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63 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
Awesome 5.1 system with two HDMI inputs, August 16, 2008
I spent months picking a stereo system; reading reviews, listening to different systems at big box stores, and ultimately settled on this one.
The reason is simple: this 5.1 system sounded better than any other I tested, even those that cost twice as much! The sound quality of this system is simply amazing at this price. You could drop 3x as much on a Bose system and be less satisfied.
Pros:
2 HDMI inputs with full 1080p pass through. Have a lot of devices? No worries. You can connect a game console, a cable box, and a DVD player, all with zero loss of resolution and picture quality. There are more expensive systems that lack this feature. However, the audio pass through from HDMI cable goes directly to your tv, meaning you have to run a separate digital sound cable from your DVD player or CableBox. Not that big a deal as optical and digital cables are cheap these days, but it does mean one more cable to worry about. Here is a very reasonable Optical Digital Audio Cable and here is a Digital Audio Cable - both of which would be perfect.
Amazing sound quality. This system has a powered sub woofer, which is a MUST for high quality, deep bass. Other systems in this price range lack this feature. The speakers are solid wood construction. Although not glamorous, they feel so much better than plastic, and will still be around when cheaply made plastic bodied speakers are in a land fill.
The speaker themselves produce accurate, high quality sound, from the highest highs to deep bass. I put them through their paces with both DVDs and music CDs, and everything I threw at them sounded wonderful. (My test included "Hero," "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," and "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi," to test the surround sound processing. For music quality, I tested "The Killers: Sam's Town," "Copeland's Clarinet Concerto," and "Metallica: S&M."). Surround sound processing was great in entertain: surround mode. This system has made watching movies and TV a new experience!
High quality build from the amp to the speakers. Some other systems I considered ran VERY hot (Like the Onkyo HT-SR800). You could feel the heat coming off the amp without even touching it. This system runs a lot cooler, and makes me less worried about it burning out. It also helps the other devices in my audio cabinet stay cool and happy.
Many pre-sets, and a reasonably well designed remote. The remote is functional but not exceptional. One of my few frustrations with the system is it's limited ability to change the speaker pre-sets. You can only switch between a few of them with the remote. I frequently have to change them by hand using the buttons on the front of the amp. I've adjusted to this my making use of the four presets for "DVD watching, TV Watching CD Listening, and Radio Listening" each of which you can assign your own audio presets. Now, depending on what I want to watch, I can hit 1 button and I'm done. My wife loves this feature as she can get a DVD going in about five seconds without headaches!
Cons:
The speaker wire that comes with the set is thin. Spend the cash to get some good 16 gauge wire (and by good, I don't mean overpriced Monster brand wiring!). Any solid 16 gauge wire will work. This speaker wire would be a reasonably priced option.
This system has exceeded my expectations. I have some quibbles with the remote design, but presets take care of the majority of them. If you want amazing sound from a 5.1 system for under $400, you can't do better. You can even spend twice as much and get less for your money than you do with the Yamaha YHT-390BL.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Awesome System for Awesome Price, July 14, 2008
This is my first surround system, and I was lucky I happened to stumble across it. I was a bit leery about the quality when I first saw the price, but I read others' reviews and know that Yamaha is a reputable brand, so I went with it.
I hooked up my DVD player and XBox 360 via TOSlink, and everything sounds superb! I was amazed when the first movie I watched with this system tricked me into thinking there was lightning outside, when it was coming from the surround speakers! I'd definitely recommend this to anyone looking to get a reasonably priced entry level system.
I ordered it with a pair of these Atlantic 77305018 Satellite Speaker Stands (Black) which work fine for holding the front speakers next to the TV.
EDIT: I should mention that I bought this Philips Spooled Speaker Wire - 100ft - 16 gauge with the system because one of the other reviews stated the wire that comes with the system is pretty cheap. I didn't even really look at it, I just used the Philips wire.
EDIT: I just hooked these Polk Audio Atrium 45 All-Weather Speakers (Pair, White) up to the system as my "B" speakers out on my patio, and that sounds great too!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Good value, May 14, 2008
I'd like to start by saying Amazon.com is about $100 cheaper than a walk-in store. I bought this system and the sound quality is much better than my old Kenwood system. The speakers are decent sounding with typical particle wood construction and a "piano" finish. It has 2 HDMI inputs and 1 output. There isn't audio decoding through HDMI, though if you are like me, I use the toslink for everything (Sat, DVD and Xbox360). Bass from the subwoofer is deep and powerful. The user manual could be written a little better. The price vs. sound quality strikes a perfect balance and I am glad I purchased it.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Very pleased with purchase, July 17, 2008
I bought this system after researching for two weeks. I was looking for a system under $500. I was also looking for a system that did NOT include a DVD player as I want to upgrade to a Blue-ray player later on. I liked the price at Amazon and the fact I didn't have to pay sales tax and shipping. When I received the system, I placed the speakers where I wanted them (I also purchased the iPod dock which I think should have been included). You will have to cut and splice the speaker wire but that is not a big deal. My system is hooked up to an HDTV and it sounds great. There are plenty of hook-ups in the back so you can build on this system. There are better products out there but for the money, I think I made out like a bandit. I really love this system!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Splendid, August 30, 2008
After having owned a dinosaur Yamaha amplifier combination that I bought when I was in the army 25 years ago, I was pleased with my purchase of this unit. I was so pleased with the quility of the C-4/M-4 combination that the Yamaha YHT-390 was the logical choice for me. It has inputs and outputs galore. Many you wont need, but the choices of types of signal input and output are great. I chose this unit for the HDMI cable input which allows a simple single cord from each of your components and TV. I have it mated to a Vizio 37" LCD and a Yamaha HDMI DVD unit. AM and FM reception are superb with the included antennas and 40 preset stations. There are many options of speaker choice from 2 channel straight stereo to 5.1 surround sound and there are 2 separate speaker outs for my massive old dinosaur speakers. Make certain to get the cables you need from Amazon as they are without a doubt the best price anywhere. In addition to HDMI cables, you may need a toslink cable and a coaxial audio cable for highest efficiency.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
great purchase, May 26, 2008
i bought this after selling a huge system [cerwin vega at-15's, 500watt/chnl 4ohm amp,etc.] the stereo was just to big and did not get used much anymore. this new yamaha suround sounds very good for the size and especialy the price. much better than a walmart sony surround i also had. if you want the most bang for your buck, buy it. the hdmi feeds video AND audio to your tv. to get surround you need to make toslink or coax audio connection. tried this. perfect sound! you can assign the three 5.1 audio connections to anything video. you will need to read manual for this. this system is not just plug and play. you have to set speaker size from medium, to small. 8ohm speaker to 6ohm. etc. if this is not done, you will hate the sound, and probably fry the speakers. the woofers in the front speakers will move waaay too much and pop. once its all set to the manuals specs, you will love the sound. overall, great product, waaay better than best buy, walmart etc systems. this is better suited for people not afraid to make high quality video and audio connections. if you dont know what TOSLINK or HDMI means, then you should probably buy a sony or something else.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Great HT system, June 16, 2008
Already had a DVD player and other components and wanted to upgrade to a better recevier since my old one was 18 years old!!! This one was at a great price and had all of the features I wanted. I did buy some speaker stands to go for the surrounds and a universal remote which all bring the entire entertainment system together. I really like all of the options from this system and it sounds great! Remote is not all that intuitive with having to press an inconspicuous AMP button before selecting other options for the receiver but not too steep of a learning curve. I say this because I haven't yet figured out how to used these features with my lower-end Universal Remote. Set up was easy for me and I highly recommend as others that you get your own, better speaker wire. I will admit I would have liked a few other audio digital input options. For example, the receiver has only a digital coax input for the DVD, and two digital optial (toslink) for the Cable and DVR units. I have it set up so my TV (hooked up via broadcast antenna TV) plugs into the DVD coax input on the A/V unit and my DVD player connects the toslink cable into the Cable port. (I did this as my TV had a digital coax audio outlet and wanted to hear TV sounds through the A/V unit) No big deal I just have to select the proper but not correctly labeled inputs for my setup inputs. Easy enough to do with the universal remote so my wife can use it easily.
Maybe this is standard but I would like for the subwoofer to turn on/off with the A/V receiver even if it did still need its own power supply input. I solved this by using an easily switchable power strip/supressor which I physically switch off whenever the system is not being used.
Overall, this was nearly exactly the system I wanted and it was at a great price. I like all of the program sound effects and especially the night dynamic suppression option but I haven't yet noticed a difference. Overall, if you've already got an upscalling DVD player and want a HT system, this is it. Take a good look at what cables you'll need (i.e. an extra HDMI cable to pass through to the TV) or other component cables, digital audio etc as they are much cheaper over the internet than in local stores. One can d/l the manuals from yamaha to see what connections there are on the back.
I highly recommend you pay attention to detail with the connections and do not attempt to do this if you have trouble connecting the VCR/DVD player to your TV. With all the old Composite A/V and S-Video cables and the newer DVI/HDMI & Component video and digital coax and optical audio... if you do not know what these are or don't want to take the time to understand them, you might want to stay away from this system or pay someone to set it up. Knowing what I was doing it took me about 45 minutes to restrip the subsitute wires for the 5 speakers and about another hour to connect all the different cables with proper cable management. So take your time and enjoy. I for one, really enjoy this stuff.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Good sound but a few cons, December 11, 2008
This system sounds good and has many features, too many in fact. It would be nice to lose a few of the extra features and put in some essentials like: microphone and automatic balance feature instead of trying to do it by ear (major pain in the ...), it would also be nice if it actually used the audio from the HDMI inputs so you can just connect one cable instead of also having to connect a digital coax / fiber optic, it would cost next to nothing to include heavier gauge speaker wire (and why do they strip and tin the two ends, its one cable that you have to cut and strip to install anyway so you will mostly have untinned ends), since the woofer is self powered and has a seperate power switch on the back it would be nice if the receiver had a switched supply output to plug it into, the front speakers should have hangers on the back like the back so they are ready to hang, and the center speaker should have more than just velcro to mount (hello, you can't velcro it to the top of an LCD like you could with an old CRT TV), a phono preamp would be nice too.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
NICE BEGINNING !!!, August 19, 2008
this system has power and great sound. more bang for the buck especially in a small to mid-sized appartment or great for a bedroom because speakers are compact, dynamite sub. yamaha did a nice job with the featues on the receiver. for the money you won't go wrong.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Great Product, December 4, 2008
This is a great system. I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews before deciding on this system. The unit sounds great. It does not run very hot and was fairly simple to set up although I do have some knowledge of electronics. Some of the reviews state that you have to have separate audio cables from your DVD player or DTV units when using the HDMI cables. Although you can do this you do not have to if you run a toslink cable from you TV Audio out to the reciever. The audio will pass through the reciever to the TV and from the TV to the reciever.
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