Yamaha RX-V461BL 500 Watt 5.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver Review

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(More customer reviews)The price range of this Yamaha receiver should make anybody who doesn't live in a tiny apartment or on a really tight budget reconsider cheap all-in-one systems. I got this receiver, and was using average quality speakers, and the sound was still very natural. I've been using Yamaha products for years, and have never been let down.
Here are my Pros:
- Automatic calibration: Using the included mic, I was able to setup my speakers in under a minute, and my surround sound is very natural. It even automatically adjusted the equalization of the center speaker to match with the front speakers. I left the default calibration and watched several movies, and have been thoroughly pleased with the results.
-Natural Sound: The amplifier is very transparent, and even when using signal processing, the resulting sound seems natural, it is not fatiguing to listen to. My speakers sound a little better with acoustic music, but everything from Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Bad Religion, Thievery Corporation, Carl Craig, and Iggy Pop sounded clear and "alive". I used to have a Sony receiver, and it only sounded good with the "right" CD.
-MP3 Playback Enhancement: When using an iPod or the MP3 playback of my Philips HDD/DVD recorder, the sound was greatly improved, but not artificially so by using Yamaha's "Music Enhance" processing. This algorithm is designed to make compressed music sound better, and with high-quality rips (192Kbs or better) you really can't tell the difference from the original CD.
-iPod Dock: Get the Yamaha iPod dock, but check around for the best price. Got mine for around $50 from an Amazon dealer. The iPod dock lets you control the iPod from the Yamaha remote, and if you hit "display" it will load the song list into the receiver and you can browse the menus using your TV and the Yamaha remote. There are caveats with this, see the Cons. I will say, that the speed of managing the iPod with the remote is very fast, and the whole iPod experience is much faster than using Apple's Front Row to control iTunes (OS X only). The current song is displayed, scrolled as needed, on the receiver's display. The iPod menu is displayed your TV and using the remote buttons, it is very quick to move through the menus.
-Bright Orange/Yellow Display: Yamaha has kept with their tradition of using a bright orange/yellow display that is easy to read day or night. I can even see the iPod song titles during the day with little problem.
-Remote Control: The remote control is very well-built, stands up to dropping, and is well organized. I was able to setup my Sony TV and my DirecTV Tivo with no problems.
OK, here are my beefs. I must state that for the money, you get a plethora of features without sacrificing sound quality. But, as expected, there are a few sacrifices to be made:
-No Video Transcode: C'mon guys, analog video processing chips are like 10 cents a piece, would it really hurt to allow users to mix and match video inputs and have the video signals appear on all the video outs simultaneously? What I am saying is that the composite, S-Video and component signal paths are isolated from each other. (Sony receivers will transcode the inputs to all the outputs. But, Sony sound is lackluster)
-FM Sensitivity. They could do a better job with the FM stereo blend, and include a tuning meter. I only listen to a couple of stations and a tuning meter would make it easier to "aim" my antenna. If the signal isn't strong, the highs aren't adequately blended to remove all the static and you have to switch to mono.
-iPod Caveats: Don't get me wrong, I am addicted to my Yamaha iPod dock. But here is my (minor) complaint list:
-You have to hit "Display" to load the iPod menu. This occurs very quickly (I wish my car iPod integration worked this well.) But, there should be a system setting to do this automatically if you wish.
-The menu is displayed on the TV, very readable, but the text is straight out of the 80's. Kind of reminds me of the old monitors at the airport. Seriously, it is Courier fixed font.
-No screen saver available. There is a setting to make the iPod display stay on the TV forever, but there is no screen saving function. The only way to prevent burn-in is to use the default setting of blanking out the menu.
-No album art. This isn't a big deal, the integration of the dock with the receiver is amazing, but I'm just letting you know if album art really matters to you, then think twice.
-Play/Pause are slightly different depending it you are simply remote controlling the iPod or using the receiver to read the menu on the TV. This is probably because on an iPod, play and pause are the same button. So in remote control, you toggle the Play button, but in on-screen-menu, you use the individual Play and Pause buttons.
Other Cons:
-Combination input for V-Aux and iPod Dock. C'mon guys, the iPod dock has a dedicated connection and dedicated controls, would it have really hurt to separate the V-Aux and iPod dock inputs? To use the V-Aux, you have to remove the iPod from the dock. Strangely enough, the XM input is dedicated. (Hmm, maybe XM paid more for integration)
-Lack of Bass. This receiver doesn't produce as much Bass as my previous receiver, because it doesn't have a "loudness" control. But it's not really a lack of bass, rather the lack of added bass. I solved this by tweaking the speakers control to send all bass to the sub and then turned up my sub a little bit. To perform that tweak, go to the audio setup menu, than tell the receiver your front speakers are "small", them go to the "bass" menu, and specify all bass should appear at the sub. Some experimentation here will get you outstanding results.
-Limited Tone Controls. There are only Bass and Treble tone controls, and they don't have a large effect on the sound. I miss the classic Yamaha "loudness" control, which really made a difference in quiet listening environments.
-Front Speakers A and B can't both be active at the same time.
-NO HDMI connections. I don't have an HDMI TV yet, so I don't care. But make sure if you buy this receiver, that your TV has enough HDMI inputs AND your TV has digital sound output. Then just control all your video through your TV, and connect this receiver to your TV's digital audio output.
-Remote Control Con: I can't get the remote to control my Phillips HDD/DVD recorder. This particular Phillips DVR is a strange beast, it's not quite a Tivo, but it's more than a DVD recorder. I love the Phillips DVDR3575H, but I just can't get my Yamaha remote to work with it. The downside is that there is no "learning" capabilities. If I could just manually "teach power", play, pause and the arrow keys, I would be completely satisfied. So, I still have to have two remotes.
My overall opinion. I would want more EQ options, and more power. The next model up (which is selling for $500 or a little less here) would be the perfect receiver. But, I had a budget, and sticking to it gave me very pleasing results. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, public radio, and watch DVD's. I love the iPod dock, even with the caveats. The iPod dock works way better than any car integration I have ever seen.
EDIT: March 2010. This receiver is still going strong, and if I replace it, I would still look to Yamaha first. I purchased this over two years ago.

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