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 Yamaha
RXV-493 Receiver
Review written by Craig McKinlay on 13-Feb-1999
Well, a little history
about this purchase before we begin. I bought this amp as an "upgrade" from
my trusty RXV-590 because I now had a DVD player which output 6 channel
analogue dolby digital sound, and I wanted to hear it. I checked the bank
account and found it very lacking in funds (I had just bought the DVD player
after all..). So I went searching for an amp to satisfy my requirement for
Dolby Digital. After discovering the 590's replacement, the 592 didn't have
6 channel inputs, I kept looking and unfortunatly the next model which did
was priced out of my range. So I went down to the RXV-493. It seemed perfect.
6 channel inputs, dolby surround and it's DSP modes and about the same power
I had in my RXV-590 - and all for just $650 - what a bargain (I paid $1000
for the 590).
First impressions
So I rush
home, install everything, plug in my decoder (DVD player) to the new toy
and decide to watch The Fifth Element. My first impression was dissappointment
- the surrounds were not as 'prominent' as I was expecting from the 5 channel
discrete sourece material. I went through all the scenes, and they were
definately discrete, but I considered the whole experience somewhat lacking.
There just wasn't enuf oomph coming from the rear speakers and it didn't
sound too far removed from plain old dolby surround.
Somethings
wrong?
I persevered and changed setting for the Dolby Digital Decoder, the amp's
front/rear balance, speaker placement etc etc. It started sounding better,
but I was sure something wasn't right here. I decided to check out is musical
performance. Great, this sounded exactly the same as the RXV-590, so there's
nothing actually wrong with this amp. I put on my favorite VHS tape, 'True
Lies' and it sounds as good as it ever did to me in Enhanced Pro-Logic mode.
Then I put on 'Starship Troopers' and decide to flick between 2-ch and 5.1ch
audios while it's playing.
Aaahhhh, that's the answer!
Now the answer become clear to me. If your serious about getting 5.1 channel
sound in you home, you need something which delivers 5 channels of 'EQUAL'
power, otherwise, the rears are forever competing against much stronger
fronts and center channels.
Overall
What does
all this mean? Well, if you're still watching VHS tapes or are completly
contect with pro-logic sounds from your DVD's and Laserdiscs, then this
amp is fine. However, if your seriously wanting 5.1 channel performance
from this machine, I suggest you look else-where. As a side note I should
point out that I compared this RXV-493 with the Sony 915 5 channel amp.
The Yamaha is still a superiour 'quality' sound than this Sony, even with
it's claimed 100 watts X 5 channels. The distortion on the Sony is quiet
evident, even at normal listening levels.
Are you curious what I did next??? Well I jumped in the car and cruised
into a different shop and auditioned some other amps. These were definately
different sounding to what I was getting at home (they also had bigger price
tags). So I got down to the side-by-side comparison of the RXV-493 and the
Yamaha DSP-A1. The story ends with me carting 26kg of DSP-A1 home two days
later, but we're not here to talk about the DSP-A1.
| Yamaha
RXV-493 Receiver Features |
|
Power:
|
FRONT
- 20Hz to 20kHz, 0.04% THD, 8 ohms = 70W |
| CENTER
- 20Hz to 20kHz, 0.09% THD, 8 ohms = 70W |
| REAR
- 1kHz, 0.04% THD, 8 ohms = 20W |
| Dimensions: |
Width = 435, Height = 146, Depth = 386 |
|
Audio
Processing:
|
Dolby
Prologic, 35mm Cinema DSP, Prologic Enhanced, Concert Video, Concert
Hall, Rock Concert, Disco and Stadium, Mono-movie.
|
| Inputs:
|
4
x Audio (CD, TAPE1, TAPE2, PHONO) |
| 3
x Video/Audio (VCR1, DVD, LD - composite only - no S-Video) |
| Other: |
Sub-woofer
output, dual center speaker output, universal remote. |
| Ratings: |
Value:
7/10 Stereo: 7/10 Prologic: 8/10 Digital: 5/10 |
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