Clarity and balanced sound for smaller places.

No DTS outside of external inputs, limited video connections (no S-Video or component inputs).

I love the sound and value of these Yamaha receivers, but my particular unit was DOA from uBid. The internal processor that generates DSP and Dolby fields was not functioning when I hooked it up, and I think that it did some damage to my Yamaha NS2835 speakers. First, the Dolby digital would not work, then I tried the sound fields with a CD and when I hit that button, WHAM!, white noise and I mean at a high volume! The receiver works fine with straight signals (2channel CD and 5 channel inputs from my DVD player), but I'm a bit sore about the processor not working.

I got the unit from uBid, and I've learned that the Yamaha warranty is VOID since uBid is not a licensed Yamaha vendor. My uBid warranty was only good for 90 days, and I had not opened my receiver up until after that since my new home was under construction and I was waiting until then to install all of my new equipment.

*******PLEASE CHECK THE WARRANTY SITUTATION OUT BEFORE YOU BUY FROM UBID!!*********

Ilearned the hard way, I guess. All of the money I've saved by buying things on that site has now been eaten up in my purchase of a junk receiver!

That said, I will be buying a newer 496 or HT40 from an AUTHORIZED dealer since I do think that the sound and quality/value from Yamaha can't be beat. I'll give this review a 2 star rating, since I don't know what might have happened to the receiver between Yamaha, uBid and me, but I am not happy for sure.

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None, really. Moving up from Pioneer 505S from 1996.

flexibility, multiple dsp modes, great surround

lack of bottom end, no low bass.

I bought this reciever based on reviews such as these. Most everyone liked this reciever and I wanted to get in on the surround bandwagon. I was replacing an early 70's Pioneer SX-535 stereo reciever, 18 w/ch. After my initial power up of the Yamaha, and listening to some music I found something lacking, most notably lack of deep bass. My old Pioneer would shake the house down if I used the eq at higher settings and turned up the wick some. Not so with the Yamaha. If I watched movies in surround, there seemed to be adequate bass response, but the movie soundtracks are all doctored to give you a big sound impact. It was not until I hooked up the old Pioneer as a subwoffer channel and fed it to a pair of 12" floor model Radio Shack speakers that I recovered some of the thump I wanted.
The reciever otherwise is very nice, smooth midrange, nice crisp treble and great dynamic range, especially if you feed it a diet of live concerts, like the Yellow Jackets, "Live Wires" disc. Too bad about the soft bottom, now I'm looking for a replacment reciever with a heftier appetite for low bass.

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Wanted to upgrade my system now that DD is available at an affordable price. Was initially impressed with the Sony 835 for features and the ONKYO 727 for feature/price. Spec sheets aside, I went to the listening room and compared the Sony, Onkyo, and Yamaha. The Yamaha flat embarrassed the Sony and Onyko in sound quality (my 8 year daughter could even hear the distinct sound difference, and no, she was not happy to be AV component shopping with Daddyo). The Sony and Onkyo sounded shrill and presented almost no stage. The Yamaha was warm, the vocals immediately moved into the room and a large soundstage suddenly appeared. I used an A/B switch, and sound difference was astonishing. I was able to purchase the 495 for $299, a great deal. I replaced my 6 year old Kenwood (130 watt pro logic unit, was the Kenwood flagship at the time) with the Yamaha and my system has never sounded better. Kenwood had the power but definitely not the warmth, smoothness or soundstage of the Yamaha.
This is a high current amplifier so I would not be real concerned with comparing the wattage ratings against other amps, as this would be comparing apples to oranges in most cases. I run the system with an Infinity powered 15" sub and NHT Super One mains. The Super ones are not efficient speakers by any means, and my listening room is very large, but the Yamaha 495 never blinked at filling the room with sound at obnoxiously high levels, never a hint of a clip.. I specifically shopped the RXV495 first, because of the nice remote, I hated the remote on the 595 (ugly, bad silver color, and has the silly wheel) and I did not think the extra 10 watts of power was worth an additional $100. If you are in the market for an entry level DD receiver, stop looking, this is the unit, for the amp quality alone this unit should cost $150-$200 more. Terrific price point, very clean amp, good tuner, excellent DD decoding, good remote.

Harmon Kardon makes units that can compete with the Yamaha, but HK unfortunately runs about $100 more that the Yamaha, so the price point takes HK out of the running.

Highly recommended and highly satisfied! Good Job Yamaha!

I'm a lazy writer so ditto on the Bogey man. I love this reciever. It's simpleto use. Sounds great. The tuner seems to sound really really good. Nice remote. I use it in a small room (approx. 11 x 12) and have more than enough power to spare....normal listening is about 1/8 turn of the volume. I can't say that I researched it well before buying. Too many variables when testing at stores. I just talked to alot of people I know, mostly at work, and a alot of them recommended Yamaha in general. Price was a consideration so I saw the RX-v495 for... well in the upper 300 range (certainly not as good a deal as Bogey man) and just bought it.

Excellent value; clean power with adequate reserves; good tuner section; upgradeable.

Somewhat confusing remote control.

I got the Yamaha V495 because I wanted to take the DVD plunge after waiting for some time for prices on both hard- and software to fall.

The 495 was at the right price point for me, not wanting to spend kilobucks on an AV receiver; frankly, I don't think it's worth the money to spend more than $500 on these things: most movies today feature over-processed soundtracks, specially your basic action-adventure-horror flick. I personally prefer older films with strong storylines, so clear dialogue is important and loud SFX are definitely not.

On this score, the Yamaha delivers very well. Count me a satisfied user, although I am still fooling around with frontspeaker combinations. I started with Paradigm Phantoms and a CC-170 Center. Because of space constraints, the whole system has to be crammed into built-in shelves, so the Paradigms tended to be too boomy for the space. I've since shifted to Mercury M2s, fine speakers but a tad bass-shy, so a subwoofer now seems to be in the works.

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NAD 716

Superb sound and price.

This is addressed in the summary.

Some people are reporting a problem with the 495's remote control. The lower pad stops working and you cannot adjust delay, center/rear output etc. However, you don;t have to remove the batteries and reinsert them as stated here. All you have to do is hit the top middle button marked AMP/TUNER and the lower pad will work again. All this does is tell the remote to use itself in reveiver (its default) mode. My assumption is by removing and reinserting the batteries you are essentially doing the same thing - button the remote back to the default "tuner/amp" mode. I found my remote sometimes cutting out on the lower pad too, and pressing that button fixes it every time.

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Kenwood and Sony Pro-Logic receivers

Extremely good audio quality.
Cheap for a good Dolby Digital Reciever.

No S-Video

I was really surprised for what I got at for $400 price tag. This receiver makes every single DVD in my collection sound like I'm in a full fledged theater. The seemingly small power rating(60watts) doesn't hinder the sound one bit, and really out-performs the other 100watt receivers. This is because the receivers rated at 100watts only put out that much power when there is a lot of noise to be made or on one frequency, while the others get somewhere around 30 - 50 watts. Anyone who appreciates delicate, yet powerful sound and is looking to buy a receiver should definitely give this a try. Buy this receiver! It's an awesome buy!!

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Very "neat" and clean sound, good design.

Lack of Bass w/o a subwoofer

Thank U for all the good (also true) reviews on this product! I've seen (and listened) to Onkyo, H/K and Sherwood product range and the reviews here absolutely helped me with my final buy.

=)

I bought a H/K FL8300 CD-Player a few months ago (still working...and crossing my fingers...) before I read the reviews on that product, if I knew what they say of it before I bought...

Well, I'm an entry-level HiFi Audiophile and this receiver works and sounds very "neat" with the H/K connected via digital coaxial cables (AudioQuest) to the DVD/LD input, I can tell you the difference between the RCA and Digital inputs w/o a doubt.

I've got a JBL ESC200 audio processor with 5 (JBL) satelite speakers and a passive (JBL) subwoofer (bought 7 months before), now just the subwoofer is connected to the processor and connected to the RXV495's subwoofer output.

With this 5 satelite speakers, the sub and a pair of old Fisher's (from an old stolen Fisher receiver) all of my bulding neighbours know what's HiFi about... even at 1/4 of the total power...

Until now I use the 495 just for music until I can afford a decent DVD-Player (I'll see the reviews before i buy...).

And there's room to grow!!!!!! The RMS rated power of the JBL sat. speakers is 20 watts.@ 8 ohms. so there are another 2/3 of power for more speakers (for my birthday I'll get the Bose Audiomass 5 package... hope so).

Well I needed to Thank U all for your help and Yamaha for developing a piece of equipment like this for those on a "very short" budget.

One last thing:
If this is an entry-level receiver I can't imagine how's the sound of a Hi-End... well... my neighbours will notice that in a few more years... (lol).

;-P

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JBL ESC-200 surround processor

Excellent Sound.

Only one Digital Coax input(as opposed to 2 Optical)/Remote takes a little getting used to

For a reciever that puts out 60Watts per channel, it sure packs a big punch. Clean sound. From what I've read it sounds like I could have gotten a little better price ($400 CDN). Dolby Digital sounds unreal.

I noticed that one of the bigger complaints was the lack of S-Video inputs on the reciever.One thing that I still don't understand is why you would want to enter video into your reciever.

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Yamaha Dolby Surround Sound Reciever (can't recall the model)

PRICE!!!!! FEATURES!!! GREAT BANG FOR THE BUCK

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great unit, can only recommend it because of the great sound and price has very good sp fields..highly recommneded

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