Yamaha RX-V1800BL 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

I have this unit six months. It was a replacement for an RX-V992 I had for eleven years. The replacement was due to technology as the RX-V992 was still operating well. This receiver has met all of my expectations and then some. Music lovers will really appreciate the pure direct mode which is fantastic and enhances the already great sound produced by the unit. I have a Tivo series three Hi def DVR with a hard drive expander, a Samsung BD-UP5000 blu-ray/HDDVD player, a Yamaha DVD-C961 DVD/CD Changer, a 160Gig Apple TV, a Sony VCR and a Samsung FP-T6374 full 1080p plasma TV hooked up. In addition, I added the XM radio and the i-pod attachment. All the components utilize HDMI except the VCR. The speakers are NHT VT-2 Towers bi-amped with the RX-V1800, NHT Classic three center and two NHT Classic three bookshelf for the surround. The system is unbelievable. The RX-V1800 is the nerve center and does an awesome job.

The rxv-1800 has a problem decoding DTS Master HD which produces a loud pop noise on various blue ray movies. Yamaha customer service is as clueless as the man on the moon about their patch to fix the problem and their stock response is " send it in to your local Yamaha dealer" It also has a problem decoding True HD and the sound cuts in and out. I will get my money back and pay $400 extra for a Denon which I've heard is a great unit.

I replaced a 9 year old Pioneer Elite receiver with the Yamaha. Setup was very easy. The manual is a bit challenging but you have to remember it does a lot; it's a good balance between a manual written for a novice and a guru.
I paired this with a new set of Apirion speakers and subwoofer. I used the Yamaha autosetup to get things started and did have to tweak the surround and subwoofer settings a bit which was fairly easy in the manual setup mode. The only word to describe it is "Wow".

I have a cable box, vcr, cd jukebox, and a dvd player plugged in with this receiver outputting the video to a high def. television via HDMI. I'm only using 2 of the 4 HDMI inputs (the cable box and the dvd). Having 2 extras gives you plenty of time to expand your home theater system.

Shop around though, I found a coupon code that got me this for $768 from 6ave Electronics. I would have been happy at $1100; I'm thrilled at that price.

I was forced to upgrade to the Yamaha RXV 1800 earlier than planned as my older Yamaha model gave up the ghost. I was very pleased with the previous model which I had for over 10 years. This past November I had acquired the Samsung 52 LNTF and the Toshiba HD A35 player, with plans to upgrade the amplifier sometime this year. These are all HDMI 1.3a enabled devices, supporting true 1080p

First the amplifier is impressive in size. It is not your father's amp. It is feature rich and is intimidating for those who are technically challenged.

Since most of my components are HDMI enabled, it was good to run less cables from these to the unit. (My wife was very pleased with, this.) This is the beauty of HDMI cables, one cable carries the stereo audio and the three primary colors. This is the first gain to be realized from the system, the reduction of wires needed. The unit has 4 HDMI inputs already pre-programmed. By this, I mean each input has been configured for a particular device. There is one for 1080p DVD players (Blu Ray or Toshiba HD), one for regular DVD players, one for cable box/satellite set top box etc. Meaning you cannot criss cross the inputs with the devices and expect it to work. I discovered this the hard way.

Connecting the wires is less intimidating than originally thought. I used screw in banana plugs that made connection to the speakers a breeze. It does require one to have enough free wire to allow for slack when the unit is positioned.

There is a cool feature "YAPAO" that is used to set the sound levels for the speaker based on the listening position. The test showed me that one of my main left front speaker was out of phase (that is the rec wire from the speaker was connected to the black input port on the unit.) The trick is to be able to locate the supplied microphone in the right location to conduct the test.

The entire wiring with assistance from my wife took about an hour. Plan everything ahead and read the set up instructions. You cannot afford to short circuit such a monster of a unit.

I am still struggling with the multi-room zone controls. They are not simple. All I really want to do is to share the audio from the main zone to my bedroom which is zone 2. My previous model had an A/B switch that was easy enough to use. Just turn in on and the sound was distributed to my bedroom. I am still researching the multi-zone set up.

The remote control is not user-friendly either. It is overloaded and lacks in ease of use or human-tech friendliness. Others have recommended using the Harmony to control all other units. I struggled with the set up and was able to get it to control the TV, the DVD player and the CD player. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to get it to control the Cable set-top box.

The sound settings and offerings are too numerous to mention. Most of this you will only master over time.

Once I had it connected, I listened to some cds, watched a HD sourced movie, and HD sourced TV. I use Comcast and it have some nice HD on Demand features, especially the Gallery Player photos. The sound is awesome. It really makes a huge difference to the entertainment experience. It is hard to imagine how much you miss when you do not know what you are missing. I thought my previous sound experience was very good, the unit moved it up about two more levels.

Setting up the physical connections is not a challenge, less wires to deal with, but the programming and use of the remote will set you back many hours just trying to figure it out.

Am I pleased with my investment, very much so. So if you plan on purchasing this unit, realize it is no walk in the park, you do pay for what you get.

I want a THX-certified receiver and finally landed on this one after some serious research. This is a receiver that comes with loaded features that will meet all your needs from a receiver and should cover what's coming up for quite a few years. I have a Squeezebox do not need the network feature so I chose this one instead of the RX-V3800. Set-up is a breeze and the YPAO is a big plus.

Video: the up-scaling capability is among the best that I've seen in many products, which makes your normal DVD look much better on a HDTV. Switching from different components is fast and easy. You'll like what you see on the TV-screen.

Sound: This is excellent hi-fi sound but not high-end sound. The different sound modes present the sound in a way that you would expect form a high-quality receiver. It has extraordinary dynamic range from very low to very high. The bass is very much extended but lacks punch. The mid is clear and transparent but lacks "body". The high is detailed and pleasant. It has a pure-direct feature that pretty much acts like an integrated amplifier. You get the best sound from the pure-direct mode. For those who are audiophiles - I would characterize the sound as "accurate" instead of "euphonic." The vocal sounds digital but acceptable. It will not compare to your high-end amplifiers but do a fair job for background music. Rather listenable.

Overall, this is a good value for the dollars considering its features and capability. If you don't want to spend the big bucks for a flag-ship receiver, this one should be among your consideration list.