Yesterday I powered up my receiver and about 3 seconds after the display lights up, instead of coming out of protect mode it shuts itself off. I looked around a bit and found that it is a known issue with this model, although I'm not sure how common it is. I am past the warranty period and I am wondering if anyone else has had this issue, and how much it cost them to have it repaired? If its going to be more than a few hundred bucks, this might be an excuse to upgrade to something with HDMI since I am looking into a TV upgrade and bluray player soon as well.
On a related note, is it just my bad luck or has Yamaha really slipped in terms of quality control and durability the last few years? I have been buying Yamaha gear for years and until the last 5 years or so I have had no issues whatsoever. This is my 4th Yamaha receiver and I really expected to get more than 3 years out of it. Every other one lasted until I upgraded, and at least one of them is still in daily use at my brother's house after about 8 years. The Yamaha DVD player I bought a couple years back has had numerous problems as well (S550). I bought it for the divx playback capabilities, being one of the only ones around at the time but as it turns out it was a feature I ended up using all of 3 or 4 times. This unit freezes up randomly and has to be unplugged to reset it, even after a firmware upgrade. Anyways, am I just unlucky or is Yamaha just not as dependable anymore? Opinions would be appreciated, if I am going to have to replace the receiver, I want something more dependable but in the same price range, if such a thing exists anymore. I have been out of touch with the AV scene for a couple years since getting married. What is good these days? I would prefer to stay away from brands mass producing for big box stores from now on.
-John
