Yamaha Receiver and Polk Speakers - Need Feedback

grss

Hi,

I am contemplating buying RX-V659 or maybe HTR-5890 Yamaha Receiver.
Why Yamaha? I heard they are high-current, strong build and great sound quality. I friend of mine has it and is all praise for Yamaha. Also, Yamaha is considered strong heavy weight in AVR industry, so I researched and short listed the above two models.

HTR-5890 offer 120W at 20Hz-20kHz, 0.04%THD, 8 Ohm with Dynamic Power of 155/195/250/330 W at 8/6/4/2 Ohm.
RX-V659 offer 100W at 20Hz-20kHz, 0.06%THD, 8 Ohm with Dynamic Power of 135/170/200/245 W at 8/6/4/2 Ohm.

Personally, I am inclining more towards RX-V659 as it has XM radio and is new (released June 2006).

I would really appreciate if anyone has feedback or input on above receivers? Should I go for RX-V659 or HTR-5890?

Second question I have is whether these receivers will be able to drive Polk Speaker combination as below:

- RTi6 (L/R), CSi3 (Center), RTi4 (Surround), PSW404 (Subwoofer)
- RM7400T (L/R), RM302 (Center), RM30 (Surround), PSW404 (Subwoofer)

Again, I am more inclined towards RTi combination but RM one is WAF. Might end up buying that.

This is my first home theater system. I am new to this whole thing. I have been researching on speakers, subwoofers and receivers for last month or so. I came up with above combination considering budget, living room size - medium size (15'x13') and style speakers (WAF).

Also, I haven't seen many reviews on RM7400T. Are they good? I know they are expensive and willing to put in the money if they are really good.

Would greatly appreciate any input. Thanks

GATOR3000

RTi's all the way.............:)

Willow

I second the Rti's as well.

Mike682

Another vote here for the Rti's.

Here'a a comparison chart for both yammies:
http://www.yamaha.com/yec/compare/Detail.html?compitem1=&compitem2=200506&compitem3=200016&CTID=5000200&VNM=LIVE&comp_items=200506&comp_items=200016&B_compare.x=29&B_compare.y=1

Home Theatre

Any of the rti series will be great.

grss

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I guess I'll go for RX-V659 Yamaha receiver and RTi's Polk speaker. Only hurdle is to convince my wife away from RM's :-)

kmartin971

Stay away from the HTR series - get the next line up.

ronnie

i had the htr-5890 and it is junk.....i think the whole htr series is weak built.....i barely pushed mine to get even warm and something fried on the inside. got it fixed and again something else....sold it and got the rx-v 2600 and theres no comparison....even with the watts being close it just has that much more clean power. i think the htr line is marketed to a diffrent buyer, thats why best buy carries them...

LuSh

Some of these posts are laughable. The HTR 5890 is identical to an RX-V1500 in terms of power and processing, much like the HTR 5990 is the big box version of the RX-V1600...The RX-V2600 would be better because its a model up from the RX-V1600/HTR5990.

The power and processing from chip sets, dac's and power supply's are identical in both lines. Usually the differences are within extra features thrown in such as zone 2 remotes, or powered zone 2 with 12 V triggers. If you compare like models between RX-V and HTR you won't find a difference in terms of power and processing.

Mike682

Rick88 wrote:

Agreed - you can go to Yamaha's website and they will tell you that the HTR and RX-V models are esseintially the same.

Exactly. Same product, just marketed to a different crowd

Sherardp

The RX-V2600 has received great reviews from what I have been reading on the web. It was also in Sound & Vision and got SV approved sticker. Check it out, great receiver with lots of inputs to include HDMI, etc.

weldonyoung

It has been many years since Yamaha produced professional level equipment. I like the RXZ9 AV reciever. Surround sound 9.1 and HDMI conectors indicate the type of quality and forward thinking Yamaha lost.

The Yamaha MX-D1 amp has impresive specifications, but lacks the options built into my M-80. Draw backs: only 1 set of speaker post, no 2, 4, or 8 OHM switching, and no visual power meter. I enjoy watching those damn meters jumping to 900 watts/channel.

Thier preamp (YPC1) is just a box with a volumn knob on it. I use a C-80. Its parametric equalizer can enhance any sound hole. I would never go back...

Yamaha still has some work to do. The RXZ9 or a Sunfire Theater Grand Processor 5 may be a better choice than a HTR-5890.

As for Speakers..... I dont know enough about the RTI's vs RM's. My speaker setup is a "Work in Progess". I have SDA-1C's and have recently decided to buy a pair of SDA SRS's to complement them.

Good Luck

WilliamM2

Exactly. Same product, just marketed to a different crowd

Although the amps and processing may be the same, he was correct that the build quality is different. For example, the RX-V series has nice brushed aluminum face plates, and metal knobs, the HTR series are all plastic.

The RX-v series also come with better remotes, and usually add a couple features the HTR series does not have. But they also cost more.

pblanc

I am using a Yamaha 5960 as a Pre/Pro and an Outlaw 7125 amp to biamp my LSi9 fronts and LSiC center. I use the onboard amps to run my surrounds and back surrounds/presence speakers. I am using Polk RT25's for surrounds, at present, and the set up seems fine. I just got the LSi's as an upgrade from some Polk RT55i's. The receiver powered the RT55i's fine but figured it would never do for the LSi's.

I like the receiver pretty well. It has a nice set of features with about every type of surround processing I know about, and it has XM capability (which I am not using) and iPod control capability (which I am using). It does not have HDMI switching capability, but does up-convert composite or S-video signals to component video. I have no doubt there are plenty of folks out there who consider this junk, but it has served well for me so far, seems to have a pretty decent tuner, a fair complement of digital inputs (and one digital output) and I bought it new for $313 shipping included. The auto setup, calibration, and equalization function seems to work well enough for my ears, and can easily be tweaked manually. I think with efficient speakers, it would work fine without an external amp. It also has a phono input (unlike the 5860). According to Yamaha, it can be used with 4 Ohm mains but only down to 6 Ohms for the center and surrounds.

The money I saved on not buying a more expensive Pre/Pro or Receiver went into better speakers and a decent external amp.