Great sound, Impressive power, Crisp Highs, Nice DSP Functions

No Light on Volume nob. Comes only in Black.

When my 20 yr old JVC receiver started losing a channel,
and my old CD player stated skipping on CD's. I convinced my wife to by a DVD player and new receiver for the TV room, and move my Yamaha RX-730 receiver and Yamaha CDC-505 CD changer to the living room,(audio only). The search was on.
I looked Denon's , HK's, JVC's. Almost purchased a JVC-8000VBK. After reading reviews here and other places,
I decided that when the Price of the HTR-5250 went to Under 400$ delivered I would by it. At first I was a little skeptical about the HTR line, until I logged on to Yamaha's website. And then the THD was 0.06% vs 0.02% for my 10 yr old RX, that concerned me also. Now thatI have it at home and set up the delay timing, it is really impressive how it sounds. I still need a subwoofer for my system and a new centerchannel speaker. I have the bass set to go through my mains. They are old Fisher's, each cabinet contains two 3" tweeter's, two 5" midranges and a 15" woofer.
The 100 watts in the 5250 just really livens up these speakers. When playing a DVD, it really does it's stuff.
The room shakes, the effects are incredible.
The remote control seems OK to me. It can run my TV , VCR,
DVD and my Yamaha RX-730. Almost purchased the RX-V596 for the same price from the same place. I decided that the
"HTR" letters seem to be more logical for "Home Theater".
It is a great unit for under $400! It cost the same as the RX-730 did in 1990! I am extremely pleased with this unit. I would recommend anyone to take a good look at it before buying anything. It is that good.

Similar Products Used:

First A/V Unit with Surround Sound and Digital decoding.Aft

Clean Power
Lots of inputs

No light on Volume control.
Wish it came in something besides black!

After My 20 Yr Old JVC receiver lost a channel, I decided to start looking for a new AV unit with DTS/Dolby Digital/prologic. My primary receiver was a 11 yr old Yamaha RX-730, 70w per channel. So after months of looking at units in stores and reading reviews,I finally settled on this Yamaha. So far I love it. It's DSP programs are very effective, the remote is fairly simple to use, and most important, it does really sound awsome. Even though its THD is rated at 0.06% (my RX-730 is rated at 0.02%) it produces clear, precise sound. It really can rock. I have main speakers that each cabinet has 2 3" tweeters, 2 5" midranges and one 15" woofer. The highs are awsome and when I send all the bass through them, it shakes the house at 1/3 volume!. It really is a good buy.
I could have purchased a RX-V596 for the same price, from the same place and chose the HTR only because HTR makes more sense for " Home Theater" Maybe the white lettering would have been easier to read at 12' away, but there is no difference between the two units.
The remote is very functional, and it can run my old RX-730!
It also is very flexible in its set up. I love it and it was the same price as my RX-730!

Great sound,lot's of inputs, pre-outs

Remote and the sub-out

I bought the 5250 after reading reviews from here and also got the tip about Sears. You've got to love that price matching. Saved $120 at Sears with a print out from Etronics! I have tested this reciever out with music and movies and it sounds great! Put Gladiator in and the sound with the DTS is incredible.Regular cd's sound great too.Hearing things I've never heard before. I am using the reciever for just a processor/pre-amp because I have a rotel amp that pushes it, but I ran the reciever on it's own for a couple of weeks to see if it had enough power and believe me, it has plenty! The only thing negative outside of the remote(you get used to it)is the Bass out in the menu.Depending on what source you play(DVD,CBL/SAT,ect...)you have to constantly switch from SW to Both(main speakers and subwoofer)to get the bass to sound correct. Although you have to do alot of tweaking because of this it is still a minor inconvienance.
My system consists of:
Yamaha 5250 Reciever
Rotel RB-976 amp
sony DVP 360 DVD player
Infinity SM 112 Main Speakers
Infinity Video 1 Center channel
Infinity RS225 rears
Boston Acoustics CR-400 Subwoofer
Sony 32" TV

The Preouts on this reciever make it extremely flexable and at this price this reciever is a steal!

Similar Products Used:

sony pro-logic reciever, Yamaha DSP 300 surround sound processor.

Strong clean power, multiple ports

none noted

Bought The HTR 5250 a week ago from Sears for $399 after tax. I had bought the HTR 5240 from BestBuy.com for $25 more. After being misled by their specs that indicate the 5240 puts out 85 watts at .04 THD I got pissed and returned it. The way I figured out they were hosed was from this site and then I verified it by going to Yamaha's site and checking the spec's. Also, you guys told me about Sears' matching internet prices and they do! I saved $125 by bringing in prices off the net and print screens from reviews here of folks who had done the same thing, thanks!

This is the system:
HTR 5250
JBL speakers:
S-Center
S-36 Rears
S-38 Fronts
PB12 Subwoofer
Hitachi 53SBX01B rptv (53")
Toshiba 1600 DVD player (free with the TV)

I've bought 3 DVDs this week, "Saving Private Ryan" the house shakes!, "MI2" the house shakes again!, "Gladiator" did I mention the house shakes!

This receiver puts out loads of clean power! With the wife in the room I only need a couple of clicks and it's kickin'.
This system will get as loud as you can stand it, read this to mean bleeding from the ears and the foundation crumbling!

It's also great for easy listening, I just listened to Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" for the first time in years and heard guitar licks that I'd never noticed before.

I think for the money you can't buy a better receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Technics

Strong clean power, multiple ports

none noted

Bought The HTR 5250 a week ago from Sears for $399 after tax. I had bought the HTR 5240 from BestBuy.com for $25 more. After being misled by their specs that indicate the 5240 puts out 85 watts at .04 THD I got pissed and returned it. The way I figured out they were hosed was from this site and then I verified it by going to Yamaha's site and checking the spec's. Also, you guys told me about Sears' matching internet prices and they do! I saved $125 by bringing in prices off the net and print screens from reviews here of folks who had done the same thing, thanks!

This is the system:
HTR 5250
JBL speakers:
S-Center
S-36 Rears
S-38 Fronts
PB12 Subwoofer
Hitachi 53SBX01B rptv (53")
Toshiba 1600 DVD player (free with the TV)

I've bought 3 DVDs this week, "Saving Private Ryan" the house shakes!, "MI2" the house shakes again!, "Gladiator" did I mention the house shakes!

This receiver puts out loads of clean power! With the wife in the room I only need a couple of clicks and it's kickin'.
This system will get as loud as you can stand it, read this to mean bleeding from the ears and the foundation crumbling!

It's also great for easy listening, I just listened to Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" for the first time in years and heard guitar licks that I'd never noticed before.

I think for the money you can't buy a better receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Technics

Clean sound,punchy bass.

Too much echo in some surround sounds

This is my third Yamaha receiver. First was a srereo receiver.Second was surround receiver. I still have them and they soung fine and I hated to part with them. The only reason I upgraded was for the Dolby Digital and DTS systems to enhance DVD's. The sound is very realistic in movies as well as CD's. While choosing a sound field, don't look at the names, go by the sound. The names are somewhat deceiving. For instance there is a sound field called Disco. What's up with that? I didn't even want to use it but when I did, WOW, it utilizes the rear speakers and fills the whole room with sound. Music CD's sound excellent even with all effects turned off! Yes, the remote takes a while to get used to, but for all it does thats not bad.
One thing though if you are thinking of a home theatre invironment at your home. Make sure you can set up your theatre area with the speaker placement reccommended by the manufacturers. I think they are all in agreement that the rear speakers should be behind the listeners. This does make a big difference in the sound, especially the effects on a movie.
In closing, for the price of this receiver, it is an excellent purchase.
My system:
Yamaha HTR-5252 amp
Pioneer DVD 333 DVD player
Sony SLV-N60 VTR
Polk Audio R-7 main speakers( 15 years old and still packing a punch!)
Sony 6" 2 way surround speakers
Yamaha 2 way center channel speaker

Similar Products Used:

No a/v amps

Clear and crisp sound distribution right out of the box. Less buttons yet better sound.

No light indicator on volume knob.

Did you know that most BestBuy stores use Yamaha receivers for their soundroom? Imagine the abuse. For the price, this is an excellent A/V Receiver. I did not have to do much tweaking for the speaker setup. Using the same set of speakers, it out performed my old STR-DE825 right out of the box. I now can hear better sound especially from the rear surround.
The only thing that can ruin this receiver is a set of lousy cheap speakers. Invest on good ones and hear for yourself.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-DE825

Quality, Value for Money, Sound

Remote stinks

This is a great receiver!! It is great for home theater and listening to music. Setup is fairly easy. Remote stinks. Some of the controls are cumbersome.

Overall, a great receiver and value for the money. Be sure to hook up goods speakers as the Yamaha is capable of producing some really good sound. Would recommend based on value and price.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, Yamaha

PRE-OUT ALL 5 CHANNELS-THIS IS POORLY ADVERTISED-BEST BUY WEB SITE DOES NOT LIST THIS SPEC CORRECTLY!!!!!Lots of clean power, lots of inputs.

Wouldn't be the remote....yep the remote.

Well, as you can see from the similar products used section, it has been a long road to this HTR-5250 model. But well worth it.

I have browsed and used many a receiver in the past 2 months. It was only by accident, browsing the Yamaha web site comparison chart, that I discovered the 5250 has pre-outs on all channels. End of discussion on what to get. Having pre outs on all 5 channels gives you so much future flexibility it is a no brainer.

Overall, the unit is very similar to the 5240 (which is a good thing, you can read my review of that model) except it has 30 more watts of power which is also a very good thing.

I took sears up on an internet match to get it for $430.00. You=do the same! You can save substantial money and
Sears IS AN AUTHORIZED DEALER! So you get the warranty as well. I don't know if Onkyo or maybe Harmon Kardon offers a receiver in this price range with all channel pre-outs, I doubt it. BUY THIS RECEIVER!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Old technics pro-logics, Pioneer VSX-309 + 409, and Yamaha HTR-5240

Power, sound, multiple connections.

Remote (what else is new?)

First of all, I feel it is necessary to comment on the comment left by Mike from CA on 12/6/2000. Why would you give this a 1 star rating having never heard it? You should not be reviewing it if it is not yet hooked up. If you had hooked it up and did not like it that is one thing however it is called a review because you actually USE the product.

Anyway, I purchased this receiver to replace a 5 year old Technics so I could experience surround sound. The first thing that stuck me was how heavy this thing is! Hopefully this is a sign of quality construction. I must say the sound is superb and the features are numerous. It has all the hookups I will ever need and plenty of power. The remote is annoying but I have gotten used to it. This receiver makes my movie experience 100% better. Highly recommended, for the price ($400 plus shipping at Camera Club)this is definetly a great deal.

Similar Products Used:

Technics, Sony