Yamaha YHT196 personal experience

[Vinay2013]

Recently, I acquired Yamaha YHT196 system and it has been more than a month so I thought of sharing my views. I cant say it a review as I do not consider myself as qualified and experienced to provide a review, rather I would want to share my personal experience.

After connecting it through my Asus o play mini I tried some music and was immediately disappointed with the output. There was no bass & no clear highs and it sounded so tiny that I was like what the hell. Before this, I was using a Stereo system with Astonia Budget amp and MA BR1 bookshelf and was quite happy with the quality of sound for both music and movies. Only thing missing was the surround effect. I played many tracks including Hotel California, AR rehmans Dil se which are considered to bring the best out of any system but to my disappointment no significant improvement. Now I was cursing myself and blaming it to the passive subwoofer system. I played some movies with great effects like star wars, Amazing spiderman and to test dialogues Before Sunrise. It was better with clear dialogues but effects were still missing. So I started experimenting with the settings..AND..

I revisited all the standard settings and changed few things:

• Calculated the accurate distance and set these for every channel
• Checked individual speakers volume and increased the center volume from middle to two pints higher and surrounds increased to one point higher. Initial settings for all the channels were in the middle.
• Crossover set to 100Initially it was on 200
• After reading the manual, placed the subwoofer diagonally. It was initially facing the front wall. Read in the manual that standing waves cancel the low frequency. Could not believe so but placed it as advised in the manual
• It has seven equalizers for each channel so increased the higher frequency little less from max for each channel
• It has 17 DSP settings for movies music and gaming. Set it to straight enhancer setting

And BINGO..What a change in the performance. It now was working like a real home theatre system. Played Hotel California DTS 5.1 track from Hell Freezes over and amazed by the clarity of initial guital notes followed by lifelike drum beats and crisp highs coming from different corners. I was like Wow..Played some stereo Flacs in the straight enhance mode and 5 channel stereo mode and again Wow. I played lot of flacs and movies and was quite happy with the way they reproduced the sound. I played two three live performances videos by Celine Dion in Las Vegas concert (I am alive, Power of Love and Titanics them song My heart will go on).and was mesmerized with the quality and enveloping surrounds. Audience applause and music travelling from one channel to others. It was so lively that when it finished I was overwhelmed and few tear drops were about to come from the corner of my eyes. A great contributor to this experience was my projector BD 5370.

So now I was extremely happy and satisfied with the performance but there was more to come. After 15 days or so I checked almost all settings from the remote. Butone day when I was looking at the AVR I saw a tone button. I pressed that and there was more conventional settings for Bass and treble. I increased the treble and Bass levels slightly below maximum and results were more crisp highs without sounding harsh but Bass was boomy so I set the bass to original middle position.

Yesterday I organized a screening for four of my friends with family and kids and they have lost words to praise my system. Their mouths were wide open with this awesome experience.

I am sorry for this long post and bad English and Thanks a lot for reading through the end.

My take: Most of us overspend due to lack of knowledge and resources while an entry level HTIB can provide more than satisfactory results. As far as movies and live concerts are concerned, this system is more than enough. For serious music it may lack the finest nuances but nowadays most of us listen music while doing other household work.

Thanks again all. Happy to answer if you have any specific queries.
Best,
Vinay

 

[Vinay2013]

Few pics:

 

[sash]

Thanks for the detailed review. As you said, most of us spend a lot of money for the stuff that we may not need. I took some of my friends over to a hifi shop recently as one of them wanted to buy a HT. We did some tests without bothering about the prices and when asked, the buyer actually rated a HTIB (a Onkyo model) higher than most other expensive stuff.
When i went to audition before buying my system, i only auditioned for movies because i was only going to use my system for movies. I felt my Magnat was sweeter sounding than the Def Techs which were many times more expensive. They had a tannoy v4 which sounded different - but not really "better".
I think a "blind test" is really the only way to really tell which sound you'll like. If you know the model and price before hand, you will be biased. That's been my experience.

 

[Vinay2013]

Very true statement Sash. I think magic lies in tweaking some settings to one's own preferences. Even an expensive system if not calibrated properly might sound bad.

 

[Nero9]

thanks a lot for sharing your experience with us. hope you are a having a new experience everyday.

 

[Vinay2013]

thanks a lot for sharing your experience with us. hope you are a having a new experience everyday.

Yes... Thank you !

 

[Vinay2013]

Now is the time to share some limitations of this system which I still feel. I might be doing some wrong settings as I am not an expert but I wanted to share what I felt...

I feel at times that bass is little boomy rather than deep and punchy
I still feel it lacks the body in the music which my humble and cheap Lepai amp or Astinia Amp with MA BR1 Bookshelf speakers provide. I don't know how to explain it, for some tracks Yamaha is simply mind blowing but for some I feel the high and Low frequencies but lacks the body/depth. This might be due to difference in satellite and bookshelf speakers.
Anyways there is no doubt that it is warmer than my humble stereo set up and movie experience especially with DTS tracks is awesome.

 

[sash]

Maybe to do with the fact that the sub is passive. If the sub is passive, it relies on the receiver for power - which is a compromise. Active subwoofers, having dedicated amplifiers tend to punch hard. YHT 299 has active sub

 

[Vinay2013]

Yes. maybe. anyways this is a temp set up until I get my home. Builder has delayed it for two years

 

[mastiguy]

Hi Vinay, Could u pls explain in detail which is mentioned below. I mean how dd u do that?

It has seven equalizers for each channel so increased the higher frequency little less from max for each channel

nd don't u think that height of the placement of speakers is higher.

 

[Vinay2013]

Hi Vinay, Could u pls explain in detail which is mentioned below. I mean how dd u do that?

It has seven equalizers for each channel so increased the higher frequency little less from max for each channel

nd don't u think that height of the placement of speakers is higher.

Regarding height of the speakers, I have intentioally kept them little higher than the ear level due to kids and to keep my other bookshelf speakers but they are mounted in brackets and positioned accordingly so I am getting good results.

Equalisers settings are there in the set up which when you press it will lead you to front right or left channel and equalisers starting from low to high frequencies. Khz is indication of high frequency. But difference is hardly noticeable.

vr has a tone control button with conventional bass and treble adjustments whch I think is more effective. Remember this control is only in avr and not in the remote.

 

[Vinay2013]

Also just noticed you are talking about the height of surround speakers. According to dolby height of surround speakers should be at ear level in the standing position and not when seated to get the engaging expereince. Hope this helps.

 

[mastiguy]

@Vinay: Thnx for da reply.

I am aware abt the tone control settings which r available on AVR. I just didn't able find the equalizer settings, that's the reason i have pinged u.

nd regarding the placement of speakers, i feel better when i placed my front speakers to my ear level and surround speakers 1 - 2 mtr above of my ear level.

nyway the taste differs from person to person.

 

[Vinay2013]

@Vinay: Thnx for da reply.

I am aware abt the tone control settings which r available on AVR. I just didn't able find the equalizer settings, that's the reason i have pinged u.

nd regarding the placement of speakers, i feel better when i placed my front speakers to my ear level and surround speakers 1 - 2 mtr above of my ear level.

nyway the taste differs from person to person.

Goto speaker set up ...press enter...you will see config . Scroll upwards..you will see test tone..scroll one more time and you will see equaliser... press enter twice...you will see channel front L...scroll up or down to adjust the required frequency.

Did you able to set the speaker level and distance. Equaliser is in the same menu.

Hope this helps

 

[mastiguy]

@Vinay: Thnx for the reply dude. I didn't ab;e to see the equalizer settings previously, as i set those to OFF.

 

[gsri4u]

View attachment 14509

where is this (treble) option...I set this earlier but forgot where it is now

 

[Vinay2013]

where is this (treble) option...I set this earlier but forgot where it is now

Tone control in avr. It is not in remote.

 

[gsri4u]

Tone control in avr. It is not in remote.

thank you....I bought this system after reading your review.

I am very happy that I did and its great. :yahoo:

 

[raju2512]

Vinay, thanks for the review and inputs.

I got my YHT196 4 days back and I have connected the system without waiting for the installation guys.. My set up is

1. STB (AirTel HD recorder) -> TV (Panasoic LED) - HDMI (without ARC)

2. STB -> YHT 196 - optical cable

I went for this setup since I want to use the TV with or without the HT system.

1. BDP (Philips 2180/94) - >YHT196 - HDMI
2. YHT196 - > TV - HDMI (ARC) of TV to HDMI out of YHT196.

I prefer to play usb through BDP only.

My initial impressions are

1. Bass lacks bit of punch. The SW output is too low. I have increased to volume of SW in the setup.

2. It is absolute value for money.

I need your advise regarding HD audio over HDMI. There have been various discussions regarding decoding of HDMI audio by YHT196, which is over my head. Do I need to connect the BDP to YHT thro coaxial cable?

I use YHT to mainly watch movies and my audio content is mainly Indian classical which doesn't require 5.1 or dolby/DTH anyway

 

[Vinay2013]

Please find below my response.

I prefer to play usb through BDP only.

Yes. Because there is no option of USB playback through AVR

1. Bass lacks bit of punch. The SW output is too low. I have increased to volume of SW in the setup.

You can try placing the diagonal sub arrangement as advised in the manual. It really makes the difference.


I need your advise regarding HD audio over HDMI. There have been various discussions regarding decoding of HDMI audio by YHT196, which is over my head. Do I need to connect the BDP to YHT thro coaxial cable?

Don't worry about formats. HD audio is carried well by HDMI and no other cable is required (at least in my Tata Sky HD+), not sure about Airtel. So far I did not find any problem with any of the formats.


I use YHT to mainly watch movies and my audio content is mainly Indian classical which doesn't require 5.1 or dolby/DTH anyway

Straight or Straight Enhancer is the best as per my experience but you can try other settings. This mode will play music in 2.1 format and video files in 5.1 or 2.1 depending on your source. Try DTS audio and you will not feel the lack of bass.