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Official Yamaha RX-V81 Owners Thread

111K views 918 replies 199 participants last post by  ChromeJob 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone, I figured I would start this thread on the V81 series. I'm very green with receivers, so look forward to learning from everyone. I recently exchanged an onkyo 353 for the v681, and very pleased with my decision.

Impressions so far, the clarity in dialogue is pretty darn good as well as the surround and bass...my budget polk speakers sound quite well. The ypao set up was easy...although I'm not sure if the speaker distances are correct. The only minor gripes I have would have to be the learning curve associated with set up. Connecting to WiFi was a little bit of a pain, but ok. Again this is an owners thread, and look forward to getting the most out of it!
 
#11 · (Edited)
Question fellas, after running ypao again, it set my center channel and front speakers to large...I switched all of the to small, and set my crossover to 90...does this about right. I have the Polk budget T series for my 5.1.
 
#12 ·
Question fellas, after running ypao, it set my center channel and front speakers to large...I switched all of the to small, and set my crossover to 90...does this about right. I have the Polk budget T series for my 5.1.
Yes, changing to 'small' is often better, since it moves more load to the sub. That's assuming that the sub is in a reasonable position, and that's a subject in itself.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Question guys, my front, center speakers are 6ohm, while my surround are 8ohm...should I set my receiver to 6ohm or 8?

OK I did some research and go figure no consensus...so I'll just leave the receiver at 8ohm!
 
#16 ·
Can we get the title of the thread changed so it has full name of the AVRs? Took me a little searching to find this.

Prior amps were HK635 - either didn't sound great or not enough juice to drive my speakers, no HDMI, and weird input issues. It lives on as my massive overkill amp for my PC. Convinced my wife that we NEEDED an AVR with HDMI - just tell her how many wires you get rid of! Then got, for me, a crazy expensive Onkyo NR818 which sounded awesome until the crap wiring at my old rental killed it. Finally decided to a buy a new amp and spend max $500 preferably $400 so I won't be as crushed if it dies. My goal was good sound and as reliable as I could get.

I was planning on the 481 since I have a 5.1 setup, while bi-amping my fronts is a plus but not something that would get me to spend $100 more for the 581. Both concerned me with rated wattage to drive my speakers (yes I know it's mostly BS), I told this to the agent and he offered me a 681 for less than the 581 - that was a no brainer! Should be here next week and I will update with setup ease, impressions, etc.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Just upgraded my RX-V677 to a RX-V681. I like the on board blue tooth and upscale to 4k, and they added a phono input which was lacking on my previous 2 receivers. The only thing I wish as included like my RX-V677 has is an RCA output. I still use a HIFI VCR to record music and since this new unit is lacking that, I will keep my RX-V677 to record audio still. Can't justify the extra $$ for the RX-V781 for the output jacks.
Anyone upgraded the software yet to version: 1.11?
I'll connect it tomorrow and put it though it's paces.
 
#18 ·
My 681 just showed up yesterday, wow compared to my Onkyo NR818... :( Of course the 818's MSRP was double the 681s so I'm not expecting as much but the thing that struck me is that it has an attached power cable - my last two amps both used IEC plugs. A plus is it weighs exactly half as much as the Onkyo so at least it is easier to pick up :p
 
#19 ·
Hooked it up this week... sounds decent and it does have enough power to drive my gear which makes me happy. The sound signature seems REALLY weird to me listening to music, if I turn off all processing it is way more bass heavy, almost muddy, vs playback on other devices. As soon as I switch on any processing mode it sounds correct (or at least correct for that mode). :/ No idea what this is about. It does sound nice otherwise.

I am a little pissed that the remote is not universal. For a $600 MSRP AVR that is inexcusable IMO. Yay, now I have 4 remotes again instead of 1.

The AVR is VERY, VERY slow to switch inputs - so slow that it took me about 5 minutes to realize they were working as I flipped between them (I would wait a beat or two, get nothing, move on, rinse & repeat). Not really a major issue but something that is helpful to know, someone using it for the first time may think something is wrong when the input doesn't "turn on".

Don't get me wrong I think this is a decent amp but considering it is one from the top of their "consumer" line I do expect more. If I paid full price I would be disappointed, considering the discount I received I am satisified overall. It does what I need it to do.

Running it as 3.1 bi-amp setup right now, I have two surrounds I will eventually deploy if I can figure out a halfway decent spot. YPAO seems very accurate with measurements btw.

In case anyone is curious my speakers are Wharfedale EVO 30s (F), EVO2 (C), EVO (Surrounds), and a Martin Logan sub. I can definitely make my neighbors cry :D
 
#20 ·
I ended up switching to the 581, got a good deal for it...still within my budget. Switching inputs on mine is a breeze, have you run an update on yours by any chance?
 
#24 ·
Yeah I see no issues switching inputs on mine, however it's no faster or slower than switching inputs on my tv, so maybe I'm not a good judge on what fast...should have said that on my previous post.
 
#22 ·
Hi everybody,

I am slowly deducting my wishes, needs and budget towards this receiver.
I would like to use its ATMOS feature, since i am in a position to wire my small living room for it now while also wiring the room next to it for stereo as Zone 2

As i understand this can be done, since the receiver can disengage the back speakers on demand while in 7.2 mode to power the zone 2 while main zone then becomes 5.2


My question is simple, does this also work in Atmos setup? Will it disengage my ceiling speakers and power the Zone 2 stereo if someone turns playback there?

Initial goal was just 5.1, but as time passes and i am doing the whole thing DIY, my goal now is 5.2.2 + Zone 2 setup.:rolleyes:
More than this and things get prohibitively expensive for me.:cool:
 
#23 ·
Hooked everything up and setup the speakers. 9.2 surround now kicks some butt. I haven't done any updates to the firmware yet. I had some issues with my rx-v671 way back with networking. Sirius/XM works fine on the US version of the amp. No Sirius/XM connection for the Canadian version. Don't know why. Units are the same except for the software as far as I can tell. This is why I purchased my amp from the US. Any Canadians out there who have this unit? Any of the ones I've seen here do not have access to Sirius/XM.
 
#25 ·
Wow could not be happier with this 581, and my budget speakers...just watched Terminator Genysis, and wow...not that it got too loud but the sound field was incredible...like I was in the middle of the action...love it. Yes I'm a noob when it comes to audio!!!
 
#26 ·
Man I hate to be Debbie Downer but I figure I should be honest in reporting my latest problem...

My wife messaged me the other night saying after she paused the Tivo and came back there was no audio. We ran through basic troubleshooting - can you get sound from the TV directly, what about the Apple TV, restarted? As best as I can tell somehow the audio out for HDMI inputs failed - the amp no longer showed my connected speakers when using an HDMI source. I could flip to BT and it played fine, I could do test tones and it was fine... I could not figure this out and resorted to a factory reset which did correct the issue. I hope this is an isolated incident, I went with a Yamaha due to their reputation for reliability.

If it sounded crappy I would return it but for the price the features and sound are great... just these few issues popping up for me.
 
#29 ·
Update 1.15 for the v581 is available. I was on 1.08 and installation took about 10 minutes. I haven't noticed any issues over the past couple of days. According to an email I received from Yamaha a lot of it is to support new and improved MusicCast features. Probably fixes some bugs as well.

SetUp > Network > Network Update
 
#32 ·
I just bought one of these and have two questions. I have a 7 speaker setup - 1 center, 2 front, 2 mid, 2 back (and one sub) - all speakers are from the Definitive Technology in-wall series.

1. YPAO measure fails - says my right front speaker is missing. However, I can hear sound out of the right front. I have the power amp assign set to 7.1+1. I tried this on Basic and every other setting and it still fails. Any ideas?

2. The only setting I can get sound out of all 7 speakers is 7 ch Stereo - with all other settings, no sound comes out of the back speakers. I have tried a varied of media, including HD TV (have not tried blue ray - don't own one).

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
#34 ·
Just bought the costco version of RX-V581 for $362 today. Can't seem to get the sound stage quite right or really feel the presence of atmos/dts:x. YPAO seemed to tamp down the sub quite a bit. I am coming from an old Denon AVR 1909 (only does hdmi 1.3), but had a yamaha prior to that and liked it. Reason for the upgrade was a new Samsung 4k HDR tv (KS8500) which needs hdmi 2.0. The tv does 4k upscale and so I didn't want to spring a few hundred for the rx-v781, the slightly larger power and few more hdmi notwithstanding.

Here is my Speaker setup:

Front Left & Right: Mythos STS Super tower x 2 (link)
Center: Mythos 9 (link)
Surrounds & Subs: OLD (don't laugh) Infinity HTS 20 speakers for surrounds and powered sub (link)

I am using two of the bookshelf surrounds as two front height channel speakers for atmos presence. They are suboptimally placed according to the user manual. The height speakers are slightly less than 2 feet above the top of the front two tower speakers and about 1.5 feet below ceiling. Not really feeling the presence of atmos here though, likely due to poor dispersion of the presence speakers. I can't put the speakers up any higher or in the ceiling due to WAF and the fact I am at a rental property.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Cam: I just got a TSR-7810 From Costco, retired my A-1010.
My complements to Costco for overnight free delivery,I guess I was close to a distribution source.
Just installed ceiling speakers last night, and only watching cable, so using the up mixers, at not high volume, not impressed yet. Also have the db to the presence speakers increased over YPAO.
Nothing is really optimized.
Anyhow with regards to low sub output. Save the YPAO run.
Then manually adjust.
Make sure all speakers are set to small.
Manually set the crossover for each main speaker to 80hz, for atmos speakers you might want to set to 100-120 range,not too sure on that.
If that is still not enough you can turn up the sub volume on the sub, or boost the db to the sub from the avr.
YPAO had set some of my speakers at 40hz crossover, and all large.
The lower the crossover point on the other speakers the less info is sent to the sub.
Also it seems to me that the 7810 is more detailed for music than the A-1010.
I was also worried that with the lower power, in the 7810, I could not crank it up as loud, but
it seems just as good.What goes to the ceiling atmos speakers is also movie/mix dependent,
the movie The Skeleton Key seems to send a lot to the ceiling speakers when using Neural x even from
cable. Have also been messing with YPAO volume on the options menu.


EDIT: Have got things much better now, reran YPAO only using two seats, upped db on ceiling speakers.
using YPAO volume although may not be necessary.

Old Mike
 
#37 ·
Congrats on the 7810, kinda missed out on that one...but finally happy with my 681. I'm by no means an audio guy...but I kept all my speakers at 80, and did have to raise the dB on the sub as ypao does set it too low. Still deciding on my Atmos set up...but the upgrade bug has hit me for my front stage...so Atmos might take a back seat for now...my cave is small so that helps as well. I'm overall satisfied with my 681...not too bad for the price!
 
#38 ·
So I am considering returning the yamaha receiver and going back to my old hdmi 1.3 receiver. I realize I will forego atmos and switching. The vocals on yamaha are suboptimal and just overall underwhelming. The networking features I don't use as I have a home theater pc connected. I typically have the profile as "straight" which I can only presume means bitstream.
 
#40 ·
Understanding the many options

I got the Costco version Yamaha TSR-7810 a couple of days ago, it's my first higher-end receiver, and I'm struggling to find the right setup for me and understand the endless options on the Yamaha.

My setup is 5.1 with the addition of a pair of additional surround back in-wall speakers being driven from the Surround Back/Zone2 terminals.

I have told the thing I want the 7.1 system, and the test tones come out of the appropriate speakers. What I am confused about is setting the Sound Mode. I have cycled through the various available settings, and seem to get the best overall experience with 7ch Stereo, but don't understand what the "Stereo" part means. The front panel of the Yamaha says it's seeing/decoding Dolby Digital, so what exactly is going on?

And how does that relate to the sound field (Jazz Club, Hall in Munich, etc.)?

We watch about 75% episodic TV and football (in season) with a 1080p TiVo as the source. The other 25% is loud action movies (testosterone movies, my wife calls them) from either the TiVo or a streaming source, and now with UHD available, UHD BluRays (also mostly loud action movies).

I'm a video whiz, but clearly an audio amateur.

Any help, explanations, suggestions, pointers to web help welcome.
 
#45 ·
I got the Costco version Yamaha TSR-7810 a couple of days ago, it's my first higher-end receiver, and I'm struggling to find the right setup for me and understand the endless options on the Yamaha.

My setup is 5.1 with the addition of a pair of additional surround back in-wall speakers being driven from the Surround Back/Zone2 terminals.

I have told the thing I want the 7.1 system, and the test tones come out of the appropriate speakers. What I am confused about is setting the Sound Mode. I have cycled through the various available settings, and seem to get the best overall experience with 7ch Stereo, but don't understand what the "Stereo" part means. The front panel of the Yamaha says it's seeing/decoding Dolby Digital, so what exactly is going on?

And how does that relate to the sound field (Jazz Club, Hall in Munich, etc.)?

We watch about 75% episodic TV and football (in season) with a 1080p TiVo as the source. The other 25% is loud action movies (testosterone movies, my wife calls them) from either the TiVo or a streaming source, and now with UHD available, UHD BluRays (also mostly loud action movies).

I'm a video whiz, but clearly an audio amateur.

Any help, explanations, suggestions, pointers to web help welcome.
Hey Doug,

I'm just about to pull the trigger on the TSR-7810..I just don't know if something is going to sale on tomorrow that will be better than it! Congrats!

Anyways, when watching movies incl. Netflix/Amazon and blu/UHD content you most definitely want to put your receiver on STRAIGHT or Pure Direct to hear what the director/audio engineers originally intended you to hear. The 7ch stereo mode just "mirrors" the same L&R sounds to all of your speakers.

All of the other modes such as Jazz Club, Hall in Munich, etc - try to emulate different sound fields in those specific areas. The Dolby Pro Logic II and Neo surround sound options do thes same thing; but more in the vein of movies and optomizes it as if it were a movie theatre.

Check out this link for more info - https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...lity-on-my-yamaha-receiver-kef-system.309283/

What type of Front and Center speakers are you using if you don't mind me asking ? I'm looking into getting a pair of these myself - http://www.paradigm.com/products-current/type=tower/model=monitor-9/page=overview - nothing crazy, but loud enough, clear enough and they come with a free center!

Best of luck to you man, and remember...straight!
 
#42 · (Edited)
baconcow,

I would suggest here on AVS to look at the Yamaha RX-A1060, 2060, and 3060 thread. I think that they should be analogous to your RX-A1081.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/90-re...60-rx-a2060-rx-a3060-aventage-avr-thread.html

The prices would seem about right for the hi-line Y's.

If I'm wrong about that (likely), then the naming convention must be pretty unique to your locale. Regardless, good luck.

Mike
 
#50 · (Edited)
Yamaha TSR-7810 and LG OLED don't play nicely together

I've written about this here before and got no responses, and have more data, so let me try again.

I'm having some real issues integrating my system so everything plays nicely together. I have the 65" LG E6 OLED TV, the Yamaha TSR-7810 A/V UHD receiver, an Amazon UHD Fire box, an HD TiVo Roamio and the Samsung K8500 UHD DVD player. Using HDMI2 (the ARC input) on the E6, fed from the ARC-enabled output of the Yamaha.

When I turn CEC on everywhere, the part of CEC that controls power to everything if you turn on/off anything works just fine, as does the part where any remote's buttons can control basic functions like volume, mute, play/pause, etc. Actually, all those things work very nicely.

Here's what doesn't work:

-With the E6 and Yamaha connected, both with CEC/ARC enabled, turning on the system causes a random input selection on the Yamaha receiver; sometimes it selects the DVD player, sometimes the Fire box, and sometimes it goes to the ARC input. It almost never selects the TiVo, which is the input where it was when shut down 99% of the time. It's maddening.

-If I turn off CEC/ARC, or disconnect the LG from the Yamaha, the Yamaha always comes up with the input that was selected when it was powered off, which is the way it should act all the time.

-With CEC/ARC enabled, going to the apps on the LG (I usually go to Amazon streaming), the LG tells the Yamaha correctly to switch to ARC mode, and audio comes from the Yamaha. But when I exit streaming mode on the LG, the Yamaha doesn't drop ARC mode and return to normal 99% of the time - it just stays on the ARC input, and of course I get no audio. And sometimes when that happens, the LG will modify its audio settings and turn on its internal speakers, which is something I never want.

Anyone have any experience with this? It's driving me bonkers. I'm back to what I hate, which is having four remotes to get anything done, having to switch everything manually. CEC/ARC was supposed to fix that issue, no? Please don't recommend I get a universal remote with 'activities'. I have a Logitech one, but my eyes have aged out of being able to use a remote with 250 tiny buttons and labels only a 20 year old can see in the dark without a flashlight and magnifying glass.

And really, I should be able to turn the system on and have it come up where I left it without having to manually select the Yamaha's input every single time.

I would really, really like to get CEC/ARC working the way it's supposed to, and of course both the Yamaha and LG manual have the disclaimer that it may only work correctly when all components are from the same manufacturer, which is just stupid for what is supposed to be a universal protocol agreed upon by all manufacturers.

Any help, suggestions, or sympathy appreciated. Also please tell me if I'm doing something stupid.
 
#66 ·
I've written about this here before and got no responses, and have more data, so let me try again.

I'm having some real issues integrating my system so everything plays nicely together. I have the 65" LG E6 OLED TV, the Yamaha TSR-7810 A/V UHD receiver, an Amazon UHD Fire box, an HD TiVo Roamio and the Samsung K8500 UHD DVD player. Using HDMI2 (the ARC input) on the E6, fed from the ARC-enabled output of the Yamaha.

When I turn CEC on everywhere, the part of CEC that controls power to everything if you turn on/off anything works just fine, as does the part where any remote's buttons can control basic functions like volume, mute, play/pause, etc. Actually, all those things work very nicely.

Here's what doesn't work:

-With the E6 and Yamaha connected, both with CEC/ARC enabled, turning on the system causes a random input selection on the Yamaha receiver; sometimes it selects the DVD player, sometimes the Fire box, and sometimes it goes to the ARC input. It almost never selects the TiVo, which is the input where it was when shut down 99% of the time. It's maddening.

-If I turn off CEC/ARC, or disconnect the LG from the Yamaha, the Yamaha always comes up with the input that was selected when it was powered off, which is the way it should act all the time.

-With CEC/ARC enabled, going to the apps on the LG (I usually go to Amazon streaming), the LG tells the Yamaha correctly to switch to ARC mode, and audio comes from the Yamaha. But when I exit streaming mode on the LG, the Yamaha doesn't drop ARC mode and return to normal 99% of the time - it just stays on the ARC input, and of course I get no audio. And sometimes when that happens, the LG will modify its audio settings and turn on its internal speakers, which is something I never want.

Anyone have any experience with this? It's driving me bonkers. I'm back to what I hate, which is having four remotes to get anything done, having to switch everything manually. CEC/ARC was supposed to fix that issue, no? Please don't recommend I get a universal remote with 'activities'. I have a Logitech one, but my eyes have aged out of being able to use a remote with 250 tiny buttons and labels only a 20 year old can see in the dark without a flashlight and magnifying glass.

And really, I should be able to turn the system on and have it come up where I left it without having to manually select the Yamaha's input every single time.

I would really, really like to get CEC/ARC working the way it's supposed to, and of course both the Yamaha and LG manual have the disclaimer that it may only work correctly when all components are from the same manufacturer, which is just stupid for what is supposed to be a universal protocol agreed upon by all manufacturers.

Any help, suggestions, or sympathy appreciated. Also please tell me if I'm doing something stupid.
I'm having the exact same problem with ARC on the C6 that I installed this weekend along with my new RX-V381 system. I haven't had time to mess with it further, but it switches to the Blu-Ray player and powers it on every single time I change an input. I turned off ARC, which is frustrating because it was the very reason I bought the V381 over a lower-priced Denon model that I was receiving. Between this and some of the audio issues I've had with the receiver, I'm having a bit of "upgrade regret" right now where my old plasma and cheap sounds system worked and sounded so much better for most things.
 
#51 · (Edited)
Try re reading page 142 of the manual, for hdmi control setup.
They seem to specify you have to do this for every device you are setting up,perhaps that is the problem.
Hope that might help,otherwise I don't know.
I myself don't really want to get into cec control too much, the wife just wants to use the Comcast remote and
will not mess with the avr,nor does she want it on.


By the way Costco will honor the $40 manufactures rebate until the 28th for the 7810, just call
customer service and they will give you the refund, if you are within a 30 day buy period.
Old Mike
 
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