Greg Newbie said:
I have heard that the Yamaha has some problems with the automatic setups etc. I've read some reviews on here from people that have had some grief in this department. For a basic first time buyer such as myself if someone else had grief it generally means that I will have grief which I'm trying to avoid.
Is there any other reciever in this class that is better suited or is the 1500 the best for the money.
Okay, it is likely that it will make some mistakes. Unfortunately, all other brands with automatic setup are likely to make mistakes, too. But even so, having an automatic setup is much better than not having one, because the kinds of mistakes they tend to make are easy enough to correct, and they usually do something well that is not easy for most people to do well. The mistakes in YPAO (Yamaha's name for their automatic setup) are usually things like setting the crossover for the subwoofer too high, and setting speakers to "large" that should be set to "small". Usually, YPAO is good at properly setting the levels, which is the most important thing, because that is harder to know how it should be set. You should also double check speaker distance settings. You can manually correct the errors, if they occur. Basically, you want the crossover as low as you can have it with your speakers, ideally at 80 Hz or below, but if your main speakers don't go that low, it must be set higher in order to reproduce all of the frequencies at an appropriate level. If the -3db point of your speakers is, say, 75 Hz, I would set the crossover to 80 Hz. If they only go down to 95 Hz, I would set it at 100 Hz.
The Yamaha is, in my opinion, as good as anything at its price point. You will want to carefully read the manual, and then read it again as you hook things up, and then read it again as you operate YPAO and check the settings it made. Then you should read it again as you decide on the appropriate settings for the different sources. Surround receivers are much more complicated than stereo units, and there is no getting around that. The automatic setup will help, as otherwise I would be telling you that you should buy a SPL meter and then you would need to know how to use it. As it is, you plug in the YPAO microphone and follow the directions in the manual.
You are talking about spending a decent amount of money on equipment, and the only way to get it to perform at its best is to take the time and trouble to set it up properly. Of course, you will tend to forget how to do some things with it, which is why you should never throw away the manual, as you may need it in the future. The good news is that once you have it set up well, you don't need to change it unless you either change something in the room (like moving furniture, which affects the acoustics, and therefore requires the use of YPAO again), add some new equipment, or you just feel like playing with it. Once it is properly set up, as long as you don't change anything, you need never bother with the nasty details again. I just turn my system on and listen, most of the time just adjusting the volume and switching inputs, which is very easy.
