Easy to set up, easy to use (even the remote, once you get used to it), dynamite sound.

Nothing major that I've noticed.

When I hooked up the 795a for the first time and compare the CD opening track of "Titanic", I almost fell out of my chair. The deep bass produced by my B&W 602 nearly made me check to see if my subwoofer was on. Listening to other CD's, I heard instruments I'd never heard before, and the clarity and positioning were great! Enhanced ProLogic really sounds good, with good volume from the surrounds, and watching shows like Star Trek Voyager came across quite well. The Pioneer's ProLogic barely made my surrounds squeak. The warmth and timbre of the music produced is great. My brother had a 595a, but when I told him about the price I paid ($499), he returned it and upgraded also. I should be enjoying this receiver for many years to come.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-05 DD receiver

Great sound, ease of setup. Nice binding posts on the rear. HT DSPs. And yes.. The Remote!

Hi-fi DSPs are TERRIBLE, Jazz, and Disco are OK the others are pretty much useless. Needs S-video input for CBL/DSS, and an additional Coax Bitstream input.

I have had this receiver for not too long now, but I have gotten used to the little nuances enough to give what I hope to be an educated review.


THE REMOTE
Many have criticized the remote. I kind of like it. Sure it definitely takes getting used to, and I still occasionally switch inputs on the receiver by mistake, usually trying to directly access a CD track. While the remote is not backlit, I have found the "Glow in the dark" buttons glow for quite a while. The best part about this remote is that it IS almost universal! It controls all of the basic functions for everything in my AV system! Excellent! Now I said almost, certain functions are not controlled by this remote (CD-Random, or the Guide button for cable). My only complaint, lose the YELLOW paint on the silver remote. I can't read this in the light of day!

The Receiver:

Looks:
I like the looks of this Receiver, not too big, nice colour (BLACK) and relatively simple. If I were to make one criticism in the looks department it would be to the overuse of tuner buttons on the front. That's what remotes are for.

Setup:
This is a great receiver for setup. The back panel is clearly marked and everything fits where its supposed to (with the exception of some CRAPPY banana plugs I got from Radio Shack, 4mm my eye. THIS IS NOT YAMAHA’S FAULT). My only problem here was that I wish there was an S-video input for CBL/DSS and a corresponding Coax bitstream input. Many manufacturers don’t seem to be using the TOSLINK outputs (even my Toshiba DVD), which means that these midpriced Receivers would match consumers needs better with 2-coax, and 1-optical input as opposed to the other way around. You could fudge it by putting the CBL/DSS into the VCR input but then you screw up the functionality of the remote, it won’t accept a CBL code for the VCR, and you still can't use the bitstream.

SOUND
OK we’re all setup now to turn this puppy on! WOW. This receiver sounds GREAT. I was initially concerned as I had been told by dealers (all Onkyo dealers) that the Yamaha’s were bright, I was afraid that with my Energy e:XL speakers which are also purported to be bright that it would be too harsh. In fact the contrary! This receiver matches very well with my speakers. The Bass Enhancement Function adds some serious warmth, although I find I switch it off for Music. The HT DSPs are very nice. Certain Pro-Logic broadcasts don’t take very well though, lot’s of echo echo echo. Others are very handy, Mono Movie is great for those older TV broadcasts, it makes Battlestar Gallactica sound like Star Trek (the new ones). The HIFI DSPs leave a little bit to be desired. Kudos however to Yamaha for making ALL of the DSPs adjustable. I was able to make the DISCO DSP a virtual 4-channel stereo. Jazz Hall sounds good, especially with Jazz (go figure). Concert Hall is ok with Classical. If you like those Monk Chanting CDs then you might find a use for the Church, although I still found there to be too much reverb. It does sound like a church, but more like when you’re standing outside in the hallway. Finally the Rock DSP is just plain TERRIBLE! At first I thought I had a defective unit. You see, the surround channels are unbalanced in this DSP (this is unadjustable). There is lots of sound from the Left Surround, and virtually none from the Right Surround. Very Distracting! The folks at Yamaha told me it was due to the listening position. The listener was sitting to the Left of the stage near a concrete wall, so in essence there is lots of reverb on the Left side. Yamaha in case you weren’t aware, the best seats for a rock concert are FRONT ROW CENTER!!!!!!!!!

Overall this is a great Receiver for the price, and even a couple hundred bucks more. I am looking forward to watching lots of movies and listening to lots of CDs. I have had this thing for a couple of months now and I am still tempted to call in sick to stay home and listen to music.

Four Stars!!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha CDC-575
Toshiba 2109 DVD
Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000 (Digital Cable Box)
Energy e:XL25/C/16 (F/C/R)

sound quality , appearance , price

remote blows , remote blows , remote blows

Just got the 795a a week ago... Love the sound , very easy to setup. Would recommend to anyone. I am going to buy the Sony AV-2000 remote control to replace the piece of junk that comes with the unit...Got a great deal at Tweeter $599.00 / with a 120 trial period in which I can return the unit for a full price if I don't like it......

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood AVR-7514 . Some piece of crap sony which I cant remember the model #.

Excellent 5.1 movie soundtrack reproduction, nice digital sound exhancements (5.1 and pro-logic), $100 less than previous model (795), Some upgrades from 795 (binding posts all the way around, another s-video, 85 watts x 5)

Remote (like most other receivers in this price range), S-video switching is somewhat limited, only one coax-digital in, Descent music reproduction. No digital out.

I purchased this item two months ago during a local retailers sale ($620). I was impressed by the dynamic sound during DD and DTS playback. However, realizing some of the upgrade limitations, I decided to trade the unit for the Marantz SR7000. (The Marantz, like the Yamaha, also exhibits dynamic DD and DTS characterstics but has far superior music sound. It also has more options for upgrade and flexibility + 100 watts x 5). I do believe that Yamaha offers outstanding products and purchasing the 795a is not a mistake, especially since it is $100 less (MSRP) than the Denon or Marantz.
By the way, I did audition the Denon 2800. It too is a great product at this price point. But of the three, The Marantz is slightly better. In summary, the Yamaha = great movie sound + good music sound, Denon = good movie sound + great music sound, Marantz = great movie and music sound. It's great to see products of this caliber that won't break the bank.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 2800, Marantz 7000

Great Sound & Features.

Remote control wheel

Only had for a week now and I've been very impressed with the sound from this receiver. I replaced a two year old Kenwood receiver with this and it sounds much better. I do have a problem with the sound cutting out when listening to anything in Dolby Digital but I still have not confirmed that this is being caused by the receiver. I highly recommend this receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood

Excellent crisp sound quality
Great positioning of sounds and effects
DSP soundfields provide excellent accoustic effects
The Last video function is great, allowing you to listen to music while watching the picture on the TV

The remote takes a bit of getting used to, but controls all of my other components. A onscreen volume dB indicator would be nice and not just Volume Up or Down.

I've had the Yamaha DSP-E390 add-on processor for a couple of years now and wanted to upgrade to a Dolby Digital AV receiver. I extensively used this site and decided that the Yamaha RX-V795a would be my first choice. I realised the quality and power of this amp, the first time I played Bryan Adam's unplugged CD. The sound quality is absolutely amazing. The DSP programs gives a different accoustic feel to the music. What really impressed me was the Dolby Digital sound. Titanic has never sounded so good. The detail sounds I could hear was outstanding. For this price probably one of the best value for money amps ever!

Power, Clarity, Features, Price
Its a Yamaha

In search of an upgrade to my Yamaha
RX-V793 (DD only) I auditioned Denon,
Onkyo, Sony and Yamaha and found
Yamaha's RX-V795a by far the superior
performer IMO a complete HT package.
For the price; $600 at my
local HiFi dealer there was nothing close to the features I found
Quality, Performance, an outstanding
tuner, full binding posts, three
optical in's 85 x 5, DD and DTS. After
a short period of time even the remote
became friendly. Five stars plus
Yamaha.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Denon,Onkyo

The RX-V795a power came from the build-in Dolby Digital, DTS and DSP sound processor that produce power sound field for home theatre. The back panel allow to output five channels and one for subwoofer that make this the best home system.

The noises make everybody to tell you to turn system down.

I believe a better manual and remote control will make this system unit standout from anything else. This unit is the best money you can buy. The sound processor is excellent for home theatre with DVD and audio enthusiast. Anyone should look at this receiver before anything.

The power came from the build-in Dolby Digital, DTS and DSP sound processor that produce power sound field for home theatre. The back panel allow to output five channels and one for subwoofer that make this the best home system.

The noises make everybody to tell you to turn system down.

I believe a better manual and remote control will make this system unit standout from anything else. This unit is the best money you can buy. The sound processor is excellent for home theatre with DVD and audio enthusiast. Anyone should look at this receiver before anything.

Clear and crisp sound. Amazingly loud the rear speakers can go. Easy to setup.

The front (left & right) is not discrete.

After doing my homework on chosing the right reciever, I've dicided to go with this one. My housemates have the kenwood vr-2080 and sony std-de725 (what can I say we're audio freaks each one of us has their own reciever) and after listening to both of them before I got mine here is what I got to say. Both the kenwood and the sony didn't drive the rear speakers loud enough. Don't get me wrong, both of them did well overall but it seems that the output for the rear speakers were not on par with the front ones. With the yamaha, it was louder and sometimes louder that the front. I know some people would say that the surround speakers were built to simulate rear effects. But for me if you have an explosion at the back of the room you really want to hear it go off. Because of this the output level for the front speakers (left & right) suffers. To me the sony and kenwood produced a louder and more discrete sound for the front (left & right) than the yamaha did. Maybe that's because I got my front speakers to close together. And plus I set it to 110 V instead of 120 V, I'm just so stupid. I haven't gave it a try when setting at 120 V, maybe that will solve my problem. Or is it I didn't set the delay right. But if does not work I'm still statisfied with it.
The other functionality that I like about it was that it has a bass and treble knob to balance it out. This is nice when hearing CD and tape using the reciever, cause I don't like too much bass.
I've also found that it is heavier on one side. To my surprise I've found that you can actually change the voltage on this baby. When I got mine it was set at 230 V (no wonder it didn't want to work the first time), my guess is that the test operator didn't change the voltage after finish testing the unit (cause it was made in Malaysia which uses 230 V). So theoretically this baby can be used overseas, right? cause it has a switch to change it to every voltage in the world from 240 V - 110 V. I've check yamaha's web site they said I needed a step down converter if I want to use it overseas. I don't think so :)
Please email me on what you guys think on the subject.

Similar Products Used:

kenwood vr-2080 and sony std-de725