Found a Yamaha DSP-AX863SE in stock - should I take the plunge?

[Pistol Pete1]

I've put a few threads on here now about upgrading my Onkyo 606 receiver to the likes of the Sony STR DA2400 ES to help improve 2 channel playback - which is important to me. (Upgraded mains cables etc on onkyo 606 already)

Most replies from the experts and fellow forum uses, suggest it's a side ways move, rather than a good upgrade.

I have never really liked the Yamaha 863SE in the pictures I've seen, but saw one in the flesh for the first time today.

With this in mind, I am very tempted by it. And I might even grow to like the orange display???

So, would this be the ultimate upgrade, bearing in mind I will use it with the following system:

Panasonic TH42 PX80, Sony BDP S350, Marantz CD63 MK II KI cd player, and the Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 speaker system, with the fronts changed to a pair of 1030i floorstanders for improved 2 channel playback (and improved movie sound too!!)

I figure, if I buy one, I will get some of the cost back selling the onkyo 606 on ebay......but will the improvement be enough?

Any thoughts.......or anyone done this upgrade from onkyo 606 to Yamaha 863SE?

 

[Anonymous]

It should be an "upgrade" but I don't know whether you'll consider it as an "ultimate" upgrade. I think you will need to spend a lot more money and look at amps in higher price brackets if you want an "ultimate" upgrade.

 

[Anonymous]

PistolPete,

Do it........!!

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Decided to wait for the forthcoming Yamaha RX V765 (863SE replacement, but with added HDMI input, blue screen (not orange) and tuner built in), and Denon AVR 1910 (has built in Dolby Pro-Logic IIz, if it's anygood?) which is being UK Tuned, like the 863SE was.

Surely, one of them will be as good, if not better, than the Yamaha 863SE?

 

[smuggs]

i looked at that yamaha it was £575 then i looked at the denon 1909 £425 and i thought the yamaha was better in movies but the denon was great with music on pure direct so i went for the denon, i have a set of montior audio br5's if that helps so i would wait and look at the denon 1910 should be good.

 

[Anonymous]

I was advised by audio T and Sevenoaks to get the Denon 2309 because of its 2 channel stereo and bi amping strengths. I'm pleased enough. But as someone else said your jump to the Yamaha or my denon is hardly massive

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Smuggs,

Thanks for your reply...thats actually what i have decided to do.

I'm very interested in your view about the Denon 1909 sounding better for stereo than the Yamaha.

Thought the Yamaha would have the edge on it?

 

[smuggs]

i would say there was a difference to be heard so just because the denon 1909 was my cup of tea dont dismiss the yamaha i would try and go for a listen, and with out trying to say like im talking down to you go on a tuesday or wednesday the dealers are quite and i have found that if you walk in with a hand full of cds you look serious and they give you as long as you want. saturadays example 30 mins demo if your lucky and you have the phones ringing

 

[Anonymous]

I was told by a Sevenoaks store that the 863 is really a £800 product which is being sold for under £600 and that its replacement will go back up to £800. Yamaha evidently did this to re-establish themselves in the AV Receiver market.

If this is true then the 863 is undoubtedly a bit of a bargain.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Hi Dave,

The Yamaha RX V765 is supposedly the replacement for the 863SE and the 763, and has already been advertised for £550...

There is a RX V1065 coming out too, which is the £800 amp....Both amps mentioned have upgraded parts inside compared with the RX V565,465 and 365.

If I'm wrong, then the 863SE truely is a bargain.....

 

[Anonymous]

I don't believe the 765 is the replacement for the 863. The clue is in the model number and the fact that the 765 is not as powerful as the 863.

I truly believe that the 863 is a £800 product selling for > £600 !!!!!

Found this on another forum
Yamaha RX-V1065

Inputs

HDMI 4

Radio Antenna (FM/AM) 1 / 1

Dock Terminal for Optional Dock Accessories 1

Optical Digital (Fixed) 2

Coaxial Digital (Fixed) 2

Analog Audio* incl. Phono 6

Component Video (Fixed) 2

Multi-Channel External Decoder 8ch

* Including front panel terminals.

This is supposed to be the replacement for the 863; it has gained 1
HDMI, lost 2 optical, lost 1 component and removed S-Video completely.

 

[daveh75]

The 863se was indeed £800 when first released!

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Have a read of this. Maybe I have read it incorrectly:

http://whathifi.com/News/EXCLUSIVE-NEWS-Yamahas-entire-2009-model-range-revealed/

Take care in reading the following paragraph:

'Arriving in July are the two midrange models, the RX-V765 effectively replacing the outgoing DSP-AX863SE (our 2008 Product of the Year) and DSP-AX763 multichannel amps.'

I would agree with you on spec side that the RX V1065 sounds more like the replacement, but I'm just quoting what was on here!!

 

[Anonymous]

I am sure Yamaha would like us all to believe that the 765 is the replacement for the 863 but the facts do not back this up.

There is a lot of discussion on this subject on forums over the pond where they take their AV Receivers very seriously. The consensus seems to be that the 765 is more of a replacement for the 663 !

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Guess we will have to wait a few months and see how this one pans out......

 

[Anonymous]

So, Pete, after all that research, you will not be taking the plunge now but wait until when?

Maybe you should pick up the older amps in a higher class since their prices have come down a lot since they were launched despite proce increases by some manufacturers.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Hi 'seekingadvice',

What kinda amps were you thinking of with this suggestion?

Been looking at the range from Marantz tonight, which I had neglected since now, due to a lack of reviews on them. And as I would be adding the Marantz CD63 MKII KI cd player onto it, I thought it ight be an idea to have a look.

Reviews on the net are promising too. The SR6003 sounds very good, as I have read that it compares with the Yamaha RX 1900 for SQ on stereo.

Any thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Pistol, I'm in a similar boat to you, av amp wise, I'm coming back to the audio scene after a long absence and the old memories of "the endless search for the holy grail" are all flooding back

Trust me though you can drive yourself mad in the process.

This will be my first cinema hifi system and my budget for the amp is around £550 and stereo performance is important to me also as I really don't want to give my entire house over to hifi equipment where everywhere you look there's another stereo. Guess I'm growing up

My thoughts at the moment were as yours were a few posts back with regards to the 863se and 765. Denon has often been my bag in the past but was taken by the value of the 863se.

If you haven't gone totally off track now and gone for something else, my thoughts and experience (from home and competition car audio scene) are on certain occasions waiting for the new model of what has become somewhat of an icon or at least a very well acclaimed product can lead to disappointment. Alpine made a CD player for car audio which sounded amazing and they never bettered it, people were still using them in competition years later and IF you could fool someone into parting with one you'd have to pay serious cash to get it. Sometimes a set of components are put together and it just works and that can be difficult to replicate.

Now I'm not saying the 863se is quite at that level but I must say the signs of possible disappointment could be there when you look at the spec of the incoming 765.

The 863se was indeed originally £800 rrp with no radio tuner the 765 is going to be a mere £550 it seems, with a tuner on board and the stories suggest that it will replace the 863 AND 763 to me this suggests it is marketed between the two rather than to be better than the 863. Without studying the details of the components used in both it's impossible to say for sure but the technology in amps is not like that of TV's at the moment where it gets massively better and cheaper every six months. So I suspect that the 863se may well be more of a true £800 quality unit and the 765 may prove to be more like a £500 mark amp as I can't imagine that in the space of a year they can make the same quality of amp and throw in a tuner of any quality for that much less cash, they still have a profit to make.

Also with the 863se being tuned for the UK as they say and the 765 being a stock offering this to me suggests the possibility of less focus on pleasing the UK buyer and more on moving numbers.

I may be wrong of course as at this stage it's just like trying to predict the stock exchange looking for signs of this and that
but just like the stock exchange once everyone "knows" the moment has passed.

So if the 765 comes out and the reviews are comparatively poor everyone will be clamouring for the last 863's and they'll be even more hard to find and the prices will go back up.

Right now you could get an 863se for £499 and it's still an award winning £600-£800 amp, so there's a good chance of feeling smug in a few months time or at the very worst feeling like you've got good value for money.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Lee Trevis:Also with the 863se being tuned for the UK as they say and the 765 being a stock offering this to me suggests the possibility of less focus on pleasing the UK buyer and more on moving numbers.

Yamaha says it's more about having a standardised model range, so it doesn't get caught out by demand as it has been with the existing models. It will now be able to move stock around between markets in order to satsify any unexpected peaks in demand, which wasn't the case when the UK got specific models not sold anywhere else.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrew, I saw the thread and felt I had to finally make a post rather than just read them, gets the cob webs out of your own thought processes putting them in writing I find.

Being in the same 863 or 765 dilemma as the original posting suggested for the last month or so I was mainly waiting for the 765 as I couldn't find an 863se for love nor money. In the last few days it seems though a few have come onto the market for a mere £499 including at a shop local to me so I'm on the verge of taking my own advise

and going for an 863.

Out of interest though have you heard any feed back on how the 765 has gone down in the US where I understand it has been on sale for a little while already?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Lee Trevis:Out of interest though have you heard any feed back on how the 765 has gone down in the US where I understand it has been on sale for a little while already?

Not as yet, no, and haven't seen any online reviews from any of the US mags...

 

[Anonymous]

Ok thanks for getting back to me Andrew, much appreciated