This a great receiver. It has very nice sound effect, especially for home theater. Bad things are, 1. Unlike the lucky guys in the previous previews, I pay full retail price of $469; 2. Hiss from all speakers are pretty annoying; 3. VERY BAD remote. Don't even think you can use it as a "universal" control. Four stars.

I listened to a number of receivers at various stores, including considerably higher priced models, and did not notice a significant difference in sound quality. Bought from Onecall for $406 incl. shipping. I have JBL TLX 181s, and the system sounds superb. Will knock out your fillings if you crank it, but sounds great at low volume as well. DSP settings do actually make a big difference in the sound. Classical music in "Hall" puts you in the middle of a concert hall, and "Disco" mode makes for a great party system--the sound is equal through all four speakers, and it pounds! Works great for movies, too.
The only drawback is that the remote is not particularly well designed, but not as bad as some reviewers will have you believe. It works fine with the receiver, but I would not recommend that you use it as your universal remote. Then again, you do not buy a receiver because the remote is nice.

Overall, I think this is an outstanding value in its price range--you will not find a better receiver for the same price.



Overall, an outstanding value for both music and home theatre.

What can I say about this receiver? AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! This receiver has really been the best yet. This receiver has incredible sound it is so natural and clear. The 70 watts per channel seems like 100 watts. I used to have a SONY ES series receiver that I took back because of malfunctioning (4 times in a row) and I picked up this piece of hardware. The Yamaha sound so much better and is half the price of the SONY ES. I have ENERGY 28P's for mains (with built in 100 watt sub's on each speaker), ENERGY AC-300 center channel, and JAMO bipole/dipole surround speakers and the R-V905 drives them with no stressing and no problems. The remote is easy to use, I don't know why every one complains about it (all remotes are easy to use). So if you want a great receiver for a great price get the YAMAHA R-V905.

I bought this unit based on comments in this forum after returning a defective Technics 930. For a price difference of about $150, the
performance difference is quite remarkable. The sound clarity, the FM tuner
are much improved over the less expensive Technics. Also, the DSP modes
really do seem to work, whereas on the Technics 930 there did not seem to
be a significant difference. I am very pleased with this purchase.

I recently purchased this receiver at the local mega store for $359, and I am extremely happy with its performance. I had originally purchased a Sony 925, which was defective, so I bought the Yamaha, and boy am I glad I did. The Yamaha replaced an $850 Onkyo, and it sounds much cleaner and open. My system consists of Mirage 595 fronts, Mirage MC3 center, Mirage MBS2 surrounds, and a Mirage PS12-90 subwoofer, all in a very large room. This receiver drives this system with no problems. The bass output really surprised me, as I had to lower the subwoofer settings from the Onkyo quite considerably, even on music. This receiver is a great match for the Mirages. I have had little problem with the remote.

After a long and frustrating search for the "perfect" receiver, I finally found one that I really like. I considered all the Mid priced receivers out there including Pioneer, JVC, Sony, and Yamaha. Compared to all the receivers I had took back the next day, the 905 full-fills my wants and needs. The sound is VERY impressive, great response from 20hz to 20khz. I like the remote but as stated in pretty much all the reveiews it can get frustrating at times. The 70 watts is SOLID power, I have a pair of DCM KX-12's, and the 905 gives them a workout!!! With the powered DCM KX-SUB1, I get all the bass I want! The DSP settings are really awesome, the best on the market, at least from the ones i've listened to. I could go on raving about this receiver, but I will let you experience it first hand, I highly recommend the 905 or any Yamaha receiver for that matter!! A SOLID 5 stars!!

Before I purchased this receiver (from Onecall) I was also considering the sony str-de935 which has more features and I could get it around the same price. From reviews on this site as well as advice from other audio stores and friends I decided on the yamaha and I am glad I did. Even the the receiver itself looks much better. The front of the sony looks cheaper and has small dials and buttons. The display screen is also smaller on the sony. I was worried about the seemingly low rating of 70 watts X 5 but was told that it was a clean 70 and it would be plenty of power a boy was that the case. I have this receiver hooked up to cerwin vega e-312 speakers (front), CV CTR-25 (center)and CV HT-SAT5 (rear) and this system can perform far louder without any distortion than I would ever need or use. The bass without a seperate subwoofer is amazing (most likely due to speakers rather than receiver) The dolby digital sounds great as well as the yamaha DSP modes which are highly impressive. The remote as many people have stated isn't the best but it is ok. Because it isnt nearly as wide as many other remotes you are able to control everthing on it with one hand without much difficulty. I read through the instructions (not all) and was easily able to tune all of the receiver's channels to my liking and lock the setup so someone else cant change the setting by accident. Overall this is a great receiver for someone like myself with a limited budget.

OneCall.com is selling these for $377.44. They are closing them out. I am unaware of a newer version of this model but if anyone knows, please email me.I am very happy with the quality produced by this component. I am considering buying another one for my living room (already have one in the den). Excellent value for the price.

I bought the Yamaha 905 when I thought my AVR-1000 was bad. The Yamaha had wonderful clean sound. I was driving it with a Denon DCM-460 with a MSB Link DAC and it matched up beautifully. I didn't try the remote, as my Denon actually was good. If you are in it for the sound quality, the remote should be way down on the list. My Denon is 5 years old with the same power rating specs as the yamaha. I wish I hadn't compared the two, as the AVR-1000 was a few hundred dollars more when I bought it. I would really recommend it to anyone looking in the 400 - 500 price range. Rating is for the quality you get for dollars paid.

I just bought this receiver last week, and it's amazing! I was looking for about 2 months before I decided on the Yamaha. Other models I was looking at was the Pioneer VSX608, the Sony de935, and a Denon AVR1700. I paid $600 CDN for it (about $400 U.S dollars) and I don't think that I could have done any better for that kind of money. I originally wanted the Denon, but it's a couple hundred dollars more. The sound is incredible compared to the Sony and the Pioneer...they don't even compare! In Canada this model is 85w x 5 instead of 70w x 5, which is an added bonus, because I was reading the Yamaha website (U.S) and it said 70w x 5, and when I went to buy it they told me it was 85w x 5 and then I went and confirmed it on the CDN website. It's definitely a lot of bang for your buck. And the remote doesn't bother me at all, in fact it's extremely easy to use and it fits nicely in your hand.