Yamaha RX-V381
FOR Big presentation; fast and articulate; easy set-up AGAINST Few features; lacks a little authority and solidity
Like graduate salesmen, more and more tech goods are expected to go far beyond what they initially signed up for: smartphones can now start your car, fridges can talk, and kettles turn themselves on to boil.
Even with budget AV amplifiers, a number of features are becoming almost mandatory: wi-fi, DLNA streaming, high-resolution audio support… all features of the Denon AVR-X1300W (£300), for example.
The Yamaha RX-V381, however, flies in the face of all that. This is a back-tobasics, 70W-per-channel 5.1 surround amplifier with Bluetooth and an AM/FM tuner. No Spotify Connect. No Dolby Atmos. Not even Yamaha’s Musiccast multi-room technology.
Pledging itself as fervently to the retro revolution as a department store’s homeware section, it doesn’t even have commonplace banana-plug connections for all of its speaker terminals – the surround and centre channel inputs are the less substantial spring-loaded type. So why would you consider buying this amp, you ask? It’s a simple answer, but a good one: performance.
Single-minded purpose
It should come as little surprise the RX-V381 impresses in the sound department. After all, Yamaha’s 2016 range of amps has been exemplary, from the £500 RX-V581 to the Awardwinning RX-A1060 and high-end RX-A3060. The RX-V381 is very much a sonic descendant of those devices, its primary concern being the size and scale of the sound it delivers.
We turn the lights down and volume up for The Conjuring 2, and the Yamaha duly shows the film to be an exercise in suspense. The ghostly whispers and unnerving rumbles that break eerie silences are atmospheric and enthralling, this amplifier proving keen to show off its immense scale and enveloping soundfield. Close your eyes (if they aren’t already hiding behind a cushion from the horror being revealed on the screen) and it may well feel as though your speakers are positioned further back than they are.
The exaggerated reverb on gunshots fires back towards the rear channels with precision – not once is there a gap in their travels – and the Yamaha creates enough space for the flurries of strings in the background and the diegetic sound effects not to bump into one another.
It’s in the detail
The RX-V381’S pleasing detail detection means you’re never left in any unintended silences. The more discreet parts of the soundtrack – chirping birds and the slight shimmy of furniture, for example – are all present, if perhaps not quite as subtle as we’d like.
It has the dynamism and agility to play into the hands of director James Wan’s penchant for jump scares and instrumental climaxes, and is a little quicker out of the gate in this respect than its rival the Denon AVR-X1300W.
There’s slightly greater expression to the opening narration that sets the scene for Ed and Lorraine Warren’s legendary Enfield hauntings case too. It carries the trepidation in Lorraine’s voice and emphasises the monologue’s final utterance of ‘demonic’ enough to make you shudder in your seat.
Creepy comparisons
The Denon replies with more solidity, especially in the midrange. Gasps of horror and children’s menacing laughter feel more intimidating, and the heavier creaks of doors more unsettling too, than they do through the Yamaha. Ultimately though, neither amp possesses the outright power or punch to truly convince.
The mood-changing introduction of The Clash’s London’s Calling that scores stock footage of quintessential London not only gives you a chance to sit back up in your seat, but also to acknowledge the amp’s energy and oomph as the simultaneous drum and guitar groove fills the front speakers.
Musical bent
It’s a nod towards the Yamaha’s musicality, and one that is confirmed through a stereo performance of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Dust Of The Chase from the Hell Or High Water soundtrack. The gruffness of his Texan-twanged vocal is intact, and the acoustic strumming and harmonica that snake through the soundtrack are clear and lively.
The RX-V381 doesn’t discriminate between movies and music, nor against people without the space for the ideal surround set-up. There are digital processing modes designed to emulate surround sound from two speakers (‘Virtual CINEMA’), or five speakers that have been forced to sit at the front of a room (‘Virtual CINEMA FRONT’).
“By prioritising the core functionality of an amp – to make things sound big, loud and engaging – the Yamaha puts in an engaging performance”
It spares a thought for newcomers to the process too. The YPAO set-up software, which measures everything from your speakers’ connectivity, phase and distances to your room’s acoustics and calibrates accordingly, is one of the simplest we’ve come across. And, as if under the pressure of the Countdown countdown, it’s one of the quickest too. It has Rachel Riley’s level of accuracy too, its calculations more or less spot on.
Yes, it has no bananas
The lack of banana plug sockets is a shame in that the amp requires unterminated speaker cable, and relatively thin cable at that. Still, we’ve no complaints about arrangements elsewhere on the rear panel, where four HDMI inputs and one output – all HDCP 2.2-certified for 4K, HDR and BT.2020 pass-through – join single optical and dual coaxial inputs, a more-thanadequate handful of analogue connections, and an AM/FM antenna.
Clear-sighted priorities
Just because an alarm clock doesn’t have multi-coloured lights or a choice of TV theme tunes to wake you up doesn’t make it a bad alarm clock. And it’s just that logic that applies here. By prioritising the core functionality of an amplifier – which is to make things sound big, loud and engaging – the Yamaha puts in an engaging performance that, while not the last word in punch or solidity, is nevertheless more than capable in most sonic areas.
For purists who don’t need Spotify this and wi-fi that, or perhaps have access to those features elsewhere in their system, the Yamaha RX-V381 should be seen as functionally streamlined rather than detrimentally spartan. And that’s a good thing for an amplifier to be.