The Yamaha RXv-795 and 795a are excellent 5.1 A/V receivers and many people swore by them in the early 2000's. The difference between the two models is slight and pertains to the number of Fiber DD connections. Since the RX was manufactured in the early 2000, there was no component (our it had just been released) connections, nor were their HDMI/DVI type connections. However, the 5.1 Dolby Digital experience using this receiver is excellent and has approximately 10 Dolby Digital DSP modes and another 10 or 15 Standard DSP modes which allow you to do things like take 2 channel audio and turn it into a 5 channel representation. The Video switching is strictly S-Video and RCA but the receiver does a good job at handling this analog inputs. The menu is on-screen and excellent in that their are not only textual type menu's but also graphical representations of things like your 5.1 DD setup when sending white noise to each speaker to adjust it's level. All speakers, including center channel, have standard +10 to -10 settings. Obviously with the price of receivers nowadays it's 1000 dollar price tag would be a far out price to pay for the unit today but that was the original cost in the early days of home Dolby Digital A/V receivers.