I'm new to the receiver scene and was wondering how the Yamaha compares to other receivers like Marantz, Denon, NAD & HK? I'm looking for something in the 500 range for my Monitor 5's, CC-370, ADP-370 & PW1200. Crystal clear sound is the most important thing and I dont have a bright/warm preference. Any thoughts & what models? Thanks!!!
Bug
anonymousII
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Check out the Yamaha 1500. It can be had for a bit over $500 from several of the wholesalers on this website. Just be sure you know who you are dealing with and feel comfortable with their policies as it's likely you will not get the Yamaha warranty but only the warranty the seller gives you. Sonically the 1500 is a great match for your Paradigms.
Bug
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Any notable differences between the RX-V series and the HTR series? What HTR would be comparable/better than the RX-V 1500?
Thanks Bug
anonymousII
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The 5890 is basically the same as the 1500. The RX-V series looks much nicer though.
Bug
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I live in an isolated area of northern Canada. however, a local store has the 5890 in stock. I might take it home to give it a "test drive". I can't seem to find any websites that deliver to Canada so it might mean that I'm at the mercy of the dealers here and pay through the nose. The 5890 is $1080 Cad + 7% tax. What do you think?
Thanks! Bug
anonymousII
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Sounds like your options are quite limited. If you can return the 5890 without a lot of hassle give it a try. I think you'll find it sounds very nice with your Paradigms. I have no idea what the price you mention equals in US money nut at Best Buy here it sells for $799 regularly but for less than $550 at the wholesalers.
I live in Canada as well...close enough to the border to have anything shipped there to be picked up and I too was looking at the RX-V1500. I figured for that kind of money...the fact that no store will honour a warranty once the unit leaves Canada, I decided to go with H/K refurbished units...much cheaper though impossible to purchase unless you know an American willing to buy on your behalf. Anyway, $1080 Canadian is about $900 US...not including tax. That hurts. Your best bet may be to try to find a good price from a dealer in Canada and see if they'll ship to you.
I watched 'boogyman' tonight. Whoah....it had some definite LFE material I set my SVS filter down to 16hz tonight, and rearanged my furnature out on the back deck. Maybe I should disable the filter to see how low I can really go??
HEH
anonymousII
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If possible you should also check out the Denon 2105. Like the Yamaha it will match well with Paradigm. Both are very good with movies but the one problem with all Yamaha's is the sub is inactive in direct mode. The last Denon I had kept the sub active in their version of direct. Personally I want my sub active all the time. I just talked to Yamaha about this issue this week and was assured that in pure direct your speaker settings are overridden and your mains run full range which is acceptable but to me still not as good as having the sub at the same time. If you are planning to use this receiver mostly for movies then this is probably not an issue and the 5890 will be a very fine unit. If you listen to alot of music like I do you might want to keep this point in mind. Anyway check out the Denon if possible. Good luck.
All of the speakers that you listed would work better with the Paradigms than a Yamaha. At the $500 price point that you are considering I this the Marantz SR5500 (a little more than $500 but worth it) and the comparably priced Denon and HK are your best bet. I used to have a similar speaker system with the Marantz SR5400 and it is a very good match for the money. Avoid Sony, Onkyo, and low end Yamaha's. NAD is out of your price range at this point.
anonymous has a good point about the sub. You should be able to avoid the problem by going out of the front pre outs with your sub.
anonymousII
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Art, I used to feel as you do about the Yamaha's but that changed with the last two model runs. Yamaha has significantly improved their receivers to the point that I would consider one myself if the sub issue wasn't still present. Even then I might. I spent several hours at a local dealer last year with the Yamaha 2400 and a Paradigm setup with the Model 7 as mains. I took my own music and movies as one should and was very impressed with the 2400. All the usual brightness was gone, no sibilance whatever. This was the first time in 15 years or so that I really liked what I heard from any Yamaha. There is no speaker brand I have heard that compliments Yamaha better than Paradigm. I like Marantz and HK receivers very much and on balance still think they are better sounding in most cases than Yamaha but not with Paradigm's. HK is too warm, Marantz is more neutral and not a bad choice but the newer Yamaha's and Paradigm's is a very nice combo. If you haven't heard the newer Yamaha's you would be surprised like I was, maybe. You are correct however about the lower end Yamaha's but the 5890 we are talking about is not on the low end and is a nice unit. There is also the issue in this case about what is availble for Bug to choose from. Sounds like his choices are pretty limited.
Bug has not stated what was available in his area so other than Yamaha I don't have a clue. Maybe he PM'd you and you can share what is available in his area.
Where I live pretty much everything is available within a few minute drive. I have heard the Yamaha's and I will stick with what I said. I don't think that the $500 + Yamaha's are bad, I just think that there are better. HK is a common big box store brand that I believe offers better performance on nearly all fronts than Yamaha.
If Yamaha is all Bug can get at his location then there probably is no sense in asking questions. Just buy it and enjoy it.
Anon, The yammi has more than one 2channel mode.(at least the 2500does) If you choose the 'straight effect', it will play in 2channel including the sub.
If you choose the 'pure direct', it will only play the front L/R speakers and bypass the sub. Hope that helps. What model do you have?? Read your manual and see if it has straight effect. I'll bet it does if it's a newer model.
I agree with Art about the Marantz. If its availible, then get it, as the 5500 sounds better than the comparable Yammy. The Yammies do well with movies though, so if that is your main objective and your selection is limited, then get what you can get. I have a friend that only does movies on his setup so the Pioneer elite vsx 54 works well for him.Iprefer Marantz due to being better with music.
anonymousII
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Paul, See page 38 of your 2500's owners manual. It clearly states under the straight section the following;"In straight mode two channel stereo sources are output from only the front left and right speakers". The stereo mode is the only one of the three modes where the sub is active. Maybe someday Yamaha will get this right. Not a fatal flaw at all but still not the way it should be. Glad you like your 2500. It is by far the best under $2000 receiver Yamaha has ever made and miles better than their products since the early 80's or so.
Dewd, I dont have to look at my manual because all I have to do is turn on my receiver; click 'straight effect'; and listen for the damned sub. Capiche??
You're reading that wrong, and I am 100% confident that you are mistaken. Im telling you that if you use 'straight effect', two channel sound will go to your FL/FR, and your sub will still be active.
Only by using 'pure direct' will the subwoofer be bypassed.
Do you actually have this receiver, or are you just reading crap off the web and making your best guess?
You're welcome!
anonymousII
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Like I said it's on page 38 of YOUR owners manual and I am reading this right off Yamaha's website. I also have talked to Yamaha this week about this and my local dealer. Do you have your sub hooked up by the preout or did you run front speaker cables to the sub first? If so that should keep the sub active all the time but I am talking about from the preout.
Jezus man, I'm only trying to help and correct where you are mistaken. My sub is connected in a standard way with the RCA preout. All speakers are connected directly to the back of the receiver. When I use 'pure direct', I get 2 channel sound and the sub is bypassed. When I use 'straight effect', I get 2 channel sound, and the sub remains active.
Whoever you talked to at your local dealer obviously doesnt know his/her stuff. You're also obiously misreading page 38 or the wording is poorly constructed in a confusing manner.
I personally could care less what it says on page 38, because I can check the output myself and verify with my own ears whether or not the sub is active under a given mode/setting. What I am telling you is based in fact and practical application, and now you can either take that information, or leave it.
anonymousII
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Ok, then but that is very hard to understand then since as I said I also talked to someone at Yamaha about this. If the sub is active in straight mode then that's all to the better. I wonder why the manual says differently and Yamaha confirmed what the manual said. My dealer has sold Yamaha for over 20 years and they know more about their products than I could ever imagine so maybe there was some confusion about what I was asking about. The manual thing is really weird though. Thanks for the clarification.
I believe it is as Paul said. That is why I commented as I did about using L/R pre outs to keep the sub active in PURE DIRECT mode. Sorry if I was unclear before. Have fun!
That's a good feature, is there any loss in sound quality when going from pure direct to straight direct?
I hooked the sub up through the left/right pre-outs like Art suggested above to gain bass response on CD/DVD-A. Works like a charm except when I want to listen to something in direct mode that has an LFE track. In that case the LFE track is lost as it only plays the L/R track.
Does the 2500 have a straight direct for 5.1 (SACD/DVD-A) as well?
If you tell your reciever that you have no subwoofer most receivers will direct the LFE information to the front L/R which when you have your sub hooked up that way means you get the info there.
This is true when running through the optical connection, nothing is lost.
But when using 6 channel direct the LFE track, unless I'm mistaken, is still sent directly to the sub pre-out. I can't turn the sub off with the 2910 unless I use HDMI, which my receiver doesn't have.
Are you talking about multichannel music through the analog hookup. I believe that I am still able to tell my NAD that there is no sub and have the low frequency information sent to the front L/R. If you are speaking of the LFE effects relative to movie soundtracks I know that both of my receivers play the LFE through the front L/R with NO sub selected. I believe that I am using the same universal as you the DVD2910. I probably have confused the issue, sorry.
In DVD mode all is well as the LFE track is routed through the fronts with the sub set to none.
With multichannel music and musical movies like Phantom of the Opera I prefer the sound in 6 channel direct mode. My HK receiver has a display that indicates which channels are receiving a signal and which channels are outputing sound. In 6 channel direct mode it is receiving and outputing, while in DVD mode it is only receiving on the LFE segment of the display.
As well I have no controls to set crossovers in 6 channel direct, all are set to LARGE. In addition, when I go to the SPL section of the menu the woofer level is still adjustable while it is absent in DVD mode.
Very small problem as most music I have in 5.1 makes very, very little use of the LFE track, thus the reason I changed my setup. It will still be an annoyance if SACD/DVD-A start utilizing the LFE track more.
Bug
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OK...I final made the leap. I bought a Yamaha 5890. I should have been more specific when I asked my original question as to what was available in my area...sorry about that. My option was Yamaha only or make a 4 hrs drive to the nearest city (no thanks). I asked my sales person what the difference between the 1500 and the 5890 was and he said the only significant difference was colour. Do you guys know anything about that? Also, the comments about pre-outs & LFE in direct / pure mode has confused me. Looking in the owners manual it there seems to be only 1 Sub output connection (Sub-woofer pre-out) which is what I use. There is also a multi-channel input for the sub. This I have left open as I don't have anything to plug into it. Does the next Yami model have other outputs for the sub? I am happy with this receiver so far bit it wasn't cheap.
Bug
anonymousII
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Bug, Your 5890 is the top of the line model in the HTR series and has all the jacks that any other Yamaha in the RX-V series has. I just looked at the owners manual and it clearly states that the sub is not active in any of the three 2 channel modes. I would appreciate it if after you have time to familiarize yourself with this unit if you could confirm this or as Paul says the sub is active in straight mode or regular stereo. To me this is the last weakness of the Yamaha's since they are not longer bright like before. Yamaha's offer a lot for the money and I hope you enjoy yours for a long time.
How do i hook up surround sound to my tv? I know it's not true surround sound, but how do I hook up "stereo" then to my tv? I have a Sony 50in. Grand Wega (2005), and a brand new yamaha receiver. I have regular standard cable with the cord coming right out of the wall. I bought 2 optical cables: one running from the rear of the tv and into the input of the receiver under "cable".....and the other runs from the dvd player to the receiver input under "dvd". I have the cable cord running into a monsterpower hometheater powercenter (surge-protector), then the cable runs from that to the tv. I also have a HDMI cable running from the rear of my dvd to the rear of my tv. HELP!!!!
anon mike
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what yamaha models offer multi channel? I may have it wrong but what I'm looking for is the ability to play a movie in doors and the stereo fm outdoors. will the 5890 or lower models do this?? Thanks
I suggest you look at Yamaha's website. It will answer many of your questions. The 5890 has zone 2/amp assign capabilty, at least the website says it does.
I set my SVS filter down to 16hz tonight, and rearanged my furnature out on the back deck. Maybe I should disable the filter to see how low I can really go??