I'm considering purchasing this model. Feel free to give me feedback based on the 1400. I hear the Yamaha is a great receiver for movies, and since I use my receiver for movies more than anything, I'm interested. Can anyone give me feedback on this. I've read some of the other forum links on these, but want some reassurance before I jump there.
My biggest concern is it will be too bright. I don't mind detail, but I don't need too much brightness. Also, I'd like to know what people think of this receiver in a home theater setting.

I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks!

MT, audio truth remains intact despite any nonsense which you may have read elsewhere; there's no way that receivers with flat frequency response will mysteriously create a "bright" or "warm" sound. The 1500 would do well with all sound, regardless of whether it happens to be in a movie or not. If you like the features, and they're certainly excellent, you'd be making a fine choice.

Hey Misfit Toy,

JohnK gave me similar feedback a few months back when I was shopping around for a receiver. Looking back on it now, he was right.

I was torn between the Yamaha 1400, Marantz 7400 and a few others. I went with the yamaha and am extremely happy with it. I am confident you will be too.

Cheers,

DrDre

I have to agree with the previous posts. I Love my 1400, If I had any complaints, I found the initial set-up pretty complex, but maybe thats cause I have been out of the Audio loop for some time, now I am diving in head first, Hell I want to sell my house so I can design my HT room from scratch. You will have plenty of power in the Yamaha, And I agree with the bright/warm debate, you will have clean/powerful music, and movies, and the brightness will be dictated by the room enviroment, and the speakers, not the receiver, Ironic that the reviews on the 1400 stated it to be laid-back, and warm, just the oposite of what you are concerned about, but again I feel the receiver (any receiver) has lttle effect on that issue. I liked the idea of the optimizer (YMPO) but did not like the settings it delivered, more fluff then practical benefit, try it, it's all automated, nice in theory, but did little for me. Be prepared to do some tweaking and DON"T LOSE THE MANUAL and you will be rewarded in your choice, I assure you it's a great receiver, the features, and input/outputs are almost unlimited. Jon

MT, I have the Yamaha HTR-5660 (Equiv to the RXV640) that I got for a steal on e-bay. It is definitly 2 to 3 models down from the 1400. I'm driving a pair of M80's with no problems, and it sounds great. It does run a little warm, but not as hot as my old Luxman integrated did.

In your bio, I see you have an H/K 630. Why the switch? IMO, the H/K would have a more robust power supply & amplifier section. If I had the dough, I would have sprung for the H/K. Plus that glowing blue volume knob is ultra cool.

I have the RX-V750 - the little brother of the 1400. I love everything about it. It plays clear, loud, crisp, and it has more decoders and DSPs than I know what to do with. It also has some neat usability features that allow you to customize input/outputs and will remember your settings when you switch between modes - making life very easy when dealing with multiple sources...

Highly recommend the Yamahas at their price points.

Capn,
that brings up a question I always wondered about. The RX-V750 has Video upconversion, no? If so are you using it? And the most important question, is there any noticeable difference to pic quality? (Obviously it's not going to improve the pic quality, but I'm wondering if there is any noticeable degradation in pic quality). Sorry for the hijack, but with all these receiver questions being tossed around, I'm sure this is an important selling feature consumers are looking at.

I was checking out the V1500 specifications and found this:

"Dialogue Lift for Enhanced Dialogue Sound"

Does anyone have any experience with this feature? Does it improve dialog intelligibility?

Thanks, Bill

Scott, the 5660 has it as well. It does composite to S and S to composite. No up conversion to component. The biggest benefit is that I only run one S cable from the receiver to the TV and I don't switch inputs on the TV anymore. (VCR / DVD / Satellite)

I don't notice any degradation in the picture quality. (Although my 28" Sony is 12 years old)

"Dialogue Lift for Enhanced Dialogue Sound"

aka - a compressor on the centre channel only or a hump in frequency response in the human speech range on the centre.

Bren R.

The phrase brings another phrase to mind: "lift... and separate..."

It's the Wonder Center!

Two things - the 750 has the video upconversion. It doesn't make your s-video look any better, but it certainly eases the convenience factor, requiring only one connection to the tv from the receiver. It's not like a line doubler on an HDTV that will give you 720p upconversion.

About the "dialogue lift" feature. This is not done with equalization or other acoustical magic tricks. Rather, Yamaha is a proponent of "presence" speakers, which are placed above and behind the front speakers, giving the front soundstage more depth and more airiness. I tried it for a bit, but found the speakers were ugly to look at and that it muddied the sound, rather than making the soundfield more dense. Dialogue lift is done by placing some of the dialogue normally contained in the front soundstage and actually "lifting" it up into the presence speakers. Then, the dialouge actually comes from a point higher in the front soundfield. I don't know if I fully understand why you'd want to do this, but, go figure... It's not, though, a DSP that makes the center channel louder, or produces a "bump" in the voice frequencies.

so I'm assuming from that post that you have not noticed any degradation in video quality with your 750 Capn? That's good news, I've been looking seriously at this option because it would greatly facilitate the audio/video switching in my setup.

Yes, real80sman, I have a H/K 630. I do like it. But I'm selling it primarily because it's the only receiver I've even owned or listened to my Axioms on...so I want to experiment. Try something different. I currently have it up for auction on Ebay, but if anyone is interested in purchasing it send me PM and I can close out the auction.

Yes...this is the beginning of a sickness I feel. I plan on starting a hobby or receiver swapping. I think the Yamaha will be next endevor...if only for that fact that "I just want to". Which is a very hard thing for wives to understand sometimes.

Sid - no degradation in video during switching at all. It definitely makes life easier as far as hookups from the receiver to the tv goes - one connection, and voila!

That's great news. I was concerned that it would cause problems, but good to hear it doesn't.

I'll pitch in my vote for upconversion. It is definitely a key feature to look for in a new receiver, YMMV.

I have the RX-V2200; it does not have upconversion. I sure wish it did, specifically upconversion to component. It sure reduces the hassle with multiple video sources.

Joe

No diggity...

I have my cd player's video input (composite), my vcr's video input (composite), the cable's S-video and teh DVD player's component all going into the receiver. Out come three cables, all neatly tucked behind the TV. It especially helps b/c my wife never has to wory about what "video" selection the TV has to be on. It is the same for everything.