Yammies aren't built so well these days...
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:20 pm
My Yamaha RX-V683 home theater receiver - purchased new in November 2018 - died on me late this afternoon.
The power cycling started doing weird things about a month ago. (Yes, the unit is plugged into a properly functioning surge protector strip, for those curious.)
If I turned on the radio tuner, the unit would automatically switch sources after 1 or 2 minutes. I'd then have to hit a button on the remote or use my smartphone app to switch back to the radio tuner. No big deal.
Then, a few days ago, when I'd power on the unit, it would turn itself off after a couple seconds, and then turn itself on again. Everything else continued to function fine.
Well, this afternoon, the unit died while in use. It just turned itself off randomly. I could not get it to turn back on. I unplugged the unit for fifteen minutes, plugged it back in, and then tried powering it back on. Nothing. I then followed the hard reboot steps presented on YouTube and elsewhere (entails depressing two particular buttons at the same time on the front panel of the unit for several seconds and then pressing the power button). The power light blinked while I depressed the two buttons, but then when I pressed "power" to turn on the unit, I heard a loud "pop" from inside the unit. I suspect a capacitor or two is shot at best, and the motherboard is shot at worst.
The good news is I paid only $299 for what was originally a $599 receiver (it was the "year ago" model when I bought it at Black Friday pricing in late 2018). The bad news is I was planning to own the damn thing for another decade!!! Yamaha's MusicCast app has gotten really, really good of late.
I am not going to take any chance on another Yamaha unit, and believe it or not, I've never owned a Denon! So, I'm going to give Denon a whirl.
Costco had the highly regarded Denon AVR S760H in warehouse for $349 in February ($100 off regular price), but I know their new ad cycle started March 5, and on the website, that unit is currently being sold for its usual $449 price.
I found that exact same unit in new condition on Walmart.com for $349.99 with free shipping!
Fearful that the Walmart.com reseller might raise its price Monday and fearful that the in-club price at Costco is the same as Costco.com (at $449), I pulled the plug and ordered the unit from Walmart.com. The reseller at Walmart.com normally sells the unit for $483.99, and Amazon as we speak currently sells the unit for $479.99 in new condition and $369.99 in refurbished condition. Even though this unit came out in 2021, Denon still sells it on its own website for the astronomically high price of $599!
The bottom line of all my blathering:
- BE AWARE of late model Yamaha home theater receivers! (My home theater in a box model from ~2008 is still going strong; I gave that one to my dad for free in 2018 when I bought the RX-V683.)
- Anyone out there have any experience with the Denon AVR S760H or a similar late model Denon receiver?
I did consider some similarly priced Onkyo units, but with Onkyo now being owned by Klipsch's parent (VOXX International Corpoation), I was concerned that Onkyo's home theater receivers may be overly bright sounding. The various home theather / audio geek web sites also seem to prefer Denon in the price point that I'm shopping. Onkyo seems to be recommended for those looking for a sound system to use with gaming.
I didn't give Sony any serious thought (I hate how tiny the display readout is on their units, and their audio product line does not seem to be highly regarded by audiophiles), and Marantz seems out of my price range.
I assume the room audio calibration software on the Denon (named Audyssey) will be every bit as useless as the Yamaha that just crapped out on me.
I do not use multi-zone audio output features nor do I process any video signal through the receiver, so those features don't matter to me.
Edit: I just discovered there is a shop on 14 Mile Rd in Royal Oak that repairs Yamaha AV receivers. I am going to give them a call early this week. If they can repair my RX-V683 successfully (and at a reasonable price), I can always return the Denon that I ordered today!
The power cycling started doing weird things about a month ago. (Yes, the unit is plugged into a properly functioning surge protector strip, for those curious.)
If I turned on the radio tuner, the unit would automatically switch sources after 1 or 2 minutes. I'd then have to hit a button on the remote or use my smartphone app to switch back to the radio tuner. No big deal.
Then, a few days ago, when I'd power on the unit, it would turn itself off after a couple seconds, and then turn itself on again. Everything else continued to function fine.
Well, this afternoon, the unit died while in use. It just turned itself off randomly. I could not get it to turn back on. I unplugged the unit for fifteen minutes, plugged it back in, and then tried powering it back on. Nothing. I then followed the hard reboot steps presented on YouTube and elsewhere (entails depressing two particular buttons at the same time on the front panel of the unit for several seconds and then pressing the power button). The power light blinked while I depressed the two buttons, but then when I pressed "power" to turn on the unit, I heard a loud "pop" from inside the unit. I suspect a capacitor or two is shot at best, and the motherboard is shot at worst.
The good news is I paid only $299 for what was originally a $599 receiver (it was the "year ago" model when I bought it at Black Friday pricing in late 2018). The bad news is I was planning to own the damn thing for another decade!!! Yamaha's MusicCast app has gotten really, really good of late.
I am not going to take any chance on another Yamaha unit, and believe it or not, I've never owned a Denon! So, I'm going to give Denon a whirl.
Costco had the highly regarded Denon AVR S760H in warehouse for $349 in February ($100 off regular price), but I know their new ad cycle started March 5, and on the website, that unit is currently being sold for its usual $449 price.
I found that exact same unit in new condition on Walmart.com for $349.99 with free shipping!
Fearful that the Walmart.com reseller might raise its price Monday and fearful that the in-club price at Costco is the same as Costco.com (at $449), I pulled the plug and ordered the unit from Walmart.com. The reseller at Walmart.com normally sells the unit for $483.99, and Amazon as we speak currently sells the unit for $479.99 in new condition and $369.99 in refurbished condition. Even though this unit came out in 2021, Denon still sells it on its own website for the astronomically high price of $599!
The bottom line of all my blathering:
- BE AWARE of late model Yamaha home theater receivers! (My home theater in a box model from ~2008 is still going strong; I gave that one to my dad for free in 2018 when I bought the RX-V683.)
- Anyone out there have any experience with the Denon AVR S760H or a similar late model Denon receiver?
I did consider some similarly priced Onkyo units, but with Onkyo now being owned by Klipsch's parent (VOXX International Corpoation), I was concerned that Onkyo's home theater receivers may be overly bright sounding. The various home theather / audio geek web sites also seem to prefer Denon in the price point that I'm shopping. Onkyo seems to be recommended for those looking for a sound system to use with gaming.
I didn't give Sony any serious thought (I hate how tiny the display readout is on their units, and their audio product line does not seem to be highly regarded by audiophiles), and Marantz seems out of my price range.
I assume the room audio calibration software on the Denon (named Audyssey) will be every bit as useless as the Yamaha that just crapped out on me.
I do not use multi-zone audio output features nor do I process any video signal through the receiver, so those features don't matter to me.
Edit: I just discovered there is a shop on 14 Mile Rd in Royal Oak that repairs Yamaha AV receivers. I am going to give them a call early this week. If they can repair my RX-V683 successfully (and at a reasonable price), I can always return the Denon that I ordered today!