Price Paid:  $150.00 from Great Indoors

Summary:
My first home theater was a 5.1 HT in a box that had an MSRP of $400. It did not take long to discover the short comings of the out of box set up so when I was building out a home theater in the basement I decided to check out what else was available. While looking throught the shelves of equipment in the store I found a unit that had been marked down so low I could not leave without it. Other than looking and feeling like a substantial piece of equipment I had no idea what I had found. What followed over the next year was a crash course in home theater. As a result of buying this unit I have become somewhat of a fanatic, I has since collected two other Yamaha units including a HTR-5640 and an RX V3000, and have multi-room set ups. I now understand what it is that I found when I came home with the RX V757. With fiber optic cable the unit adjust to the incoming signal to produce amazing room filling sound that is crisp and clean full of detail and driven into your ribs with thundering bass. I was also not sure why I needed 10 speakers until I completed setting this unit up and now find 6 speaker systems weak and hollow sounding. With onscreen capability you can review your unit settings on your TV screen while you are sitting in the sweet spot, on your couch. There are enough inputs in the back to allow you to add so many pieces of equipment that you can heat your room in the dead of winter simple by watching movie .

The remote is also a great piece of equipment. I was easily able to program in the commands for my other units simple by scrolling through the codes already in the remote. Although given a choice I would have put the buttons in different spots I find the remote light and managable.

Wether a novice or an enthusiest I don't think you can go wrong with this unit. It is simple enough to learn on and substantial enough for those with discriminating taste and expanding needs.

Strengths:
Sounds great, I can not turn it up load enough to make it stumble. It is also a great looking unit, and I have had no problem with it with the exception of the microphone included for setting up the sound field, but admit it may be operator error.

Weaknesses:
HDMI would be nice, but I see not need to upgrade any time soon.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha RX V3000, Yamaha HTR 5640, Sony STR 1010.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The world of home theatre is relatively new to me. In the past, the only amplifiers I ever owned were for Hi-Fi audio only. Owning my first HT amp was a little bit of a disappointment, even if it did have a Yamaha badge on it. I was quite disappointed in just how poorly it performed as an audio only amp, because that's why I bought it. On the other hand, if you used it for the reason it was designed, you then noticed the difference. Well, that was a while ago, but just a handful of days ago, I decided to update that HT amp and decided that Yamaha has got a good enough reputation to stick to. Reading in magazines and reviews etc, and once I made up my mind to buy, my choice became very clear, very quickly. Come hell or high water, it had to be the RX-V757. It fitted in my price range, it was not a budget model, and most important, it had a great write-up from those who either tested or owned one.

A few anxious moments were spent wiring it inplace (which was all my fault) but once all was connected and I fired it up, I could immediately see, or should I say "hear" why the amp gets good reviews. It was notably easier to set up than the previous model I had and it was by far a better sounding amp as well. It really did let fly with some great sounds. Most notable was the HUGE increase in lower end frequencies. The very deepest bass was there in abundance but at the same time, subtle enough not to be intrusive. The complete audio spectrum was much more lively than its predecessor and there is a monstrous selection of filters/decoders to choose from. You wont run short on listening pleasure with this unit. The setup menus were more or less exactly the same as the last model I had so there was no stumbling around in the dark here and I knew exactly what to alter to my preferences. All done inside ten minutes.

I have played a variety of different movies in the past handful of days and even if I had seen the movie before, it was another pleasure to see it again with this amp at my side. Movies like the Alien Quadrilogy and other action titles which rely heavily on sound effects, simply came alive with the RX-V757. Watching the movie "Troy", you could be excused for thinking the hoards of charging warriors were going to actually jump out of the surrounding walls and knife you in the gut. Movies like this are suited to the RX-V757, to a Tee. Yet movies that relied on an atmosphere of mystery, were equally at home when heard through the 757. No matter which movie I threw at the 757, it handled it with ease.

Don't buy this amp, or any other HT amp if you want an audio only amp, as they just aren't made for this purpose. I was mildly surprised but still disappointed when I played even mp3's through the 757. It did a better job than the last model I had but I have to be honest - it still fell short of the mark. It was designed for movies and DSP - use it as such and you WONT be disppointed, I promise you that..

When updating from one model to the next, you sometimes don't notice too much improvement and usually all you get is more buttons, knobs and the like which add up to more confusion. Not so with the 757. Although there were more buttons than the previous model, they made the unit easier to use. Yamaha got it right with the 757. It is a great unit and is very easy to set up and use...

The magazine "What Hi*Fi? Sound and Vision" awarded this unit "Product Of The Year" in one of its categories. This was one of the influencing factors in making up my mind to buy it. I can see why it won that award. It is a great unit indeed...

Strengths:
Good solid bass and lots of it. Plenty of punch when needed. Easy to set up. Easy to use. Looks great and sounds even better.

Weaknesses:
Not really a good "audio only" amp BUT it wasn't made for that job. It's adeqaute as one but not "good". If you want an audio amp, go buy one...

Price Paid:  $857.00 from Reference Audio

Summary:
This little gem from Yamaha blows me away. It´s a mid-class receiver, packed with features, connections and processing power. Not to mention, great sound for the money.

Up to this point I have driven KEF´s excellent sub-sat system KHT 2005.2 (better known as "the eggs") with two other receivers, Sony STR-DA5000 and Harman/Kardon DPR-2005, each with a pricetag three times as high as the Yamaha. They were a decent match, for sure, but neither can hold a candle to the Yamaha, by any means.

How can this be? It is so much cheaper... a question I have been asking myself since I installed it. I´ve been trading down during the last few years, going from Hi-End gear to mid-priced stuff, and in doing so I have learned that more money does NOT always equal better. That is a fact which is proven with the Yamaha RX-V757.

The sound of multichannel movies comes alive like never before. There is a great attention to detail in the sound, which draws you into the on-screen action. And the sub/LFE-channel, which always sounded subdued and held back before, now has all the depth and slam I wanted. This is what surpriced me the most, since I have´nt touched any of the sub´s functions, levels or anything else. I guess I have Yamaha´s excellent processing to thank for that.

But the best part is the overall soundfield, which is twice as convinging as anything Sony or Harman/Kardon could acheive. It simply sounds more natural, like it´s happening for real.

Now I feel like I am finally hearing what the KEF speakers can deliver.

Thank you, Yamaha.

Strengths:
Everything

Weaknesses:
None