Yamaha RX-V657 Receiver w/XM Radio

Budget Receiver Does It All

On tap for review this week is an entry-level home theater receiver from Yamaha. It boasts a laundry list of features, including seven channels of amplification at 95 watts per channel, 192 kHz/24-Bit DACs, 7.1 channel inputs and pre-amp outputs, more DSP modes than you can shake a stick at – as well as the ability to defeat all digital processing with the “Pure Direct” mode. The list goes on. Two features that really made this rather inexpensive unit (MSRP $549.95) compelling for me were Yamaha’s “YPAO” system for automatically configuring your system and the built-in XM satellite radio receiver.

Digital room correction is a very promising new technology in digital audio which uses a supplied microphone to help you set up your system; it automatically configures a digital equalizer in your receiver to compensate for poor frequency response from your speakers due to poor interactions with your room. Just about any audiophile will tell you that the room where your stereo resides is a major factor in shaping the sound of your system, and is very often completely overlooked in planning a system. Yamaha’s YPAO solution addresses that.

I’ve also been growing more curious about XM Radio. I’ve been getting lots of questions about it, and at the same time hearing good reports from others. So I was really curious to see what the buzz is about, and report back to my fine readers. Note that XM is not ready to go right out of the box; in addition to purchasing the receiver, you will need an XM antenna and a subscription to the service. I was lucky enough to be able to get an activated antenna on loan from the folks at XM for the review period. I placed the XM Radio Review in separate article all its own, found here.

With these newfangled surround receivers, setup has become quite a chore. Gone are the days of plugging in your speakers, source and rocking out. No longer. Now you’ve got five to seven speakers plus a subwoofer to connect, and myriad source components. Once you get the physical connections figured out, you have to spend some serious quality time entering crossover points, speaker distances, and setting equalization. I am a major geek about this stuff, as evidenced by the fact that I write articles like this for a living, but this setup process even wigs me out. The ultimate benefit of all this setup is of course, better sound, but boy, the process can be a real headache!

Not only is the setup process complicated, it is quite essential to getting the best sound, and cannot be overlooked. One of the biggest impediments to getting good sound out of your home theater is your room. It’s the most neglected part of your audio system, but it has a huge impact on the sound of your system. Every room is different - different acoustics, different materials, sizes, you name it - which means that setup must be customized for your room. When you factor in the haphazard placement of real world home theater systems – speakers placed at varying distances, heights, corners of the room, etc – it seems a real challenge to get your system properly optimized.

Enter Yamaha’s Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer (YPAO) setup feature. This feature takes all the time consuming, manual work out of setting up your home theater. Using the supplied microphone, the auto setup runs through each channel several times, checking first to see if your speakers are wired correctly, then measuring distance from the listening position (where you place the mic), the frequency response of each speaker and sub, and then auto-equalizing them to give you the flattest possible response. YPAO does all of that, automatically, expertly. Optimized sound for your speakers and your room, every time. Just a few short years ago, this technology was available in only very select, very expensive handful of components. Now you can get it in a $550 receiver. I cannot emphasize enough what a cool feature this is.

Of course, mine is more the view of a layman (or should I say “lazy man”). I prefer to get the amp setup quickly so I can enjoy it, rather than experimenting manually for hours on end trying to get the proper response. Our buddies over at Audioholics.com, for example, are just the opposite. Those guys love to getting deep inside the guts of their gear, and with backgrounds in audio and electrical engineering, and all the necessary measurement tools, this kind of technology is just their bag.

They are quite familiar with YPAO technology and have a far more skeptical and sophisticated take on the subject. They have several concerns, which mainly boils down to the fact that this is a new technology, and not yet completely reliable. They noted some discrepancies in setup; for example, incorrectly setting phase, speaker distance, and crossover points for speakers. They also had other concerns in giving a piece of software free reign in controlling the equalizer. They feared that over-zealous compensation for dips in frequency response could place an undue burden on the amplifier, ultimately compromising sound quality and even threatening the stability of the amplifier. I did not experience any of these problems, but they are important issues to keep in mind. You can let the receiver handle set-up, but you should check its work. (For those wishing to get more technical, check out Audioholics comprehensive review of the YPAO technology.)

With these concerns in mind, after running the auto-setup function, I checked the receiver's work. The only real inaccuracies I found were crossover frequency: it set the front and surround channels, which the manufacturer claims to reach down to 50-60Hz, to 90Hz. There is the possibility that YPAO set-up is more accurate than the speaker manufacturers claims about frequency response. Either way, this is not far off the mark, but there can be a good amount of bass action in the 50-90Hz range, and the Yamaha is forcing that all to the subwoofer. All told, the receiver got the settings pretty darn close to what I would have entered manually, and it didn't create any extreme equalization settings that audioholics were worried about. I was quite happy with the resulting sound quality, too.

I watched movies and listened to music from FM Radio, XM Radio, Internet Radio (via an Apple Airport Express) and CDs. I used two different speaker systems. First the Aperion Intimus 422/S-8 package I reviewed back in April, and a Polk system I have on hand for an upcoming review.

My “Reference” home theater system ("reference" not because of high price, but because of my familiarity with it) consists of a Panasonic SA-XR50 receiver used with the Aperion speakers. I started out my casual listening and breaking in by pulling out the Panny and replacing it with the Yamaha. I left the Aperions in place. For reference, the Panny is a budget champ of a receiver, with impressive power. With a solid implementation of the new switching amplifier technology it has become something of a cult piece amongst many an audiophile. The Aperion/Panny combo is quite nice for both music and movies. Feed the panny a digital input and you are set with great music with lots of life and body, out of some teeny little satellite speakers.

Initially switching out the Panasonic for the Yamaha was a disappointment. The sound quality was nice, but much more constricted and lifeless than the Panasonic. I had to really crank the Yamaha to get any output out of it, and even then, it never really sprang the Aperions to life like the Panasonic did. I was afraid that it was one of those units where it was all “bells and whistles” and sound quality took a back seat. I wasn’t quite as excited about the review anymore. I kept on trucking, giving the amp a chance to break in before making any judgements, and a few weeks later, I received a surround sound package from Polk Audio.

The Polk comprised of two identical sets of bookshelf speakers, a center channel and subwoofer. Each was speaker was much larger than its Aperion counterpart, and thus, the Polks had a higher sensitivity of 89db compared to 86db. This made a tremendous difference. The Polks were a much better match with the Yamaha, providing a far more open and effortless sound. Music was rich, crisp and clean with much better output. Now we're talkin'!

The Yamaha was very good with music, providing excellent clarity, and nice rhythm. No, it didn’t compare to my much more expensive fancy-pants stereo separates, but it was quite satisfying nonetheless. One description that kept coming to mind when listening to this receiver was: “light on its feet”; it had a quickness and agility to handling program material that made the music very involving and a lot of fun to listen.

Home theater performance, however, was where the Yamaha really shined. This amp really puts the “Theater” in home theater. That agility that I mentioned is a real asset when reproducing movie soundtracks. From subtle dialog to musical soundtracks to massive, ridiculous, over the top action, the RX-V657 handled it all with aplomb, doing a fantastic job of drawing me into the movie. This receiver would not let me watch movies casually. It brought the action right into the living room. It gave me no choice but to sit down, pay attention and look out for cars flying across the room. This involving quality wasn't just a matter of on-screen action, or volume, either. I was equally drawn into action or scenes of tender emotion.

Analog Tuner Performance: Using a full size, rooftop antenna (placed in my attic), the analog tuner performance was pretty nice. Great sound quality, very musical (depending on the quality of the broadcast of course). Instruments were well defined and there was a three-dimensional quality to the music. It had been a while since I’d listened to good FM, I had forgotten how good it can sound. Too bad sound and programming quality is such a crapshoot.

The remote is absolutely horrid. Every time I look at it I am afraid I am going to go blind. I can’t make heads or tails of the all the buttons, text, and layout. It looks like there was no real UI design put into this thing. It took me half an hour to figure out how to program it to control my Sanyo HDTV. Each button has many different functions and it hard to tell how or when it will execute one command or another. The manual wasn’t very helpful here, either. I needed it to be a bit more explicit in defining the functions of each button. Non-conventional layout of the number keys left my head scratching (four number keys per row, as opposed to the usual three). There are buttons named “AMP” and “**”, and others, whose function is inexplicable.

...The interface on the receiver itself, on the other hand, is very clean and much easier to understand. Everything is well laid out and it is easy to use. Somebody at Yamaha needs to get the receivers UI designers on the remote.

...I’m confused by the different sound modes. What’s the difference between “Straight” and “Pure Direct”? Still haven’t figured this one out. The “Seven Channel Stereo” mode is a cool feature - it ports your two channel music into all channels with no special processing. Not a new or revolutionary feature, but great for casual listening around the house.

Yamaha has put together a solid receiver packed with features that doesn’t compromise on sound quality. It is a little underpowered, but pairing with compatible speakers mitigates that shortcoming. It is not going to replace my expensive vinyl/tube separates stereo system by any stretch, but that that is not the point of this receiver. The point of this receiver is to form the heart of a high quality budget system for music and movies, and on that point, they have scored.