Yamaha RX-V2700 Receiver

Welcome to a new era in Audio Visual Receivers. Normally, when Yamaha release a new series of Receivers, it's just the old receiver with a new designation and a couple of upgraded features. The RX-V2700 has gone way beyond this regular cycle. There has been a slight price rise with the RX-V2700 retailing at $2499 against the RX-V2600 at $2299.

I used the previous model, the RX-V2600, at home. Not because it was necessarily the best A/V receiver around, it's just that it had the most convenient connectivity and features (such as allowing me to actuate the subwoofer on Dolby Digital 2.0 when using a digital connection - try that with your Marantz/Denon etc.). I was quite happy with the sound although it wasn't as "meaty" as the superseded RX-V4600. As always, however, when a new model is released, I generally take it home for evaluation and the RX-V2700 has now been operational in chez Neil for the last four weeks.

Here's what I've concluded -

The RX-V2700 with its upgraded power supply (using bloody great 18,000uF capacitors) now delivers a punch equal to the RX-V4600 and is a significant audible upgrade on the RX-V2600 or just about any other A/V receiver under $3500. It makes the Marantz/Denon (same horse, different jockey) in a similar price range sound positively anemic. Whereas the Sherwood P965/A965 is still the reference for me (at $5700 it should be) the Yamaha isn't that far behind and with more connectivity options.

Musically, you'd still be better off buying a dedicated $2000+ stereo amplifier although the difference is now not that great. As the majority of my music is now via DVD in both two and multi channel sound, a surround sound receiver is the only option for me and indeed the majority of music listeners these days. Fortunately the Yamaha is up to the task and delivers a musicality which several years ago would have done a $1500 stereo amplifier proud. It doesn't sound as thin or clinical as some previous Yamaha's and through my Paradigm Studio 40's supplemented by the Paradigm UltraCube 12 Subwoofer, the sound is as good as I could expect given the limitations of a non dedicated room. So, musically, I'm delighted with the new Yammie and can't imagine any A/V receiver within coo-ee of the price offering as good a sonic experience.

For the Home Theatre Experience, this receiver is a killer. The dynamic range is way higher, now offering 185 Watts per channel at 1kHz (140 Watts x 7 at 20-20,000 Hz) and has a clarity which enables the vocals to punch their way through the effects emanating from all around. My main reason for joy however is the upgraded HDMI set up. With the RX-V2600, I had to revert to Component Video from all sources as the picture was significantly degraded when up converted to HDMI (Foxtel was the main culprit here), I don't know what the Yamaha Boffins have done, but the Foxtel signal (Component via Scart Adaptor) now looks superb when up converted to HDMI by the RX-V2700. I've now got everything I can going in as HDMI and I have no issues with handshake whereas, for some unknown reason, I was plagued with it with my previous set up.

The other new features include an iPod dock connection (although why the heck you'd want to play compressed music through such a thoroughbred receiver is beyond me), an Ethernet connection which allows the streaming of music from your PC as well as internet radio and a USB port on the front panel so you can play some more of your crappy MP3's from a flash drive.

The Remote Control is the learning type and is so intuitive that I've retired my Harmony 880 and now use the Yamaha remote to control everything (including the air conditioner). They don't say in the manual but I assume the amount of memory in the remote has been increased from the previous model as I used to run out of functions quite early in the programming sequence. Not so with the new one.

As with most other A/V receivers currently on the market, the RX-V2700 is supplied with a microphone for automatic set up of speakers. As with all the others, it doesn't work very well. I don't use it and don't recommend anyone but a novice to take any notice. It can be useful for the novice however as it automatically sets up parametric equalization to allow for room acoustics (I'll take mine straight, thank you).

There's now 3 HDMI inputs, this is going to be quite handy with HD DVD/Blu-Ray, HD Set Top Box, normal DVD Player (still needed as the HD units are strictly zoned), as previously mentioned, the unit will up convert other formats to HDMI and I suspect the reason my Foxtel looks so good is that the video circuit incorporates a de-interlacer which converts interlaced video input to progressive scan output ( don't quote me on that as its just a guess). The unit is also one of the first which guarantees the bandwidth high enough to throughput 1080p which will be an issue in the near future.

There's all the usual stuff like A/V send to a second zone, audio send to a third zone, powered second and third zone depending on primary room amplifier designation, bi-wiring capability by utilizing any of the spare output amplifiers (blah, blah) and a compressed music enhancer to make MP3's etc sound better (you have to be kidding).

The RX-V2700 is supposed to up-scale to 1080i/720p but I'm buggered if I can make it work, I suspect my Plasma isn't talking the right language to the HDMI network. I haven't given up yet and will continue to press buttons until something interesting happens.

As I was writing this, I had to get my wallet out for a business card (we actually had a customer in store) and, believe it or not, a moth flew out! I'm really not that tight and as it scared the heck out of me, I just thought I'd share the moment. Now back to the review.

There's just so much more technically that I could comment on, but that's not really the point of a review, all you  lot out there want to know is, should I buy one. Well, that depends. If you want an A/V receiver that will compliment just about any speaker system currently available, will allow the input of any component in the foreseeable future and love technology then it could be the best $2500 you ever spent. If you have an 81cm TV with a set of Bose Speakers (you know what I mean) then $1000 is really all you need.

Me? I'm keeping it at home.