The "Official" Yamaha RX-V659 / HTR-5960 Thread! - Page 2

Vexeus - don't know if this will help or not. It is an email I sent to my speaker company and the response received tthe other day.

Your Information:
Technical Help Description:
Model Number: T70 Speaker System
Serial Number: T70RB 80466

Please explain the technical issue.: What ohm speakers are these? Would
there be damage to play when the A/V receiver is set for 8 ohm speakers?
What is the advantage of 6 ohm versus 8 ohm speakers. Thank you.


Hi D,

The T70 series speakers are rated as 6 ohms. As a general rule, lower
impedance speakers play louder than higher impedance ones. However, some
less expensive receivers can have difficulty with 4 ohm speakers, especially
at high volumes. A 6 ohm design is intended to be easier for the receiver
to drive, while still having somewhat higher output.
Some receivers have a switch to select either 8 or 4 ohms. There should
be no difficulty for most receivers to play 6 ohm speakers at the 8 ohm
switch setting; but if you have any difficulty with this, or just want to be
cautious, use the 4 ohm setting.

Best regards,
Paul C/ATI

-----Original Message-----
From: Customer Service [mailto:customerservice@atlantictechnology.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 1:04 PM
To: Paul Ceurvels (E-mail)
Subject: FW: Customer Service & Technical Help has been completed at the
Atlantic Technology website




-----Original Message-----
From: Atlantic Technology Customer Service
[mailto:customerservice@atlantictechnology.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:04 AM
To: customerservice@atlantictechnology.com
Subject: Customer Service & Technical Help has been completed at the
Atlantic Technology website

On 10/10/2006 9:03:54 AM, the form Customer Service & Technical Help was
completed at the Atlantic Technology website.

Anyone know how long the 659 will be available ?

This is the one I want to get but the budget is tight (it's a live in florida and get socked w/ Home insurance that went from $2800 to $ 6300 part of life) and will be wanting to hold off until 1st QUARTER OF 2007 to purchase.

All of the reading I have done really made this jump out, I went to a local store and took a look (& listen). It's seems to be the best bang for the buck. It will be replacing my 30 year old Marantz that has driving my JBL's but have always been underpowered.

First addition is a new TV looking at the Samsung LCD LN-S3251D & need a decent AVR to handle the I&O. The 659 looks excellent for this work.

I hope that the 659 will stay in production (with current electronic design) long enough to take advantage of it.

I bought the 659. Compared to my Denon AVR-4800 it has a very laid back sound. It is like the sound is coming from the back of the speakers. The vocals seem to bounce off the wall.
They are are much less forward or"in your face" than the Denon. I have not decided which one I prefer yet. Also the volume knob is very efficient at stepping up volume in very minute incruments. The receiver is very easy to set up and use XM antenna works OK, but loses a signal frequently. I had better luck cabling my Directv receiver to the Yamaha and listening to the XM stations off Directv. The satellite dish is bigger than the little "plug and play" one offered for this use. If you have SACD and multichannel, you cannot adjust the treble or bass. At least I have not been able to.

I have the 659 and really like it.

I like the fact that it has separate speaker level settings for multi-channel input (hooked up to my HD-DVD player) versus other inputs. With the sub output of the HD-A1/HD-XA1 being lower than using optical or digital coax, it's nice to be able to tweak levels to get same sound outputs from mutiple sources.

Also, I'm running my 6ohm speakers with 8ohm setting after reading the Audioholics review.

How well will the 659 perform driving my speakers in a 7.1 setup

Front: JBL L7 4 way 6ohm 91db 1w@1m max imput 450 watt

Surounds: JBL control monitor Cm42 6ohm 91db 1w@1m max imput 70 watt

Still looking for a front center speaker to match the L7's any suggestions ?

Down the road I might consider Bi-Amp the L7's

the L7's have a 12" low end with seperate binding post, how would it do with a seperate amp pushing the 12's bi-amp using the SUB out from the 659 in place of a seperate sub with built in amp?

Hello everyone!
I really love my Yamaha 5960 but I wanted to know if any of you have experienced any problems with the IPod docking station. I can't get the ipod to display any info on the tv screen, such as menu, and song list. I must be setup okay from the tv to the receiver because I can see the volume display at the bottom. Anyone else experienced this problem?

Thanks

A few questions for those that own this receiver:

Is there a manual equalizer for each speaker channel on this receiver? I have a couple of old speakers that I must equalize for music.

Is it true this receiver has lip sync adjustments?

Does it upconvert everything to component?

Do I need HDMI? I mean really... what is the advantage? The receiver is doing the audio processing. 1 set of component cables out to the TV is fine with me. Does HDMI offer better video?

Thanks!

For Horsepower's questions-

(This is for the 659, I do not own the HTR)

The YPOA (Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer) has a Parametric equalizer that adjusts each speakers frequency and level to reduce coloration across the channels. This is done when you select the AUTO SETUP and use the provided microphone. I do not know if this would work well if you have a mix of speakers that are different brands or types. The only individual speaker adjustment that can be made manually is the speaker levels.

The unit allows you to set speakers to LARGE, SMALL, or NONE. Like many of this type, you can adjust the crossover freqs a various point. The choices are:
40, 60, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 160, 0r 200Hz. This is the crossover point between any SMALL speaker and the LARGE speaker with any SUBWOOFER you may have.

Also the receiver allows you to adjust the CENTER speaker with a graphic equalizer, to match the tone better to the front speakers. I assume this is because this is an important adjustment for movies and that many people have center speakers that are a different size or brand than the fronts or surrounds.
The choices you are given allow you to adjust the level (from 0db) of each freq:
100Hz, 300Hz, 1kHz, 3kHz, 10kHz.

Yes the receiver has a choice to upconvert to component.

Lastly, I do not know what lipsync is. I do not think it has this feature.

Hope this helps!

http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/HTR5960B.jsp
http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/RXV659B.jsp

They both seem to have it.

Audio Delay:

The Audio Delay function for Lip Sync, matches the audio to the timing of the output of the video on the screen, correcting the audio-video time lag.

Audio Delay for Adjusting Lip-Sync (0-160ms)

Drpainmd is correct

Upon looking in the owners manual, there appears to be an audio delay feature on the 659.
This function allows you to adjust the sound output and synchronize it with the video image. Apparantly certain LCD monitors or projectors would need this. The control range is from 0 to 160 ms. Adjust in increments of 1 ms.

Is this the lipsyn feature you were asking about?!?

Yep, that's it. Thanks fellas. This is quite a nice 'little' receiver for the money. Now I just need to decide if I really want HDMI or not. I've narrowed down my receiver choices to either the 5960/659 or the Onkyo 604. If the Yamaha had HDMI, my decision would be made.

What do you guys think? Right now I don't have anything that has HDMI but I would like to future proof myself. Will I be losing out on better picture quality if I use only component instead of HDMI? In about 4 months I will be getting a decent Hi-Def LCD panel, HD cable or satellite service and spend around $100 on a better DVD player. I will be hooking up an HTPC to something in this configuration, whether it be to the receiver or the LCD TV, probably to the receiver. I would like to get the receiver very soon. My Ex got most of electronics and I am DYING to get something to listen to music and movies on. It's more important to me than having a good TV right now. Your thoughts?

The Yamaha 659 does offer component out which would suffice for me. If you don't use the video features i.e. plug-in your video source(s) directly into the TV, then the 659 would seem like a good/suitable unit. I am waiting to receive mine next week

Go with the Yamaha. The only other receiver I would consider would be an Arcam or a Denon. But they are both higher priced!

If you don't have anything that has HDMI (TV, DVR) then you're not missing anything. Also, HDMI on most low-mid range receivers are just pass throughs and don't pass the 5.1 signal. Factor out HDMI altogether, if it has it it's a nice bonus but nothing really more.

I weighed HDMI vs no-HDMI as well, and decided that I could go straight to the source or instead of through the receiver and save $ by getting a non-HDMI receiver. If you have too few HDMI inputs on your TV, you can always buy an external HDMI switcher. While they're not cheap, the extra amount you'll pay for a multi-input HDMI receiver (that also meets your other criteria) may end up being pricey.

I use two of the three component inputs on my 659 for HD sources (one HD-DVR and one HD-tuner). The other is for a standard DVD player. My one HDMI input on my TV is used for my HD DVD player that only upscales standard DVD's via HDMI. Using the component in's for the HD-DVR and HD-tuner isn't really a compromise for me as the difference in PQ between component vs HDMI on these sources is debatable (esp given that broadcast HD isn't perfect in the first place). And many TV's these days actually have more than one HDMI input, so you'll still probably have sufficient options to hook everything up w/o compromising (or if so, not very much).

I received my replacement money for my old receiver so I'll be picking up the 5960 very soon. I'm going to try and hold out a little longer in hopes that a sale is coming up.

I realize that there are differences between the 659 and the 5950, but without having more knowledge I don't really understand them. I'm looking at building a 2.1 system and the expanding it to a 5.1 system when I have a better room so I want to have a decent receiver now. Considering the 6.1 version of the 5950 is $150 less than the 659, could someone explain to me what I'd be gaining in buying the 659 over the 5950 maybe? I'd appreciate any input.

Side note: I'm looking to pair whatever receiver with Athena B1.2s and C1.2 and a sub. I'm also looking at the Pioneer vsx1016.

edit: One main question I have is what is Zone 2 and is it important?

Comparisons 5950, 5960, 659

Click this user manual for Zone related questions

This link compares all the RX series receivers

Good luck!

Thanks you very much for your help.

If I read that correctly, Zone 2 is literally if you want to connect another set of speakers to the receiver that are in a different area of your house.

It also looks like the only real difference between the 5960 and the 659 other than looks is that the 659 has the zone 2 capability while the 5960 does not. Am I correct in what I'm seeing?

Quick comments ..... I received my unit yesterday - features and functionality seems terrific. Plenty of modes, including DSP, pure direct, etc.

It has been so long since I have purchased a receiver. Almost all of the functionality now is microprocessor/logic control based including volume, tone controls, etc. I like the orange display. I played some CD's and the sound is very natural. When using pure direct, bass is a little higher than what I am used to with my old Denon receivers' CD direct mode.

However, I do find the receiver response on the bright side (this is not a claim, it is just based on my personal preferences) - I played some CDs on my old Denon receiver and in our cars. I am not sure exactly how to describe it but I find there to be emphasis on a certain frequency band more than what I would prefer (it is almost like turning up a band of a graphic equilizer to the max).

I need to decide over the weekend if I should keep the unit or return it. Is seems as though that the higher end units will distinctly bring out the sounds - i.e. provide separation. My guess is that if you own any higher end equipment, it is harder to accept the quality of a lower end unit - if you own a Denon, you will possibly notice this "brightness" issue

The emphasis in high frequency you are describing is the infamous yamaha signature that has made me avoid purchasing yamaha amps for years. I know this from my previous work experience as a drone at Tweeter. In my spare time I would A/B amps all day long and I consistently found the yamaha's to be considerably brighter (in some cases harsher) than most receivers. Those with bright speakers like myself find this to be a weakness, where as those with warm laid back speakers usually welcome the signature because it seems to bring their speakers to life. My Def Techs sound harsh with Pio's and yamaha's, but Denons make them sound smooth as silk. I hate to make generalizations, but I have found this to be true from many many years of going through many many amps using the same speakers.

But yamaha's recent RX-V series amps have really peaked my interest, there's no denying they have really stepped up their game with the recent offerings. But unfortunately it seems the bright signature still remains. Bummer

Hello guys,

Have anyone here use the 659 to run 5.1 Rocket rs850, rs200, rs300 + UFW12?

Would Yamaha 659 has enough of what it takes to be well for Rockets above?

Thanks guys,
Kev

bump..

rocky road... with all these bumps...

sounds like you're getting alot of depth in your soundstage...

where's the HDMI?

I have the previous version of this receiver and really don't see anything new and improved that I don't already have... I'm holding out for HDMI