- Superb quality and build - Excellent surround sound effects - Dynamic, neutral sound reproduction - Powerful amps for each channel -- dynamic sound even in large rooms (with moderately efficient speakers). - Excellent music reproduction in stereo or Pro Logic II Music mode. - Versatile input and output options - Equalization circuitry for both front and rear center channels - Touch Panel Remote Control (RAV-2000-Z1 Included) - Five year parts & labor warranty

- Very large and heavy receiver -- needs plenty of space. - Binding posts for speakers lack enough room for attaching larger cables with spade connectors - Crossover point for subwoofer output is fixed at 100 Hz (not adjustable) - Speaker delay for varying distances from listening point must be set up manually (adjustable in 1/2 foot increments)

Yamaha receivers have long had the reputation of possessing the best surround effects processing available, and the RX-Z1 is near the pinacle in that regard. But what is most impressive about this receiver is the quality of sound, both musical and theatrical, that it produces. This is one of those rare home theater receivers that sounds superb both when used for watching movies and when listening to music. As a multi-channel home theater controller, it creates astounding surround sound, and the exclusive Yamaha front effects channels add a sense of depth and spaciousness no other receiver manufacturer can match. It is also capable of utilizing all the latest surround mixes:Dolby Digital EX, DTS Digital Surround, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES and also includes Dolby Pro Logic II decoding for producing multi-channel sound from stereo sources. (The Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode works particularly well for surround sound with stardard music CDs.) When listening to music, the RX-Z1 is a neutral, dynamic controller that adds virtually no coloration to the music being reproduced. Musical timbre and soundstaging is accurate, as is spacial imaging and coherency. And while the amplifiers in the RX-Z1 are the best Yamaha has produced to date (with the possible exception of the RX-Z9, which runs very hot!), the flexibility of being able to use main, center and surround RCA outputs on the back pannel allows the owner to add amplifiers of their choice to improve the sound even further. In conclusion: This is one of those rare components that reveals more and more of the detail and subtleties in reproduced sound with each improvement in the other parts of the sound system: CD/DVD player, speakers, amps, turntable, interconnects, cables, etc. I have used many receivers and controllers over the years, but the Yamaha RX-Z1 stands out from the crowd in every important aspect. Highly recommended!

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Pioneer, Sony and Denon receivers, Yamaha RX-2095, RX-V1 Conrad Johnson and Rotel preamps.

Solid Build quality, Love the volume control !!!, This unit has lots of headroom, at -25 DB the unit can fill almost any room. Good Value when compared to other product offerings, Denon, B&K, Speaker A & B for 2nd listening area (Patio), 8 Channel Stereo, nice to have.

Lacks Bass Management and adjustable cross over for LFE/ Sub (Can be overcome). For some odd reason when playing a select few DTS encoded DVD's the audio pops in and out. This was annoying but only happened on a few DTS DVD's.

As is typical with a Yamaha offering, the build quality is absolutely solid. This unit weighs nearly 70 lbs, so getting it in a rack is no easy task. Yamaha has always prided itself on it's DSP settings. Too be honest they are interesting but can't say I'll ever use any of them, other then the movie theater settings and 8 channel stereo. Since my application is mostly home theater, I typically will watch a movie in either Dolby Digital or DTS. The Movie Theater DSP settings were an improvement for some movies but a step backwards for others. It's a trail and error thing to see which setting is best for your viewing pleasure. I did install the 2 front effects channels, I can't say that I could tell a noticable difference with them hooked up or not, tried them both ways (on and off), and either way, the way this unit handles movies is tremendous ! I think it is just as good as the Denon 5803. I was one of the earlier fans of THX and the standards it stood for but over time I think it's become more of a good housekeeping seal of approval and I feel that Yamaha can do as good of a job without the THX certification. There was one fly in the ointment with the performance of this unit with movies. For some reason, there were a couple of DTS encoded DVD's that expereinced severe drops in the audio. There was a time when all the channels were flashing on and off on the units display and the sound was going on and off. At first I thought it was the DVD so I changed the DVD player only to duplicate this, then I switched back to the Denon AVR 5803 and it played fine. This was really odd, and only happened with a few DTS encoded discs (DTS Demo disc 1 and 3 for example) So being over all thrilled with it's movie performance I moved on to concert videos. When viewing concerts and music videos, I first tried either Dolby Digital and DTS settings. For some odd reason in these settings many of my music DVD's (Cher, Jouney 2001, Billy Joel) seemed to send the voices (singing) to the 2 main channels (L/R) and away from the center channel. At first I thought that somehow my center channel was disconnected as little or no sound was coming from it, so after checking it I tried several of the DSP settings. Although there was a noticable difference in acoustics, etc, the same issue with dialogue was present. Perhaps this was only the case with the music videos I was playing, or it's just the way the Yamaha likes to do things. My opinion was it made the sound seem hallow, or lacking in clarity. One thing I really liked about the unit was it's volume control. At -25 DB the unit fils the room, at -15 db, it's riddiculous, and believe me I like it loud but it was even overkill for me. I think the 130 WPC is conservative on this unit, just I thought the 170 WPC on the Denon 5803 was over stated. The unit is a solid unit, it's a great offering for Home Theater, and pure stereo offerings. It is really well defined and offers perfomance that is hard to beat. Only the Denon and B&K are better (and not by much) in my opinion in this category and those receivers are at least $ 1000 more. My only concerns were listed in the Weakness section of my post, and many of the weakness' can be overcome, except for maybe the DTS audio issue on a few DVD's.

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Denon 5803, Denon, 5700, Yamaha RX-V1

Great Sounding Amp Love the 8.1 Channel Surround Mode & the Dolby Digital II sound effects

Requires that you use the proprietary Yamaha RAV2000z1 remote - I tried to use another universal remote - it would not work at all - Yamaha requires you to use their own RAV2000z1 remote that is specific for RX-Z1 unit (Costs $500 - $800) if you do not have it - you cannnot setup the unit without it - that really sucks - Yamaha web site also warns you NOT to use the RAV2000 remote on this unit - it must be the RAV2000z1. This is something that Yamaha needs to make sure in the future that they have universal remote support and have the setup controls on the front panel to setup the unit if your remote is down or broken.

I have finally updated my Yamaha RV-1105 amp (which I was very happy with) to the new Yamaha RX-Z1 - all I can say is WOW!! What a difference!!! This amp has 6 channels that are rated at 130Watts/channel (although I had read it is tested at 147 Watts/channel) and 2 front effect channels that are rated at 45 Watts/Channel. In addition - the 64 surround effects make my living room feel like I am really in the theater settings that it simulates - this is why I have always like Yamaha. The added power and additional surround effects really gives that amp a big boost from what I had before - it sounds very, very clean even at theater volumes. I am running the unit with full bandwidth loudspeakers that helps to give an extra kick since you can run them as large speakers when you setup the amp for all the speakers: DCM KX12 - 12" woofer- for Main Speakers DCM 16S - 6" woofer - for Front Effects DCM KX6 - 6" woofer - for Rear Surrounds DCM OW-2 - 6" woofer - for Rear Center 2 - CAS 200 Watt 15" Subwoofers All Speaker Wire - 12 GA Monster Wire - with Gold Bananna Plugs to make a clean connection with the Amp Toshiba 3780 Progressive Scan DVD Teac 5 Disc CD Player 36" Sony TV TOS Fiber Links Monster cable - Gold Tip RCA Jacks This system really kicks for $4K investment compared to my friends $20K investment in Denon 5803 /Atlantic Technology System. The only complaint that I have is that this amp is very heavy at 64lbs! To get it into my glassed enclosed entertainment center was a job - I had to re-adjusted the selving for the added height and cooling for the amp - and cut out the back to handle the wiring - and was very time consuming to get everything wired up - with 10 speakers (8 channels + 2 subwoofers) It is also costly if you are purchasing additional speakers to handle the 8.1 channels vs. the 5.1 channel amps out their. But is is worth it!!

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Denon AV5803 - Too Expensive

1. 130wx6 + 45x2 for front effects or powered second zone 2. 10 digital hookups(3 coaxial, 7 optical) 3. Huge array of video switching (3 comp. in, 1 out) 4. touchscreen remote with highly customizable interface 5. rs 232 port for home automation control and easily connected to computer for future surround upgrades 6. plenty of useful dsp modes, like a simulated 8.1 mode 7. Very aesthetically pleasing

Weaknessess: 1. no component video upconversion(this is where everything plugged into receiver for video is upgraded to run through the component video out into a hdtv) only receivers on market that do this are denon 5803 and 3803. N0t worth the extra money to go to 5803 and definitely not worth downgrade to go to 3803

I have had this receiver for 3 months and i ahve nothing but good things to say about it. Beautiful sounding receiver with plenty of head room and plenty of power to spare

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My setup consists of the following: Yamaha Rxz-1 tannoy saturn-8 towers tannoy saturn 8c center channel klipsch rsw-12 subwoofer polk lsi f/x surrounds polk lsic rear center channel polk psw6

Excellent flat frequency response with quick amplifier response time. Large open sound field. Power supply is excellent. DSP's have improved. Available RS232 protocol provides hi degree of programability. Remote is highly customizable

Lacks any kind of digital hookup for DVD-Audio or SACD. Only has 5.1 input. Miss tactile touch of physical buttons.

This is clearly Yamaha's best product to date. Excellent damping characteristics (fast speaker response), low noise floor, better DSPs. Simbalance in center channel has improved considerably over my previous RX-V2095. Lot's of abundant power and soundstage without sounding compressed at louder volume levels. Lacks the power of Denon's 5803, but it's $1000 cheaper, and hooked to my 5500 total watts in 5 subs it's really not an issue. Yamaha's are extremely flat in frequency response. Sometimes this is perceived as being "bright." If you have bright speakers (ie Klipsch) you might want to look to another another brand. Working on controller software for RX-Z1 that automatically switches sound field based on CD disc/song in Sony CD megachanger. (Thanks yamaha for publishing the spec.) Dolby Prologic II (PLII) is a big improvement over Pro Logic. However other DSP's sound like they don't use PLII with 2 channel sources. (ie Cinema Specticle, Sci-Fi, General, Adventure) I could be wrong about this. Would give this product 4 1/2 stars.

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Denon-5803 Yamaha RX-V2095 Yamaha RX-V1 Sony ES Line

- Everything under the sun is (practically)included. Nice to have 8 Channels! - Nice power level. Makes my speakers sound as good as they can (may need to upgrade the speakers sometime). -

- Manual could be a bit better written (although it's not bad). - Won't make coffee or tea.

First time owning a top level consumer A/V receiver. Movies and music sound much better than they ever did. I feel that I'm experiencing my speakers to the best of their ability. Don't think I can go back to something less ever again (gone to the Darkside). One word....Cool!

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Yamaha RX-V870

1.The best amp/receiver money could buy(next only to separates like Anthem)compared to Denon,pioneer and onkyo flagship receivers. 2.Very dominant surrounds back and side.You may have to lower the levels to match the fronts. 3.No THX-thank god! -as it absolutely makes no difference to human ears. 4.Cinema EQ-Much more effective than the usual Re-Eq in THX. 5.Front effect speakers -they bring unbelievable enveloping surround sound with Yamaha's own sound fields.

1.No level adjustments for main speakers as their output is less compared to other speakers. 2.No analog base management for 6channel inputs. 3.Digital Base management could be better with more cross over options.

I replaced my Onkyo 989 receiver with this one and I have never done a better thing in my life.Onkyo sucks!Z1 sounds amazing for DVD,TV,Music with PL2 and DTS Neo modes and there is nothing like 8-channel stereo!It sounds much better than PL2.

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Onkyo tx-ds989

Power

None Yet

So far so good this receiver has enough power to push my NHT 2.5i speakers Still play around with the Dsp. But if you are looking for some thing with a little less power but pretty much the same features and alot cheaper get the RX-V1.

Build ,Sound ,Remote

None so far.

Got lucky and was able to trade up my RXV1 for the Z1.(Dont regret it a bit)well worth the money.Fore the money it gives my Denon 5803 a good run ,I may not need two amps any more for music and movies.(Denon Music),(Yammy for movies). I will give a update on on music application. The remote is a Pronto,Do I need to say more.

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DspA1,RX2095,RXV1 Denon4800,5800,5803 B&K