YAMAHA RX-A820 7.2-Channel Receiver YAMAHA AVENTAGE RX-A820 7.2-Channel Receiver

Pros: Sleek, clean, classic Yamaha look. Enhances normal TV sound to clear distinct words so you are not having to crank the audio to understand what people are saying. Movies (Blu-rays) are even better. The DTS-HD and TrueHD are as good or better than going to a movie theater. Pandora was a snap to setup and the audio on 7 channel encoding is amazing.

Cons: I'm an audiophile and I have tried to find something not to like. Sorry, can't find anything so far.

Other Thoughts: This AVR is paired with

1 x Kilpsch Synergy C-10 Center Channel Speaker
2 x Kilpsch KB-15 (Front left & right)
2 x Kilpsch Synergy S-10 (Rear left & right)
1 x Yamaha powered sub-woofer

All I can say is WOOOOW!! :-)

Pros: Lots of features very crisp sound, I would definitely buy it again. I have hooked this to polk floor speakers and a klipsch woofer and I love it. This is my first not out of the box set up and it was a breeze. It has a very nice user interface.

Cons: I wish it had HD radio, the next model up has it but it costs a lot more.

Other Thoughts: Do not use YPAO. Just set it up manually, you will be a lot happier. If you do make sure you go into the manager and set your speakers to small (not large) otherwise it will turn off the sub.

Pros: It attempts to do what it's designed to do.

Cons: No matter what I do I'm still getting quite a bit of static/crackling in the front left speaker only (Polk Monitor 70 - II). It doesn't matter which speaker/cable combination I use. I even bought one of Monster's power surge/clean power strips which helped a little. Looks like I need to either send this back or contact Yamaha.

Pros: Excellent sound quality. Easy to set up. Great features, especially after the firmware update that came out a few days ago, adding Pandora, Sirius/XM, etc. I have it in a large entertainment center and it is cool to the touch. The parametric EQ is wonderful and brought my 5 Polk speakers to life. My LAVA sub is no longer boomy, just deep and tight, but not overwhelming unless I really crank it. The corner placed sub blends beautifully and that was my biggest worry for not getting an Audyssey XT receiver. I researched this for a solid month before buying and am very happy!

Cons: My Onkyo NR605 HDMI board went out after 4 years so I needed an update. When I first set up the Yammy, it sounded really terrible and my family thought I had made a big blunder. You have to spend some time getting the right settings but it is well worth the effort, so it's not really a con at all. You do have to reset the unit to factory default and start over if you screw up the YPAO. Luckily I got it right after one reset.

Other Thoughts: When I first ran the YPAO I used the 8 point measurement and it sounded awful. The center channel was muffled to the point where we couldn't even understand basic dialogue. My LAVA 12 sub barely had any output. I called Yamaha support at 2a.m. and the rep was miffed so he asked me to call back the next day and speak to a level 2 tech. This guy was most helpful. He said the multi-point had confused the receiver. We reset the unit, and did a single point auto setup. Then I measured the distances for the 5 speakers and did a manual setup. You have to make all of the other speakers set to small to use the sub EQ, and I set the crossover to 90Hz. Then here's the best thing: I used the paramatric EQ, and boosted bands 3 and 4 for the center and surrounds (just 1/2 db) and does it ever sound great!! I'm an audiophile and noticed the treble is smoother than the Onkyo, but even more detailed. My sub has NEVER sounded so good. I am impressed.

Pros: Works seamlessly with everything I connected to it so far and set up was a snap. Blu-ray, Cable, internet radio, streaming from PC-s.
Very easy to control it from a computer (and I assume from any device connected from the net).
Astonishing sound both from my older Boston Acoustic and new Polk Audio speakers.
Graphical interface is very intuitive.

Cons: Remote control buttons on the lower end are a bit small, but the scene buttons make setting the environment easy.
I have not found anything wrong with the unit yet.

Other Thoughts: I assume if you don't get a lemon this Yamaha provides you with beautiful sound, easy of operations through their intuitive GUI, real easy connectivity and ton of features. This Yamaha replaces an older unit (HTR 6090) which also gave me pleanty of enjoyment of music and video, but cannot handle 3D and did not have network connectivity. So far Yamaha makes me a life long loyal customer

Pros: The convenience of the USB/HDMI/Audio ports on the front of the receiver. Airplay once I set it up. The plethora of HDMI connections available. Sound and audio performance.

Cons: None to speak of as of yet.

Other Thoughts: I recently purchased this receiver elsewhere, and I am absolutely satisfied. I currently have a Polk CS10 center channel and 2 JBL ES80s hooked up to it for audio and a PS3 and a AT&T Uverse cable box hooked up for my video needs. I am getting nothing but phenomenal audio and video performance out of this receiver. I occasionally use my iPhone and Alienware laptop via the USB and HDMI ports on the front of the receiver and have no complaints. The system works flawless and was worth every penny. I upgraded from a Yamaha RX-V765 that got fried by lightning. As soon as I hook up the receiver to wifi I will test the airplay feature, but I can only assume it will work as advertised.

Pros: Great receiver if not for 2 huge dealbreaking flaws... See below

Cons: Do not buy if you intend to hook this up to your PC or Wii!! You're in for a huge disappointment.

I own a Yamaha RX-V567 and bought this as an upgrade only for two reasons: 2 HDMI outputs, and because I HATE the placement of the A/V input buttons on the RX-V567 (too much fumbling in the dark). As soon as I plugged in the RX-A820, all of a sudden all my audio starts skipping all over the place whenever I do ANYTHING at all on the PC! If you're browsing the web, using Windows Explorer, even sometimes while sitting idle, the MP3 audio cut outs or skips for a second randomly, sometimes 10-15 times listening over only a few minutes. I've tried swapping with $150 Monster HDMI cables, using different Media Players (WinAmp, Windows Media Player, VLC), trying different HDMI inputs on the receiver, pressing Pure Direct and even listening through headphones. Same problem. I do not have any spyware and you can't point the finger to my PC: As soon as I plug in the old receiver, it works fine!

Other Thoughts: The RX-A820 has *DROPPED* output to HDMI for everything coming from component inputs except 480i! As the whole purpose of having an HDMI receiver is to output everything to HDMI, this makes this receiver useless for the Wii. I tested it and could definitely see the difference...very jagged "shakies" all over Mario, and flicker even when hovering over the Wii setup menus. Plug in the old RX-V567, and it looks noticeably better again. What's most upsetting is that the prior model RX-A810 did output 480p and a number of other resolutions over HDMI. So this receiver went back to the store. So much for an "upgrade" from a $350 receiver to a $680 one and all the "Aventage" branding hype.

You can view the supported (fewer) video conversions to HDMI around p125 of most current Yamaha manuals online. Beware before you buy!