With a tight budget my choices were the Cambridge Audio 640V2, NAD 372, and a second hand Arcam alpha 9. Cosmetically Cambridge is the better LOOKING of the the three, but having bowers with its metal tweeters the cambridge was already a big no no. Oakland Concrete Solutions

None . .

Great clean sound & power. I found mine at a "donate for charity" store for $28 ! I made sure the price was correct & it was. I asked if it worked - they said "ah! there's the rub! we have no idea. for $28 you get to find out" - the unit works perfectly - the best $28 I've ever spent!

Could use a bit more bottom end output, but at higher volume - it KICKS! - with clean (see above) highs & bass. crank it up & enjoy!! I love bottom end, so don't NOT grab one if you get a chance - PLENTY of power PLUS you can hook up a sub, so there ya go! 😀 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Strengths :All above.

Weaknesses : There is no phono input for our turntables. You need a pre amplifier.

For this money - SUPER!

Great value for the price Easy to use remote and navigation menus Very clean sounding amplifier section

Could use a little more power Only one coaxial digital input Won't accept Playstation video

My first serious entry into the world of modern receivers. I had tried to piece together a budget system using external decoders and multiple old stereo amps but it really wasn't satisfying. I have been very happy with this receiver purchased as a discontinued/floor model for $520 CDN plus tax. A very clean sounding amplifier, with no hiss present in speakers until very high volumes. With discretely amplified channels there is no drop in volume when more speakers are turned on, even with A+B mains and 3 surrounds running. I'm running some pretty cheap speakers, but the amp still sounds good...really impressive in the store on some quality speakers. My friend with a $2000 dollar Denon AVR-3801 is very impressed with my Yamaha's performance considering what I paid for it. The remote is great, easy to use and the navigation throughout the various menus is very intuitive. I only had to glance at the manual to figure out the more complicated adjustments. The remote is easy to program, I use it to control my dvd player and tv as well. This receiver has tons of DSP's and the latest audio formats, DTS Neo:6 Music is great for bass heavy music. There are also Silent Cinema DSP's for headphone listening, but I have not been very impressed with them. I pass AC3 and DTS audio from my computer via digital audio and run an S-video connection for movies, it decodes this flawlessly. Some other useful features are a dirt-easy Sleep function for drifting off to music, and an indicator on the display to tell you which speaker channels it is receiving information for. This receiver also has preouts in case I want to upgrade to a power amp in the future...it continues to power the speakers even when the preouts are used, which is nice as some other receivers I tried would cut out if anything was connected to the pre's. This model even has 2 component inputs and Zone 2 capability, where it can play a different source in another room. Great features for this price point! As far as weaknesses are concerned, I could have used a little bit more power...running the amp at close to max power is extremely loud, but I would prefer to not be able to ever approach the limits of the receiver at all..always good to have some extra headroom. There is also only one coaxial digital input, which is inconvenient as I run digital audio from my computer and dvd player, and was forced to buy a new dvd player that had optical out. There are also only 4 video inputs on the back, fortunately I have a mixing console so this hasn't been a huge problem. Another small problem is that for some reason the receiver ignores the Video input from my Playstation no matter which input i connect it to, while playing the audio fine...not sure if this is a problem with just my unit but it is annoying. Overall this is a very good unit for the price, great value and also future-proof thanks to its preouts and 6-channel inputs for future formats.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RV-V592, old stereo receivers, Technics dolby decoder, Yamaha DSP-E492 add on amplifier/processor

4 optical inputs good DSP processor good unit-design display panel banana plug compatible component video (2) front optical and s-video in excellent sound quality for its price

remote FM antenna tuner operations

I bought this unit new. I am using it for my bedroom. It works very well. The sound is clean, when I put my ears next to the speakers (Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble IV) I can notice mild hissing sound. But this may not be a receiver issue, this could be caused by my using cheap speaker cables and speakers themselves. I really like the analog bass and treble control. I know that many people prefer to have digital control, but I really prefer analog control for bass and treble since you can "feel" them as you adjust. The display panel is designed very well. It displays all of the inputs on the top so you know which one you're using and the order they get rotated if you use the input selector knob. It also displays the input signal type and channel. Normally my desktop outputs stereo PCM signal, you will see only L and R on the lower right hand corner and PCM on the lower left hand corner. When I switch to DVD watching mode, it displays DD/DTS and 5 channel input. I found that the remote takes a bit to get used to. My old Denon remote was very easy to get used to. But this isn't a big issue since 1. you probably already have a learning remote 2. you will get used to it anyhow. The DSP processor seems to have its own power supply. The volume doesn't get drastically reduced at all when in DSP modes (not that I ever use DSP modes). My old Denon didn't seem to have a separate power supply for the DSP processor, I always had to crank up the volume by 15 ~ 20 units when using DSP. The speaker cable connections are banana plug compatible which is a big plus. The front AUX input panel takes S-Video and optical in which is also very nice. Makes my life easier when I want to play PS2 in my room. Overall this is a great buy. I would recommend this to anybody who can fit this into their budget.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-1700 Kenwood VR-205

SOUND SOUND SOUND its so real

No digital treble/base, manual knob(not really a prob if your wanting pure sound)

Bought in W/aus Straight out of the box...plug it in and WOW! An apsolutely great product! Good menu system to make system tweaks. I was lucky to have at the same time Denon's AVR1803. The Yamaha straight away was a lot clearer, crisper if you will! Sounds seem to come alive a lot more with the yamaha. Gunshots sharp and realistic instead of dull and muffled. I've been a denon fan all my life so changing to a different brand was hard......but when faced with wanting the best amp......YAMAHA #1. This amp runs all day...without a single fault. Music/Movies...everything. Great features like, a/b switching, ZONE 2. Remote is quite good. Didn't take too long to set up all my other gear. VERY happy with unit.....my wife even likes to use it!

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR1803, Sony ....can't remember model..