Yamaha RX-V1800

[admin_exported]

Having seen all of the hype over the Onkyo amps of late (875 etc) and wanting to upgrade my Yamaha RX-V1600 to something that will decode all of the latest sound formats, I'm wondering what the best £1000 (ish) amp is with these capabilities?

I understand Denon are due to release three new amps including the 3808 which is £1,300, and Yamaha are/ just have released the RX-V1800 (£1,000) which appears to have the functionality of the Onkyo/ Denon but is cheaper than the Denon, question is....... has anyone demo'd the new Yamaha or Denon amps to see how they stand up to the Onkyo?

I had a quick look at the details for the November issue and there does not appear to be a group test by the looks of it to include these amps, and being of the impatient sort, I would like to know the score now so I can go out and buy something!!

Kind regards,

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

Further to my posting yesterday (and I did mention I was impatient) I managed to get a copy of the November issue of What HI-FI this morning (excellent issue by the way), hoping there would be some mention of the new Yamaha Amp(s)..... but to no avail.

Taking matters into my own hands (or should that be ears?!) I managed to demo the RX-V1800 against the Onkyo 875
this morning, although could not include the new Denon amps as unfortunately my local supplier doesn't stock the brand.

I have to say (and I voted with my wallet on this) the Yamaha is in my opinion a better, not to mention much more attractive piece of kit and if you have a better half, this could be a deciding factor!

I understand why the Onkyo has received such great reviews as it was the first amp to decode all of the future sound formats, it sounds great and it really does have some nice toys on it, however the Yamaha, to me, just sounded better in the showroom.

It might not muster the quoted 200w/ch of the Onkyo, but then I have no real desire to go deaf listening to home cinema (as I would have just wasted my money and What HI-FI would have lost a very longstanding reader), so the 130 w/ch of the Yamaha is plenty neighbour irritating for me!!!

The nice thing is, it only gets better. Having now got my nice shiny new amp home, wired it up (easy) gone through the on screen menu (erm, yamaha - sort that out it looks rubbish!!) and let it set itself up (pretty quickly), I have to say I am even more impressed with it. It sounds better than it did in the shop and I could swear that my previously slightly lethargic sounding KEF speakers have just been given a huge dose of adrenalin!!!

This amp is a such a massive improvement over the RX-V1600 that I had previously (which my nice dealer took back from me in PX, bringing the cost of my new amp down considerably) that I would recommend this without hesitation! Given that What HI-FI haven't even mentioned these amps yet (maybe that's coming in the awards issue??) I thought my fellow readers would like a quick unbiased customer review.

Whilst writing, as I know its sometimes very difficult to get your better half to allow the purchase of new equipment ("it does the same thing that the one you already have does, why cant I have 'x' number of new shoes/ handbags instead??!!!") let alone accompany you to the shop, you might want to check my local dealer out (Technosound Milton Keynes - I have been a customer of theirs for 15 years now)....... pick a day that the owner John is in the shop and chances are his very cute and friendly dog will be wandering around in there with him greeting customers, it wins my missus over everytime!!!!

Hope this is of interest and I would love to know from the editors when we might see the reviews from them on this model?