It's not often I get excited over a new budget receiver - and I'm not. Still there has to be a starting price unit in every line up and at $699 this is Yamaha's baby.

    Lets get over the bad points first. No front A/V inputs (although none of the true competitors have either). Spring clips for the speaker terminals and only 2 digital inputs which is OK for the average punter but not for future technophiles.

    Now the good bits - A true 65 Watts RMS/Channel at 8 Ohms from 20 - 20,000 Hz with 0.06% THD which should be enough for any medium to large sized room when using reasonably efficient speakers. Dolby Pro-Logic II processing, 6.1 decoding using a phantom centre rear channel, 96kHz/24-bit DAC's and most importantly, the Yamaha 32 bit DSP (YSS-938) which is the same decoding chip that's used in the $5000 RX-Z1. This means that the RX-V430 has more processing power than any of the competition by a light-year or so.

    Unusually for a receiver in this price range, the LFE channel is totally adjustable with a test tone - this is a major benefit during setup. The AM/FM tuning section is on par for a receiver of this ilk with 40 pre-set stations.

    Sonically, I was quite impressed. Certainly when the price is brought into the equation, this is the absolute class leader. Due to the inclusion of the YSS-938 LSI, the surround sound decoding and DSP modes are better than any other receiver under $1000 (apart from Yamaha's own RX-V530 which I'll review later). Musically this unit is limited by the quality of componentry and design due to the financial considerations of an entry level receiver. That said, given a reasonable set of speakers, the RX-V430 will belt out music with as much finesse as any of it's rivals.

    I guess what we have here is an entry level $699 surround sound receiver with the heart of a $5000 flagship. If DVD movies are your main bag and money is tight, their is no better buy currently on the Australian market, If however, playing music is your main aim, save your pennies and buy the RX-V630 or above (they use Yamaha's Top Art Circuitry for better musicality) or the Marantz SR-4200 or above (the Marantz gives great music but ain't as hot on the decoding side).