My friend had the 395 from 1998 and it PUMPED... POWER POWER POWER

ZERO

Looking fo somewhere in Austalia to buy the reciever online. Don't wanna fork out the $$$ for overseas frieght. I live ages away from any dealers so i want to know if any of you guys know and Aussie online trader for the Yamaha? Anyone with ideas i'd really appreciate it mattabyte@hotmail.com

Cheers

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer

Clear strong! Good DTS

Remote

Upgraded from my old Sony prologic reciever, and must say that this is the best HIFI purchase i've ever done! For the price you cant go wrong. IF you got the money and appriciate cleaner music go for the Yamaha RX-V800, but for 90% of us the Yamaha RX-V496 is the perfect buy!

Similar Products Used:

Sony, HK, Nad

Clean sound, 70 watt per channel is misleading, sounds better than my 100 watt Sony.

Remote is terrible, but that is ok, its a good excuse to get a learning remote.

This is my first Yamaha purchase ever, and I am VERY pleased. My last 3 receivers have been Sony, and I was happy with Sony until I bought the 545, in which I exchanged(due to the infamous Sony545 hiss) for the Yamaha. The 545 was 'rated' at 100 watts per channel, but it cannot EVEN hang with this Yamaha and its 70w.

I have never been much of a music listener in the past, since my interests lay in Home Theater. Now, that has all changed, as music excels on this puppy. This is the first A/V recever in which I actually will USE the DSP's.

In testing the Yam with my trusty Matrix and T-2 'test' DVDs, I was blown away. Don't let the 70 watts per channel fool you. It has good clean power and never sounded distorted even at high volumes. The base response to my active sub was full and deep.

Lastly in renting the Charlies Angel's DVD last night, the Yahama was very impressive in demonstrating its range. The explosions were BOOMING, yet things like glass breaking sounded crystal clear, showing that it can handle highs and lows equally.

For a budget Home Theater(which is all I ever been able to afford!) You CANNOT buy a better under 500.00 reciever in my opinion. This kills ANYTHING that Sony, Pioneer or Kenwood have to offer in the same price range.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-DE545, Sony STR-DE635

Clean Natural Sound, Tight Bass, Clear Highs

None Really

It took me a while to finally purchase this receiver. I have never been a fan of Yamaha mainly because their products always looked so plain . However, once I got past that little superficial problem BOY was I surprised! This receiver is awesome! It's a very accurate, crisp sound that sounds good with no added adjustments. With all my levels set flat it out does my old JVC receiver with ease! It makes my old Bose 401 speakers sound new! The price was also a big plus! I can't wait to try the DTS on it! Please get past the looks and buy this receiver! You will not regret!

Similar Products Used:

JVC 8000

Loud, clean volume, easy to use remote, power, it's a Yamaha

For $200???? You've got to be kidding me!

Well, a couple of weeks ago my JVC decided to crap out on me. Fortunately I had the HK there as a replacement. However, I made the mistake of going to look at a better receiver. There really was nothing which stood out about this one other than it is a Yamaha. It had everything I could possibly want at this time. DD, DTS, 2 optical inputs and one digital coax, not as many s-video inputs or optical inputs as what I would have liked but that's just me. I like a lot of inputs which I probably will not use. The power is not a knockout at 5 * 70 but it is clean power, very similar to the HK. The clincher for me was the price. If it were not on sale, then I wouldn't have bought it. I would have waited for the JVC to be repaired. However for $200, no question about it. It looks gorgeous and wieghs just over 22 lbs. For all intents and purposes this is the exact same receiver as the HTR-5240. If your are new to HT and do not want to spend a lot, this is the receiver for you. Sure, there are bigger and better out there, but this is the best bang for the buck that I've found.

Similar Products Used:

JVC RX-8000V, HK AVR-40

Very clear,no hiss,powerful.Looks good too

to much mid-to high range

I bought a Yamaha rxv496 at Christmas time to replace our Pioneer Rx-590 pro logic amp that fried a year ago...That amp had a 5-band eq and Super Bass and i gotta say it sounded beautiful pumping sound out of the 150 watt CSR-590's at any volume.
So when i connected the Yamaha reciever and put on some of my Fav tunes.. i was quite disapointed at the sound quality...the power was there...holy s@#t ..very powerful.. but the sound seemed "flat" the bass didn't fill the room like it did with the Pioneer,and when i cranked it up..the mid-range was (and still is even with this sub) so strong and "shrill" it pretty much tore the face right off me!!!
I 've been playing with the bass and treble controls and have it that it's tolerable but on some songs it's just waaaayyy too much mid-range/treble at higher volumes it's almost painful. If i turn the treble down on the amp...the sound becomes unclear and muffled turn it up for clarity.. and it's shrill as hell.
So i bought a PSW350 Polk Audio sub hoping it would blend and mask the upper frequencies but...even though it DOES sound much better it will never sound as good as my old Pioneer
did.So i'm out 500.00 for the sub...575.00 for the amp(electronics are not cheap in Nova Scotia)and i'm still not happy with my "rip yer face off" mid-range HT setup...
I welcome any and all advice

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer High Power And Super Bass Double Cassette Deck Receiver RX-590

Clean upper treble and DTS. Good tonal balance.

Bass is not well defined and the soundstage in stereo mode is not that precise. There is no layering of instruments.

I got the Yamaha for a home theater system and planned to use it with my Klipsch speakers. I recently connected my B&W 601 S2 to the Yamaha for the front, because the B&W sounded very hard with the Acurus pre and power amp. The Acurus sounded okay with my Acoustat speakers. While I get a better defined soundstage and tighter bass with the Acurus and the B&W 601 combination, the hard treble was unbearable. With the Yamaha, it sounds much better better in the treble range, but the bass and soundstage were not as good. It sounds fine with the Klipsch but the Klipsch is not as detailed as the B&W speakers. The Yamaha is powerful and involving for HT (my original goal). The sound is much better than I expected, and it sounds better than Sony, Technics, and Kenwood receivers (based on my potentially unreliable sonic memory).

Overall good sound and value for its price.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Acurus A250 and L10.

Sound, Compatibility, Build, Features

At this price........NONE!

Before I purchased this receiver, I surfed www.AudioReview.com and try to find out receivers that suit my budget. I am pleased to announced that this receiver is a winner. The other two (Denon & Sony) had limitations and advatages of their own. Here's how I judged them :

I tested the surround performance of all the receivers. Sony : too detailed. Yamaha : OK. Denon : OK.

I tested the stereo performance. Sony : did bad in analog. Yamaha : Good. Denon : Good.

I tuned in to tuner section : Sony : hissing. Yamaha : Natural. Denon : OK.

At this point I was convinced that I want to purchase the Denon. But then I remembered one guy reveiewed that Yamaha's DSP is THE BEST. He's right. SONY : too artificial. Yamaha : THE BEST. Denon : Lousy.

My heart is still convinced with the Denon because of its looks and construction. But then I carefully examine their rears (count Sony out - too expensive for my budget) :

Yamaha has 4 A/V inputs, Denon has 3. Yamaha has 3 digital inputs, Denon has 2.

For the same budget and the same surround types decoding and performances.....I chose the Yamaha.

New formats such as Dolby Pro.Logic 2 and DTS-ES coming out so fast. Maybe, just maybe, by next year, you'll be seeing these new formats available at an affordable price just as what I'm paying now....... so why pay more!!! Buy this Yamaha now!!!

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-1601, Sony STR-DB930

qwwww

Excellent sound, quality headphone section, hits the right price point.

none

This is my first reciever with digital inputs, and all I have to say is wow. Even MP3's output from my computer are much crisper than on my Pioneer ProLogic reciever.

My only gripe is that Yamaha did not equip the reciever well for headphone listening. It is very easy to turn the main speaker outputs off, but to disable the sub you have to use the remote and access the main control menu. Minor gripe, but annoying none the less.

This is a great sounding unit with the perfect price to power to features ratios.