Not try to start anything, but it seems you take up for Yamaha not matter what. After I posted here I checked in a lot of sites. It's seem the overwhelming option is that Yamaha does have a very flat response vs. other receivers in the mid range sound. Now if you like a very neutral sound receiver that's great. I've used alot amps and receivers for over 60 years and all equipment have there own sound. I know all about using a eq to fix the issue. I can act pretty dumb to see what kind of answers I get from people. You talk speaker placement, the room, the speakers. If you have all the above exactly the same and change nothing but the receivers and set them up with the same setting, it's the receiver!