Yamaha - 550W 5.1-Ch. A/V Home Theater Receiver

Very satisfying home theater receiver. Sounds great with my almost vintage AR mains and my Polk Audio surrounds and center, as well as a pair of Infinity bookshelfs on the "B". No sub, I send the bass to the mains... yeah I can do that with this receiver. Can't run 6 channels simultaneously, but I knew that when I bought it. This is my first Yamaha and I am pleased with the warm natural sound. Dolby Digital and 2 channel stereo are basically all the sound fields I need but the others are kind of fun to mess with. Don't expect this thing to morph into a $500 unit by plugging in a HDMI cable or using one of the simulated sound fields. It delivers clean audio. It doesn't manage your video... gotta pay a little extra for that. Oh and if you can't read and understand an users manual and manipulate menu driven controls than you may consider a "home theater in a box" with the little toy speakers... some actually sound ok. My only disappointment is I don't get to enjoy it enough, otherwise I am very satisfied.

For $200, it's a great buy and sound quality that can match with much higher priced receivers. I was looking to buy RX-V463 but settled for this one because for extra $100 I didn't care for satellite radio or auto sound configuration. I'm using this for two months now without any problems. I first had it connected to Toshiba DVD player but I just bought Sony S350 blu ray DVD player and connected it via HDMI cable to the TV directly. For sound, I connected the DVD player through digital optical cable (it has three digital connections. DVD connection is through coaxial. DTV/CBL and CD connections are through optical). I re-assigned DTV/CBL input for DVD input to use digital optical instead of digital coaxial (someone mentioned that they couldn't use digital optical connection for DVD. The instructions to change the inputs are in page 43 and 49 in the manual). You don't have to buy the Yamaha dock for iPod either (unless you want to control your iPod with Yamaha remote) because you can connect your iPod using front aux input marked "portable". It's a great product in its price range without sacrificing any sound quality and I highly recommend to everyone.

Well, this is my first Yamaha receiver and I am NOT disappointed at all! My 5 year old Onkyo 5.1 receiver gave up and is in the repair shop, so I decided to "upgrade" to a new receiver with ipod jack & HDMI pass-thru. Now, you still need to run an audio cable with the HDMI (coax/optical) but that's ok. Seriously, this receiver is STRONG. 100 watts X 5 is very powerful. My old Onkyo was 75 watts X 5, and believe me, this Yamaha receiver is CLEANER & STRONGER. I would recommend this receiver to ANYONE with a medium to large size room. My room is 22x16 and it is plenty of power for my living room. I think it would be "over kill" for a small room. There is an "optional" ipod hookup with bluetooth capability to run your ipod with the remote ($99), but the ipod works just fine in the AUX JACK in the front of the receiver (with a $5.00 cable). Hook up was fairly simple for someone who has patience, but for first timers.......receivers can be tricky. The manual was clear and well written, so just follow along......up & running in no time. For $209.00 (minus Rewards Zone Coupon of 10%) this is a BEST BUY for sure!!

what i like about this receiver that it has many plug ins so i can add more speakers write now i have it hooked up to four 15inch woofers and a 10 inch sub woofer when i watch a movie it sounds awsome and when i play my favorite music like rap it sounds awsome especially when the music that im playing has very hard hitting bass it makes my house raddle and my windows and if you want to be heard i just crank up the bass and volume that even my friend that lives 3 blocks away can hear me but i try not to get cared away sometimes because i do get conplaints from people that live next tp me so i only keep it were i only can here it but if i lived were i didnt have people next to me i would crank it up besause i like it loud and i like that heavy hittin Bass so if you have the money to buy this i recommend it you my this product it really rocks

This receiver is easy to set up and get going, the speaker connections are quick and easy and the sound quality is pretty good. WARNING!!! This receiver CANNOT decode sound through the HDMI cables! I wish this was on the description when I bought it. You need an optical for dvr/tv sound in and a digital coax for dvd sound. Yes, HDMI is supposed to, and does do both the audio and visual signals, but if the receiver cannot decode the audio signal and send it through the speakers THERE IS NO POINT TO HAVING HDMI. Go with the 463, but double check that it can decode HDMI audio.

I chose this over the RX-V463 because I couldn't justify the cost for only adding hdmi audio switching, xm/sirius ready, and an extra 5-watts per channel. RCA sounds good enough plus I don't have any hdmi devices. I have this receiver paired with Yamaha's NS-SP5800BL speakers. The receiver was bought to replace a Kenwood receiver and am very happy with the purchase. I'd say my biggest dissapointment is the sound from the preset audio settings. They sounded very enhanced. Some enhanced sounded good while others were aweful. Digital television comes through nicely and makes use of the 5.1 but analog channels aren't so impressive. They sound a bit flat. DVD's are amazing. I felt like I was right there with it hooked up to my 39" flat screen. Not sure if it was the speakers or the receiver but the audio is quite different from television to radio, alot more bass using the same setting on radio than television. Once I figured out you can have audio presets set differently from tv to dvd to radio I was very happy. And it retains those presets automatically, very nice feature. All in all This is a very nice receiver for an entry level surround sound. The lack of hdmi audio switching was not a factor for me but you don't get that feature till the next model up. But if you don't need it I wouldn't wast the money RCA sounds very good on this.

Being as though I am already the proud owner of an outdated Yamaha receiver for my main theater, I figured I'd purchase the RX-363 for my bedroom. I wanted something to hook up my Cable/DTV DVR, and PS3 to to watch Blu ray movies and here them via 5.1. Instead, I found out that my HDMI cords ($70-$100) ea., that are supposed to send both audio and video through them are not compatible with this reciever. Picture via the HDMI is great but I get no sound. I don't know about you but, i can't watch a movie without that theater sound. I was told to run an optical wire for the sound (which I did) only to see there is no DVD optical input on the receiver at all. Only a coaxial, which the PS3 doesn't have. Totally ruined my day....this will have to go back. Didn't want to spend a lot for a receiver for the bedroom being as though I only want 5.1 and 100 watts or less. HDMI on this is a waiste.

The Sound is fantastic and the Price was Great! like the others NO HDMI audio, Come on! The Purpose of HDMI was to integrate Audio and Video in ONE Cable. Also I'd like to Strangle the Guy who Wrote the manual. refererences a button J, there is no Button J.