Picked up the yamaha two weeks ago and compared to the previous Yamaha A592 with external Quad pre-power 34/405 set up, the diffenence is staggering.Ok, so Ive moved to dolby digital but still... Compared to analogue sources the Yamaha delivers a pace and depth that in my view is unrivalled at the price.
Other components include Mission 7 speaker set up, denon dvd3000, Philips 6 & 8 head hi fi vcr's, and audioquest interconnects and cabling.

Ive read review that state the Yamaha is dull in normal stereo but as Im running seperate systems I am unable to comment on the validity of this claim.

The learning capable remote is superb and dts and dd decoders are of excellent quality. The dsp modes are reasonable if a little gimmicky, but through 70mm dsp modes the seven speaker system works very well. The five speaker set up through dd/dts std or enhanced is equally impressive.

I have listened to the Av1 on many occassions and find it difficult to differentiate between the two when comparing dvd or video sources despite the av2 lesser power rating. Overall I can strongly reccomend the Yamaha av2 and it should be on anyones shortlist when considering home cinema amps at this price level.