3D or not 3D—that is the question for this entertainment center essential
If you don’t need a device that will guarantee support for the Blu-ray 3D spec, now is a fabulous time to pick up a high-end A/V receiver. Yamaha’s RX-V3900 is a prime example. This 7.1-channel monster boasts a to-die-for feature set, delivers great gobs of power, and is selling online for hundreds less than its $1,900 MSRP. It’s also the audio box we used for our “Build the Ultimate TV & Movie PC” project showcased on this issue’s disc.
The RX-V3900 delivers 140 watts of power to seven channels, so you can add one or two rear speakers to your surround-sound setup. And if you need to send audio to multiple rooms, this one will send audio and composite video to a second zone, and audio to a third. It comes with a second remote control, too.
Place Yamaha's RX-V3900 in a sturdy, well-ventilated entertainment center; this 41-pound beast throws off a lot of heat.
A/V receiver manufacturers have been shedding analog inputs to reduce costs. Many of us, however, still have legacy gear that depends on those inputs, and the RX-V3900 doesn’t leave us in the lurch. This receiver’s rear panel includes two sets of component video inputs, six sets of S-Video inputs, multi-channel analog audio inputs (critical for connecting an older home-theater PC or a Super Audio CD player), a phono input, and more.
There are digital connections aplenty, of course, starting with four HDMI 1.3a inputs and two HDMI 1.3a outputs (having two HDMI outs is a must if you own both an HDTV and a video projector). All analog video inputs are upscaled to 1080p and output via HDMI.
While Yamaha doesn’t claim that the RX-V3900 is 3D-capable, we had no problem playing Blu-ray 3D movies using a home-theater PC and high-speed HDMI 1.3a cables. And in case you were wondering, the HDMI 1.4 spec adds several features, including HDMI audio return and 100Mb/s Ethernet, but neither of these is required for Blu-ray 3D support.
That square multi-pin connector in the lower left accommodates Yamha's iPod dock.
The RX-V3900 is equipped with a 100Mb/s Ethernet port and is compatible with DLNA and Windows Media Connect V2 servers, enabling you to stream music from just about any device on your network. You can also access the receiver over your network and control it using a Web interface. The receiver can decode WAV files as well as compressed MP3, WMA, and MPEG-4 AAC tracks (unfortunately, Yamaha shows no love for FLAC). You can also plug a USB drive into the front panel and play tunes directly from that source.
We set up the receiver in our media room using Yamaha’s YPAO auto setup routine, which uses a microphone and a series of test tones to equalize the receiver to the room’s dimensions, the size of your speakers, and the distance between the speakers in as many as eight listening positions in the room. By the time we finished, we found that we could sit almost anywhere and enjoy near-perfect audio/visual experiences with stereo audio CDs, HD audio sources (we used the Blue Man Group disc The Complex, which is encoded in DTS Surround with a 96kHz sampling rate and 24-bit resolution), and movies with Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks.
The RX-V3900 delivered a remarkable sonic and visual performance with everything we threw at it. Aside from the absence of FLAC support, the only other fault we can find is the absence of a front-panel HDMI. And while newer receivers with HDMI 1.4 inputs and outputs will be here soon, you can expect to pay a lot more for one with as many features as this.
