Rating: 
Summary: Excellent product
Review: .... I too have had problems with my Sony receivers, Sony makes great TVs, computers, etc., but stay away from their non-ES audio products. The HTR-5550 has a high current amplifier (high current amplifiers will play louder and sound better than non high current amplifiers of the same or higher power rating). The quality of the product is excellent, no loose knobs, cheep buttons, etc. Yamaha's DSP processors are second to none. Component video switching works well and has enough bandwidth for HDTV signals. The remote is logical, as is the receiver for the most part except for the radio presets, it's a little tedious to use, but at least it can scan and automatically program in radio stations. It also has assignable inputs. The sound quality is outstanding, good definition, no signal clipping. There is a lot more to it, but it is really best to just try it. Reviews help, but you need to actually use it to fully understand the overall quality of the product. I compared to Marantz, Harman/Kardon, Onkyo, Denon, and you definitely get more for less with the Yamaha. If you are in the market for a receiver in this price range, I highly recommend the HTR-5550. Also if you are looking at the $200-300 receivers, trust me it is much better to spend more to get this. I have tried the cheep receivers and you get what you pay for.
Rating: 
Summary: a word of caution
Review: I bought this receiver 2 years ago and have been generally very happy with it. Unfortunatly, about 2 weeks ago it started producing a buzz/ distorted playback. I have taken very good care of it so I was quite suprised to have a problem after only 2 years. I tried all kinds of remedies and nothing fixed the problem. The manual and Yamaha tech support were unhelpful as well. Now it looks like I'm back in the market for a receiver when I should have been set for years.
Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: I only have 2 speakers in my living room and they are not particularly good ones. This receiver makes it sound like a modern movie theater! I returned the Sony, I was having trouble installing it, it was too complex to use and the documentation stinks.
Rating:
Summary: A great $ 400 Home Theater Receiver
Review: I shopped for many months before deciding to buy this receiver. I compared Sony, Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC, Harmon Kardon, and Yamaha. For $ 400 in early summer 2002, this is the best receiver I could find. Sony receivers have given me problems in the past. They are really sensitive to the quality of electrical power in your home. I've had them put out horrible high-frequency hums, had the protection circuit kick-in requiring a shipment to the service center for a few weeks, and have suffered from terrible hiss out of the surround speakers. I decided I wasn't going to go through that again and shopped for another brand. Pioneer, JVC and Kenwood simply put out too much distortion at this price. Harman Kardon are just way underpowered for the money and have a weird user interface. Onkyo makes great receivers -- an underpowered one with a bad remote for $ 300 and a really good one with a great remote for $ 500. But my budget was $ 400. All the local retailers who carry Yamaha also carry Sony and Denon. They all recommended the Denon. But the Denon remote is awful! Small buttons, illegible labels. And, the Denon does only 70Wx5 Watts vs the Yamaha's 75x5. (Denon has announced a new receiver for $ 400 with 80Wx5 and a much improved remote. But this wasn't available in July 2002.) So that left the Yamaha. Right price, Good sound. Good remote. Lots of features. Widely available. Yamaha's claim to fame in the receiver world is offering a plethora of listening modes: Stereo, Dolby Digital, DTS, Pro-Logic, Pro-Logic II, 5-channel stereo, game, Sports, Concert Hall, Jazz, Rock Concert, Mono Movie, Sci-Fi movie, Adventure movie, Spectale Movie, etc., etc. Many of these have too much reverb and are useless. Some of them are really good--you'll have to experiement. One weird feature I didn't like: The AM/FM tuner divides the 40 presets into five groups (A/B/C/D/E). When scrolling through presets, you can only scroll within your group. You have to hit the "Shift" key to go to another group. Kind of a nuisance. Overall, great sound, great value, easy to use.
Rating:
Summary: A great $ 400 Home Theater Receiver
Review: I shopped for many months before deciding to buy this receiver. I compared Sony, Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC, Harmon Kardon, and Yamaha. For $ 400 in early summer 2002, this is the best receiver I could find. Sony receivers have given me problems in the past. They are really sensitive to the quality of electrical power in your home. I've had them put out horrible high-frequency hums, had the protection circuit kick-in requiring a shipment to the service center for a few weeks, and have suffered from terrible hiss out of the surround speakers. I decided I wasn't going to go through that again and shopped for another brand. Pioneer, JVC and Kenwood simply put out too much distortion at this price. Harman Kardon are just way underpowered for the money and have a weird user interface. Onkyo makes great receivers -- an underpowered one with a bad remote for $ 300 and a really good one with a great remote for $ 500. But my budget was $ 400. All the local retailers who carry Yamaha also carry Sony and Denon. They all recommended the Denon. But the Denon remote is awful! Small buttons, illegible labels. And, the Denon does only 70Wx5 Watts vs the Yamaha's 75x5. (Denon has announced a new receiver for $ 400 with 80Wx5 and a much improved remote. But this wasn't available in July 2002.) So that left the Yamaha. Right price, Good sound. Good remote. Lots of features. Widely available. Yamaha's claim to fame in the receiver world is offering a plethora of listening modes: Stereo, Dolby Digital, DTS, Pro-Logic, Pro-Logic II, 5-channel stereo, game, Sports, Concert Hall, Jazz, Rock Concert, Mono Movie, Sci-Fi movie, Adventure movie, Spectale Movie, etc., etc. Many of these have too much reverb and are useless. Some of them are really good--you'll have to experiement. One weird feature I didn't like: The AM/FM tuner divides the 40 presets into five groups (A/B/C/D/E). When scrolling through presets, you can only scroll within your group. You have to hit the "Shift" key to go to another group. Kind of a nuisance. Overall, great sound, great value, easy to use.
Rating: 
Summary: Warning!
Review: I'm not going to damn this receiver, but... 1. I was told by someone else that the sound has a hiss in it. It does at higher volume levels, but is very noticeable. 2. Someone else told me the sound was a little "thin." It is, but has good clarity. 3. The right channel went out within a couple of months. 4. The manual is good, but the setup between the balancing of the five channels is painful, manual labor. I was attracted by all the features and the cheap price. High current amp? Ha! I was attracted by the name, never having had a Yamaha receiver before. This one's going back to the store and I'm now researching Denon and Onkyo. Higher priced, but I want reliability.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent home theater receiver
Review: Like other reviewers, I looked at many other models before choosing this receiver. My local audio shop had a great lisenting room set up with multiple receivers for comparison, and compare I did! I found that for the price, this receiver could not be beat in terms of sound quality, and sound field choices. You can choose to let the receiver auto-detect the best sound field for your DVD movies, or you can choose your own if you wish. I've found that leaving it on Auto is perfect. Another great thing about this unit is that you can re-map the inputs on the back to different functions. For instance, maybe your DVD player has digital audio out via a coax cable - not the optical digital out found on newer players... no problem, there's a spot for that on the receiver, and with a simple menu, you can set the receiver's DVD audio input to use that coax digital input, instead of the default optical input. With other reciever's I looked at, you'd just have to remember that you plugged your DVD audio input into the 'CD in' on the back of the receiver, and always pick 'CD' on your remote instead of DVD when you went to watch movies. Plus, if you're passing your video through the receiver, this would also cause problems on other units. There are also a number of other great settings... if you don't have a powered subwoofer, you can set this in the simple menu system, and the receiver will send the bass, as appropriate to you main speakers. Plus, you can tell it if you have large or small main/center/rear speakers, so that the amp uses the correct amount of power for your setup. Also, you can go to Yamaha's website and look at pictures of the back panel on this amp... there are a plethora of connections for just about anything you'll need... I have a complex setup with a digital cable box, Tivo, VCR, DVD player and a computer all hooked up to this, and I still have open connections for more stuff! If your budget is in the <$ 500 range, this is the reciever for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent home theater receiver
Review: Like other reviewers, I looked at many other models before choosing this receiver. My local audio shop had a great lisenting room set up with multiple receivers for comparison, and compare I did! I found that for the price, this receiver could not be beat in terms of sound quality, and sound field choices. You can choose to let the receiver auto-detect the best sound field for your DVD movies, or you can choose your own if you wish. I've found that leaving it on Auto is perfect. Another great thing about this unit is that you can re-map the inputs on the back to different functions. For instance, maybe your DVD player has digital audio out via a coax cable - not the optical digital out found on newer players... no problem, there's a spot for that on the receiver, and with a simple menu, you can set the receiver's DVD audio input to use that coax digital input, instead of the default optical input. With other reciever's I looked at, you'd just have to remember that you plugged your DVD audio input into the 'CD in' on the back of the receiver, and always pick 'CD' on your remote instead of DVD when you went to watch movies. Plus, if you're passing your video through the receiver, this would also cause problems on other units. There are also a number of other great settings... if you don't have a powered subwoofer, you can set this in the simple menu system, and the receiver will send the bass, as appropriate to you main speakers. Plus, you can tell it if you have large or small main/center/rear speakers, so that the amp uses the correct amount of power for your setup. Also, you can go to Yamaha's website and look at pictures of the back panel on this amp... there are a plethora of connections for just about anything you'll need... I have a complex setup with a digital cable box, Tivo, VCR, DVD player and a computer all hooked up to this, and I still have open connections for more stuff! If your budget is in the <$ 500 range, this is the reciever for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great quality & value for the dollar...
Review: My wife and I were new to home theater systems. We bought our home roughly 2 years ago. We were very excited that the previous owner was going to throw in the boss speaker system, but we did not know the first thing about receivers.
Well me being the way I am, I began researching. I came to two conclusions: 1) The best cost $$$$ and 2) what is the Cutting edge today will be old news in as little as six months. This shaped what I was looking for. I wanted a system that supported the various surround sound formats, yet would not break the bank. Next on the list of requirements was for reliability followed by ease of use.
This receiver exceeded each of the criterion. The sound quality exceeded my expectations (I had gone to several brick and mortar stores to test different receivers). In fact I would say that quality was every bit as good as receivers that cost 2-3 times as much. The unexpected benefit of a home theater system (draw back?) is it can be heard through out the house; Great if we are cleaning and want to listen to music, not so great if one of us wants to sleep.
The power of this thing is amazing, never have we turned it up all the way to watch a movie, but we have cranked it to see how loud it can get. The sound, even at full volume, is still crystal clear.
We have had the tuner for almost two years and if I had to do it again I would buy another... what better endorsement is there?
Rating:
Summary: Cannot ask for more for the Price
Review: The Sound is crisp and clear. The Amp section really shows itself with a good speakers. The setup is very easy. Great Job by Yamaha for the price.
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