Yamaha RX-V477 Review

Being a step up from the cheapest and smallest AV receiver in the Yamaha RX-V line, the RX-V477 is a model that provides most of the functionality that is expected from modern devices of this type.

Design & Features

In terms of design, Yamaha has kept the established look without doing any severe alterations, and the new receiver could easily be mistaken for an older model from a year or two ago.

On the right side you´ll find a control wheel for volume, while the central part of the lower half of the front cover has four 'Scene' buttons and other controls, as well as a mini-jack line input and USB port. 

In the upper middle part there´s a dot-matrix display, eight tiny buttons for managing the tuner, as well as some very significant direct commands. On the left you´ll find the standby button, a 6.35-mm headphone output jack and the output for the YPAO microphone for the automatic calibration.

The interior of most modern AV receivers is very similar in setup, but with Yamaha tested, we find the same basic design. A large cooling section runs across just behind the front panel, and on it are glued complementary pairs of output transistors (C5198 and A1941). The power supply is located on the left side, and the rear is occupied with several printed circuit boards. Digital-to-analog conversion is performed on all channels by a Texas Instruments PCM1681 chip, while for sending and receiving digital signals, as well as A/D conversion, the PCM9211 chip from the same manufacturer is used. For processing multi-channel audio tracks, Texas Instruments Cinema DSP is used, and in the lower part there are two electrolytic capacitors of 8200 microfarad.

In any given price class, functionality is as important as sound quality, and manufacturers can not afford to lag behind the competition, and in this regard Yamaha's RX-V477 does an excellent job. The declared power is 80 watts in five channels, and it supports Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and other popular surround formats.

In addition to standard analog and digital inputs, the presence of an Ethernet port allows you to play over the network and listening to Internet radio, for example. It should be stressed that the RX-V477 supports 192 kHz / 24-bit-FLAC and WAV files and 96/24 ALAC, and allows gapless playback. Options in respect of handling video signal are equally numerous, and this receiver supports 3D material and Ultra HD resolution thanks to the HDMI 2.0 inputs.

Calibration & YPAO

The process of calibration is one of the key moments during the installation of any surround system, and the RX-V477 is in this respect quite generous. The multi-lingual OSD menus are clear, intuitive and and easy to navigate. The patented YPAO system for automatic calibration works better each year and upgrade, so we recommend that you engage in manual calibration only if you really experienced in this field. Otherwise, chances are that you will achieve better results with YPAO.

The four Scene buttons provide the ability to change a complete set of setting parameters with a single press of a button, which is a solution that is very easy to appreciate if you use multiple audio and video sources and devices.

Sound Quality & Listening Experience

When it comes to sound quality, the RX-V477 performs best with speakers of smaller and medium size. The sound from compact sets like Polk's TL1600 was really great, with impeccably defined details and dynamics, and dialogues that remained clear and intelligible even in very loud and noisy scenes. Spatial positioning and three-dimensional effects are at the same high level, so during movies everything is all in place and the system follows the events on the screen in the right way.

After the TL1600, we moved to a two-channel setting with the excellent floor-standing speakers Klipsch RP-280F, which showed that the RX-V477 has a sufficient reserve of power for speakers of these dimensions. The sound image is characterized by a solid pace, plenty of detail and musicality throughout the range. During stereo playback, we recommend you to use the "direct" mode, which turns off all superfluous circuits and reduces the signal path - you´ll gain a small, but audible jump in sound quality, and it would be a shame to not use it. We have to admit that we are very pleased that such an affordable AV receiver can provide true enjoyment of music.

Finally, we connected the entire Klipsch Reference Premiere surround system, which pushed the RX-V477 to the limit and pointed to the restrictions when the other end of the cable is hooked up to serious and demanding speakers. The sound was far from bad, but the lowest notes were not sufficiently defined, and during loud passages we felt the lack of power. However, all these flaws have to be taken with a grain of salt because the aforementioned 5.1 set is many times more expensive than the receiver, but it is unlikely that any audiophile in real life would put together such a poorly balanced and nonsensical system.

In terms of compressed audio quality, we recommend that you use the Compressed Music Enhancer feature to improve the quality of compressed audio tracks, as well as DSP with adjustable parameters to find the sound that suits you and your listening room the best.