Sound! The volume control is not digital!!

Remote control. It is kind of confusing.

I just both the receiver and I could not believe the way they run the auction. I paid $45 and I could choose any one item from the shelf in there were house!!! That was not a floor unit!! It's not open box! That insane! This receiver is absolutely awesome; in every aspect I was ready to bid $300 I still can't believe it. As you realized I'm not a pro but I'm very picky in terms of sound quality, I love the smooth silky sound you getting it's just awesome!

home theatre capability for the price, straight forward
controls...could not seem to match it for $599 Cdn ($400 US)

lack of depth in the bass department...so far

I considered the Kenwood and had a listen to it. I was impressed with the sound (Eagles live DVD), however, with no select buttons on the face of the machine, having to scan through a list, combined with that remote, I did not feel that this was the best option. Besides, if I was occupied and had my girlfriend try and change inputs, we would be all night without music.

I hear concerns that this receiver is better for home theatre than sound. I hope to better address this upon changing speakers. I am running with Infinity SM-80 speakers, about 10 years old. Probably switching to PSB Image 2B, 10" sub and Image mini rears.

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looked at kenwood 3080

None that I observed

Quality, appearance

I love it. I bought mine from Auntie's Stereo in New York for $69.99, cash. When I got it, it was shipped in a used Yuban Coffee box. Although I like coffee, I much prefer Folger's Crystals, anyway, the unit smelled good enough. Well the users manual was hard to read and full of English grammatical errors. I was pleased to find out that this unit was rated at 2000 Watts by the manufacturer. Anyway, I plugged it in and boy did it get hot. Also it sounded like the surround sound FR,FL,RR,RL,C, Sub was all just one monochannel spread out over all speakers but the room was still filled with sound. I moved one slider on the built-in graphic equalizer(!) and all the sliders moved together. Seems it was just a big tone control, well it's a lot easier to configure that way! So then, after the unit began sparking, I consulted the manual and called YAMOHA's tech support in Taiwan. After spending $40 on a ten minute call and getting nowhere, I hung up. I should've bought the Danon. All in all I like the unit, though. I can cook my dinner right on it while I listen to my AM radio talkshows or watch my favorite Armenian cable access channel in Hi-Fi.

Well ...... It has clean amplifiers. Seperates the sound alot.

Over exaggerated dynamic range. No "music power". Boring to listen to with music.

I played around with the 595a for over two weeks and came to this conclusion. Something is missing from the "cleaner" higher-end receiver brands, Denon, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon, Yamaha, Sony ES, etc. Its like they are filtering out some of the musical bass frequencies. For example, I listened to Wayne's World and the music passages always got me excited in the past, but with the 595a it was uninspiring, in fact boring. I then hooked back up my 10 year old 120W Sony ProLogic receiver and what a difference. I could really enjoy the music in the movie; excitement plus! Yes the Sony has much less sound seperation, much more distortion, and even some hiss in the rear surrounds, but it provides to me an enjoyable listening experience.

So I'm asking all the manufacturer's, Where's the beef?
Can't they have low distortion and "music power" at the same time?
I am taking the Yamaha back and will probably end up getting the Sony STRB-930.

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10 year old Sony 120W Prologic Receiver

good clean power, lots of power despite 70w a channel, easy to use, runs very cool.

awkward remote, guilotine center and surround speaker connectors

This receiver is awesome. other that the remote...which isnt't as bad as some people make it to be...this is THE best receiver that you can get in the 500 to 700 dollar range (no ifs ands or buts).

Sure it only has 70w a channel but play the same song at the same decibel rating with another receiver (maybe with the ecxeption of Onkyo) the sond is much cleaner with the yamaha with great bass and a very spacious sound.

The sound you get from DVDs in outstanding. Very open sounding with good separation between the channels.

Put son music on and crank it up. It wont take much of a turn of the volume knob and you will be shaking the house.

give it a try...if yor dealer has a trial period, bring it home and throw everything at it...you cannot break this machine.

Better yet get the dealer to set up this unit with other ones of the sme price class and hear the real difference.

Sure there are better units out there, but for one in the 500- 700 dollar range this is the one ou want.

trust me.

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pioneer 398, technics

Plenty of power, easy to use, good HT sound, excellent value

2ch stereo sound

I just bought the 595a from buyers edge for $369 including shipping. For the money it is a great receiver. The home theatre sound is great and it doesn't have a ton of features you don't need. The 70 watts per channel is more than enough for my inefficient Infinity mains. My only real complaint about this system is the sound quality when listening to music. The treble is on the harsh side and it doesn't have the warmth that my 25 year old Technics receiver did. It does go a lot louder though. I use the Disco setting with the delay turned down for most music and it sounds good enough. But the home theatre soud is excellent and you would be hard pressed to find anything close to it under $500. The remote is annoying as just about everyone else below said but I have learned to live with it. One very nice feature is the 4 ohm capability so you can use low impedance speakers or 2 sets of mains simultaneously. All in all I give it a 5 for value but have to give it a 4 for the stereo sound. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a HT receiver for under $500.

It Rock's hard

None really Remote is funcky

I was looking for new speaker's. And ran accrossed this receiver for 199.00 Dollor's. It was a open box. No Manuel no remote I screwed around with sale's man And he dug up a new remote for me No extra charge COOL! I went to yamaha website and printed out the manual so the only thing I didnt get was the Box. What a DEAL! hooked it up.Man what a shocker So much Sound Quality for so little money.
I thought I was down grading in Quality I was very wrong.
If you can find one of this receiver's buy it. you will love it. Went the next day and got a pair of Paradigm's Monitor 7's. And it only got better.

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Yamaha RX-V 660

Dolby digital and DTS sound, but overall sound quality is
great.

The four channel stereo is titled disco

If bang for your buck is your motto. This is one great reciever!!! I've been enjoying this reciever for a little over a year now, and I am very impressed with sound and overall build quality. Yamaha just makes great sounding recievers with .04% Total harmonic distortion it's hard for them not to sound great, and 70 watts per channel I can very seldom turn up the volume past 10:00 without the neighboors saying what a nice sounding stereo I have.(well
thats what I think the're they telling me!)Also the DTS
decoding is frigin AMAZING it blows me away. I just hope they start making more DVD's with DTS encoding because the
sound quality is truly amazing. Well enough said, if your looking for a good home theater reciever for small $$$'s
this is definitly worth taking a listen to! Happy listening!!

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Harmon Kardon avr75, JVC stuff,

cheap Dolby/DTS, good construction, great sound

lack of coax/optial outs/ins, lack binding posts for surrounds

Within this price range this is a great receiver. While everyone says their product is great for the price range, I think from the reviews on this site you can see that there are few complaints.

I wanted to stick with a name I could trust (i.e. not Sony), and I felt you are paying for the name with HK. Yamaha was perfect.

The features are one of the best qualities of this receiver. The machine has not been weighed down with a load of unnecessary bells-and-whistles that only appeal to uninformed, impulse shoppers. However, as one of the least expensive receivers that handles DTS, the unit certainly does not lack features.

The sound quality is great for the price range. If you want better quality, then fork over more money. This unit does handle home theater a little better than music, but what receiver doesn't?

The infamous remote is not that big of a deal. A remote, that can be replaced for $20-$100, should not be a major detraction when purchasing a $400 piece of SOUND equipment. SOUND should be the major issue.

I'm running with a Yamaha CDM-900 megachanger (excellent quality for a megachanger) and a pair of Mirage FRX-Fives (I think that's the model). Everything is around the same quality, and I'm extremely happy with the purchases. I got this unit for a steal. $380 at Abt, a Chicago-land store. Abt is Yamaha-approved, so I do not lose the warranty.

Current versatility, can be modified for sattellte hook up

does not have direct satellite hook up

Plenty of power if your place does not have sound deadeners like carpeting, etc. Has a good x-over point set at 90 Hz, just like the Precision Power PC650 amp in my car. Leave it to the pros, that's what you are paying them for. Sounds great, everyone should buy one and stop thowing away money on fake power. JVC does not really have 100 watts x 5 channels. Try lifting a JVC and then lift a Yamaha, the secret is in the heavy duty circuits and capacitors. Take it from me, I have had them all, and it does not get much better than this. Especially since I paid $398 at Brandsmart USA in Miami. My last Yamaha still runs great after 5 years of constant use, I only upgraded to take advantage of the new technology (DD, DTS, crazy remote).

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HK, Previous Yamaha Pro Dolby, etc etc