Yamaha avr's are not that bad, but they have been known to have good and bad avr's all in the same year depending on the model while Onkyo and Denon and a few others generally have great avr's through out the line. Yamaha seems to cheap out on some components to meet a specific price point and this hurts the performance of that particular avr over others they are producing.

Jason
M80 v2
VP160 v3
QS8 v2
PB13 Ultra
Denon 3808
Samsung 85" Q70