Yamaha RX-V659BL 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver (Black)

by Yamaha

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 17.1 x 6.8 inches ; 27.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 21 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000F97AFY
• Item model number: RX-V659BL
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,322 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Yamaha 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver combines the latest and the best technologies, parts and circuit design to maximize sound quality. The component video up-conversion as well as down video conversion is automatically applied to incoming signals. This receiver is XM Satellite Radio ¿Ready¿, which allows you to hear over 160 digital channels of music, news, sports, talk and entertainment from America¿s number one Satellite Radio Services. It uses recently developed LSI with 64-bit floating point quantization processing, for high speed, high density digital sound field processing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoy this Yamaha receiver, May 18, 2006

By 

Blue Subie "Either he's dead or my watch has ... (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Yamaha RX-V659BL 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Electronics)

I am an A/V novice, and this is how/why I bought this receiver:

I originally bought it while looking for a 6.1 receiver in the $400.00 range. Best B** had a Pioneer that was THX certified for about $475. I had them put a rain check on it, then went to another store to listen to what they had (Best B** has a new policy of 'upselling' by sending any customer who is interested in mid-level audio to a 'specialist' who wants to unload Denon etc. - usually in the Home Theatre room. This annoyed me mightily, as I didn't even get a chance to listen to the Pioneer.)

At the other store, I listened to the 6.1 Yamaha HTR-5850 and was happy with that. My wife pointed out that the 7.1 RX-V659 was only about $50.00 more, and wondered what the difference was. We gave it a listen and were pleased. My wife listened to a Luther Vandross CD, and I listened to a classical music CD, then we popped in a copy of The Matrix DVD (you know what scene). My main concerns were HDTV compatability (has 3 component video inputs) and the RX-V659's audio/video auto upgrade feature. As neither me nor my wife have an iPod, we didn't care about the docking station capability of it, but it is a pleasant upgrade for later. We bought it for quite a bit less than what is listed on the Yamaha website, and less than the Pioneer receiver at BB.

I hooked the receiver to a Bic America Venturi bookshelf pair as front ends, then went with the Yamaha NS-SP1600 5.1 HTIB set-up (yes, it's their low end model, but I listened to them and they sounded fine for our 20'x30' room with nine foot ceiling.) I replaced that Yamaha HTIB center speaker with a KLH 525 II Platinum-II 125-Watt center speaker. I bought a roll of 12 gauge speaker wire - avoided the Monster stuff - went with Lowe's. The CD's and movies sounded great already, but there's more to this: the front speakers still have to 'break in' and only recently did I discover what the Neural Surround Sound exhibits when pumping XM satellite radio through them. WOW! Incredible separation! Our little room now has an audio sweet spot that allows me to consider never going out to the movies again. I've spent hours going through the different sound fields, and continue to come back to Neural Surround. Also , listening with headphones is wonderful with the Night Listening Enhancer - listening to TV with headphones never sounded this good for me. Set-up was breeze - the YPA sound optimizing thing takes some getting used to, but I like that the menus are on your TV's screen, not the face on the receiver unit.

Now I 'have' to get a new DVD/CD player that has DTS output. If this receiver lasts for at least a decade, Yamaha has a fan for life...

Unfortunately, this receiver is not HDMI-ready, but that might not be a gripe if/when I get a new HDTV and can run the video line directly into the TV instead of the receiver. Otherwise, this is a 5 star review.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great receiver, November 15, 2006

By 

C. Baker (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yamaha RX-V659BL 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Electronics)

This receiver can play great 7.1 surround sound at a price you can't beat. You're saving a lot bacause it doesn't have HDMI capability, but you really don't need it if you have an HDTV with multiple inputs. I would suggest anyways that you avoid routing any video through your receiver and go straight to the TV.

The auto setup is a really neat feature of this receiver, you just hook up the included microphone and let it do all the work for you. I'm no audiophile, but it seemed to work great for me.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Value if you don't need HDMI, November 6, 2006

By 

S. P. Jacobs "TechnoFiend" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yamaha RX-V659BL 7.1 Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver (Black) (Electronics)

I'm not an A/V novice. I've owned some very expensive A/V receivers but finances now dictate that I buy budget gear. This is a fantastic value in the sub $350 price range. It is well built, has tons of connectivity and produces great sound. The auto set-up feature (for fine tuning/balancing the surround sound speakers) is a snap to use and seems very accurate.