Everything

No small/large speaker option

I purchased the AV-7 receiver 1 month ago. I'm not an audiophile hotshot. I bought this receiver along with a pair of Tannoy mX2's, Jamo 2.5 square mm cable with banana plugs. This is my first Hi-Fi system.
First of all, did you know there's an european version of AV-7 (wich I bought)? The diference between the european version and other versions is that this one has RDS,
an ON/OFF button at the back and a slightly modified remote.
Now, let's talk about the build quality: mine is quilte a solid build, no problems here.
The tuner is very good. Some reported it sucks, it doesn't stay locked on the stations etc. Well, I have none of these problems, the tuner works great. The tricky part about it is placing that 300 Ohm cable for FM reception. This is the only impediment for a great audition (reception bars indicator for many radio stations are at maximum - 10 bars).
I heard some complaints about the fan noise. It's only annoying if you have ears as sensitive as a bat's wich I don't think it's possible for humans.
Conclusion: the fan noise is barely hearable.
I can't talk about the amplifier part because I never listened to a high quality amplifier/receiver so I can't compare. Second, my source for the moment is the PC
(wich is not a high quality source). But I'm very happy with it, great stuff indeed.
I'm from Romania, I bought it from Romania and we romanians say that the worst quality stuff reaches our stores. Well, it is true in most cases but in this case,
I got good stuff, for good money of course (400$).

crisp clean sound, great power.

no DTS

I really like this reciever. I wish it had DTS decoding, but, it doesn't. I find the base to be tight, and the HT and music both extremely satisfying. I've got wharfedale modus 8's hooked up to it, and they sound great too. Great value as you can find it for well under retail.

clean, warm, wonderful and incredible sound

it's only a AC-3 ready receiver(no big deal to me though)

I paid $227 for this baby @ ubid.com. Oh my god, that's a unbelievable deal.... love it so much. I use it mostly to listen classical music (symphonies, piano music and it did a great job). I am totally satisfied with this Nak receiver. Way to go Nak!!!

Clear Full Sound, Solid Build

None unless you consider not having binding posts for the center channel & sub woofer a weakness

Over the years i've owned several systems going from a run of the mill Technics rack system to a pretty nice Yamaha 200 watt rms system with Genesis speakers. Several of my friends are way into the audio thing, Carver Amps, Dalquist speakers yada yada yada, so I had a fairly good idea of what fell where in the audio spectrum.

I went to all the places, mass market, high end, shopped around, auditioned every thing in sight. Finally I stumbled onto this web site and the wealth of info put me in the drivers seat. I wanted a 'GOOD' reciever for music with an eye towards home theater without busting my budget of about $3000.00 . Although i've never owned one of Nakamichi's products i've heard them through friends. I purchased the AV-7 without ever actually hearing it, based only on the reviews of this web site.

My conclusions;

The AV-7 is a VERY solidly built unit. Nothing cheap looking about it and has good weight. Good looking dull black matte finish. ( not cheap hi gloss like some other units, very professional looking) The layout of the controls are straight forward, reminding me of days past, very functional and pleasing to the eye. ( not bells and whistles stuff)

The sound, well, totally totally pure! I am impressed! I don't know how to describe it, it's sublime, this unit delivers.

RE: Weakness's
In other reviews here I have seen mention of 'fan noise'.
I had occasion to have my head behind the unit while adjusting some cables. I heard some 'air' moving. Not the 'fan' unit, just the gentle moving of air. This is a complete non issue with my unit. Actually I laughed and said.. oh? this is the 'fan noise' problem?

The 'remote' is BIG and bulky. It doesn't allow bass, treble & balance control. Has control for center & subwoofer, delay, when doing Home Theather. I didn't buy the unit for the remote control, and over all it does what is needed. No valid complaints from me.

In conclusion;
This units MSRP is about $799.00
I picked it up for $307.00 from www.ubid.com (NEW)
I have seen comments that this unit will not handle high end or 6 ohm speakers well.
I have Infinity Preludes as my front speakers and Infinity Delta 60's as my back/surround speakers. ( both 6 ohm)
I cannot crank the AV-7 past the 9 o'clock position simply because it will shake my house apart.

All I can say is thank you guys and gals! For putting me onto this reciever and ubid.com and Onsale.com!

This is one Sweet Clear Reciever!

PS: I called a Nachamichi dealer looking for a tape deck after I had this unit. He asked me what equiptment I had already, I told him. He asked how much I paid for the AV-7. I told him. He was 'really pissed', seriously! He was major upset wanting to know where I got it and going on into how somepeople are 'dumping' them below cost. (Works for me!:)

My strong advice is if you are going to a store to buy a reciever consider picking up this unit up from an online site.

You'll save yourself hundreds of dollars and get a really excellent value and quality reciever!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Denon, Harmon Kardon, Marantz

Best mids. One of best neutral sounding Receivers. Good build quality.

Remote is too big

The Nakamichi AV-7 is an ultimate receiver. This is what I have concluded after a week of auditing on this AV-7.

The black metal face of AV7 is very elegant. This one weights 32 lbs. The build quality is quite well. The convenience of using the bottoms and knobs is as good as a typical receiver. The back panel layout is logical. There are enough input and output to connect your stereo components. The real and center speaker terminals can only except thin bare wires, which is a drawback for this $799 receiver. It uses a fan on backside to cool. There are not ventilation holes on top so that you can stack it in any layer. The tuner is an average one. The performance of its tuner is close to although not quite as good as tuners found in Yamaha or Denon receivers. But the point is that very people would listen to radios critically. For casual listening, Nak's tuner would deliver satisfactory results. The remote is useful although not impressive. Generally speaking, if it is not for its sound, this receiver would have been a very usual one which only looks better than average.

The sound, however, is first rate in its class. The first time I listen to it, without any breaking in, I noticed the very clean and sharp lower highs and mids from this receiver. The chamber music sounds like "you-are-there". My $2000 5ch amplifier cannot produce such mid frequency sounds as clean and sharp as this one can do. You hear the attack of bow on strings. The image of the sound is more focused and precisely located. The voice from an old Disney children song CD sounds clearer and more pleasant than my Marantz SR685 receiver or my old Denon AV800 receiver. I also heard many other receivers made from Aiwa to Yamaha and never heard any one sounded so natural and clean in mids. If you are a classical chamber music lover, this is YOUR receiver! What about highs and bass? They are also very good, although not outstanding. First, the highs is also clean and neutral. It doesn't sound bright like my Marantz receiver. But highs are not as extended as highs from some hi-end receivers. For instance, HK AV65 has a little bit more highs. (Doesn't necessarily mean better sounds though.) But AV7's highs are adequate. The bass of AV7 wouldn't sound stronger or cleaner than other upper level receivers, but not worse either. The dynamics of bass is a bit shame of Marantz's. But AV7's bass is more extended and smoother, which I mean that when we listen to bass notes with different tones, the AV7 produces different notes with more unique strength. While Marantz produces some notes stronger and some not so strong. This shows that the frequency response of Nak is quite smooth., although gradually weaker in both low and high ends just like all not-so-hi-end receivers. The overall sound quality for music is excellent in its class.

For home theater settings, the Nak would do a fine job too. Thanks to its uniform 80w power to each of 5 channels (power for EACH channel is rated 20hz-20k hz, not at 1khz!), the Nak can produce a close-to-theater-sound environment. The theater sound (specially with THX) would not need extended highs production. But it does need very heavy bass. The Nak alone can hardly do the job well. None of other upper-level receivers can do anyway. In my 12' X 20' sized living-room, the Nak can produce enough bass to make you feel that you are sitting in a non-home place (if not in a good quality theater) and watching a movie, instead of sitting in your living room and watching television. You have feel of physical vibration and motion. The sound from Nak is not distorted or harsh. So you won't feel fatigue. The overall sound quality for home theater is very good. If you need more bass to blow yourself out of the sofa, you will need a subwoofer to help you. Don't buy a cheap subwoofer, it will degrade your whole system. You don't want a boomy bass to exist with the nice and clean sound from Nak. You will need a clean and dynamical sound subwoofer.

To conclude the review, I would mention its price. At $799, the AV7 is not cheap. Although the feature is not rich in its class, the sound does sound rich. I would say it is one of the best sounding receiver in its class. Specially for the mid, it is absolutely the top in its class. If you don't like to pay extra for its brand name, you could buy one at discount price like $599, it would be worth enough. Recently, Ubid.com is liquidating new AV7s for a typical bid of $227! No doubt, this is the deal of the century! Even it doesn't have AC-3 decoder, it is Dolby Digital or DTS ready! You can buy a good decoder like Denon's AVD-2000 to connect to this one and make a combined component that is better than most dolby digital receivers in the market. For instance, this combination will beat Denon AV3200 and Yamaha RXV795 And the total cost? Below $500!

Ratings based on the $599 price, not on the price of $227! For $227, you can find none receivers better than this Nakamichi AV7 on the earth.

Sound quality: 5
Functions: 4
Value (at $599): 4
Value (at $227): 5 + 1

Overall rating: 5

Equipment used for listening:

Celestion SL6 (as front)
Celestion high impact 10 (as center)
AR HO308 (as rear)
Pioneer DV414 CD, DVD player
Marantz SR685 (as pre-amp)
Interactive Labs Fatboy (as power amp)

Similar Products Used:

Marantz SR685

Price

no phono input, distorted sound past 1/4 volume, cheap feel to dials and push buttons

I got rid of my old NAD, don't remember to model number, but it was rated at about 35watts and high amperage. I push a set of Paradign 11SE's rated for 400watts. The Nad never distorted the sound due to the soft clipping feature. The Nak. distorts the sound once you get past 1/4 volume. Also the LED on the volume knob no longer works. Felt like the wiring for the LED inside pulled out when I cranked the volume past 1/2.

This thing is going out the door, thinking of a Yamaha or back to NAD.

Similar Products Used:

n/a

Set up the AV-7 two days ago. If you want to buy a unit that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the receivers in production today as far as sound quality goes, than this is it. It has the sound of true separates in a receiver. The amplifier is superb, tuner aceptable, surround modes perfect. If you want a bunch of DSP modes, go elseware. This is superb sound, pure and simple. Four soundfields including dolby pro-logic are offered, that's it. The same unit with a built in digital decoder is the AV-8. The AV-7 has 5.1 inputs. At a price of $499.00 at a local retailer, it is a fantastic buy. Can be had for $469 mail order, but Nakamichi won't honor the warranty. Does a great job with the whole musical spectrum from Classical to Rock. Nak has done a great job.

Tell me if this sounds like you:
I had about the right amount of cash to go shopping for some of the mass market stuff in Future Shop et al., but wanted something better. So, I took the money, and strolled into the local hi-end dealer. After _many_ hours of listening to receivers, it was clear that you can't do better than the Nak AV-7 for the money.

Crystal reproduction out of a good CD player, and even Dolby surround from the VCR has new depth and power. What do you want to pay for, lots of "modes and buttons" on the front panel, or solid sound?? This unit delivers.

for the price their is nothing to beet this nak...super sound..few bell and whistles

Great crisp sound, solid base, good casing.

Bought this piece from Ubid for about $300/shipping. Very shocked to find any Nakamichi's for that price...especially brand new - not factory refurb. Hooked it up and it fired away crisp, clean, solid sounds. The highs crisp, bass very solid. The only thing that this receiver lacked was the dolby digital decoder...but it is 'READY'. All in all, AV 7 is a great catch!! Great job to Nakamichi. Hands down.