[mariachi]

Yesterday I bought Yamaha's rx-1400. Let me give a bit of background about myself. This is my 4th Yamaha receiver. My first one was the 795, then I got the 596, then I bought their 1200 and now I have their 1400. I've always liked the fact that Yamaha des ign their own custom decoding chips. They've always being accurate, w/no drop outs or cutoffs. I'm using their 1400 strictly as a preamp. I have Rotel amps powering everything. But let's get to the YAPO. I hooked up everything and ran the auto setup w/YAP O for the first time. The results were not what I expected. The speaker levels were off, their distances from the listening position were also off. I manually adjusted their levels and ran YAPO again. This time it was accurate w/the distance and I also ra n the paraequalization. One bad thing about the menu is that even though you are able to view the results of the equalization, that particular menu is not very intuitive and if you exit, you have to run their setup again in order to view the results. I su ggest you run YAPO at least twice, and probably another time to make sure the results match. Another suggestion is to place the mic EXACTLY where your head is going to be, otherwise, you will not get accurate results. Lastly, make sure the room is dead qu iet. On a separate menu, you can toggle between the PEQ or setup another EQ. I left the EQ settings at zero, that way I can toggle between the YAPO settings and w/out any equalization. I noticed that w/PEQ, I don't hear a the bass heaviness from my left s peaker that I usually hear since this speaker is right next to a wall, so it seems to work. I have to do more testing to determine if I like using their PEQ or just listen without it. I'm gonna play a movie now. Will try to update.


-Vicq

 

[fireshoes]

Thanks for the update. People seem to be making a big deal out of the power specs; how do you think it performs in your house? It's YPAO by the way.

 

[mariachi]

I was so excited to post about it that I misspelled it . I just played the pod race scene from episode I. It sound the best I've ever heard it. However, I hadn't play this scene w/my Rotel amp, so I'm sure it had something to do with it. I had the PEQ on by the way. I noticed little sound details that I hadn't heard before, such as when Anakin is reattaching one of the cables that came loose, I could hear the wind and I hadn't heard that before. Again, this could be the amp. So far, I like it. I also n oticed that THX processing does affect the sound. I played it once w/it and once without it. I got a more cohesive sound w/THX on. Without it, the speakers sound it a bit more separate, and this made the surround back channel more prominent. I think THX p rocessing makes a bigger impact than PEQ !


-Vic

 

[jj22]

How is the 1400 on sound floor or idle hiss level. With your volume set at a loud listening level can you hear hiss at your seating point when there is no input to the 1400? If you disconnect the 1400 from the Rotel amp does any hiss go away?


I'm asking because you have nearly the setup I've been dreaming of building. I really like the 1400 feature for THX and equalization, but have a desire for more power from a Rotel or Outlaw.


All comments appreciated.


Thanks,

 

[gilevans]

Try running it with the ypao off for a while, by setting it to geq. I had this amp since mid-Janurary and did what you did, ran the ypao, thought everything was great...for a while. Then I started noticing that the amp lacked power, that the voices sounded boxy and constrained. Something was just never..."right."


This weekend, I reran the ypao in all the modes from flat to front, and high, and made notes on the center channel changes. No matter what, there were frequencies that the ypao was boosting +6 db...while cutting others -5.5. This was sucking all the power out of amp...so, I tried the turning ypao off and WOW. Not only did the boxiness and the compressed sounding voice disappear, but the amp sounded downright powerful.


I was very resistent to doing this, btw, because the ypao was one on the reasons I bought the amp in the first place...but, it's off now, and I suspect it will stay off. There's a link somewhere around somewhere to an extensive review of the 2400, outlining all these problems with ypao...turns out, it was right on for me.

 

[M Code]

Quote:

Originally posted by mariachi I've always liked the fact that Yamaha design their own custom decoding chips. They've always being accurate, w/no drop outs or cutoffs. I'm using their 1400 strictly as a preamp. I have Rotel amps powering everything. -Vicq

For the 1400/2400 uses a TI 601 DSP for decoding not Yamaha, there is a Yamaha DSP but this is for the YPAO and their proprietary soundfields...

 

[mlbrand]

I have had my 1400 for a few months, and will say that YPAO is not perfect, but once you learn the in's and out's it makes the receiver (room?)sound much better.


I had to run YPAO about five or six times before I was happy. At first I let it do everything automatically, and it got some things right, and some wrong. Speaker distances were set perfectly, but speaker sizes and crossover settings were off. So I set those items manually, set in on flat and ran it again and noticed a little too much compensation for my tastes. Then I ran it on "low" instead of "flat", again with the speaker size, distances, and crossover set manually. When that was done, I was and still am very happy with the sound in my room, especially compared to having YPAO turned off and the GEQ turned on (with no setting changes, all at 0).


I may mess with GEQ and the settings later on, but right now am really pleased with the sound after YPAO.

 

[mariachi]

jj22,


I have no hiss unless I put my ear next to the speaker. The hiss is not audible 10" away. Since I'm running it with an amp, I found out that it is extremely important to have good interconnects between the amp and the receiver. I had the cheapest monster cables you could buy ($10) because I didn't believe that cables made a difference. Once day I decided to upgrade cables, and after they broke-in, the sound it's way better than it was before. Hiss appears depending on source. If I put my ear next to the speaker with the tuner on, there's a little sound because it's inherent of the source itself. I've also upgraded the power cord and that made a difference as well. Believe it or not. I'm very happy with the rx-v1400 as a preamp. I've also experimented with YAPO since my early days and have decided to not use it. I like it better without it.


-Vic