yamaha RX V3800 receiver and digital music storage & use

[avintensity]

Dear Audiophiles:
I am considering the yamaha RX V3800 receiver. I am wondering how user friendly the digital feature on/in the receiver is? Can music be stored on the receiver? Can one program the stored songs in a random vs particular order. How many songs can you store? In short is the extra cash for this feature worth it? How would you improve it if you could?(a.k.a. is this version in its infancy or is it a polished product?
thanks,
AV

[MacDaddyOJack]

Originally Posted by avintensity

Dear Audiophiles:
I am considering the yamaha RX V3800 receiver. I am wondering how user friendly the digital feature on/in the receiver is? Can music be stored on the receiver? Can one program the stored songs in a random vs particular order. How many songs can you store? In short is the extra cash for this feature worth it? How would you improve it if you could?(a.k.a. is this version in its infancy or is it a polished product?
thanks,
AV

My guess is that its not worth it. iPods have gotten pretty cheap, use the extra cash to get one of those and an iPod dock.

Sound wise, the money may be worth it, but if thats the only reason you are considering the step up, then dont do it.

[Rike255]

I don't think it's worth it either. Especially if you're in my situation where the PS3 is hooked up to the PS3. Just store your music there instead of on your receiver, makes no difference. You can also stream the media from your PC to your PS3.

[RIPSeanTaylor21]

Originally Posted by Rike255

I don't think it's worth it either. Especially if you're in my situation where the PS3 is hooked up to the PS3. Just store your music there instead of on your receiver, makes no difference. You can also stream the media from your PC to your PS3.

its a horrible reciever

[tmok2000]

I have the Yamaha RX-V3800. I guess I don't fully understand your question. The unit itself doesn't have any capability to store music. It does, however, have a couple of interfaces that allows you to link to other music servers. For one, it has an iPod docking option, where you can hook up your iPod to it. I have never tried this, as any true audiophile will not be satisfied with compressed music. Second, if you have a music server anywhere on your network, it can play music files from it. I have this working with a PC running Windows Media Player 11. It works fine, but the control is fairly rudimentary. I only set this up to try it out. I don't use it much either. Third, it supposedly can play music files stored on a USB flash drive. Never tried this either. I listen to Vinyl and SACD most of the time.

If I have to name one thing I want to improve on this receiver, it would have to be the ability to let user define any Internet radio stations that s/he wants to. This is not currently possible, as the users must pick from the predefined list of stations controlled by Yamaha. Sucks.

[tmok2000]

Originally Posted by RIPSeanTaylor21

its a horrible reciever

In what sense is it horrible? It all depends on your point of reference. Comparing to anything that a mass market consumer can readily purchase today, this receiver is mighty fine. Comparing to the more esoteric, harder to find, audiophile-grade equipments, this reciever is not up to par. Then again, if you are talking about connecting it to an iPod or a PS3, this receiver is more than sufficient.

[Crème Blu-ray]

I have the RX-V3800 and I can say a lot of what you're paying for over the RX-V1800 is convenience (i.e., not needing an external music network link or iPod, being able to play music immediately after you've rip it to your PC, etc.). It does do repeat and shuffle, and you can select music by artist, album, genre, playlist and so on.

A few limitations: It doesn't play DRM music or Audible (which I'm guessing you could do with the iPod add-on) nor can it play streaming music such as on MySpace or IMEEM. Also, you can't fast forward and rewind within a track - you can only skip tracks. I've heard there are issues in playing high-bandwidth or lossless WMA's, but I don't have any to test. (I only have MP3's.) I have tried both 320kbps and VBR MP3's and they play fine.

In all honesty you could have a little more flexibility (with DRM and streaming music) for less cost by getting an RX-V1800 and separate hardware. But if I had the chance again, I would still buy this receiver as I value the convenience it offers. The sound quality isn't bad, either.

[JohnGalt]

I have an RX-V3800. Great receiver with *excellent* sound quality but it's less convenient than I'd hoped with for digital music playback. While it can play back files from a USB flash drive it cannot play back files from an external USB HDD, something the PS3 has no problem doing. The sound quality of MP3 playback via the 3800's iPod dock is significantly worse than the sound quality of the same file played via the PS3 (I have a Seagate Freeagent connected to my PS3). The PS3 wins hands-down for ease of navigation and playback of large directory structures as well, the interface is light years beyond what the 3800 provides but that's to be expected.

[avintensity]

Friends:
Thank you for the feedback. It looks as if Yamaha has introduced yet another series of receivers. The flagship plays from HD radio stations. They look promising. Any thoughts?
Av