Yamaha RX-V2700 7.1 channel network home theater receiver

Sensible Sound, August-Sept, 2007 by David A. Rich

Manufacturer: Yamaha Electronics Corp., 6660 Orangethorpe Avenue, Buena Park, CA 90620; (714) 522-9105

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/

Price: $1699

Source: Manufacturer Loan

Reviewer: David A. Rich

Manufacturer's Specifications:

Continuous Output Power for two channels driven (20Hz-20kHz): 140 Watts per channel

Surround formats:

Dolby Digital EX/Dolby Pro Logic IIx

DTS-ES Discrete 6.1

DTS 96/24 / DTS Neo:6

23 proprietary surround programs

Virtual CINEMA DSP, SILENT CINEMA proprietary headphone surround sound

Neural Surround: a proprietary audio format for decoding six channel outputs from a two channel input.

iPod compatible

Compressed music enhancer: Yamaha's exclusive algorithms enable playback that claims to improve the performance of compressed music formats, including MP3 and WMA.

XM Satellite Radio ready

XM HD Surround: provides content with six discrete channels of digital on a limited number of XM channels. Uses Neural Surround (see above)

HDMI (In/Out) (3 / 1) V1.2a

Simplay HD[TM] verified bearing the Simplay HD logo. Simplay HD verified products undergo stringent quality control related to (a) the high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), (b) high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) specifications, and (c) compatibility with a suite of other Simplay HD verified devices.

Component Video (In/Out) (3 / 1)

A/V Inputs (S-Video and Composite Video) 6

Digital Inputs/Outputs [O: Optical, C: Coaxial] O: 5, C: 3 / O: 2)

Front A/V with digital input.

Front USB Input for playing back MP3/WMA files on flash memory drives

LAN terminal RJ-45 network connections

Night listening mode

Time base corrector

HDMI up conversion (Scale to 480p/ 720p/ 1080i) using Anchor Bay Technologies' ABT1010 scaler engine that can independently scale images horizontally and vertically

Component video up conversion

S-Video up conversion

De-interlacing (480i to 480p)

Seven band user adjustable parametric EQ

Automatic EQ Optimizer with Microphone

On-screen display with graphic user interface.

Screens are for internal receiver setup and the GUI is compatible with iPod, internet radio, XM radio and USB displays.

Assignable power amplifier

Zone 2 Output Audio and Video RS-232C interface for a touch-panel controller.

Zone 3 Output Audio and On-Screen information

Zone remote control

Speaker A, B or A + B

Selectable subwoofer crossover

Eight-channel discrete inputs for analog passthrough.

Two channels of Analog to Digital conversion

Pre-Out All Channels

Product dimensions (W x H x D) 17-1/8" x 6-3/ 4" x 17-1/4"

Product weight (lbs.) 37. 9 net

Comments on Manufacturer's Specifications

This long list is excerpted from Yamaha's web site. As usual, I caution that units of this complexity should be purchased with a money-back guarantee to ensure the intriguing features of the box are compatible with your peripheral components. A positive aspect of the receiver is its increased likelihood to interact properly with other components. For example, the unit is Simplay HD[TM] verified. Simplay HD independently tests HD equipment to determine whether they can talk to each other even when advanced encryption options are used over the HDMI link.

There are three features of the Yamaha RX-V2700 that should especially appeal to the audiophile:

1) A seven-band adjustable parametric equalizer for all seven channels. Two of the filters can be set as low as 30 Hz instead of the more typical limit of 60 Hz. The remaining five channels are limited to 200 Hz. The unit has two bank equalizers for the subwoofer, also with a 30 Hz low-frequency limit. The equalizers' frequencies are quantized to about one-third octave. The Q can be set in twelve steps from 0.5 to 10 and the gain is adjustable in 0.5dB steps from -20dB to +6dB.

2) The receiver processes SACD one-bit DSD (direct stream digital) that can be presented to the RX-V2700s HDMI 1.2a input. Most AV receivers only accept HDMI 1.1 signals from a DVD player and will not process DSD signals. Lacking a SACD player with the HDMI 1.2a transmitter, I could not test the feature. In fact, I am not certain if any such SACD player exists at the moment. The HDMI 1.2a SACD player (a player with the backwards compatible HDMI 1.3 will obviously work also) and the receiver will obviate analog connections between the SACD and the receiver. Woohoo! By the next issue, I hope to have an SACD player that will talk to the RX-V2700, thereby allowing me to further explore these features.

The RX-V2700 operates on the DSD in two ways. For the purist, the signal bypasses all DSP processing and is sent in virgin form directly to the DACs. The Yamaha uses a Texas Instruments DSD1791 DAC which has a DSD passthrough mode for converting the DSD signal to a bipolar voltage.. This bipolar voltage is then filtered in the analog domain Of greater interest, however, is the second mode where one of the DSP processors converts the DSD stream to a PCM stream. The PCM stream is processed like any other PCM bit stream connected to the unit such as those from a CD, DVD or DVD-A. Once converted, all the processing power of the receiver can be applied, including the room equalizer, bass management, and delay-for-distance compensation.