Customer Reviews

Yamaha RX-V463BL 525 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this reciever based on a review I read from audioholics and I figured why not just post it for everyone to read. I couldn't agree more with their review. It is a solid receiver for the $299 amazon price.

2008 has started off with some amazing prices and features being offered on budget A/V receivers. Just as the new high-end receivers gain new features and new technologies, so do the receivers on the low end of the price spectrum. This is the first time that basic HDMI functionality has been offered on receivers for under $350. This is a winning situation for everyone. Most would think that $350 would not get you anything of quality and in the past that would be correct; Not so anymore. The RX-V463 is a feature laden piece of gear that far from your budget receiver of the past.


With impressive audio processing power the Yamaha RX-V463 dives into territory once occupied by receivers costing twice as much or more.Those features include things such as 192kHz/24-bit DACs for all channels, 6-channel external decoder input, iPod and Bluetooth compatibility (via optional Yamaha YDS-10 YBA-10 docking modules) and YPAO for automatically optimizing the sound in your room. And if thats not enough for you then how about 3 HDTV compatible component video inputs, 8 DSP programs, a compressed music (MP3) enhancer, and the ability to view iPod song titles displayed on the front panel and OSD, Dolby Digital and DTS processing, and XM- and XM HD-ready. That is one heck of a feature set for a sub-$350 receiver.

With a rated power of 100 watts x 5 the RX-V463 is no pansy when it comes to power either. Yamaha has offered more bang for your buck than most for a while now, and this budget receiver continues in this tradition. And with Yamaha's power ratings being very conservative, it is not unreasonable to think this little receiver will beat its rated specs. In short, there is more than enough power being offered here.

In addition to dual HDMI switching inputs, there are three component inputs, three S-video inputs, and three composite video inputs - each with one output as well. For audio, five analog stereo inputs, 6.1 analog inputs, two TOSlink inputs and one coaxial digital input round out the receiver. The RX-V463 also has real binding posts instead of those cheap spring clip terminals that so often plague other budget units.


Like all of the newest Yamaha receivers, setup is could not be any easier with the addition of the on-screen Setup menu. This is a noteworthy feature in itself on a budget receiver. While it is not as advanced as the system found on more expensive Yamaha receivers, it is accurate and easy. Also offered is a new feature called SCENE buttons. SCENE buttons are like macros that are preprogrammed to launch a variety of commands. Build quality is very good and the unit weighs a solid 17.6 lbs. This is a great budget receiver.

Good receiver for the money. Nice options with one-touch pre-program on. Could use one more HDMI IN, but not major. I was having a major issue playing cable box source. The receiver hates dealing with resolution changes on the fly sent from TWC box. Going back and forth between 480-720-1080 can create just static and flashing. I thought the item was defective but new replacement did the same thing. SET YOUR CABLE SOURCE TO ONLY 1080. Deselect 480 and 720 outputs. The box must upsample or something. This way the receiver doesn't have to deal with the issue. Never an issue when this is done and all other sources play fine. Made my heart stop the first time since the $2K TV was also new. Glad it was the receiver and Amazon replacement process was good. Remote is decent too. Overall 4 stars.

This receiver replaced a Kenwood Home Theater receiver. First off, the product is great for the price. I got the Ipod dock for free which is a nice feature to control my ipod with my stereo remote. The only short coming is I would like to have had maybe 1 more HDMI input, but I'm not complaining. Here's my setup.

Yamaha RX-V463 Receiver
Satellite Box
Xbox360
Nintendo Wii
Toshiba HD-DVD(yeah, took a chance with the low prices. PS3, here I come.)
Polk Surround Bar Speaker (Mounted on wall under Plasma)
Kenwood Subwoofer (Kept from my old HT system)
YDS-10 Integrated Ipod Dock

There are way too many features to review on this thing, so bottom line is: You can't do much better than this at this price point! Highly Recommended, unless you need more than 2 HDMI inputs. /LOL/

I ordered this unit as a replacement for an earlier model Yamaha 5.1 reciever, mainly to gain the HDMI outputs. The unit arrived in a timely manner, between a week and 9 days. I had just purchased a 50 inch plasma screen and wanted to take advantage of the HDMI inputs. I soon came to find out that this reciever only performs thru-put and doesn't convert signals. What I mean is that if you have a DVD player that only has component outputs (red green blue) they will not be converted to HDMI and therefore will not be available at the HDMI output on the reciever. Also, the reciever claims to have on screen menu for setting up the 5.1 sound, which I found to be quite an appealing feature, as my experience with my previous Yamaha reciever was always a pain to make any meaningful sound adjustments. The thing is, you only have access to the on-screen menu from the component output. So, it's my choice to view everything in component and skip the HDMI. I did try the HDMI features. That's how I learned that the on-screen audio setups weren't available. The video performance comparison between the HDMI and the component performance on my particular screen made the choice easy. The component picture was as good as the digital. Now perhaps if I had BlueRay I'd say otherwise, but for my setup, I'm very pleased with the reciever's performance and I feel it was worth every penny of its price. Knowing what I know now, I would still make the purchase. The speaker output connectors are upgrade from the earlier model's. This unit has banana jacks as output connections for all 5 speakers. The subwoofer output is a lone RCA jack and requires a powered subwoofer. There are inputs available for 2 HDMI devices and a single HDMI output. Only HDMI devices can be seen from this output. There are 3 sets of component inputs, 2 with TosLink optical audio inputs and the 3rd with the coaxial digital RCA input. The coaxial digital signal should be treated as a video signal when connecting, the use of high grade video cable giving the optimum quality signal transference.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase and the units performance. I withheld a 5 star rating due to the inability to view component inputs from the HDMI output. There must be units out there that perform the conversion, and I'm sure they reflect that capability in their price. Until I'm in the market for one of those, I'll be very happy with my Yamaha. Oh, did I mention that it plays magnificently loud? Indeed.

I was going through a little hell with a pioneer vsx-918v.I noticed one of the other reviews on this Yamaha also mentioned that Pioneer model as well.I could get alot of bass from the pioneer for dolby digital and dts movies but hardly a trace with the cd setting.After spending countless hours on the phone with several tech support people,I was told that the pioneer is not designed for stereo music and that was why I wasn't getting any bass with my cds.I really don't understand this explanation.I am really happy with this receiver after returning the Pioneer to Best Buy.It pretty much does everything I need it to do.It has wonderful bass on my cds which has given me more confidence in the newer receiver models out there.The only thing I wish it had is a switched ac input on the rear of the unit.This Yamaha does not have this.But the Yamaha is heaven compared to the Pioneer.Yamaha RX-V463BL 525 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

Others have given the highlights for this receiver already - I'll just touch on a few items that I've noted over the month I've owned this receiver.

- The 463 can extract audio from the HDMI inputs, unlike the lower model 363. However, this receiver is not quite future-proof as it will not decode the newest Dolby TrueHD soundtracks on Blu-ray discs. I've decided this is not a deal breaker for my setup (Dolby Digital still sounds awfully good), but if Dolby TrueHD is a requirement for you then consider stepping up to the 663 model (or check out the new 2009 models just starting to come out).

- Also note that there is no upconversion in this model, do any video input on the video/component inputs will have to be fed to the TV through the video or component outputs. Not a big deal, just perhaps a few extra wires to run to the TV.

- I wish I had one extra digital input (optical or coax) for my Roku movie player, but again this would require stepping up to a much more expensive receiver.

- All new 2009 Yamaha receivers from the 465 on up have 4 HDMI inputs, vs. only two for the 463. This is a no-op for me as I run my video outputs directly to my Sony TV, but you may want to wait for the new models if you plan to use those inputs. Note that most of the 2009 models also have 4 digital inputs - but lose a component input vs. the 2008 models and have changed their status screen from amber to blue. (I prefer the amber.)

- I like how configurable the 463 is - the available digital audio inputs can be switched around to support any component, and all of the inputs can be renamed (for example I renamed "MD/CD-R" to "iPod" for my iPod dock). The negative of this is that setting up this receiver is fairly complicated - it took me a bit to figure out exactly how to switch the digital audio inputs around.

- Don't forget to go into the special settings to set your receiver impedance to 6 ohms if necessary.

Overall I'm happy with my purchase. There are a few missing features I might have liked, but at this price point the 463 is still a bargain.

Edit Nov. 2010 - after 18 months of use I'm still quite happy with the Yamaha with one exception - the YPAO auto setup does not handle a subwoofer well at all. Each time I calibrate the system it sets my subwoofer down to the minimum level, resulting in almost no bass at all. On the good side, I once again want to say how good it is to be able to reassign and rename inputs. The four Scene modes are also great, so that 99% of the time I only have to hit one button to set the the receiver for a particular purpose. Overall a very good purchase.

The receiver produces great sound and has pretty much all the hook ups you could need. I have had some trouble with the onscreen display and programming the sound fields. Overall, this is a good receiver but can be difficult to use for the novice (or even slightly advanced) user.

I purchased this unit to replace an aging Yamaha HTR-5550. My first impressions were that it was a good unit, although after setting things up and getting everything settled, I am disappointed.

To start things off, the manual was relatively easy to understand, it just takes a while to READ it all carefully. However, there were other things that disappointed me much more :

1) The HDMI connection ADDS artifacts / noise to the picture - when using either my cable box or Sony Blu-Ray into the Yamaha via the HDMI connections, I can notice much more pixellation and black artifacts. By comparison, with direct connections (eg : direct hook up from Blu Ray or Cable Box straight into the HDMI ports on the TV), the picture is just WAY clearer, brighter and detailed.

On this test I used "Iron Man" on Blu Ray as the source, and ESPN Hi-Def for the cable picture.

2) For sound, the options are limited - Yamaha has taken away some Optical inputs, and as another poster has written, I also prefer the sound of optical audio over HDMI. The problem here is that (and this is really just an inconvenience), if I want to run my Blu Ray OPTICAL cable, I can only hook it into the "Cable" optical input - as the other optical input is for CD - which I already use for my PC sound card.

3) The sound for CD's is brittle, especially in the treble range - and the bass for movies (despite adjusting all the LFE and frequency options) is WAY too overpowering - more like a boombox than a home theatre.

For the music test I used the John Mayer song "Neon" as a reference source and again, Iron Man for the movies.

So, overall I disappointed with this unit, even though it looked great coming out of the box. Unfortunately, the sound is sterile and the picture is grainy - NOT good when that's what an A/V receiver is designed to do.

Admittedly, it is not an expensive unit, but it's still around USD$300, and for that, I'd rather forego some options like iPod and Sirius hookup and have better audio and video converters.

I still prefer the HTR-5550 - anyone got a good one for sale ?

For my setup I have two Sony SSF-5000s for the fronts, two Sony SS-MB100Hs on stands for the rears, a Sony SA-W2500 for the woofer, a Sony SS-CN5000 for the center, and a 525 watt Yamaha RX-V463 to power them all.

I've owned the RX-V463 for a few months now, and I'm still very happy with my purchase. Something I'd like to mention that THIS SYSTEM DECODES HDMI AUDIO! Many lower-end systems do not, and I was relieved to find that this one does. I hear it's a pain to mix HDMI video with RCA audio because the audio and video do not sync. Don't worry about that issue with this receiver!

So far I don't have any complaints about the RX-V463. With it you have the ability to adjust each speaker's volume (I suppose in case you can't get the speaker in an optimal position and must compensate with volume), as well as several other nice features. The remote is easy to use and can be programmed for about 13 devices. Also, the 525 watts is more than enough to fill my livingroom with sound. It sounds great!

All in all, this is the perfect receiver for anyone who doesn't have a fortune to spend, but want equipment that sounds great.

Like others who bought this receiver I read the reviews and made my decision based on them and budget. I'm very happy with the purchase. I'm more than satisfied with the quality, power, and easy setup. Optimizer microphone makes auto setup a breeze. Bought this along with The Klipsch Quintet II and KSW- 12 Subwoofer. Has more than enough power to make the system pop. For $300.00 you are getting a great piece of equipment.

Dan
Connecticut