Yamaha HTR-5490 (1 Viewer)

[Doug Smith]

A friend of mine is considering buying this receiver - he asked if I would post this for him. He has a DVD -Audio player, and wants to know if the advertising for this machine is correct - its great for DVD-A. Also what is this NEO6: ? Is this a music format? strictly for DTS? What does it do? Also is this receiver powerful enough? 75 watts per channel? If anyone presently owns this unit could you give me a heads up? What 's it like watching movies? etc.

 

[Bill Bradstreet]

I don't own the unit, but you'll get a lot of 'it depends' responses.

Here's mine -- It depends on how efficient your speakers are (to answer the 75 wpc question).

I am a fan of Yamaha...have been for years... I have an old 3090, which has 80 wpc in the manual. I have never needed more power. I'm just running some small bookshelf speakers on it at this point though.

 

[Niel_JL]

Sooooooo....the old 'a friend of mine has a problem' trick.

 

[Mike Veroukis]

Hey Doug
I'm not sure what's really required for a great DVD-Audio player so I can't really say. What I can say is that the unit is actually 6x80Watts, not 75W. I can also tell you that it should not have a hard time driving any but the most demanding of speakers. At the store I demoed it we used it to drive DefTech towers and they sounded awesome at high levels.
I can also tell you that DTS Neo:6 is actually similar to ProLogic II but for 6 channel output. Basically if you feed it a two channel source it can decode it into 6 channels. Not sure how good of a job it does, but that's the idea. Both PL2 and Neo6 have two settings, one for movies (neo6 calls it Cinema) and one for music.
Also, I'd recommend checking out the RX-V1200 instead. It's the same as the 5490 but has pre-amp outs and a replacable power cord. The pre-amp outs are a great feature and worth the extra cash (imho). In the A&B flyer I got here the 1200 will be going on sale for about $1148 but I've had quotes from salesmen of $1050 so you can really work out a great deal if you work them hard. I'd try for $1000 or less.
- Mike

 

[KyleRoussel]

I've got the 5560 and I like it alot so far. The 5490 is even a step up and your friend should be pleased with it!