It is got dolby digital EX which is great.. Premium quality product unlike Onkyo which gets wasted after 3 years. Best audio clarity. Gets heated up after a movie but not too much. Bass is really great. Using for 15 years and still no complaints

Volume knob tends to break. It is not so attractive. Remote is unusable. Only 80-watta per channel

Good solid sound and lots of it too. The unit looks good and is well layed out and is not overly cluttered with buttons and knobs like others are. Good lowdown bass response at low volume.

None that I can notice...

I bought my very first piece of Yamaha audio equipment just on a year ago - an AX-396 amp, and it was a great buy. I loved it from the word "Go".. still do. Just 6 months ago I saw a secondhand RX-V660 receiver for sale. The price was good so I bought it. Again, I immediately loved the sound and functionality of this unit. Just 2 weeks ago I was passing the local Yamaha dealer in town and I decided to drop in and check out the prices and what was what inside. I looked at all the brands they stocked - NAD - Denon - Pioneer - Sony and of course Yamaha. Over in the corner was the last gold RX-V540 and for some reason they were about $50 cheaper than the black units. I just couldn't resist it and hey, I just happened to have a tiny wad of cash about the same size as what they were asking for the unit - Surprise surprise..!!! An hour later it was home, plugged in and up and running. Oh what audio bliss.. It gave to my ears no less that what I expected. Without a doubt, it is one very fine piece of audio equipment. Although it has audio and video capabilities, I will only use it for audio. Like all my amps, I plugged a graphic EQ into the RX-V540, although this unit is NOT designed to work with an EQ. I got it to work by routing the cable from the "Rec Out", to the EQ then back into the "Main" input of the amp, since I will only ever use the standard set of A and B speakers, from here I just select the input source and away it goes. Many people claim that an EQ can spoil an amps essential character and for this reason they wont touch one, but I have a specific taste in sound and only an EQ can cater for that. The Sansui EQ I use with the V540 works perfectly and brings it alive, making a beautiful sound even better to my ears. The bass response is slightly improved from the other two units I have. It's not boomie, just more rounded and very easy on the ears and there's lots of it too.. The other noticable improvement over the other Yamaha units I have, is the volume level chang speed when using a remote control. Past units have tended to change rather quickly and fine adjustments may have been a little difficult but using the hand on the volume knob was easy. With the RX-V540 it's the other way around - changing with the remote is really good now but using the hand directly on the volume knob can be a bit of a chore as it takes many turns to crank this baby up or down. The good thing is that if you keep winding up, the loudness just seems to keep coming, and coming, and coming. It has plenty of grunt.. The RX-V540 has a simple and functional menu setup system which is quite easily controlled and set via the buttons on the front panel of the unit. I recently had the misfortune to setup a Philips home theatre amp in a similar way - never again - what a mess of a system... The RX-V540's menu is so easy by contrast, that I didn't even have to read the manual to get started. I did, however, read the manual later, to make sure I hadn't missed anything and to also make sure my settings were correct - they were.. The RX-V540 is a very plain looking unit but this should not sway you one way or the other as its talents lie beneath the skin, not above it. The only "slight" gripe I have is that any of the remotes from the 3 Yamaha amps I have will control all of them so I have to take care which unit(s) are to be used and I have to manually turn it/them on/off and sometimes I have to cover up the remote sensor window on the unused unit(s). I guess this is a minor thing though and I can more than happily live with it... In summary, this was money well spent... I can see that Yamaha have well and truly got their act together...

Power, good bass and treble, excellent DSP programs, center channel EQ, 6.1 audio readiness, ability to change volume levels in all channels, range of user settings available for your taste.

I had to read the manual really well to get used to the remote. In a way, that also helped me to fully utilize the features on the remote that I would not have used otherwise.

I live in India. I had a sub/sat Sansui system (5 years old) that I badly wanted to replace since it supported only Dolby Prologic and composite inputs. I wanted a HT receiver that would satisfy my present needs and also would protect my investment into the future (at least for the next 2 to 3 years). After a lot of research in the internet and also after reading a lot of reviews, I zeroed in on Yamaha as the preferred brand for me. Then came the search for the right model. I neither wanted something basic nor wanted something that is at the very high-end. In this regard, the RX-V540 was right on dot. It has component, S & composite videos and offers a good number of digial inputs. Last to mention, but not the least is the power that this machine can pump out. I have setup the receiver with Sony floor standing speakers for "Main A", Sony bookshelf speakers for "Main B", Sansui speakers for the center and Bose for the surrounds. I have not added a rear center channel speaker yet. The whole setup is in my master bedroom which is moderately sized. The sound that comes out of the receiver is nice and clean. Even without a subwoofer, the bass that comes out of the system is clean and tight (through the Sony fronts). The highs really do not go very high so that is good for the ears and it gives a smooth feeling when you listen to the output. I added a Design Acoustics passive subwoofer, driven by a Sansui amp and this delivers real great bass along with the Sony fronts. The action scenes really make their presence felt. The receiver comes with Yamaha's proprietary DSP programs that are many in number and you are free to choose from any one of them. I found all of them good enough. The one I really liked was "DTS Neo:6" mode, where I feel the bass is nice and tight and the highs are really at the levels that your ears would like them to be. The RX-V540 comes with a "memory guard" that you can enable so that you / your family members would not change the settings that you have painstakingly made. To test the receiver, I used some movies that had action packed scenes and dialogues. The receiver does excellent steering of sound from channel to channel as the director intended the audience to listen to. This gives you that real feeling that you are in a theater (and that is what these receivers are supposed to do; the RX-V540 does an excellent job on that). The setup menu lets you setup speaker settings (small / big / none) and also define distances in which the speakers have been setup. I believe this helps in helping the DSP programs to deliver the right sound you and believe me, it does it the way you want them to. The remote controller can be programmed to control other AV equipment provided you know the manufacturer codes for these equipment. Yamaha has provided a list in the appendix and with the help of that I could setup my remote controller to control my Sony TV and Panasonic VCR (that is 2 less remotes to deal with). To summarize, if you are looking for good power, tight bass, nice and clean highs, a receiver that is neither in the high or basic end, the RX-V540 is the right choice. The receiver has good looks and comes in 3 colors (black, silver and champagne gold) to match your room decor. I have a good collection of DVDs and I intend to watch most of them again to experience the RX-V540 surround capabilities.

Similar Products Used:

None

Clean, no compromise when value is included. Execellent match with Paradigms.

None, other than the manual to set things up. Then again I'm green when it comes to this.

I may be green when it come to audio equipment, but I do know good sound. I purchased the RX-V530 and matched it up with 6 Paradigm speaker system for surround sound. PARADIGM ATOMS: fronts, rears, center and Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer. All I can say if there was ever a match this is it. Yamaha XR-V530 reciever loved it's mates and is standing tall as the Captain of this system. If there is one thing wrong with this Captain it is he may be hard to understand. Simpler orders would help all the mates that were trying to get the ship running on any course you send her. Ok I know, Yamaha XR-V530 is just good quality for the bucks, and that is hard to find in this market.

DSP programs Center channel EQ

Remote takes some getting used to.

I bought this receiver after I retired my old Sansui amp after 25 years of faithful service. After a lot of research I chose the RX-v540. I had a budget and found it was the best fit for me. I've got it hooked up to a Toshiba 1200 DVD player and PSB speakers all around. Since it was my first venture into HT, I decided to download the manual for study. This helped in my set a month later when I was ready to purchase. The set up is easy, although it takes about a month to really feel comfortable with the remote and the different settings of the sound programs. Initally I wasn't impressed with the sound of music cd's. (I listen to music about 60% of the time)It sounded brittle.(apparently this is a Yamaha trait)After some trail and error I found that cd's sound best in ProL2 DSP mode. No problem with movie dvd's. I leave it on Theater 2 mode most of the time for dvd's. This amp is doing everything I hoped it would do. It sounds great. Has lots of power for the size of my room. It's ready for 7.1 surround if I decide to buy a center rear.