Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Yamaha RX-V1500 Receiver with Axiom Speakers

Having PREVIOUSLY owned the Yamaha RX-V1500 I can tell you...its not a marriage made in heaven. Because the Axiom's are so "revealing" you will hear all of the Yamaha's "digital nuances". Meaning...it don't sound too analog. Now, if digital is your thing, by all means, get the Yamaha. Plenty of DSPs for the whole family. And by whole family I mean extended family and their extended family. But as has already been pointed out, you will soon find yourself drawn to the basics...and not dancing to the boogie woogie of the Disco beat.

In fact, Straight mode was my favorite. What mode is that? Where all the DSPs get out of the damn way. Great clean, sound. Ashamed to pay all that money for 5000 DSPs and never use one. But...Straight was where it was at for me. Needless to say I wanted to play A LITTLE...but when I did I found myself cringing at the digital sound, compressed sound. So sad.

I am now a happy Arcam AVR-300 owner.

But in that price range, I'd look towards H/K or Denon.

Ya, I used one of those for years (Sherwood 5030 - Chelios)!

I am not dissing on yamaha at all, they have excellent recievers from the 1400 on up, but I have no idea why anyone uses those DSP modes. What a waste!!! I enjoy the Denon 6 channel stereo when I am around the house or having a party, but not for true music listening. I listen to stereo or direct only for that. I owned a Yamaha as my first receiver and thought the listening modes (Disco? Theater?) were terrible. Then when I got my first Denon, was so impressed with the 5 channel mode. But I still think stereo is the way to go with stereo music.

OK, I'm going to ring in here with a (Small) defence of the Yam DSPs.
Yes, most of them are a complete waste of time.
And, on my 2500, they seem to be even a bit more aggressive than they were on my old 2092.
But I have found that, just as tweaking things is essential on the rest of the system, tweaking the DSP settings is pretty important.
I use them (and by "them" I mean just the "Hall" and Whatever they have changed the name of the "Jazz" to) on about 15% of my listening. I NEVER use them when listening to straight stereo recordings made in a studio. But I do use them SOMETIMES when listening to things recorded live, especially live Jazz.
And I agree, the rest of them are- to me- pretty useless.
I wonder, are there people who listen to a lot of Church Recordings and think those DSPs sound good?
But I have found it important to lower the levels of the front effects speakers a bit, and I certainly have to turn the delay WAY down on the surround speakers. (I got a huge laugh from someone else here who decribed that they were still waiting for the sounds to bounce back from the back walls in the Rock mode! ;-)
But, back to the point. When listening to live music, it is nice to add in that "Live" ambience into the mix sometimes.
And since reading more about it in another post regarding the differences between DSPs and 5ch. / 7 ch. stereo, I have started playing around a bit with those, but again, only for music recorded live. But to my ears those do not add in as much of a feeling of being in a live setting. They just spread the signal around the room a bit more.
I see no reason to use anything but 2 speakers when listening to straight stereo recordings. I will totally agree on that point. I have no need to see what Kind of Blue would sound like had he recorded it in a concert hall in Munich, as oppossed to a (somewhat) small studio in Manhattan. Or what Blue Trane would sound like had they been in a Church in Vienna instead of Rudy vanGelder's livingroom/studio in Engelwood NJ!
And there, the "Pure Direct" or "Straight" modes really do shine. No Doubt.
But drop in Trane's Live at the Village Vanguard, or Miles' Live at the Plugged Nickel, with the DSP settings tamed a bit, you really get a sense of the rooms they were in while recording those records.
YMMV!!!

So, for me, it was something that I was willing to pay for. Even if I only use a couple of them very little of the time, when I do use them I am glad to have them availavble. But you do have to take the edge off of them somewhat- but that is doable.
And, as to the rest of the equation, I think the Yamaha sounds fantastic with my Axioms. Nothing "digital" about it at all.
And, for movies, I stick strickly with DD or DTS.
And since this is about the 6th or 7th one that I have owned, or spent lots of time around, I can attest to the fact that they are rock solid units that rarely break down.
But, as I said, Your Ears Will Decide. These are just mine!
Just had to stick up for my Yammie a bit!

In reply to:

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I got a huge laugh from someone else here who decribed that they were still waiting for the sounds to bounce back from the back walls in the Rock mode!

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That was me, and I'm told that I missed the blessed event... unfortunately the surrounds kicked in while the S/O was listening to Kelly Clarkson... so from the mains, she had:
"I know that you’re true to me
You’re always there, you say you care
I know that you wanna be mine"

And from the surrounds, Bootsauce's Touching Cloth:
"My blue angel, stands me up, delivers my payload"

She thought maybe Ms. Clarkson was a fecalphiliac.

Bren R.

It's even funnier the second time around, and I'm not even sure why!
TjB