Yamaha RX-V2600

I have always been a big fan of Yamaha and never have been disappointed. When I was looking at purchasing a new receiver I looked at a few brands. I was mostly interested in the video side of things but wanted great audio as well.

The HD conversion works as stated, now everything is in 1020 on my Mitsu DLP 52" screen. I used a HDMI cable from my receiver to my TV and had no problems. The only problem I had which I read many other places was the Motorola Cable box trying to use HDMI and receive a green screen from my TV.

I switched to component and it worked like a charm. The auto sound MIC (Yes it comes with it) equalized all my speakers. The on-screen menu's are great and easy to use. You can customize this receiver as much as you want. I highly recommend and you will not be disappointed. One thing to keep in mind is it runs hot and you may need to turn the internal fan onto continous mode. ENJOY!!!

In it's day this was a very advanced high end receiver. It was the second wave of HDMI switchers, at an affordable price point - not $3,000. Today, these sale prices make this receiver an amazing deal.

What does it do well - pure clear sound. Beautiful upscaling of all video input. Smooth clean switching of sources. And my Vinyl has never sounded better. Yes it has a true Phono input with really great eq for vinyl.

What doesn't it do so well - those extra zones (2 and 3), they are just complicated to use with almost no display. The manual isn't the easiest to understand.

What do you get - Video: 2 HDMI's in, 1 output. A ton of component, S, and composite video in (I think there are 6 sets of all three). All will upconvert to around 720p, and handsomely I might add, through the HDMI output. DVD's look fabulous from this receiver (disable the on board upconversion of the DVD player).
Audio: 6 SPDIF fiber optic inputs (all video or audio inputs can be mapped to any of these inputs, except HDMI). Phono, for moving magnet, not ceramic cartridge. Tape loops for two different decks. And an XM antenna input. A very sensitive FM / AM tuner.
Speakers, pretty standard mix here, A/B sets of center, right, left, rear left, rear right, effect left and effect right. Two sub LFE line outputs. And the whole zone 2 and 3 outputs.

The setup is a bit tricky. Since there are all these optical inputs, mapping can get a bit complex. Once that's all finished and you've gotten used to the user interface, it's time to balance the speakers. The supplied microphone and test cycle are incredible. It takes about 5 minutes to totally tune everything - frequency response and volume setting for every channel, including the sub. Everything sounds glorious after that set up is run.

One thing to note, if you do use a second zone. Anything digital (optical or HDMI) will be passed along digital to the second zone. If you connect your CD player up via optical, you'll never hear it in the second zone. A minor issue, but worth understanding.

I really love this receiver. Have loved it since the day I first installed it. The only negative I have to say today, it needs more HDMI ports. At the time, 2 was huge. There was no PS3, no TiVO HD, and DVD players with HDMI were pricey and rare. Today, 2 is a bit slim. But component video is very nicely upscaled with this unit, and in a pinch that will work well.

And the power - wow. I've had it up to around 5dB a couple of times, and I think you could hear it down the block. Normal sound level is more like -20 or -30dB. I have this paired with MK speakers and a Velodyne sub.

At today's price point, this is an outstanding deal. You can't touch anything this good at the current price.