★★★★★ 5
Review
Style: 7.2 Receiver
So far I’ve been very pleased with the unit although I only use it for powering two large front 4 ohm external speakers while listening to music streaming on apps in the TV. Unlike AVs from both Denon (who I believe has the best tech support) and Onkyo that I returned, when I turn on my Sony Bravia TV with settings enabled for eARC, the Yamaha unit does not automatically turn on and subsequently switch sound to the external speakers. Perhaps it’s possible but it’s not something that I wanted. Additionally, I came to learn that both Denon and Onkyo are owned by the same parent company, which may explain their common behavior. However, the Yamaha receiver does automatically switch to the external speakers when I power it on and I am able to control the AVR volume with my TV remote control. Additionally, with the settings I have on the TV and AVR, when I turn off the AVR, the sound automatically switches back to coming from the TV speakers, and the TV does remain on. Again, something I want to happen. In general, I’ve found that these devices are very complicated with their myriad number of settings on both the TV and the AVR, and it can be very challenging to properly set them. I’m retired now but my undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering from an Ivy League school at a time when we used slide rules to do the mathematics. I would say that it’s not easy to learn how to use the devices with eARC. If you only want to improve the TV sound, I'm guessing that's it's a lot simpler to use a sound bar. In my case, I've had large and expensive 4 ohm front speakers that I wanted to continue to use (my old AVR does not have any HDMI connections) so a sound bar was not an option for me.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2024