Customer Reviews

Yamaha RX-V765BL 665 Watt 7-Channel Home Theater Receiver

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had been looking at several of the Yamaha models through the spring of 2009, as well as its competitor's (Sony, Onkyo, Denon), for an upgrade of my ancient Sony receiver (one of the first Pro-logic receivers). I just installed a set of Definitive Technology Mythos speakers ordered through Amazon.com, including a power-hungry Mythos Three center channel. I wanted this receiver to be the core of my Home Theater as it's primarily use for improving my Sony Blu-ray and TiVo Series3 HD DVR experience.

Sports, such a baseball is vivid with the upscale feature from 1080i to 1080p (although it has not yet improved the performance of my Seattle Mariners). 1080i broadcast shows such as Chuck, both sound and look great.

The optional YDS-11SL iPod dock works well with both a 4th generation Nano and an 80G iPod Classic, including the videos.

What is worth the wait is the clean layout on the back, the heft of the discrete amp, and the Blu-ray friendly support with both the scene button and the Decoders for HD audio formats: Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Yes they do make a difference in your home theater experience.

The audio calibration microphone works as advertised. Silent Cinema (headphone mode) is also a nice feature.

What could be improved - You need to keep the manual next to you for the first week to figure out some of the controls such as accessing all of the iPod controls with the dock. I was also sorry to see HD Radio(tm) missing from this "top of the mid-range" Yamaha's. The older RX-V863 has it, but this one doesn't. Also the four scene buttons are not programmable. I wanted to program the TV scene button for my TiVo (HDMI #2), no luck.

In the end, if you are looking for a quality receiver that performs well on both movies and music, and can drive your amp hungry speakers to their potential, look no farther that this RX-V765. It really was worth the wait.

I needed to replace a couple of old receivers so I found a great deal on the RX-V1065 and RX-V765 on Amazon. I ended up getting both of them for aboout what 2 V665's would have cost me a a Big Box store. I first setup my Main Theate Room with the 1065, I thought it was somewhat difficult to get everything the way I wanted it but the automatic speaker setup was slick and the sound is fantastic compared to my old Sony I had previously. The Menu system takes some getting use to but once you do it's not bad to navigate. All in all I was pretty darn happy with my purchase, My JBL's sounded much better then before and although I didn't really notice any difference in video quality, it was as good as before and now I had everything coming thru the same box. Surround sound was a huge step up from my old receiver also, you are almost looking behind you now because you'd swear someone is behind you, where on my old Sony it was more or less a quieter front speaker.

I then went to hook up my 765 in my cave TV room, first thing that I noticed was that is basically identical to the 1065, sure the menu system is not as polished but as far as the functionality that I need it is the same. I have a few year old Bose surround sound in this room with a JBL center chanel speaker and what a HUGE difference this receiver made over my old Onkyo, the Onkyo was really good for music but surround sound was sub par, but it was 10 years old I guess. Granted I'm only hooking up a Xbox 360, blue ray and TV in this room but watching Vikes beat up the the Packers in surround sound with this receiver was great, I haven't figured out which sound field I like best but there are a couple perfect for sports.

One of the coolest things was when I grabbed the TV remote from my Samsung LCD by mistake to turn the volume down and it says RX-V765 un the upper corner and starts to tun down the volume of the receiver from the TV, displaying the volume the whole time it's changing. I guess that Anynet capability on the Samsung TV's with a HDMI reciever gives you a few more bells and whistles. Also really cool is when I turn on the Xbox or turn off the TV the receiver will come on or off accordingly. I haven't setup the remote for additionaly devices yet, but it seems to be easy to use and is exactly the same for th 765 and 1065

One thing I do not like is the Zone 2 ability on the 1065, I almost wish is was more or less a A/B speaker selector, I have a normal 5 speaker surround setup, in addition to that I have 2 speakers in the kitchen, right behind the TV room which are connect to Zone 2 that when I'm listening to music we like to have on so that you have more sound. The problem is that Zone 2 running the same input as the Main Room is off by a few fractions of a second and if you stand right between the 2 rooms, it sounds like the song is a half a second behind in the kitchen, I tried the lipsync thing, which only made it worse, I haven't given up on it yet, but it's not obvious how to fix this.

Bottom Line -
Both the 1065 and the 765 have more inputs than I know what to do with.
Neither have HDMI on the front, I didn't want it anyway, as I think it looks stupid to set all your equipment up and then have a big cable hanging off the front of your system anyway. That's why the put the jacks on the back, right???
May not have quite as many sound fields as some others out there, but I pick the 2 or 3 I like for movies, sports and music anyway and don't care about the rest.
The YPAO is cool and works great to setup the speakers.
The onscreen Menu is better on the 1065 but adequate on the 765.
HI-DEF Radio sounds amazing on both.
Don't think I will ever use the remotes as universal remotes, but they are adequate for running the receivers.
I cannot comment much on the video conversion, as everything I am running is HDMI and looks the same as it die running straight into the TV.
Sound on both of these is fantastic, even at volumes that start to hurt, the sound is clear, the bass is crisp not slow and there is no distortion, my old receivers who make my speakers start to hiss at a much lower volume, and these receivers never do.
Save yourself some money though get the 765, once it's all setup and you don't need to go into the menu anymore, you'll never notice the difference.
I read a lot of reviews and narrowed it down to Onkyo and Yamaha, at last second I pulled the trigger on Yamaha and for what I paid on Amazon for the 2 of them I am thrilled with my purchase

I bought this model to replace an older Yamaha receiver and was amazed at the difference in sound quality coming from the same set of speakers. Setup is incredibly easy. Yamaha provides a small microphone that you put where you listen from. The amp sends out a series of sounds that the microphone analyzes and sets all settings based on the results. The only disappointment was not getting HD radio at this price level.

This receiver meets all my expectations. I combined it with a Yamaha NS-SP1800BL 5.1 Suround speakers and the new Samsung UN55B8000 55 Inch 1080P 240 Hz LED HDTV. The receiver's various controls over the inputs and the outputs of the sound system are perfect. Combine the above with its controls of a Blu Ray player and everything comes alive. Concert hall, Baby!!!

Works beautifully on the whole, particularly with the Orb Mod 2 speakers I installed. Listened to Gustavo Dudamel's first outing with the LA symphony on the 7 channel setting and it was absolutely gorgeous. Only drawback is it assumes my TV will be connected by HDMI but the only HDMI connector on my Panasonic TV is needed for the HD DVR. So the readings, when I was testing the speaker layout and volumes, did not come up on screen - had to play it by ear - and I also cannot use the TV button on the remote to turn on the TV. But it works fine on AUDIO 1, the alternative connection. Overall, very, very pleased. Amazon service and speed of delivery exceeded expectations, so I'm happy to give them a plug.

I have been buying stereo products since the 60's, all kinds of amps, pre-amps, components of all types. I have modified and tweeked them. This Yamaha is my 3rd on since '95, and this has been the most complex and simple to use one yet. The HDMI technology is awesome, as well as other features. This unit weighs less than the previous units, I suspect that the output transformers are smaller than in the past, this may effect the RMS capacity?? With the efficiency of the speakers today, at least the ones I am using, it sounds quit sufficient. The best unit on the market today for the money.

Waited until a reasonably priced receiver came out with all of the bells and whistles. Glad I did. The quality of the sound from this Yamaha blows away the Sony I bought 5 years ago and the Onkyo I had before that. I have a 5.1 setup with Paradigm Speakers and this finally set them free. Turned on LOTR and a Bourne Series and .... wow. Even my son jumped up when the surround sound kicked in... Manual is easy to follow but seems to leave out some of the finer details on configuration. The support group at the Yamaha website helped but turnaround on questions seems to be about 48 hours....

This is a great receiver for this price. When I look at what I would have spent just a few years ago for a V1400 or V2400... I'm a happy guy.

I installed a home theatre system for a friend recently and my choice of receivers was the Yamaha RXV-765. The receiver was 4 months old when the HDMI board went out. I called to find a repair center and the closest was Atlanta, GA, about 600 miles from my SW Florida home. Return shipping had to be paid along with a deposit of $69.00. A week or two later I was told that Yamaha's warranty only covered items purchased at authorized dealers, not from eBay stores. The charge for repairing the receiver was $300 plus. It is a good receiver unless it breaks down. Not being able to take it into a local repair center is a big disadvantage. So if you do an eBay search and find that Amazon.com has one at the price that you are willing to pay, check to see if the dealer you are buying it from is an authorized dealer. Yamaha's warranty gets no stars from me. I feel if you buy a new receiver from a dealer, it should be covered under the manufacturer's warranty. Probably more of their receivers are sold through eBay stores than at "authorized" dealers. Why is Yamaha supplying electronics to stores that are not authorized dealers? I guess it is good for Yamaha because of the large number of receivers that they get out of not having to repair under warranty.

I purchased the Yamaha RX-V765 for listening to music and the surround sound was also a priority. It is not all that music friendly. The amp's great for its selection of component plug-in options, also one of the reasons for purchasing the RX-V765. I was drawn to the Yamaha because of its good history as a rock solid music amp. Not for music anymore. Fewer presets and more "knob control" would be wonderful.
The amp was WISELY presented in the store with Klipsh speakers. It sounded crisp but irritatingly digital. But with the good set of Polk speakers I choose, the amp sounds muddy when playing music. Overall, even using another set of speakers as a test, VERY disappointing!
More control--fewer presets. The Vienna, Roxy, and a couple others reverb so much I find them worthless and find them annoying to have to flip through.
The amp takes a lot of fiddling to get the right sound. I finally had to connect my old Sony equalizer to get the sound I was after. I occasionally feel like I wasted money on a sub-par amplifier....as I sit a friend down to listen to a new tune and find myself flipping through all the presets to find the one that makes the cut sound OK. Presets were cool when they showed up in the 80's but more does not equal cooler. Give us MORE CONTROL.
One last point I find odd about the RX-V765, the volume. Who decided to make -80 the new zero? Very odd.
I hope this gets passed on. It won't help with my Yamaha amp but changes might make someone else a satisfied customer.
Overall, the RX-V765 gets an A for connectivity, C- for sound control, B- for sound quality, and an F for no phono preamp.

The receiver puts out great sound even with some old cheap speakers. The zone 2 is a great feature and works really well