Yamaha RX-V2500 7.1 Channels Receiver

I was putting the finishing touches on our patio house which we remodeled into a media room. The HARD work was done, and it was time for the fun task of selecting some appropriate home theater equipment. When it comes to electronic gear, I tend to purchase gear which is 1 or 2 generations old, rather than purchasing new or current models, so that helped narrow my search a bit. Being a professional musician, and having used Yamaha gear for years I decided to try the Yamaha RX-V2500. Yamaha's top line music gear has always been nearly unbreakable and ultra reliable. I thought this high quality would transfer to their AV receiver line.

Having looked at the receiver on show room floors, I knew that the construction was intended for the mass market and was not the superb high quality workmanship of Yamaha's top of the line music gear. It is important to note that Yamaha does not honor their warranty if you purchase from non-authorized sellers. I knew this prior to my purchase. My mistake was purchasing from an Ebay seller who advertised that he offered a 2 year local service warranty (not a Yamaha warranty), and that if the unit were DOA I could use the warranty to have the unit fixed. When I received my RX-V2500 and powered it up, I soon found that it shut itself off randomly, sometimes within minutes. The unit always shut down within seconds when the graphic user interface (GUI) was displayed.

As it turns out, the Ebay seller "forgot" to send me the warranty which he had advertised. (Beware; avoid this type of seller who will not accept return/exchange of a DOA unit...no matter WHAT they tell you). I was stuck with a receiver which was apparently DOA. While my unit could be used, it shut down so often and randomly, that it made listening or viewing impossible.

I was just giving up hope of saving my RX-V2500 (and the money paid for it!) when I chanced upon a obscure setup feature on the receiver. I found this information on an AV forum which I located by searching shut down problems with the RX-V2500.

I hope this information helps others with similar problems, as Yamaha is not kind enough, or simply unwilling to post this information on its website.

What apparently happened with my unit (and most probably many others) involves an internal heat sensor which triggers a shut down of the receiver. The internal cooling fan was/is not running when set to the automatic fan setting. This is no doubt a firmware glitch which is causing the unit to not automatically turn the internal cooling fan on when temperature (x) was reached. The GUI interface no doubt creates an increased load which shuts the unit down.

I was lucky and persistent enough to find the online forum post which brought me to the attention of a poorly documented method of turning the RX-V2500’s cooling fan on constantly.

While pressing the Straight/Effect button, press the ON button. This brings up the speaker Ohm selector. Now use the Selector knob to change from Speaker ohm setting. You will see several options including an option to select Automatic or Continuous Fan Operation. Bingo...I tried setting the units fan to Continuous and it worked... sort of. The unit no longer shuts down instantly and I can operate the GUI display. While my unit does run, I have experienced a few shut downs after 5 to 6 hours with the unit on and a low volume.

After requesting assistance from Yamaha, and getting none, I was able to find this stop gap back door fan solution. My review of the RX-V2500 will, I hope, not be too colored by my frustration with Yamaha's apparent lack of customer care and total lack of documentation regarding this fan setting function and the apparent bug in the thermal shut down firmware. A simple posting on their website would have been more than helpful.

The first time I started the unit with the fan set to continuous operation, it ran fine even when using the GUI interface. The fan is ultra quiet, so quiet that you really don't know it is running at all. I noticed that my unit ran very much cooler than it did prior to switching the fan to continuous. Prior to switching the fan to constant on, my unit ran very hot, even after only several minutes use. While the unit stays cooler to the touch with the fan on constantly, it still shuts down after 4-5 hours, particuarly if the GUI is used.

CONSTRUCTION AND LAYOUT
The construction of the RX-V2500 as I stated earlier is not the high end Yamaha quality one usually associates with their high end musical equipment. The cabinet is made of fairly thin metal. While the front panel buttons have a fairly sturdy tactile response, the underlying flimsy cabinet makes the unit "feel" a bit cheap. (no coat of varnish ever rid the grain of the wood!)

The front panel layout is designed well, with input select and volume knobs being prominent. A flip down oil damped panel hides additional, seldom used controls and additional front panel AV inputs. Volume controll is incrimental in 0.5 db intervals. From both the control panel and the remote, the volume control works rather slowly as the increments are quite fine. As you hold the remote volume button down longer, the speed of the volume change increases.

The rear connection panel is well planned, but hard to read. It takes some looking to find markings. The speaker connections are a bit cramped if you are not using "banana jacks". The speaker posts are made of fairly cheap, brittle feeling plastic.

The included programmable/learning remote is adequate, however it is not a particuarly useful remote. It feels like a cheap, plastic children’s toy. The case of this remote feels flimsy indeed. Believe me; Yamaha knows how to make quality gear...this isn't it! The layout of the remote is fair, but is encrusted with many redundant and keys. For example, there are 6 sound field buttons on the remote, when two would have done, to allow the user to cycle up and down through the sound field choices. There is a silly light switch on the left edge of the remote and the remote buttons light when any keys are pressed. Many of the key labels however do not light up. I can't imagine using this remote for anything other than teaching a higher quality remote its commands. (I am using a Sony RM-AV3100)

SETUP AND SOUND
One of the well reviewed features of the Yamaha line of AV receivers is its GUI interface and its automated Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer, YPAO, setup feature. The GUI is easily navigated and allows access to many of the RX-V2500 features and to the start up of the YPAO setup. To operate the auto setup feature you plug in the included analyzing microphone, select Auto Setup from the GUI and the auto setup does the rest. Speaker sizes, distances, wiring polarity, EQ and levels are automatically adjusted. The auto setup is a fast and useful way to start off a home theater set up. It certainly saves some time and enhances the setup process, particularly for novice users.
You may also start the YPAO auto setup from the front panel display, by-passing the GUI interface. It was quite easy to run the auto setup from the front panel display and overall this feature is pretty slick.

SOUND AND FEATURES
With 130 watts per 7 channels this unit should have power to spare for most home applications. There is almost no background hiss even when turned up during quiet passages or with no input signal. For movies and TV I found the Yamaha RX-V2500 to project well and to be very clean sounding. My old Onkyo TX-SCV454 was powerful and warm, the RX-V2500 sounds powerful and clean. I was not floored by what I did hear of the different sound processing fields. Most sounded thin and did little to enhance the overall surround sound experience, even on a highly surround mixed film like Das Boot. It is hard to imagine a use for the 40 odd included sound fields. I think most people would find a favorite and use it most of the time. I personally like the Stereo 7 sound field for TV and many films, while the Cinema Fields sound best for films. A Night Cinema option is fairly nice, allowing easier hearing of dialogue at lower volumes.

I am pretty impressed with the RX-V2500's sound with music sources. If the source was mixed well, then this unit will sound good! Classical and high dynamic range progressive rock music sound very good. My system sounds like many of the best recording control rooms I have been in.

The RX-V2500 has plenty of AV connections for my needs, including 3 rear component video inputs and a 4th component set on the front panel.

I was able to locate a software interface in a forum. It does not ship with the unit and no doubt is intended only for service or dealor use. The interface uses a RS232c PC connector. It is available at http://www.yamaha.com/yec/dealers/dealer_download.htm
I have not yet tried this, but it looks useful, giving the user easy access to complex user settings. The software interface looks easy to use, but it is no doubt quite difficult to connect to a PC. It may be too complex for most users, including myself. I will update if and when I try this software interface.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
I would place the RX-V2500 soundly in the upper middle to upper end of mid-high priced AV receivers. It can sound excellent with proper setup, good speakers and quality audio sources. Other receivers in this price range may be able to rival the RX-V2500 in terms of sound, but its video handling and input flexibility are hard to beat. I can not however imagine paying anywhere near the suggested retail price for this receiver, especially with the shut down problems I continue to encounter.

While their manufacturers will honor their warranty even if sold by an unauthorized dealer, Yamaha does not offer such customer care. Yamaha dropped the ball on me (and probably many others) by not aiding me in any way with my shut down problem. I can only hope that my work around solution involving switching the fan to constantly on will work in the long run. I will update this review should I run into any problems with this solution.

Perhaps Yamaha deserves to have end users look elsewhere? That is for you to decide. I had no idea Yamaha was so reluctant to aid its end users. I would certainly expect a honored manufacture like Yamaha to post solutions for bugs on their website and maybe relent to honor their warranty regardless of where the unit was purchased. I checked the Better Business Bureau website and they rate Yamaha Electronics, located Buena Park, CA a solid F. This is their worst possible rating. Maybe someone at Yamaha should take notice of this rating?

My overall impressions are as follows:

The RX-V2500 is built well, but not to the very high standard of top end Yamaha music gear. The thin case, and some cheaper plastic parts would never make their way onto a fine Yamaha instrument. While this is clearly a mass market unit, Yamaha wants to maintain its high end status, while asking users to accept less than high end quality.

2) The receiver rocks! It sounds very good and quite clean. Push it a bit and it won’t back down. While it has many sound fields, most are similar in character. The user may however tweak many parameters of the sound fields. It may be possible (I have not yet tried) to enhance sound fields for my room by tweaking some parameters. My unit runs hot and has continual shut down problems, even with the fan set to continuous operation.

3) Yamaha gets a poor grade for customer service and customer care, not just in my view but as evidenced by the F rating from the BBB. While I did not purchase from an authorized dealer, I at least expect a manufacturer to post any know bugs or workarounds on their website.

For me, Yamaha's poor customer care drops this receiver's rating. I would have given this 4 out of 5 stars. But the poor support and shut down problems drops my rating to 3 out of 5. Bear in mind that when this receiver works, it sounds great; which is what an AV receiver should do. I do wish it worked continuously and wouldn't shut down so often. Given the combination of terrible customer care and the shut down problems I have, I can not recommend this receiver.

UPDATE: 3/20/06:
On page 81 on the Yamaha manual, I found the instructions for turning the fan to continuous operation. I wish I had found this information sooner. Again, Yamaha could/should post this bug on their website. If anyone knows any reason why the fan should not be run continuously, please post info in comments.

An additional bit of news; Even with the fan set to continuous, I have had a couple sudden shut downs after my V2500 was on for about 4 to 5 hours. (the room was about 65 degrees and the unit sits on an open table with no other components near it) I can not imagine that such a receiver should not be able to stay on greater than 4 or 5 hours.

UPDATE 12/12/08
This unit died today. RIP. It did the sudden power off and now will only power on for about a second. I got about 2 years use out this receiver; less than I would have liked. I will not buy another Yamaha to replace this. It was essentially junk when I bought it. I will go back to Onkyo as I still have a 10 year old Onkyo in another room. That sucker will never die!