cansrsrivr

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $360.00 from etronics.com

Summary:
This was my first purchase of an AV Reciver, and so I did not have a lot experience to draw upon, so I listened to what others had to say, and read a lot of reviews. I used this site extensively, and still do, as I see there are a lot of very smart and descriminating people who contribute (my self not included). After reading reviews at this site as well as professional reviews, I felt Yamaha was the manufacture to purchase, and the RX-V630 appeared to have many of the inputs/outputs I was looking for at a reasonable price. Over all, I think this is a good entry level receiver. Set up was reasonably easy, and had plenty of power for my medium sized listening area. I had fun playing with the couple dozen sound fields, and they came in handy for some of the music I played. However, I used really only about 2 different ones, 90% of the time. I've had my system for just short of 4 years now, and really felt I needed to upgrade. My first thought was to improve my center speaker. I was not getting the deep mid-range sound I as looking for i.e. when James Earl Jones says the line in Red October "It's a big son-of-a- *&%^", I expect to hear the rich timber in his voice... I was not. I've been using the Athena AS-C1 for center, the Athena sub, and AS-F2 for L/R, and was happy with all but the center. OK... so how does it this all relate to this receiver, and what is your point? Well, just as I was trying to figure out how to get what I was looking for in a better center speaker sound, my RX-V630 blew up. It just stopped working as I was listening to it at low levels, it just went off. It appeared there was some sort of safety fuse the would not let me turn it back on, but after several attempts of punishing the on/off button the reciever came on for a few seconds, and with a loud snap, it sent up s small wisp of smoke and all life was gone (I never said I was too smart). However, this all turned out to be very fortunate. I now had a very legitimate reason to convince my wife we needed to upgrade our receiver. Again after consulting this site, I purchased a Marantz SR-7400, and cannot believe the difference in the sound. James Erl Jones voice can thunder, and the music sounds even better. What I though was deficit in my speakers now appears to be all in the reciever! So, bottom line... Maybe a entry level reciever should not last more than 3 years, 9 months, but I think most would want it to. Secondly, If you love music and rich timber in the voices, I think there may be better choices out there.

Strengths:
Price Inputs/outputs Lots of sound field choices Plenty of power Easy to set up "Died" at an opportune time

Weaknesses:
Weak in the bass department Product life

Similar Products Used:
Marantz SR-7400

daskol

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $150.00 from Craigslist

Summary:
This is my first component system (as opposed to an integrated bookshelf system), and I did a lot of research into the components. Listened to a number of receiver/speaker combos at local audio shops, read a lot on the web. This Yamaha receiver, which I feel lucky to have found on craiglist (new and in unopened box) has phenomenal reviews everywhere I looked. It's also still retailing for $300, even on eBay. So far I am very happy with its performance both for music, movies and digital cable TV. The single coaxial digital input forced me to get a new DVD player, but you do get 4 optical inputs. Still getting the hang of the DSP, which has numerous (and confusing to a newbie) options, but even in "auto" mode for digital video inputs and regular stereo for my CDs it sounds great (bose 301s bought on the cheap, pioneer center, nothing to see here audio snobs).

Strengths:
Relatively easy setup. Numerous state of the art audio/video inputs. Configurable I/O. Reassuringly solid construction and classy, uncluttered face. Great value.

Weaknesses:
Bad remote (no backlight, tiny buttons, doesn't recognize any of my far from obscure components except DVD player). Single digital coaxial input, when my cable and DVD only had dig. coax out.

Similar Products Used:
None purchased, but Onkyo, Denon and Sony sampled in audio stores and at friends'.

Price Paid:  $460.00 from wilkinson hi-fi

Summary:
great the 70mm digital si-fi brill 6ch stereo super just great sounds all round

Strengths:
everything but remote

Weaknesses:
remote, throw it away and buy a touch screen lcd besst bet

Similar Products Used:
sony, kenwood

Price Paid:  $300.00 from The Good Guys (I wan

Summary:
This is a preliminary review, and I believe that it will only improve from here. I hooked it up last night to my Vandersteen 1Cs and (oddly enough) Yamaha 685 CD player. Fired it up, and sat back with a cold one. I am burning it in before I move it to the quasi Home Theater room. The characteristics of this receiver are simply this: clear and detailed yet it had plenty of body. A very good compliment to the Vandersteens, as they are laid back a bit. I listened to Fleetwood Mac's The Dance CD for awhile then switched over to Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms. Both of these were in "Stereo" mode (no DSP). I did experiment with the DSP modes a little, but have not much exposure to them in the past. Overall, I am very satisfied of this purchase, esp. for 300 bucks ($500 retail). My current HT setup is: Boston Acoustics A-40s (c. 1986) main CH, a silly Quasar 32" tube, Panasonic DVD player, and a Toshiba VCR. My plans are to upgrade the speaker system or add on to the existing. Then a new tube. Cheers!

Strengths:
*Sound quality *Component video *Optical input on the front panel *Display can be dimmed *6 CH pre-out *6 CH input *Price/Quality exceptional

Weaknesses:
*no 192kHz/24 bit processors (not a huge problem for me, hardly enough to loose sleep over) *no tone defeat *no display OFF *no apparent source direct (None of these are show stoppers)

Similar Products Used:
Carver HR-742 stereo receiver (basically nil)

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
excellent receiver, i listened to h-k, denon and onkyo, nothing comes close for the price

Strengths:
-sound quality -4/8 ohm switchable -all channel pre-outs -price -lots of inputs -quality

Weaknesses:
-orange display -slow volume knob

Similar Products Used:
several kenwood receivers, most recently a vr-409