The appearance of the junior AV receiver Yamaha RX-V385 is designed in the style of the budget RX-V line. The front panel is visually divided horizontally into two approximately equal parts. The top one is covered with a dark plastic panel, hiding a large information display, under which there is a row of small buttons that control auxiliary functions. On the left side of the facade there is a 6.3 mm jack connector for headphone output, a mini-jack socket for connecting a measuring microphone of the YPAO auto-calibration system, as well as a key for switching the receiver to Standby mode. In the lower part, lined with metallized plastic, a large volume control knob attracts attention. The input selector is implemented not with a rotary switch, as in the company’s older models, but with two keys, with which you can cycle through the inputs. The control keys and ports in the front part of the façade are open to view – there is no special door like the models of the top AVENTAGE series.
The set of inputs on the facade consists of a USB connector for connecting a flash drive or external hard drive with audio files, as well as an analog AUX input on a minijack connector for working with mobile gadgets. The central place is given to large keys for quickly selecting one of four receiver settings profiles. Unfortunately, there is no HDMI port for quickly connecting a game console or smartphone. It would be possible to dwell in detail on the criticism of the ergonomics of this or that solution in the layout of the front panel, but let’s admit – we do not use the controls on the facade so often, and we control the device mainly using the remote control, which in this case is very convenient to use, not overloaded with keys and logically organized.
The budget class of the device explains the modesty of the switching arsenal on the rear wall of the Yamaha RX-V385 case. The emphasis here is on HDMI digital switching – four input and one output ports are offered. In terms of video, the receiver is equipped with analog composite switching, but this is more of an auxiliary feature for resolving problematic situations during installation and configuration – in serious home theater systems, “composite” has not been used for a long time, and there is no video converter from these inputs to digital form for output via an HDMI receiver It has. In addition, there are a pair of analog inputs on RCA connectors, a pair of coaxial and one optical digital port. Of the audio outputs, there is only an RCA connector for connecting an active subwoofer, which is quite common for a budget receiver. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to build cinema muscle over time using external power amplifiers.
The Yamaha RX-V385 receiver is equipped with five amplification channels, which means it is capable of implementing a 5.1 surround sound system. To connect the front pair of speakers, the manufacturer provided screw acoustic terminals, and for switching the central and rear speakers, he limited himself to spring terminals. The proprietary YPAO calibration system is responsible for adjusting the surround decoder to the acoustic characteristics of the cinema based on measurements using a microphone.
Unlike last year’s RX-V383, this year’s new model has screw terminals for all five channels instead of spring terminals for the center and rear speakers as was the case on the previous model. Perhaps the biggest news is that the RX-V385 features the latest HDMI 2.1 protocol on all four inputs and one output, making it one of the first products to use the latest HDMI specification. The maximum bit rate is not specified, but the AV receiver is said to support 4K/60p 4:4:4 video, high dynamic range (HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG) and BT.2020 color. Therefore, we assume a data transfer rate of at least 18 Gbps – the same as the maximum HDMI 2.0 speed.
The Yamaha RX-V385 AV receiver is capable of playing audio from external USB drives recorded in MP3, WMA, AAC and WAV (standard definition) file formats. If release information and album cover are encoded in the headers of multimedia files, then the receiver, through its on-screen interface, is able to display all this in color on the TV screen. Yamaha’s proprietary DSP processing Compressed Music Enhancer has the most favorable effect on the quality of playback of musical material received via Bluetooth.
Characteristics of Yamaha RX-V385
Output power, W – 5 x 100 (at 6 Ohm, 1 kHz, when loading one channel, THD 0.9%)
Frequency range, Hz – 10-100,000 (at -3 dB level, linear input AV2)
Signal-to-noise ratio, dB – >110 (AV2 line input)
Channel separation (1 kHz / 10 kHz), dB – 70 / 50
Damping factor (8 Ohm, 20 Hz – 20 kHz) – > 100
Dolby TrueHD decoding and DTS-HD HRA/MA
Auto-calibration system – yes, YPAO
Switching HDMI v.2.0 with support for HDR, BT.2020 and HDCP v.2.2, inputs / outputs – 4 / 1
Video scaler 4K
Video inputs – composite (3)
Video outputs – composite
Audio inputs – minijack, RCA (2), digital optical, digital coaxial (2)
Audio outputs – RCA to subwoofer
Additionally – compatible with Dolby Vision, USB, Bluetooth A2DP
Power consumption (max), W – 470
Dimensions, cm – 43.5 x 15.1 x 31.5
Weight, kg – 7.4
