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Review 1 of 2
Price Paid:
$468.00
from Ken Cranes Summary:
I wanted to get into my first Home Theater setup for a reasonable amount of money but also am quite demanding on the audio portion of the performance due to twenty years of audiophiling with lots of excellent gear. I decided to leap on the Yamaha RX-V657 receiver given and excellent review in Perfect Vision. Well, I dawled and by the time I leaped, they were all gone except for some Ebay B stock items without warranty. (No Thanks) By the way, unless you buy from an authorized Yamaha dealer or one of the dozen internet dealers on the approved list from their web site, they won't honor the warranty here in the states so you must rely on the internet seller to fix it (Right) Not finding the receiver I wanted, or a RX-V757, I did find what appears to be it's successor in the RX-V 659. Seems to be the same unit made Ipod ready, and knowing how Mid fi manufacturers love to put new knob and change some irrelevant details cheaply and call it a new model. I got one figuring it to be substantially the same as the well reviewed about unit.
I set it up in my garage on and interum basis while I scout speaker setups, I hooked it to a pair of Role Kayaks and a Sunfire True Jr. Subwoofer. After a day of breakin, I must say I am pleasantly pleased. Not the ultimate in transparency, detail and sound stage but darn good and for a receiver, damned good. Knocks the bran muffins out of a NAD 320Bee in my humble. I had no trouble putting on several CDs and getting totally involved with the music. I particularly enjoyed one of my favorite Lyle Lovett cds, Pontiac. The Yamaha delviered the goods. rythmic and passed the toe tapping test along with hitting the back button to hear some cut again just because it sounded good.
A caution here, I seemed to be into Lyle for my listening experience as I am going through all old cds and culling. No opinion on heavy rock, classical, jazz but I bet it does fine. Also haven't listened to home theater yet although this thing is chock full of features.
I also am looking for budget cabling because of the HT run lengths. Just for the heck of it I wired the roles with a bi-wire run of Carol bell wire from Home Depot (3/18 solid core). One three wire with three 18 AWG strands for each + and - terminal. The idea was to test it for the surround speakers. This stuff is CL2 rated and did an outsstanding job of conveying music, so much so, I never bothered to change to the high priced cables. I do believe I will have it pulled in the walls to accomodate the surround speakers if i don't find something better. The Carol wire costs $.24 a foot length so bi wiring two speakers with four six foot runs cost all of $12.00. Also the sub will be a ways away from the main setup and i didn't want a huge cable. I got a 12 foot run of Canare quad microphone cable and put some good Neutric plugs on it. The quality of the base immediately improved over the "audiophile cable I had been using. Tighter and more tuneful. The cable is also small, black and extremely flexible. Just what I need.
Lastly the Roles are a nice little articulate and musical speaker. Great fun to listen to on temporary Cinder block stands used or these tests. They like to be bi-wired and the 4.5" woofer at eyeball level. The sub makes em sound a whole lot bigger than they are.
In fooling with the receiver, they have a "Pure" button that bypasses all the digital signaling for clean audio listening. That it does but to my limited knowledge of the Yamaha at this time, it also cut out the subwoofer, although after I get into it, I migth find a way to make it work.
I liked and subsequently used the "straight" music listening mode.
The source is a NAD C542 which I didn't think much of until now. It sounded like dog doo going through NAD integrateds but came to life in this system with a nice clean sounding Music Metre signature interconnect.
This is a windy yet incomplete review. I will followup as I find out more and get a chance to test with some Definitive Technology Mythos wall mount speakers on order.
Strengths:
Musicality, tonal correctness, lack of unpleasant character, tons of options, reasonable price.
That said, I'm giving a four because there are other things out there that are good, like some separates and much more expensive units. This is not a slam on the product, It is just realistic. It's a five against its contemporaries but not against good quality separates.
Too many reiviews on this site just punch the five button when they like something with out trying at least to put it in some perspective. Weaknesses:
Anyone who expects top notch audiophile performance will be disappointed, however, the errors are subtractive, inocuous, and don't get in the way of enjoying the music, keepiing in mind it's peers and the fact that it sounds as good or better as things costing up to four times more it's a steal. Similar Products Used:
Not many however I have owned some older Rotel, Nikko (remember those?) and newer and older NAD equipment.
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