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Rating: 
Summary: Great system but you may not want to buy it here
Review: I agree with the previous review in terms of quality of system, but beware the exorbitant shipping cost if you buy this item here! Hence the 3 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: gorgeous looking, sounds ok too
Review: I bought the YHT-450 to replace my Klipsch Promedia 4.1's. The amp in those burned out, probably due to the lack of external heat sink on the subwoofer where it is housed. It always made me nervous when the back panel of the subwoofer got too hot to touch. I was in no hurry to drop $350 on the newest Promedias.I saw the YHT-450 at Best Buy. The wooden speaker boxes with piano black
finish caught my eye. Next to it, the silver plastic systems looked like
cheap garbage. I couldn't find any reviews online, and the specs were
reported inconsistently, even on the manufacturer's site. What a mess! I did observe that the included receiver (HTR-5740) retails at $299 and
the subwoofer (YST-SW015) is $99, so I took a chance and bought it online,
figuring that I could just use my Klipsch satellites if the included speakers
turned out to be garbage. The packaging is impressive. It just screams "quality!" In the big box are
four separate boxes, apparently retail packages for the receiver, subwoofer,
mains, and rears. My cats loved it. Here are the specs, straight from the included documentation: Mains(2): 6 1/2" pulp cone, 3 1/5" pulp cone, 4/5" soft dome, 50Hz-28kHz
Center(1): 2 x 4" pulp cone, 4/5" soft dome, 80Hz-28kHz
Rear(3): 4" pulp cone, 1/2" balance dome, 90Hz-28kHz
Sub(1): 6 1/2" cone, 70W, 30-200Hz, variable cut
Receiver: 6 x 85W My sound review is based solely on performance with cd audio. The 2.1 sound is very good! The larger woofers in the mains give body to the sound that my old Klipsch satellites lacked. The subwoofer is only fair, not delivering much below 40Hz. It does flesh out the uneven low-end response of the mains. With the cutoff set to the minimum value of 50, the sound is mostly crisp and cIear. I plugged in two of the rear speakers to the front channels to see what they
could do. The mids are too strong. My old Klipsch satellites sound better.
The center speaker has the same tweeter as the mains, so it probably has more presence - I didn't try it as a main. The receiver is powerful, with no noticeable distortion even at high volume.
I don't see where the advertised 700W comes from - I count 585W - but it's
plenty loud. I don't want much more than low distortion from the amplifier and I have no complaints here In summary, I'm quite happy with this purchase. The piano-black finish on the speakers is gorgeous and classy. CD audio through the mains and the subwoofer sounds good enough to justify the price I payed, $407.55 delivered. The rear speakers are mediocre; a system sporting five of these would get 3/5 at best. Thankfully Yamaha came through with a nice-sounding pair of front speakers. I will eventually replace the subwoofer with one having better range. I give this 4/5, 5/5 if somebody will come steal the three shabby rear speakers from me.
Rating:
Summary: gorgeous looking, sounds ok too
Review: I bought the YHT-450 to replace my Klipsch Promedia 4.1's. The amp in those burned out, probably due to the lack of external heat sink on the subwoofer where it is housed. It always made me nervous when the back panel of the subwoofer got too hot to touch. I was in no hurry to drop $350 on the newest Promedias. I saw the YHT-450 at Best Buy. The wooden speaker boxes with piano black
finish caught my eye. Next to it, the silver plastic systems looked like
cheap garbage. I couldn't find any reviews online, and the specs were
reported inconsistently, even on the manufacturer's site. What a mess! I did observe that the included receiver (HTR-5740) retails at $299 and
the subwoofer (YST-SW015) is $99, so I took a chance and bought it online,
figuring that I could just use my Klipsch satellites if the included speakers
turned out to be garbage. The packaging is impressive. It just screams "quality!" In the big box are
four separate boxes, apparently retail packages for the receiver, subwoofer,
mains, and rears. My cats loved it. Here are the specs, straight from the included documentation: Mains(2): 6 1/2" pulp cone, 3 1/5" pulp cone, 4/5" soft dome, 50Hz-28kHz
Center(1): 2 x 4" pulp cone, 4/5" soft dome, 80Hz-28kHz
Rear(3): 4" pulp cone, 1/2" balance dome, 90Hz-28kHz
Sub(1): 6 1/2" cone, 70W, 30-200Hz, variable cut
Receiver: 6 x 85W My sound review is based solely on performance with cd audio. The 2.1 sound is very good! The larger woofers in the mains give body to the sound that my old Klipsch satellites lacked. The subwoofer is only fair, not delivering much below 40Hz. It does flesh out the uneven low-end response of the mains. With the cutoff set to the minimum value of 50, the sound is mostly crisp and cIear. I plugged in two of the rear speakers to the front channels to see what they
could do. The mids are too strong. My old Klipsch satellites sound better.
The center speaker has the same tweeter as the mains, so it probably has more presence - I didn't try it as a main. The receiver is powerful, with no noticeable distortion even at high volume.
I don't see where the advertised 700W comes from - I count 585W - but it's
plenty loud. I don't want much more than low distortion from the amplifier and I have no complaints here In summary, I'm quite happy with this purchase. The piano-black finish on the speakers is gorgeous and classy. CD audio through the mains and the subwoofer sounds good enough to justify the price I payed, $407.55 delivered. The rear speakers are mediocre; a system sporting five of these would get 3/5 at best. Thankfully Yamaha came through with a nice-sounding pair of front speakers. I will eventually replace the subwoofer with one having better range. I give this 4/5, 5/5 if somebody will come steal the three shabby rear speakers from me.
Rating: 
Summary: Still Very Pleased, our opinion
Review: We bought this system of March 2004 at Best Buy.
Since we had Yamaha speakers before that have lasted about 7
years and are still going, (speakers that haven't blown out after many house parties and still have great sound) we knew we would be happy.
We spent about $499 on it and never looked back.
Our friends get blown away by the sound of the bass and
highs-lows in a medium-sized room.. We've watched LOTR, Star Wars (all of them) to movies like Amelie and Immortal Beloved and we've never been happier..
Orchestras sound beautiful and rich when listening.. It sounds even greater with the dvd-audio (Beethoven's 9th) as well!! Even bands like Skinny Puppy to Book of Love to Suede sound awesome on this system!!
The only thing about this system that people may have a problem with, is it may be complicated to set up the sound options. The remote also has too many options.. It still gets the 5 stars in my book because this is something you should learn to take full advantage of your system!
We've compared it to the Bose lifestyles system our friend had (no comparison- the Bose was very flat compared to this system) and the only comparable brand (if you go by store brand names) is onkyo with similarly priced systems.. compared with onkyo, we really liked the "bright" sounds from yamaha..
So almost 9 months and it's still growing strong!!
if you go to best buy and get the protection plan for $99-
you can replace it if it's defective or from wear within 4 years..
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