plenty of distortion free power, cd direct bypass is great

Periodically I've looked here hoping to see some good reviews. Honestly, I have loved mine but was hesitant to admit to it. Thought maybe I'd get jumped on for a glowing review about a mass market brand. I wanted to find the Rx-770 (the 100 watt cousin) but they had been discontinued. I had found many good reviews of that product. For too many years mto ention and too many thousands of dollars of CD purchases I had been underpowering my old standby Boston A150s with an old 35 wpc Onkyo. When I hooked up the Yamaha I was really impressed. It was like I had a new CD collection. Moreover, I could hook up different CD players and really hear how they have improved over the past 20 years. Tuner is fine as well. I now use with my old Bostons and with B&W 602s2 and an entry level NAD cd. The difference wan enough for even the non-critical listeners in the household to notice. My guess is I will have to spend a hell of a lot more money to ever realize an improvement of similar magnitude.

Binding posts, remote volume that increases gradually and not in steps, simple and understated looks.

Build quality is suspect.

This review is for the Yamaha RX-396 receiver. It is a 50 watt receiver without the Direct feature at the top left of the control face. With these two exceptions it is identical to the RX-596.

I was an aspiring audiophile until I realised what that would cost me. I bought a used NAD integrated amp which is great but realised that I would then be required to unload my "cheap" Polk Audio speakers in favor of more "sophisticated" speakers costing more than my freshmen year in college. I abandoned the idea and sought out to buy a decent mid-line product that sounded good and did not overload me with more features than I would ever want. Yamaha has a good reputation among most and the RX-396 delivers in many respects. I must say that the first thing I noticed was when I was pulling it out of the box. The heat sink is not a solid chunk of metal, but instead it is more like a sheet of metal pressed into a wavy accordion shape (forgive my non-tech description). Even my old JVC had a nice big hunk of steel inside for a heat sink and I was a little disappointed in the light weight heat sink in the Yamaha. The binding posts do impress me. The Onkyo 8211 is a competetor to the RX-396 and I looked hard in Onkyo's direction but the binding posts are what brought me over to Yamaha. When I hooked it up I was impressed with the understated display that includes a meter that shows the strength of the FM or AM signal that is being received. This is new to me but I appreciate it. I also was most impressed with the fact that when using the remote to turn the volume up or down that it moves in a smooth gradual motion and not at small jumps. On my JVC I would always have to get up and cross the room to make fine adjustments the volume. The sound is just fine. I am no audiophile so I don't know if I can give a reasonable review of the sound but it sounds great to me.

It also has a very simple front control panel that is becoming a lost art. The JVC's, Sony's and other competetors are turning their control panels into something so over-the-top that it has become comical. You can control NASA's satelites from the panel of these things. All I ask is for volume, bass, treble and a few preset knobs to set-up with my favorite stations. The Yamaha RX-396 is perfect. I am giving it 4 stars for questionable build quality. You can find some great deals out there for this very good product. It is above average.

Similar Products Used:

JVC, Sony, NAD

Clean lay out, CD Direct Amp, Pure Direct Bypass, strong tuner, very clean power.

Absolutely none

After much searching for a powerful, clean amp that one could aquire for under $500 I came to love this Yamaha. It's layout, clean power, and many A/V in/out placed it above all other's dollar per dollar value. Paired with a Yamaha ProBit CD player this amp currently powers Paradigm Monitor 9's, and a set of Paradigm Titans when evening sets in. This is not a newby review, I have had this amp for over 3 years and I will continue to look in Yamaha's direction.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, HK, Onkyo

Excellent sound and features

Could use an LED on volume control

This is a great little receiver. Particularly quiet, and has excellent, tight bass - no tone controls needed here. Highs and midrange quite smooth with great clarity and no harshness in the highs. Good phono and tuner sections. Was using tubes before with great results, but I got sick of not having a remote. So, I bought the Yamaha RX-596 with the expectation of sacrificing a little sound quality for convenience. I was dead wrong. I can't believe it, but this unit sounds perceptably better than the tubes - tighter, deeper bass, just as smooth in highs and mids. Amazing unit for the price, also lives up to it's specs, which are great. Been in audio a long time, and I'm rarely PLEASANTLY surprised like I was this time. Because of the excellent resolution of this unit, it may make it apparent you have a poorly designed (lousy) pair of speakers, which is my guess as to what happened in that one terrible review of this product. I've hooked up this unit to a variety of fine speakers, and every one has sounded great. Natural sound is an apt description of this product.

Similar Products Used:

A bunch

Still looking.

It was less than a month old and a transformer blew. Now the LED flashes continuosly.

Of all the purchases I have made for stereo equiptment,this is the worst one I have made. There's hardly anything I like about this reciever. Even though it has more power than my old Onkyo,and the specs. are very impressive the sound isn't even close. I got ear shock when I first hooked it up and started playing it but I figured in time I would find it's atributes. After almost 2 years,I have yet to find any. The 'Direct' feature is a total joke which is nothing more than setting the bass and treble at the flat position. I want to trade it in for another manufacturers' model but I can't find anywhere to dump this piece of garbage. My 20 year old Onkyo completely
blows the Yamaha away in every aspect except for the amount of imputs and with all the abuse I gave the Onkyo,I never had one problem with it.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX3000

"top art design", great sounds, cd and source direct amplification, sleep timer

remote design, no sub-woofer out

I was looking for a good quality stereo receiver for my bedroom system. I auditioned the Nakamichi RE-10, the new Denon stereo receiver and the Yamaha. All three sounded very good and had good features. It became a real toss-up between the three but the Yamaha won out mainly due to price. I got it for $100 less than the other two and neither one souded $100 better. I would have liked it to have a sub out but this is minor. I really like the sleep timer as I usually listen to music before I go to sleep and it's nice to have it shut off after an hour instead of running all night. The CD direct amplification is also a nice feature.
I have a Yamaha CDC-675 cd changer with the 596 and this makes a nice combination. Speakers are NHT super zeros with a Velodyne CT-80 sub.
As always I got great service from Clydes home entertainment center in Redding CA. They are a great bunch of people who treat their customers right!
If you're looking for a good stereo receiver with good power at a reasonable price, check out the Yamaha RX-596, it's well worth a listen.
The previous review must be for another model.

Similar Products Used:

Nakamichi RE-10, New Denon 100wpc stereo receiver don't recall model number

Great sound, plenty of inputs, runs cool, plenty of power.

I would like to be able to change between speakers A & B via remote, but no big deal.

I had purchased an Onkyo TX-844 receiver in college, and it was a great receiver. After 10 years and at least a couple of hundred dollars in repairs, the whole thing blew up. It was time to cut my losses and start shopping. I auditioned (at my home) a lower end Onkyo (maybe a 373?) and was unimpressed. At that point I decided to go to a stereo only receiver, which brought me to a Denon RD375. Still, it just didn't cut it. The bass was minimal. I also auditioned several other units "on-site" (store's show-room).I eventually ended up at a specialty shop, and within my budget, they recommended the RX-596. It pays to go to specialty shops. It has plenty of outputs and sounds very good. Believe me, I held my breath when I turned this on to hear it for the first time. When I did hear it, I breathed a sigh of relief. The jury is still out on the CD Direct and Pure Direct functions, but the receiver sounds great without these functions. A phono input is included as well as a TV jack. This receiver powers my Mirage M-290 and Polk 4A speakers very nicely. The THD is VERY minimal, thus eliminating backround hiss on many cd's. Over all, if you are looking for a stereo only receiver within the $300 to $400 range, I would highly recommend this unit. Out of the several units I listened to, this one had the best sound and features.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, Onkyo, Marantz

Flat response, clear sound, a lot of good features, convenient remote, very reasonable price

I decided to start to build my system from the reciever/integrated amp, also I didn't want to spend more then $1000 on whole system so I went to audition and compare the recievers and integrated amps within a $300-400 price range. And here are the results:
1. Onkyo TX-8511 has emphasized upper range, pure and not accurate basses - the result is bright sound.
2. Nakamichi RE-10 has flat response but also some noise, probably most from its internal fan (I'm listening to a music at very low volume sometimes so it is quite significant for me). Otherwise good.
3. NAD C740 also has flat response and clear sound, but it's rated only 35W per channel (although I haven't felt any lack of power). Its main disadvantage is inconvenience: lack of switched power outlets (for CD etc.), lack of power on/off button on remote control, remote control can't work with other equipment (even from NAD).
4. The NAD C340 is very similar to C740, with just more power - 50W per channel - and without tuner.
5. The Rotel RA-972 is very good integrated amp, with full flat response and clear sound but it costs $120 more than Yamaha and doesn't sound better and has no tuner.

The only amp that sounded better for me than Yamaha was Rotel RA-985, but it costs as 2.5 Yamaha's.

So about Yamaha RX-596 that won the competition. For me it's very convenient for use reciever with full flat response, clear sound, plenty of 80W per channel power, precise tuner and a lot of good and useful features such as CD Direct and Pure Direct switches, continuously variable loudness control, record out selector and sleep timer. It also has a good build quality and nice stylish appearance. Its remote control can switch the unit on/off and operate the Yamaha's CD and cassette deck.

My system is:
Yamaha RX-596 reciever
Yamaha CDX-993 single CD player
JBL S-38 speakers

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned Onkyo TX-8511, Nakamichi RE-10, NAD C740 recievers, NAD C340, Rotel RA-972 itegrated amps

With 3 digital inputs, DTS, and 100W per channel you can't go wrong for the price. With 23 sound fields and a full output range of 20hz-20khz, your bound to get the sound you desire. Also the A/B main speaker buttons is a great touch. Yamaha's clear sound and easy of use makes it a good buy.

The new remote is a bit cheap. Most adjustments to speaker levels and other tweaking, must be done with the remote.

Overall this is a great product, I owned a 595a before this one and its pretty much the same reciever. Added features that are a plus are the extra sound fields, more digital inputs, and pre outs. Although I found the lack on buttons on the reciever itself to be a hastle, most things have to be controlled with the remote.
This reciever is quite powerful (100w x 5) which is great for those moments where it just can't be at a normal volume.

Similar Products Used:

Rxv-595