YHT 299 was offered to me at 33800 at AutoNode Chennai. Had a demo at Yamaha Square and they treated us very badly. But finally I felt HTP 072 was much better thou it was a passive sub it felt much crisp and smooth. Now kinda confused why so many of you guys are going for Yamaha? Many dealers were like they dont get Pioneer Genuine stocks so they are forced to sell Yamaha and Onkyo is it true? But in Chennai we found very few shops with Pioneer? AutoNode in chennai seems to is the Pioneer distributor for South India but they told me to choose which every I like and I felt Pioneer was good.... please let me know?:sad::sad::sad:
I am not sure how your YAMAHA demo was or what you listened to on Pioneer. In my case i just checked two models, YAMAHA 196 and 299. 196 sounded a little muddy. But 299 is really good when it comes to producing those little notes and bass. The installation guy played Xmen, LOTR and Blue Band song while testing and trust me it was amazing, specially blue band song, all little notes coming alive. If possible get a blu ray with you for testing. One thing for YAMAHA is, its not loud but its a clear system.