Yamaha - RX-V665 Review

Crisp, Clean Sound that purely brings that theater surround sound home again.  The new Yamaha line is very different to hook up than the previous model I owned of theirs.

Without warning, my wonderful Yamaha receiver of many years just decided to stop working. So it was time to start researching what to replace it with. The research began and I realized I was behind the times because I has a bit of a learning curve to get familiarized with some of the new terms and options.  There are some really cool new sound technologies and other techie stuff.  I looked at several brands, Sony, Samsung, Denon and of course Yamaha.

While considering which brand, I took into consideration my Kplich speakers and the sound combination of the receiver and speakers would make. I read a few reviews myself, only to find ones on Yamaha's previous line of receivers, but I did find out that Yamaha was a better combination with my Kplich speakers than Denon or Sony.  Waiting a few days to decide on which model of Yamaha receiver I wanted, Yamaha released their new 2009 line of receivers. I am someone who always has to check out the newest and latest to see if it has something better, what a can of worms I opened for myslef.  The new Yamaha 2009 line was completely different than the previous models.

So I started to read and find all the new sound technologies, and other little goodies.  There are just a few that really stand out so it was hard to decide.  I tried to find any reviews only to stumble on one that was very confusing to me.  I wished is explained more.  Since it was the latest model, I went ahead and purchased the 'highest' model of the 2009 I could buy, the Yamaha RX-V665.  This model seemed to have all I needed and then some while being reasonably priced. Everyone was selling it for the same price $499 with free shipping.

Upon receipt, it looked like the rest as far as the layout of the back hookups, that was a bit deceiving.  The front of it was more stream lined and had a much cleaner sleeker look, actually quite nice and I do really like to the blueish white display coloring.

It was time to hook it up.  I don't have anything fancy or out of the ordinary. Just  a Multi- disc CD player, DVD player, Dish with DVR, Playstation, 50" TV and 5 speakers plus sub-woofer.   My TV does not have the HDMI cable plug in available, it's a Sony almost 4 years old.  Hooking things up was not easy.

You would think no problems, the RCA cables plug in and then you have your TV, DVD and so on adding your optical cable for your CD player.  Not so fast, it's not that easy any more.  Make sure you buy additional optical cables when you buy the receiver.  After hours of reading the owners manual (which made things worse by only giving partial information), trying the traditional way of hooking things up, trying new cables and who knows what else I did after hours of frustration, I was only able to get the TV, Dish with DVR, DVD and finally the CD player working.  I have ordered two additional optical cables and some HDMI cables to try and finish getting everything hooked up and hopefully hooked up in the proper location.  Oh, that is another thing, you can not designate what hook up is what.  For example they have categories like, TV, DVD/Blue-ray, CD. When you want to select that device to use it must be hooked up in the location specified by the receiver.  For example TV must be hooked up to AV1, DVD- AUD1, CD-HDMI.  So if you decided to purchase on of Yamaha's 2009 receivers, keep in mind that you'll need additional cables and time to hook it up.

Over all, I am very happy with my Yamaha RX-V665.  The sound is absolutely life like, the falling rain to bullets flying by my head.  The sound self adjusts so when you do have an active scene, the sound returns to normal after that scene instead of drowning you out getting louder and louder.  Other features include Satellite radio ready, Blue-tooth, many sound handling technologies.  You can view all the features and compare models by going to Yamaha's website, www.yamaha.com  and then search for receivers/ amplifiers.

Just be prepared for hooking everything up.   Once you conquer that I believe you will experience many, many years of in home prestine crystal clear surround sound.