"New" 2004 HTR line Yamaha's at JandR.com

[kexodusc]

I was just doing a bit of browsing and thought I'd share for those who haven't seen. While not quite available yet, you can place a pre-orders, prices are pretty good, too.
Interestingly enough, all models seem to include Yamaha's Parametric Acoustic Optimizer gadget. I'm sure the RX-V line will follow that very soon. The new model numbers seem to be HTR-57XX


Take a look at them here:
http://www.jandr.com/JRSectionView.process?Ntx=mode%20matchall&Ne=10000&Ntt=yamaha&N=10946&EndecaURL=t&Ntk=Electronics_Record_Search&RestartFlow=t

[Woochifer]

Good snooping! Looks like they're raising the bar in the entry level model lines now by bringing both "7.1" and the YPAO functionality down to the $500 price point. However, I think that some of the details with the 5790 and the 5760 might be wrong since they're basically identical on J&R's website.

I found a press release from a couple of weeks ago on Yamaha's website. Hope you can read Japanese!

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/news/2004/04021801.html

[kexodusc]

Good snooping! Looks like they're raising the bar in the entry level model lines now by bringing both "7.1" and the YPAO functionality down to the $500 price point. However, I think that some of the details with the 5790 and the 5760 might be wrong since they're basically identical on J&R's website.

I found a press release from a couple of weeks ago on Yamaha's website. Hope you can read Japanese!

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/news/2004/04021801.html
Geez, Wooch, I have a hard enough time with English!!! I wish we'd get that snazzy gold finish on more audio gear, a nice alternative to black and silver.

Got to agree with you, and Yamaha deserves all the props, YPAO and "7.1"(do we still not have a better term for this?) at that price level raises the bar a bit more.

Personally, I've fallen in love with a friend's RX-V1400, and I think this feature will be the next standard that people go looking for, much like DTS decoding was few years back, and (arguably) DSP's. Say what you want about Yamaha's, they've definitely done their fair share of "pioneering" (no pun intended).
I have no doubt the other brands will follow through, maybe even improve on it?

You're right, the details are sketchy when you start to read the features. Hopefully we'll see more soon.
Cheers!

[Woochifer]

Geez, Wooch, I have a hard enough time with English!!! I wish we'd get that snazzy gold finish on more audio gear, a nice alternative to black and silver.

Got to agree with you, and Yamaha deserves all the props, YPAO and "7.1"(do we still not have a better term for this?) at that price level raises the bar a bit more.

Personally, I've fallen in love with a friend's RX-V1400, and I think this feature will be the next standard that people go looking for, much like DTS decoding was few years back, and (arguably) DSP's. Say what you want about Yamaha's, they've definitely done their fair share of "pioneering" (no pun intended).
I have no doubt the other brands will follow through, maybe even improve on it?

You're right, the details are sketchy when you start to read the features. Hopefully we'll see more soon.
Cheers!

Funny that you bring up "pioneering" given that Pioneer really was the first manufacturer to put this kind of feature into a receiver. Yamaha's version of it from what I'm reading is a bit more advanced, and we'll see if the YPAO that goes into the entry level receivers is the full version or a "lite" version similar to the partial-featured version of the room calibration featue that Pioneer includes in its entry level receivers.

You're totally right in that this is just the tip of the iceberg that we're seeing right now. And unlike so many of the other features that get added to receivers every successive year, parametric room calibration can make a huge difference in the bottomline sound quality of a receiver. With Yamaha migrating YPAO down to the entry level models, other manufacturers basically have to include something similar or risk losing market share. Before, it was only high end separates like TAG McLaren or Lexicon that included similar room calibration features, so obviously it's come a long way.

Unlike DTS though, I think that these room calibration features really are a way to differentiate between receivers because there are no industry standards on how to design and implement an auto room calibration. With DTS, manufacturers had established guidelines to follow, and the basic decoding did not deviate a huge amount from one processor to another. With the room calibration however, I see some big potental differences in how well they are done (similar to how big the differences are in how makers do their DSP effects). Denon's upcoming AVR-3805 seems to up the ante by allowing for manual control over the parametric equalization (something that both the Yamaha and Pioneer calibrations don't allow for), but since no one's tried it yet, we have no idea how it compares just yet.

[kexodusc]

Update: Pictures are up now, seems the units got a cosmetic overhaul as well. I'd really like some more details. I've had my heart set on the RX-V1400, but if sound quality is the same, I'd gladly downgrade to 95 watts/channel. My stereo is in another room anyway.