Thanks everyone for your input.
Obvious the Audyssey EQ XT32 is the top of their line but how does Yamaha's compare since they do their own?
As far as I know, no one has ever done a proper, measured comparison of such things. But a lack of facts does not stop many people from having opinions about what is better.
Levels and delays (aka distances) are easy for any company to do reasonably well.
It's also my understanding that using these speaker placement programs will only benefit a person if they are sitting in the location where the microphone was placed at. So if I'm sitting in this spot it will sound correct but if I end up sitting in a different location then it will not sound like it should. Is this logic correct?
Your reasoning is basically correct, though many of the higher models allow for one to measure in several locations, and then a compromise is selected by the receiver to make sure that none of the places will be too bad.
But for optimum sound, you need to sit in the optimum location. No system can change that fact.
As for my room specs it's 15'W x 32'L by 8 1/2' H. All speakers are going to be DefTechs, the L,C,R will be stand alones and for the surround there will be 4 ceiling speakers at around the 10' and 20' mark from the front. As of this moment there will just be one 10" sub, not sure if a room this size would benefit from a second sub.
I'm not that concerned with blowing the windows and doors off of my house by playing things loud, especially if it sounds terrible (distored and not clear).
What is the recommended budget ratio between speakers and receivers, i.e. 50% speakers and 50% receiver, 70?
There is no set ratio, and different people disagree on this. In my opinion, you should spend the minimum you can on the receiver, and as much as possible on speakers, because speakers matter far more for the sound.
I was running a receiver that retailed for about $600 with speakers that retailed for over $6000, and it sounded great. I wanted more (and newer) features, so I upgraded to a receiver that retails for about $1700. Unless I engage a feature that affects the sound, it sounds the same as before. Now, the new receiver will put out about twice as much power as the old one, but with my speakers, I was able to achieve volumes that I found painful with crystal clarity with the old model, so the extra power is useless to me. But with other speakers, it could have made a difference.
I imagine that everyone has their own personal preferance but is there any comparision chart that shows how receivers sound? My guess is not due to too many variables.
If you bypass the internal equalization and DSP soundfields, they will pretty much all sound the same when operating within their limits (e.g., you are not overdriving one of them, etc.)
Obviously, though, different DSP settings will make things sound different, and which of those is "best" is pure personal preference, not anything that is going to be objective.
The 818 by Onkyo was on my radat but after seeing the issues with the HDMI board failures I'm not willing to risk it with that specific model.
Yamaha is the way to go if reliability is paramount. One very rarely hears about systemic problems with them, though any company will occasionally make a lemon.
