Yamaha RX-V681: Stud or Dud? (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

I did something completely out of character for me yesterday. I was in the local Best Buy and saw they had an Open Box receiver, the Yamaha RX-V681, at what seemed like an excellent price of $287...and I purchased it on the spot.

Visually, it appears in excellent condition. If it was used at all, I cannot tell. It's clean and ding-free. The only thing missing seemed to be the exterior packaging. I googled it in-store before buying and the going price seems to be $599 (though Amazon had it as low as $399 recently), and reviews seem generally good (4 out of 5 stars). I do realize this is a 2016 model.

I'm intending to hook it up this weekend to test operations as far as I can, but I'm not sure if I can fully test all functionality before the end of the 15-day return period at Best Buy. The receiver is 4K capable, but I don't yet have a 4K player or display to test this side of things. Anyone know anything about this receiver that I should be aware of? Thanks!

I wasn't really intending to upgrade my AV receiver, but I would like to upgrade my projection side to 3D (if not 4K) and my current receiver (a Denon about 6-7 yrs old) does not seem to have this capability. So at this price, I thought it was worth a chance if I want to proceed with an upgrade on the video side of things. Hopefully I don't get burned.

 

[Alf S]

Reviews seem good.

The Good The Yamaha RX-V681 offers excellent sound quality in a relatively affordable package. Its enticing combination of features includes Dolby Atmos, multiroom music and streaming to Bluetooth headphones. The six HDMI ports support 4K video and HDR sources.

The Bad No Chromecast built-in. The user interface and remote control require a slight learning curve. The Zone 2 speakers have spring clips instead of binding posts.

The Bottom Line Yet another strong contender from Yamaha, the RX-V681 combines a bevy of gotta-have features with seriously potent sound quality.


Crutchfield:

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-eaYACKXiIMY/p_022RXV681/Yamaha-RX-V681.html

 

[Malcolm R]

Thanks, Alf. Nothing in "The Bad" sounds like a deal breaker. I'm not even sure what Chromecast is, so I probably won't miss it.

 

[Alf S]

https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chromecast/?utm_source=chromecast.com

We use ours quite a bit. Only $30 or so. Just plug it into one of the receivers HDMI inputs and stream away.

 

[Malcolm R]

So far, so good. Got everything hooked up this afternoon and have been playing with it tonight. Watching some Jurassic Park right now as a blu-ray test. Seems like a definite upgrade over my old Denon. JP finally sounds like I've always thought it should. (I just had a raptor screech come out of my rear surround that practically made me jump out of my skin!) Seems like the Denon could never quite "get there".

A couple of minor bumps with the hardware. Despite the Best Buy label stating that nothing was missing, the microphone used for auto-configuration was not included. But, I still had the one that came with the Denon and that seemed to work fine. Also, the wireless antenna is missing. Not a huge deal as I have a network cable already run to the same area, so I just plugged that in. Looks like I can get an antenna for $10 or less if I want one. I'll probably need it to use some of the other wi-fi features of the system.

But all in all, it seems like a noticeable improvement over my prior AVR at a great price. Now to start planning for the new projector.