Customer Reviews

Yamaha RX-Z7BL 7.1-Channel High-End Network Home Theater Receiver (Black)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've had mine for a couple of months and am completely pleased with the purchase. At first I had my doubts, since I've always had much more expensive component systems. This is my fourth Yamaha receiver, but the others I used for the kids, and for the whole-house stereo system.

I had just switched from a 9" crt projector to a Panasonic 3000 LCD projector, and decided that going fully digital was in order. I spent weeks reading reviews, downloading both user and service manuals for about a dozen brands and models. When all was said and done the decision really was quite easy. This thing has virtually everything a person could want.

I have a large dedicated theater that is designed for both reclining and listening to music, or for viewing movies on a 120" screen. I have carefully assembled a system that does both flawlessly, and I didn't want to mess it up when it came to this purchase. This came as close as I could have hoped for. Mind you, it isn't as good as my old system when it comes to sound. But then my power amp alone was $4500, and could power a normal full-sized movie theater's speaker system.

This does have plenty of power for my nine-speaker setup. It just has a hair less detail in the sound. Before I could hear if a pianist hadn't fully trimmed his or her fingernails, because you could hear the ends click when they hit the ivory on the piano keys. This doesn't quite get there.

That being said, my wife likes this much better because she hated hearing every tiny detail, especially the bad mixing and mic placement on so many recordings. She especially hated listening to Midori play the Paganini caprices - hearing Midori slide her fingers into position when my wife had spent years believing that to be one of the best performances ever. She is back to loving the performance, and I have to say I like it better too. Detail can get a bit overrated, because you get the bad with the good.

As to video, this thing leaves nothing to be desired. One of my DVD players is an Oppo 981, which always gets great reviews, and is an excellent player, especially for upconversion of older DVDs to 1080p. At first I was just going to have this pass the signal straight through without any alteration. After going back and forth a bunch of times I actually chose to have this receiver do the conversion on everything, from the analog sources as well as the digital ones. It does a top-notch job and I have no complaints.

That being said, there are so many choices and possibilities it almost gets to the point of being frustrating. As you pop through the possibilities of hearing the music in a cathedral in Munich or a church in Freiburg it is pretty easy to lose focus on finding what sound you really like. My suggestion is to relax in an easy chair, close your eyes, and have someone else do the changing of settings so that you really do select the best setting.

For those building their system up from something of lesser quality (meaning most of the units out there), or for those who have been like me and have gotten tired of lugging around massive components that take up lots of room and generate lots of heat, this has something for most everyone to like.

The possible negatives of the unit are: needs at least a couple of inches of ventilation on the top for air circulation (could just hook-up a 90 or 120mm computer case fan if things are tight); like most of these receivers the remote (there actually are two remotes that come with (one full function and the other a stripped down model)) could be better and might take a little trial and error; for those like me who are used to having more than one subwoofer this is designed for just one (although my Supernova Earthquake 15" nearly knocked marble off the wall in the master bath when I was watching the newer version of War of the Worlds).

1/29/2010 Just wanted to say that I have installed the firmware updates and have yet to have a single negative thing occur concerning this receiver. Originally I screwed a few things up and Yamaha support always got back within a day. Turns out I was at fault, but one interesting item is that I had an audio CD in the player and thought it was a DVD. The output gave me a green screen, and that really had me scratching my head, and that of the Yamaha engineer, until I checked what was in there. Otherwise, I have been using the PS3 for the Blu-ray movies, Oppo for standard, and absolutely everything has been superb. Odd to have not one complaint.

12/15/2010 Not really anything to add except it works flawlessly. I still wish there were fewer choices in terms of shaping the audio output. When I find a setting I really like with one kind of music it might be a month before I come back to it again. It might help if I kept a notebook by it and just made notes as to the combinations I like. I still mostly keep it on seven-channel stereo unless I really don't like how it sounds. Other than that I haven't even looked at my old equipment for months now. As stated before, there has not been a single issue with this receiver. I'm 100% satisfied.

I would have given this unit 5 stars but I'm waiting on support to get back to me. So far, the person I've been emailing with hasn't impressed...

I got it all hooked up and configured myself, no issues. Except for one... my comcast DVR, when originally connected to my TV via HDMI, would keep the highest output setting it has available (1080i). However, now with the DVR connected through the RX-Z7 via HDMI, the comcast box keeps switching back to its lowest output (480p) whenever I standby the RX-Z7.

I've tried both the "through" and "processing" HDMI to HDMI options the RX-Z7 offers but nothing has stopped this.

Other than this glitch, I'm happy so far. The 1.07 firmware went on fine, no issues (the box had 1.03 in it when I received it).

Anybody have any ideas about the glitch, please let me know.

amcintyre@m-m.com

After expending $2500, I contacted my dealer when I found 2 mayor issues with this Unit (Due to Software Bugs), 2 weeks later Yamaha released firmware 1.05 fixing the Power on/off issue, The next month, they released v1.08 which addressed the HDMI Blue vertical noise in its processing circuitry. The problems don't end here, firmware v 1.05 has created another bug with Rhapsody operation, that is why I contacted Yamaha support 1 month ago. Not help having replaced my unit. They realized (Yamaha) about this other problem. I was surprised how Yamaha is not very interested in Keeping the Z series trouble free. This is my opinion, What you should expect when you expend $2500 Dollars in a "Top of the Line Receiver"?. Sonically and other Features this Unit Rock, but not enough for a Z series receiver

This is a truly outstanding receiver amplifier with ever possible capability one could want. I waited to buy because I had followed the Audioholics Discussion Forum where there were some concerns expressed about blue lines or spots in the video. This issue has been resolved by Yamaha and I have had no problems what so ever. The device is easy to set up and operates flawlessly. It is a complicated device so it's not possible to remember everything from a reading of the manual but the manual is laid out in a very clear and concise manner so it is quite easy to find out how to do anything. I would highly recommend the Yamaha to anyone who wants a top of the line fully capable device for music and video. I am sure it will take me years to fully exploit all its capabilities.

I bought this Yamaha RX-Z7 receiver because it was on sale. I've always wanted a Yamaha anyway, ever since the 80's ( I'm dating myself ) when I first saw an advertisement of theirs in a stereo magazine touting their DSP surround sound features. The fact that they got good reviews didn't hurt either. I am using this receiver to listen mostly to CDs and radio in stereo only. It's driving a pair of Canton Karat bookself speakers and subwoofer.
The sound is great. Setup was easy and straight forward - at least if you are just connecting a CD player and a standard set of L/R channel speakers + subwoofer to it. Same goes for any other equipment like a record player or even an mp3 player, which is the other reason I bought the Yamaha: its got 2 USB connection. It also has a built-in HD radio tuner.
There used to be a smooth jazz radio station broadcasting in my area, but they shut down due to low listenership and turned into a Tejano music station instead. When I heard they were broadcasting again but only in HD, this receiver sure came in handy.
You can also hook up 2 more sets of speaker for surround; let tell you the DSP works great.
Now for the bad news. The remote is good but less then thought through - to operate the receiver you slide a switch on the side; to operate another component such as a cd player, you slide the same switch to another position and select the CD source button before you can control it ( Really ? ). To really tweak the finer capabilities this receiver has to offer you'll have to seriously read over the manual, which unfortunately isn't always enlightening. Right now for my simple use it's enough if not overkill. But someday when I'm not too lazy and decide to connect it to my tv for real surround sound, I'll know the RX-Z7 will be ready for it.

this is my review for yamaha receiver z7. The speaker that i had is the focal electra 1007 be model, speaker cables are the audioquest cv4 12 feet. The receiver did have a 140 watts of power to drive the speakers, latest decoding, pure direct mode for pure music listening,video upscaler, 6 hdmi, and bla bla bla. I gave it only 4 stars because the decoding process during channel surfing is really slow and the video upsacaling only works for analog to hdmi, no hdmi to hdmi upscaling support. However, this receiver is a good, but not great receciver because it could drive most of the hi end speakers, and also it support bi amp speakers. I was going to choose between pioneer sc 07 but when i went to hi end speakers store for demo, most of the sales would not recommend it, because according to them its going out of business. Denon receiver is good but the price difference is too much and usually they recommend that to pair it with B&W speakers and same as ROTEL receiver. Another model that i was really considering to purchase is the ARCAM AVR600 which cost 6000$ and if purchase in cash you could probly get it for 4500 or 5000$. bottom line if you like to get the receiver that have power to drive the hi end speaker, latest decoding with the room caliberation and not going to go all hi end and keep some cash in your pocket for other components then this is the one to consider.