Although the photo here is of this Yamaha 7.1 Receiver is silver, it looks bad in black. By bad, I mean good of course. I was frankly very surprised for all I got for such a low price. Back when I bought this, it was on sale for $399.00, and I understand that you can purchase it for even less now. Yet for such an affordable receiver, this not only has excellent Yamaha quality, but it also has a boat load of features.

Express Review for non audio philes This receiver sounds really awesome and you can hook up all your stuff to it like your DVD player or your game systems. You can hook up a bunch of speakers all around you to really hear movies better than in a theater. Call one of your friends that understands hi fi, and have him or her hook this up for you, and explain how to use the remote.

So What Do You Get For Less than 400 bucks?

Power First of all, the amp seems underrated at 100 watts a channel to me. This is a high current amp that really delivered enough power to run my home theater system and fill my living room with sound. It also delivers that to 7 channels! (not all at once of course, but if you are an audio nut, you get the general idea) (The point one channel would be your subwoofer, which needs to be a powered sub).

If this receiver doesn't have enough power, there are 8 pre outputs for all the channels. I just use the one for my powered sub, which you need to use if you want to use a subwoofer. However, you can add MacIntosh, Krell, Rotel or whatever other amplifiers you fancy to the preouts and really crank up the power and just use the Yamaha as a pre pro. You can also go the cheaper route and go to a musicians store instead of a hi fi store and pick up some studio amplifiers like Behringers or Samson.

Audio Connections You can hook up your old school turntable to this and your new XM satellite radio subscription and your Ipod! How is that for backwards compatibility and today's needs! You can also hook up a lot of components, there are 3 optical cable audio ports on the back and one in the front, and 2 coaxial cable inputs. There are a number of analog inputs as well. You could even hook your CD player up via digital and analog connections and listen in either mode. This amp lets you listen to analog sources in pure direct. That way you can easily decide if you like the DACs (digital audio converters) in your CD player or this receiver better.

There are also EIGHT Channel inputs for Multi source Analog inputs. That means you can plug in your DVD Audio Player with 6 channels or your new Blu Ray Player with 8 Channels.

Speaker Connections You can also hook up lots of speakers. Of course there are the banana plugs for 7 channels, Front Left and Right, Center, Surround Left and Right and Rear Surround Left and Right. You can also opt for 2 presence speakers in the front, although it uses clip plugs. The receiver will only operate the presence or the rear surrounds in any sound setting, it won't do both.

B speakers Oh yeah, you can also hook up a B set of speakers for your main front speakers! These do have the binding post/banana clip option. Maybe you like one pair of fronts for movies, and another pair of fronts for music. However, if you want to run a separate amp, you can only run out one left and right channel.

Zone 2 If on the other hand you don't want to use presence speakers, you can use the extra outputs for for Zone 2 speakers. Zone 2 may be operated separately from your main system. You can listen to a CD in your room, while everyone else watches a movie in the living room. Zone 2 speakers can be powered by your receiver, or you can preout a separate amplifier for them!

Video Connections The only thing you aren't getting here are HDMI connections, but frankly you can hook up your newest DVD players straight to your newest TVs that do support HDMI. What you do get are THREE component videos in, with one component video out. I could plug in my cable box, my DVD player and an X box with the best video connection short of HDMI. You can also plug in with S-video or composite video if you choose. There is a total of 5 video inputs, 3 on the back with full choice, one on the back with S Video or composite and one input on the front with S video or composite. The front input is handy for a quick hook up of a Playstation or video camera.

Set Up

Set up was a breeze. You just hook up all seven of your speakers to the posts on the rear, they will take wire or banana plugs. Then plug in the 3 component video wires for your DVD player, then the 3 for your cable box, then the 3 for your X box. Then run your three component video cables out of the receiver and into your projector (or television)

Next hook up all the optical audio cables for the digital audio, being sure to put each into the proper input. Then just hook up the six (or 8 if you have BluRay or HD DVD) analog inputs for your DVD-Audio / SACD player. You may also plug in your turntable, XM radio receiver, VCR or whatever. Plug in any other analog connections that you want, you may wish to use analog connects for your CD player for example, instead of digital. Plug the unit in, and you are nearly ready.

Next put the 2 AA batteries into the remote. Now plug the YPAO mike (included with the receiver) into the mike input on the front of the unit. Place the mike where you are going to have your ears located. I put mine between my two leather theater recliners so that myself and a friend have the sweet spot.

You can run auto setup with the mike, the unit actually set all the speaker levels and even told me that two speakers where out of phase and I needed to reverse the negative and positive wires! You may also do all this manually, the instructions are clear. I found the sound was pretty good with the auto setup.

Seriously, the manual that comes with this is very detailed, very easy to follow, and has instructions for everything you need to do, including codes for using the remote as a universal remote and a step by step guide to manually setting digital sound fields and speaker settings.

Sound Fields and Other Features

This unit handles Dolby Digital and DTS and DD ES and DTS EX the latter two actually use that rear sound field. The only movie that comes immediately to mind that uses all 7.1 channels and SOUNDS awesome is the special edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (more on that later).

You can also use extension direct, which allows special processed sounds to go directly through without midification. This is for Blu-Ray players, HD players, DVD Audio Players and SACD players.

A pure direct mode is for enthusiasts of the direct sound from other equipment as well. I use this mode for playing CDs on a very high end Meridian CD player that I use (although this isn't reviewed here, because my Meridian is hooked up to an older Yamaha in my bedroom). Pure direct is for Analog signals only. The whole face of the Receiver goes black except for a bright blue light to indicate pure direct mode.

For those that want more, the RX V 659 offers a number of sound fields for movies and music. First of all there is the 7 channel stereo or pure 2 channel. Pro Logic and Pro Logic II are available, as are Neo 6 for DTS music and movies. It also has something called Neural surround. Movie modes include straight which is the basic signal, enhanced, adventure, sci fi and and spectacle. There are also settings for mono movies, TV sports and video games. For music some sound fields are available to recreate a large music hall, a small jazz club and a large rock club or a disco. I play around with these, sometimes I do like the jazz club setting for my John Coltrane or Diana Krall CDs.

For those who use MP3s, I have thousands, the Enhanced mode is designed to bring back the parts of music which are lost through the compression process. My own thought was that it made my music artificially bass heavy and I liked my MP3s as they were. I can tell the difference between an original CD and an MP3, but for my ears the enhanced mode didn't really do the trick to restore. Nevertheless, even MP3s sounded really great on this unit. (I compress at 128 khz). All the sound fields are also adjustable. I didn't play with them, but you can if you'd like.

Finally, there is a midnight listening mode. When I lived in an apartment, I used this a lot. What it does is compresses the sound so that the loudest sounds and the lowest sounds are closer together. Therefore, when a huge explosion rocks the room, it won't be quite so loud as if it was not on. It also boosts the dialogue so you can hear it. If your neighbors are really close, you can always plug in headphones too. Soundfields are available in headphones and make the music (or movies) sound a bit more spaced apart, but not quite the same as with speakers. Nevertheless, that will guarantee that you won't wake the neighbors!

The Tuner

Sorry folks, this unit comes with an antennae for those regular AM/FM broadcasts, and you can preset a lot of stations, but I just don't really listen to the radio, so I can't offer any comments on this Receivers ability as an AM/FM tuner. It is also XM radio capable, you just need the XM tuner (something called the home passport and dock) to plug in and a subscription.

The Remote

It doesn't light up, and it isn't a learning remote. There, those are the two bad points. You may program it to run other equipment, and it does glow, so if you hold it under a light before you dim the lights and pull down your movie screen, you can see the buttons. It is a big remote, but many functions are easily locatable and a center wheel surrounded by arrows runs many functions for the set up. Volume is easy to locate. My only beef is that they assign certain sound fields to certain buttons. You get about 9 buttons for the few dozen various configurations. Once you get used to it though, its as easy as any other remote I've used. One day I'll break down and get a programmable universal remote or win the lottery and hire an English Butler to turn everything on and off.

General Operation

You can run this easily from the remote as described above, or directly from the unit. One big knob controls volume, two small knobs control input and sound fields respectively. Theres buttons for the other functions like pure direct and multi channel analog in, but nothing overly complicated.

Finally, Most Important! The SOUND!

It sounds great!, I have a big living room, and this really fills it up. So you know how I am testing, I only use one surround back speaker, so I use the RX V659 as a 6.1 receiver, with Front Left and Right and Surround Left and Right (Cambridge Soundworks M-60s) an MC 400 for the center channel and a Cambridge Soundworks Model Six to fill out the rear center. I use a Velodyne 1000 watt subwoofer for the LFE channel. I use a Compaq computer as an MP3 server, and its hooked in with optical audio cable. I have a Pioneer Elite DVD video /DVD-Audio /SACD player and I have a high definition cable box from Comcast. I think its made by Scientific American. In any event, I plugged it in via component video cables and optical audio. For video, I will only say that I notice no difference running my video signal straight to my projector or through the receiver. Running video signals through the receiver is just more convenient. A few examples for sound quality! All listening tests were done using the auto setup settings that the receiver ran.

Lord of the Rings - Return of the King in DTS - EX This utilizes all 7 channels! (truth be told, it doesn't matter if you use 6 or 7, the signal delivered to the left and right rear are the same, so you can use a single speaker in the rear center if its easier, which it is for my setup).

In a word Whoaaah!, the extra rear channel and the sheer volume and clarity of this rocks! In fight scenes like the battle for Minas Tirith, you can literally hear and feel the action all around you. Arrows whoosh from the screen past your head. Swords clash in front of you, beside you and behind you. Yet, the dialogue was never overpowered by the surround effects or the score, it was in an excellent balance. Despite several scenes being incredibeley loud, the receiver never seemed to strain to deliver the peaks.

Joe Satriani Strange Beautiful Music Multichannel SACD Again, I was amazed, the sound of Satch's guitar just filled the room. Since it is an SACD format, no tweaking is allowed, its all the original signals using the analog inputs. I love Satriani, and listening to him with this receiver was a treat, he just filled the room with guitar music.

Comcast Cable - Music Channels Dolby Digital Stereo A lot of times, I will just throw on smooth jazz or eighties rock or whatever else I'm in the mood for on the Cable channel. (That is why I don't have XM radio, I don't want to pay for essentially duplicate services, I listen to CDs and books on tape in my car). Again, I had no problems with the sound.

MP3s Since this has a dock for your MP3 player, I wanted to talk about MP3 playback. I didn't use the MP3 player dock, because my main computer holds my masterworks collection of MP3s anyway. Every CD I buy gets ripped onto the harddrive for easy access. Yes, MP3s don't sound quite as good as the original, but unless you are doing a side by side comparison, they really can sound just fine. I had no problems playing my MP3s, although I would again note that the Enhanced stereo and enhanced surround designed to help compressed MP3 files actually made them sound a bit worse. It reminded me of being a teenager, when some kids would turn up the bass on there awful car stereos so it would "sound" better. They always wondered why mine sounded so good, not knowing I had Nakamichi amplifiers hidden under my seats. Clean power always delivers better sound than artificial tweaks.

John Coltrane A Love Supreme CD Coltrane is one of my favorite saxophone players, so I chose this regular CD to test some of the sound fields.

In regular 2 channel stereo Coltrane sounds just fine, it has a very studio like sound with the drums in the center, bass off to the right and Coltrane blowing away on the sax in the right. The pop rock setting gives the studio a bit of an unnatural echo. I wasn't crazy about the Vienna Theater setting or the Bottom Line night club, but the Roxy Theater actually made the CD sound like a live set! It just has a bit more depth to it, and its natural sounding, not artificial.

When I tried a couple surround settings, I liked it. Rather than 7 channel stereo which just takes the same sounds and puts them everywhere. Surround standard, puts it in the Nueral surround field which actually made the recording sound multichannel! The sax was still front and center, but the echo of the cymbals was now behind me! Surround enhanced just sounded a bit more ambient.

However, this is what I mean about just playing around. Different Digital Sound Procesesses affect music styles in different ways, so you just need to play around to find what suits you. (note to self, look up circular reasoning).

Displays As you do different things with the Receiver the front lights up with orange LED lights to let you know what sound field is in effect, what device is playing, and what signal is being delivered. One problem I had was that the speaker display shows what speakers there is an input for, and NOT what speakers are actually playing. I.E. you play a CD and the left and right speaker light up, but you can't tell without listening WHICH speakers will actually be activated using the various digital sound fields. I would have rather had the speakers light up that were receiving the signal, because I know CDs deliver two channel signals and most DVDs five, and a few special DVDs seven.

Tech Stuff This unit consumes 400 watts, it's 27 pounds, it has less than .06% THD, and it is 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms or 200 watts into 4 ohms. Signal to Noise on the CD is greater than 100 db, 81 db for the turntable and 50 db for video sources.

Summary What more can I say? The instructions were clear, this unit has plenty of inputs and outputs, it has cool digital surround fields as well as pure modes. It allows 7.1 channels plus zone 2 speakers and B speakers. It has inputs for turntables, ipods and XM radio. The only downside I can see is that it isn't THX certified and it doesn't have HDMI inputs, but this is a real value at less than four hundred dollars. It gets a solid five stars from me.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 399.00