YAMAHA RX-V4A 5.2-Channel AV Receiver with MusicCast

The receiver is a great value. I had a 30 year old Yamaha receiver finally break on the subwoofer port. Upgraded to the V4a. It sounded just as good but now can be calibrated by attaching a mic they provide. This calibration makes the sound you hear perfectly timed. The system even tells you if You reversed positive and negative wires on the speakers. The connectivity with Spotify Connect and newer TVs with CEC/ARC is great. The Musicast app is great. You’ll never need to press buttons on the machine itself so don’t worry about reviews on that. At the end of the day, if you want this 5.2 system, it’s a great value and price point. I ended up returning this unit only because I wanted 2 more speakers after discovering Yamaha has an All Channel Stereo mode that can play out of all 7 speakers if you have the V6A. If your space and budget only call for the V4A, you’re getting a solid system. The advantage with V6A is really only 2 more speakers which can expand the sound field. I’m not able to take advantage of the additional room capabilities as you need something to carry your Bluetooth signal farther. Bluetooth additional speakers outside of the 5.2 also has to be done for separate rooms or the Bluetooth has delay. Again Yamaha in my opinion is a solid machine and a great price point. Buy it and you regret it.

Update 10/2022: 9-months after my original review this receiver still had great sound and HDMI is working great. Original Review 01/2022 When i first set up the RX-V4A, the video signal to the TV went out intermittently. I read that this new generation of receivers from Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, and Pioneer had HDMI connection problems, and some customer reviews echoed that. So, I assumed the problem was with the receiver. Updating firm ware didn't help. A couple of days ago, I replaced an old hdmi cable with a newish one--I haven't had a problem since. The RX-V4A is a bit slower at passing video through at start up than my last receiver. Yamaha reported hdmi problems for receivers built in 2020, but only for very specfic situations. I suspect that this led people on the internet to extrapolate and assume their receiver had a problem when it was just a faulty hdmi cable like I did. Then the echo chamber of the internet built that into a thing. According to Yamaha, the hdmi problem was fixed by new firmware and a new hdmi board which is in receivers built after 2020. I purchased my receiver from Amazon in September 2021, and it has the new board. (To check if you have the new board check your firmware on the receiver, if it has an * before the word Version [*Version], you have the new board. I will report back if I start having hdmi or other issues with the receiver. The RX-V4A supports the features in which i'm interested. I'm currently running it in 3.1 configuration with Jamo C93 fronts, Jamo C9Cen center, and Velodyne VX-11 subwoofer. I've very please with the sound for music and movies. Dialogue in video is crystal clear. The RX-V4A is 5.2 and does not support ATMOS, so no 7 speaker surround. But I don't want that. I want clean sound for my 3.1 set up, which the RX-V4A delivers.

This is the buggiest, most unreliable piece of junk I've ever used in my home theater. It routinely takes 4-5 tries to get it to change inputs. I turn on the xbox, switch to that input and a moment later the darn thing decides I really wanted to watch some TV on the shield. I change it back but no, it KNOWS I didn't mean it. I change it back again and, ooops!, it lost the HDMI handshake and I no longer have video at all. Power everything off and try again! Sometimes it just turns off shortly after booting up. It might do this 5+ times before it actually powers on and stays on. Sometimes you just can't get video to pass through without powering everything off and carefully plugging it all back in again. The shield recently added dolby vision support but the receiver needed a firmware update to support. Very easy to apply but since applying it I now can't get the receiver to display ANY video after being turned off. I have to unplug the shield and plug it back in with the receiver on to get a video signal since applying the new firmware...but hey, dolby vision does work now. I will say though that when it works it sounds great. For the price I think it's fair to expect more. I'd expect it to actually work.

First, let me say that I'm not an audiophile. I don't care about post-processing effects, audio zones, or support for various streaming services. I've got a decent 5.1 speaker setup and I just want all of my other devices, which include a PS4, a Nintendo Switch, a gaming PC, and a blu-ray player, to play surround sound properly. Before buying this, I had a rats' nest of splitters and switches chained together in order to switch between all of them, but it never worked as well as I liked, so I decided to buy a proper receiver to handle it. Do note that while the headline for my review says "reasonable price," that's only compared to other AV receivers -- the mess of cables and boxes I replaced maybe cost $100 all together, and part of me finds it hard to believe that there's no better solution for my problem that costs less than $550... but similarly-capable receivers only get more expensive than this one. The good news is, it works! Setting everything up was simple; I connected my speakers, plugged all of my devices into the receiver, and plugged the receiver into the TV, and multi-channel audio works with everything. It also has a few other features I didn't expect to use that I've grown quite fond of; it can play music directly from DLNA servers on the local network, and it can play audio both from and to Bluetooth devices. Super handy for when I want to play a game on the TV but listen with my headphones. There are also a bunch of minor issues that add up to me not being 100% satisfied. HDMI eARC support is funky. If eARC is enabled on my TV, then turning on the TV causes the receiver to turn on my PS4, which is not usually what I want. If eARC is disabled on my TV, then turned on the receiver does not turn on the TV, and the TV doesn't play audio for its built-in apps through the receiver. Turning on one of the consoles does not turn on the receiver, although the receiver does turn on the TV and pass through the A/V signal -- except it only passes through stereo audio and not 5.1. The end result here is that I have to manually turn on both the receiver and TV, which is annoying. Second, I would have assumed it would have a separate volume level for every input. It does not. Audio coming from the Switch is louder than the PS4, and audio from DLNA music sources is *much* louder than the Switch. The receiver has an "audio trim" feature that lets you apply a relative adjustment of -6 to +6 dB to each source, but that's just not enough; I still have to manually adjust the volume level a bit when I switch sources. Why doesn't it just have a per-input volume setting? The receiver's IR sensor is also incredibly sensitive to interference. My TV and blu-ray player have never had a problem, but if there's another IR source such as a remote control or even the sun coming through a nearby window, the receiver just doesn't respond to inputs at all. It took me several days to figure this out; I almost returned my receiver as defective before I discovered I just had to make sure every other IR source was blocked. It's also much larger than I was expecting. I've since learned that apparently this is just a standard size, but as I've said, I'm not an audiophile; I look at the electronics in this box and see that it could easily be half, maybe even a quarter of its size if they tried to make it as small as possible. It just doesn't need to be this big. For me, this is basically just a glorified A/V switch for my TV, and it does what I need it to do. It has enough caveats that I can't give it a wholehearted recommendation, but so far it's still the best solution I've found.

In a word this receiver is just awesome and I simply could not be happier with my purchase! There are so many ways to customize this receiver it can be almost daunting at first but I mean that in a good way. Yes there is a bit of a learning curve even for a geek like me but I have found that to be a pleasant experience because Yamaha has very a very good user manual that goes into great detail on everything. I also love how you get on screen menus that display on your TV or computer monitor via the HDMI out connection on the receiver. Another thing is that this really works in conjunction with XBOX series X. It wasn't that long ago that you simply could NOT find an HDMI audio extractor for the XBOX that would allow you to break out the audio and send it to your surround sound speaker system while also supporting the full 4K @ 120 Hz refresh rate at full resolution. This receiver does all that but you do have to play around just a bit with the XBOX audio settings to make this work. Largely this means disconnecting your headset connected to XBOX so that an additional audio option becomes configurable and allows audio to work with 5.1 surround sound setup. This receiver does a great job of splitting out the audio and sending it directly to my speakers. Finally I don't have to use headsets every time I want to do something on the XBOX! :) I have this receiver connected to Klipsch Reference Cinema Dolby Atmos 5.1.4 System speakers and the sound quality is nothing short of amazing! I thought my old 5.1 surround speakers were good (though they were starting to have problems at 13 years old) but with a combination of this receiver and this new Klipsch speaker set there is NO comparison - it is just so much better now! I did not even realize how much I was missing out on until I had this new surround system connected. And one last note: Yamaha customer support is also really, really good. I did have a few questions and needed assistance on a couple of things and it was quick & painless to get a hold of a live human being unlike many companies that make this really difficult. And the next day Yamaha level 2 support even called me back to make sure I had everything worked out to my satisfaction and I did not even request the call back. Now how is that for a company that goes above and beyond and truly believes in customer service? AMAZING! I very highly recommend this receiver.

Excellent! I usually don’t write reviews but this is a incredible sounding receiver. My existing speaker setup consists of NHT in ceiling ic-4 x 4 plus Boston Acoustics center followed by a Martin Logan subwoofer. Impressed to say the least. I bought this because of it’s positive reviews and my opinion is it’s every bid as good as stated. A+.

This is my introduction to hi-fi audio. It’s been in use since 12/24/25. I have a cozy two story loft. I knew I didn’t want more than what I need. i wanted basic 5.1 surround, controlled by AppleTV, power my new KEF Q Concerto bookshelf speakers &, and be compatible with AirPlay. This AVR checked all those boxes. the 80watts output is all I need. I don’t need my speakers to be booming. The bad reviews say that installation is tough. I used ChatGTP to set up my system. It walked me through it all. The troubleshooting with my TV & AppleTV was easily solved with screen pics and descriptions. My entire system is ran by AppleTV, and my AVR handles it smoothly and effortlessly. As of right now my I’m listening on a 2.1 system. eventually I will go 2.2 then to 3.2. I don’t know if I will utilize its max potential of 5.2. If I add a separate it will be a 100w amp as I’m a big proponent of headroom when it comes to electronics. This AVR makes me happy. It’s my first system upgrade from computer & Bluetooth speakers.

This AV Receiver was great until it wouldn't power on after about 3 weeks. Upon powering up I heard a pop, and then noticed a faint oder of burnt plastic. Perhaps a Blown Capacitor? Luckily, it was still returnable under Amazon's policy. Just a few days later, and the story might be different. Seriously consider an extended warranty for this item.