Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew Muscovy AK from C net and we're going to take a look at the Yamaha rxv 573 this is a 7.1 AV receiver with built-in airplay and it's currently selling for five hundred dollars the design is pretty much like any other AV receiver on the market it's a big full-size receiver so you're gonna need a sizable shelf to hold the whole system the included remote is about as confusing as it gets with tons of tiny buttons and confusing labels so you're probably going to want to get a universal remote if you go with this receiver now you can also control it with Yamaha smart phone app which is available for both iOS and Android and that has a lot more straightforward interface than the physical remote you could do simple stuff like change the inputs or adjust the volume but what's really nice is it's much faster if you're gonna scroll through the list of internet radio stations which can be pretty tough to navigate on the actual receiver now some AV receivers have upgraded to fancy graphical displays but the setup menus on the Yamaha still look pretty ancient it's pretty bizarre to see this kind of blocky text on a hi-def TV especially as when you're navigating the entire screen refreshes every time you press a button now you're not going to see these kind of setup menus that often but this is the same kind of experience you get using the built-in airplay functionality there's no album art just basic artist information and song title around back you'll see the connectivity there are only four HDMI inputs on the back which is pretty skimpy when most receivers at this price includes six there's an Ethernet port which you'll need to connect for airplay smart phone control and internet radio but there aren't any additional streaming music services like built-in Pandora or Spotify for legacy devices there are also for digital audio inputs including two optical and two coaxial ports sound quality on the Yamaha is pretty solid we had our resident audio file Steve Guttenberg listen to the receiver and it performed well with both music and movies it held its own even when we put it head-to-head with our reference then on EVR 1912 even when we switched over to to channel music so this is a pretty solid Avia receiver but even with that strong sound quality the rxv 573 doesn't have a lot to recommend it over competitors like the Akio TX NR 414 that offer six HDMI inputs for less than $300 and if you don't need the full 7.1 channels the step-down rxv 473 is basically the same except it's just a 5.1 model for less money so the rxv 573 isn't a bad AV receiver but most people will find a better value elsewhere I'm maxing Muscovy act from CNET and this is the Yamaha rxv 573