Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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94 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent stereo receiver, highly recommended, August 10, 2006
Despite the current fad for multi-channel audio/video receivers, the majority of people still listen to music with two speakers and only need a two-channel stereo receiver to drive them. As fanatic audiophiles with excellent stereo speakers, my wife and I recently purchased this receiver because of very good previous experience with Yamaha electronics products. This is a superb receiver in all respects. Some people may think that they need more than this receiver's rated power of 50 watts per channel, but Yamaha's power ratings are extremely conservative and this receiver will drive virtually any speakers to deafening levels (which I don't recommend doing). More important than it's ample power is its very low distortion. Yamaha specializes in low distortion products for very clean sound. In addition to robust power and ultra-low distortion the RX-397 has a full complement of controls, plus an easy to use remote. But as a fanatic audiophile another feature, typical of Yamaha, which I particularly appreciate is a button which sends the signal from our CD player (or any other non-phono cartridge input) directly to the amplifier -- bypassing the preamp circuitry, which is not needed except when playing LPs (which most people rarely do these days) -- for the lowest distortion and best signal to noise ratio. There are plenty of slighty less expensive -- and less good -- stereo receivers available, but if you want suberb performance at a moderate price I highly recommend this Yamaha.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Sound, June 29, 2008
The first receiver i ever purchased was a Sony 5.1 500 watt surround system, that was when i was only 13 years old and didnt fully understand the little differences. Well im now 17 years old and im getting sick of the surround sound because for the most part i only use the stereo setting. So i had some extra money and thought i would pick of a new receiver. But what to get i looked at many different ones and even thought about getting a 7.1 pioneer. Then i realized its kind of a waste being that i only want to continue using 2 speakers. So i went to the store looking for a Stereo Receiver. I found some by Denon, Sony and Onkyo as well as Yamaha.
I have now had it for a week, which may not seem long but after hearing the difference in quality between this and my old system i had to write something. While my old system had more bass, this system has a cleaner tighter bass, not to mention the volume can go a lot high here. I loved having all the controls laid out without being Digital like some of the others i was looking at. I love this system my music sounds amazing.
So like i said im 17 you think i would want to follow the trend and get another surround sound system, but trust me they cant compete with the old basic system of receiver. I love Jazz, Soul, Funk, Blues and R&B and they all sound great coming out of this system. I even played some ACDC and Pantera just to see how it sounds and i was blown away. For the most part i listen to Oldschool Hip Hop and most of my albums are originals which have not been remastered. I found a lot of times there albums dont sound great coming from my old system but on my new Yamaha receiver its like hearing the music for the first time.
right now i currently have a Record Player, 5 Disc cd Changer and an Xbox 360 hooked up and they all sound great. I forgot what it was like to listen to my Vinyl. I also have an old pair of Technic 12inch Floor Standing Speakers hooked up and they sound amazing, 10times better then when hooked up to a 5.1.
Stick to the basics as far as im concerned this new technology still can hold its own. Old speakers, record player and a basic receiver is all you need for a great system.
EDIT - I Should also mention that my parents own a Onkyo TX-8522 100 Watt Stereo Receiver which is currently the most popular receiver on amazon in terms of sales rank. We compared both receivers and all 3 of us came to the conclusion that we thought the Yamaha RX -397 was better then the Onkyo. We used the same speakers in the same room while doing the test.
So i strongly recommend this system to anyone looking for nice sound on a budget.
- Edit on July 30th 2008. While cleaning out my basement before moving i found an old pair of speakers under the stairs. I decided to try hooking them up to my receiver thinking i would turn it up and they would blow right away. Well they didnt so i know have this system hooked up to 4 Speakers, one in each corner of my room and now this system sound even better. the amazing thing is these new speakers i add are really good, actually i have never even heard of the brand. Accutech AR - 6LP is the model, then have 10 inch woofers. but anyways with both pairs of old speakers this sounds much better then when i only had the original pair.
-One Last Edit on Nov 7th. This receiver is now powering a pair of Soundstage 250 watt speakers. This 50 watt per channel system puts out more then enough power for the speakers.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice simple receiver with super performance!, July 23, 2008
This is my first review.
A couple of weeks ago, I purchased the Yamaha RX-397 receiver to replace one of my old receivers from the 1980's. (Back then, stereos actually had knobs that you could get a hold of).
Most stereo equipment sold these days has a lot of "fluff" without much "substance". Everything seems to have unwanted channels, frilly complicated displays, cheap tiny push-buttons (that you can't see), and remote controls so complex that they should be able to control the space shuttle.
The Yamaha RX-397 is refreshingly different. It has rotary controls with a nice professional feel, a clean simple layout, quality jacks in the rear ----- just like a real stereo receiver should. One of the most impressive things are the speaker hookups. They are large heavy duty screw type knobs with excellent wire protection and separation.
The RX-397 is now at home in my backyard woodworking / hobby shop.
My shop has difficult acoustics but the tone controls all work very well and I get great sound. Of particular interest is the continuously variable loudness control. It works a lot better than the old push button (all or nothing) loudness controls.
The Pure Direct feature also is quite nice. I find that it works especially well with modern digitally mastered, digital source music. If your recording is clean and well balanced why muddy it up? The Pure Direct feature bypasses all of the tone controls. For certain recordings, it works very well.
I have a metal pole barn that pretty well blocks out radio reception. The digital tuner on the RX-397 is set up pretty "tight" (a good thing to exclude noise and unwanted signals). If you have a metal building or otherwise poor radio reception you may want to consider a stronger FM antenna. I have a TERK antenna on order.Terk FM-50 Indoor/Outdoor Dual-Drive Amplified FM Antenna (Terk FM50)
In conclusion, I wanted a simple, high quality receiver that I can understand and hookup without a lot of fuss. I wanted something with good sound. I wanted something that I can operate without my reading glasses ((((baby boomers are you listening?)))). The RX-397 does all of the above and exceeds my expectations.
Thanks to Yamaha for making the RX-397
and thanks for reading my review.
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