Receiver which I gave to my cousin. Overall I was very happy with this model especially considering I paid less than $700 to replace a unit I bought new in 2001 or 2002 for over $2000. Anyway a few days after Amazon's return period elapsed my new Yamaha receiver broke - no audio at all unless it was in 'Pure Direct' mode which is worthless for Blu-Rays, HDTV, Video Games, etc... LPs still sounded great on it. I spent about 2 hours on the phone with Yamaha support before they gave up and said I needed to send it to one of their authorized warranty repair centers - hopefully they'll reimburse me for the freight charges. I've had good luck with other Yamaha products in the past, this is my first Yamaha A/V receiver, and this is the first Yamaha to ever have any problems but it has left a sour taste in my mouth for Yamaha products. Over the years I've had 7 A/V receivers including this one and the only other one with any problems was a Sony STR-G3 and that was only because of the remote. So as I'm waiting for United Radio to repair and return my Yamaha I'm using a Sony STRDG920 7.1-Channel Audio/Video Receiver (that was in my bedroom and sounded fine) in my home theater and wow does it sound awful in my theater room - Well probably not awful but compared to the Denon & the Yamaha it doesn't measure up. I still like Yamaha subwoofers, I currently have a Yamaha YST-SW315 10-Inch Digital Pro Series Subwoofer (Black) in my home theater, but I think when it comes time to purchase a new receiver I'll spend the extra money and get a Denon.

Edit 10/13/10

Well I had to send this item to Yamaha's Authorized Repair Center at my own expense, which at 45 pounds is unacceptable to me. I'll be writing (that means sending a certified letter) to Yamaha Customer Service & Investor Relations unless my cost to ship the receiver in for repair is not reimbursed when it is returned to me.

Edit 11/04/10

Well I received the following e-Mail from United Radio:

"Dear UR Customer

We have ordered parts to facilitate repair of your unit. Estimated time
of arrival is ETA 11/12/10 .
Should the ETA expire, we will contact the vendor of the part to get an
updated ETA. Please remember these are estimated time of arrivals only."

So I've already been without their receiver for over a month and now it looks like I'm not going to get it back for at least another 2 weeks.

Edit 12/14/10

Well I've had this receiver back for about a month. So far no problems, although I haven't been able to get the 2nd or 3rd zones to work - I'm not sure if its something I'm doing wrong. Anyway I'm upping my rating to 3 stars, as I have not been reimbursed for my shipping costs in sending this receiver to be repaired under warranty at an authorized Yamaha repair center.