Purchased the RX-V465 because I finally made the jump to high-def and needed the HDMI inputs to complete the home theater setup. I had two older A/V receivers and neither had HDMI inputs. I chose this particular model for a number of good reasons.

1. It was relatively inexpensive (had already spent enough money on an HD LCD TV, new TV stand, blu-ray player, and upgrading my cable service to HD)
2. The right number of HDMI inputs for my setup (2) with room for expansion
3. Video signal was very clean based on my brief viewing of the demo model that was in the showroom
4. Minor concerns about power and headroom to drive my bookshelf speakers were immediately dispelled after getting everything dialed in; subwoofer has its own amplifier
5. Sound quality is very good if your demands are not in the stratosphere.

After using the receiver for a few months now, I've found that the 5.1 DTS sound reproduction is pretty darn good. I strongly recommend using the built-in sound analyzer for the initial setup and getting your speakers sounding close to what your home theater should be like. Afterwards, you can individually change the settings of each channel for further optimization and getting the levels to match your personal preference.

Video reproduction from the blu-ray player, channeled through the Yamaha A/V reciever, to the monitor is clean, sharp, and shows no hint of color imbalance. Blu-ray content is impressive and viewing live concert recordings is a great experience with a choice of several sound fields (i.e. stadium, amphitheater, roxy music club, concert hall, etc.)

Environment: My living room is small to medium-sized and we live in townhome/condo. Which means I don't turn up the volume too loud out of consideration for the neighbors. Speakers: Monitor Audio bookshelf speakers for the front and center channels, Polk Audio bookshelf speakers for the rear channels, and a Yamaha YST powered subwoofer. Source: Samsung BD-P1600 Blu Ray player. Monitor: 46" Samsung Series 6 LCD