Yamaha RX-V659 AV Receiver

Yamaha's new midline receiver is packed to the house in features such as:

· 192kHz/ 24bit D/A Conversion

· Component Video Up Conversion (3 In /1 Out)

· S-Video Up Conversion

· Dialogue Lift

· YPAO (w/Optimizer Microphone)

· On-Screen Display

· Assignable Power Amp

· Zone 2 Speaker Terminals

· Zone 2 Output (amplified)

· Zone 3 Output

· Zone Power Switching

· +12V Trigger Output

· IR Ports

· Speaker A, B or A + B

· Selectable Subwoofer Crossover

· Multi-Channel Decoder Inputs

· 100wpc x 7 (20Hz - 20kHz)

· Dolby Digital EX/ Dolby Pro Logic IIx

· DTS-ES Discrete 6.1

· DTS 96/24 / DTS Neo:6

· Pure Direct

· iPod Compatibility

· Compressed Music Enhancer

· Neural Surround

· XM Read

· XM HD Surround

· Pre-Out All Channels

The demo of Yamaha's proprietary Compressed Music Enhancer feature was impressive. They connected a spectum analyzer to the output of the receiver to measure the bandwidth of a 128kbps mp3 music file. You could see the sharp frequency response roll off above10kHz due to the lossy nature of the format. Once Yamaha's proprietary Compressed Music Enhancer feature was enabled, high frequency response was greatly approved as per the read out of the spectum analyzer which was also instantaneously audible in the demos they conducted of Beatles songs.

With an MSRP of $549, this is a class leading receiver. Our bench tests of our review unit have revealed excellent power reserves that exceeded their rated power figures by a comfortable margin. Stay tuned for our formal review of this receiver coming soon.

For more information, visit: http://www.yamaha.com/yec/