Yamaha Amps - Opinions? (1 Viewer)

[JohannesM]

I have been looking at the Yamaha RX-V765 and RX-V565, but I don't really know enough to make a good judgement. How well do yamaha's perform. Best Buy has this Pioneer (VSX1019AHK) at a similar price range. My only real requirements are 7.1, support for Dobly TrueHD and DTS HD. Any recommendations?

Note: There is a good chance this will be driving the Klipsch Icon V 5.1 setup (2x VF-36, 1x VC-25, 2x VS-14, 1x Sub10).

Thanks,
Johannes M

 

[ShanonS]

Sorry, I thought you were asking about Yamaha Amps from the title of your post. I have a Yamaha 2 zone stereo Amplifier that I am very happy with. The two items you have listed would both be AV Receivers. I can't tell you much about their receivers. I know they have a decent reputation, but I have never used one. If I were recommending receivers, I would steer you towards either Denon or Onkyo. I currently own an Onkyo, but have also owned both Denon and B&K. After hearing the benefits of the Audyssey automatic calibration, I wouldn't look at any receiver that didn't have it. Pioneer and Yamaha have their own auto calibration scemes, but from what I have heard, neither work as well as Audyssey. Denon and Onkyo both have Audyssey.

 

[JohannesM]

Sorry, I often forget to differentiate between amps and recievers. I'm still new to this stuff. The best Denon Best Buy has listed is the AVR-789 ($529 cdn). Is this enough for Klipsch Icon V 5.1 because these are some high wattage speakers. I don't really need that much volume though, but the head room would be nice. Also, do the Denons come with the mic needed for the auto calibration?

How are Pioneers? I haven't heard much about them (maybe there a reason for that?) They seem decent priced.
VSX-919H-K $499
VSX-1019AH-K $699

Thanks

 

[gene c]

Pioneer makes pretty decent stuff. The 1019 is quite a bit better than the 919. But members around here really like Audyssey. Especially the advanced versions with Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ.

 

[Lars Larsen]

I am considering the very same receivers. One thing that strikes me though, is that the 1019 weighs in at just 19 pounds. The Yamaha 765 is 24.3 pounds. I know weight could be anything, but still, it's something I look at when I decide. The 765 has Burr-Brown on all channels + preout for all channels. As far as I have been able to gather from online reviews and such, Yamaha receivers in general seem to have a good reputation at music reproduction.
I'm personally leaning towards the 765, but I'm still waiting for an in-depth online review.

 

[gene c]

It looks like the 1019 is now based on the 819/919. The previous years 1018 weighed 34 lbs and was based on the low end model of the Elite series. As someone else mentioned earlier in another thread it looks like the trend is that quality is going down as the number of features has gone up this year for some receiver brands.

The only thing I've noticed about some of the entry level Yamaha's is they don't quite live up to their power specs on some bench tests. But unless you are driving some fairly low sensitivity speakers they didn't think it would be an issue "in the real world". Otherwise they seem to be a good value.

 

[LanceJ]

The previous years 1018 weighed 34 lbs and was based on the low end model of the Elite series. As someone else mentioned earlier in another thread it looks like the trend is that quality is going down as the number of features has gone up this year for some receiver brands.

I'm just guessing but I am pretty sure this is happening mostly because:[/QUOTE]
1) the price of raw metal has been climbing higher & higher at scary rates for the past few years and since a receiver's power amp uses lots of it - the power transistors' heat sinks* of course but in particular the power transformer (where much of a receiver's weight comes from) which is crammed full of iron plates and copper wire - to keep their prices competitive, I'm sure many manufacturers are probably cutting back on their receivers' power output which in turn translates to lighter weight.

So the build quality of the receiver can be just as good as before, but now relatively speaking it just doesn't generate as much power for the speaker system.

2) shipping costs - a major "hidden" cost of consumer products - are going up because of fuel prices, so any reduction in product weight helps reduce that cost.
3) the economy sucks and the leisure(?) electronics manufacturers need to economize just like the rest of us.

* [SIZE= smaller]I've also seen more and more power amp sections equipped with small fans - this is probably an attempt at reducing the cost of the heat sinks by making them smaller by sharing cooling duties with a forced-air system[/SIZE]