If you’ve been dreaming about setting up a full-tilt surround sound system but don’t think you’ve got the dough, you may want to look to Yamaha. The company recently unveiled a feature-packed new receiver that offers Bluetooth, top-tier 4K passthrough, 5.1 surround sound, and a bunch more, all for just 300 bones. Dubbed the RX-V379, this capable compact device is an extremely enticing offering from a stalwart brand, perfect for those looking to build a quality home theater setup on the cheap.
While the RX-V379 sits on the lowest rung of Yamaha’s lineup, it’s still loaded with plenty of features — chalk it up to the rewards of evolving technology. Onboard are all the options needed to sail your surround sound ship, including compatibility with high resolution audio (24bit/192kHz) via a Burr-Brown DAC, Dolby True HD and DTS-Master Audio surround sound decoding, and a heap of Yamaha DSP features including 17 presets, MP3 playback optimization, and Yamaha Parametric Acoustic Optimizer (YPAO) to analyze your room for speaker setup.
Device inputs include 4 HDMI with 3D and 4K UHD passthrough up to 60fps, an HDMI output with ARC, 3 digital audio inputs including 2 Coaxial and 1 Optical (though we’d prefer those numbers were reversed), an FM/AM tuner, and of course the aforementioned Bluetooth streaming. The system pushes 110 watts per channel in an 8 ohm setup, and is claimed to be stable enough to output 160 watts at 4 ohms (though we wouldn’t push it).
In addition, the receiver offers easily accessible controls on the front for source switching, plus it’s compatible with Yamaha’s AV setup app for setup assistance via your iOS or Android device, allowing for multiple speaker layouts, source confirmation, a detailed speaker connection guide, and more.
In short, the RX-V379 has just about everything you’ll need to serve as the foundation of your home theater setup, and at a price that allows you to drop a little extra on that bigger 4K UHD TV or some pricier speakers.
Yamaha’s new RX-V379 AV receiver is available now.
