Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha RX-V363BL 500 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

This receiver/amplifier is inexpensive. The unit is on the small side, and can easily fit on shelves found in a typical stereo cabinet. On the plus side, the volume is easy to control because the large knob. Also, treble/bass are easy to control because you push a "tone control" button, followed by pushing one of two buttons labeled "program." This allows separate adjustment of the treble and bass (like a junior version of an equalizer).

The front of the unit has a socket for inputting a headphone jack. But on the minus side, there is no socket for inputting a microphone or for inputting an electric guitar cord. My old Pioneer amplifier, circa 1973, has a socket for inputting a microphone or electric guitar. But the Yamaha unit does not have this type of socket.

On the negative side, you need to use a hand-held control to make the radio work. What's wrong with old-fashioned buttons and dials located right on the receiver??? Because of the need for the hand-held control, which itself has dozens of buttons, the owner will not likely want to take advantage of the fact that the unit has a radio. It is just too much trouble to hunt for the hand-held control, to make sure its batteries are still alive, and to figure out how to use the thing, each time you want to listen to the radio.

Also the negative side, the unit has a button that changes the ambiance of your music. In other words, it can change the music to sound as though it was being played in a large concert hall. But this is pretty silly, as this bell'n'whistle just makes the music take on a muddy sound. In other words, the sound media found on compact discs had already been thoroughly processed and engineered. Why would anybody want to further add echoes to the sound, using the Yamaha unit???

Also on a negative side, the unit cannot accept input from a turntable. You have to purchase a pre-amplifier and connect it, before a turntable can be used. I bought the following pre-amplifier: ART DJPre II phono preamp. The ART DJPre II unit is compact yet elegant, and it works just fine when I want to run my turntable through the Yamaha amplifier.

The unit has a control that compresses the music for use in listening at very low volumes. We all know that classical music, and sometimes jazz, has episodes that are either louder or softer than usual. We also know that, if played at low volume, the low-volume episodes will drop out and not be heard. The unit's "night control" avoids this problem. It would be nice if this compressor could be used for recording tapes or other media, since we all know that tapes can be overwhelmed at high volumes, resulting in distortion. Unfortunately, the Yamaha unit does not have this ability.

The radio (receiver) in this unit is basically unusable for the casual listener. To use the radio, you need to read several pages of instructions, and remember these instructions. A complicated ritual of button-selecting and button-pushing is required every time you want to listen to the radio. What is wrong with a single button and a single knob for turning on the radio, and for selecting the radio station?

For that matter, I find any stereo unit that REQUIRES use of a remote control to be unacceptable (because of the unit's requirement for batteries, because of inconvenience in storing the remote (and ease in losing it), and because of inconvenience in remembering the appropriate ritual for operating the remote.)

The unit has a feature that automatically turns the amplifier off (shuts off the power) where the amplifier senses an overload. When this reads, an automatic message reads, "CHECK SPEAKER CABLE." However, the amplifier automatically turns off, when you play the sound at moderately high volume, even when the speaker cable contacts are cleaned and are in snug contact with the speakers and the amplifier. I AM STARTING TO HATE THE YAMAHA AMPLIFIER BECAUSE IT ALWAYS SHUTS OFF THE POWER AFTER TWO OR THREE MINUTES OF LISTENING TO MODERATELY HIGH VOLUME. I think that this amplifer was made for whimps who are able to tolerate their music only when played at whisper-level volumes. The Yamaha unit is a curse.

For $200 bucks this is a great value. The only reason I gave it four stars is that the remote is a little confusing on changing the sound settings. The sound is great out of my JBL surround and it has plenty of power to push my Yamaha towers.

This particular receiver is great with all sort of things you can do to it you will have a blast customizing it. For those who just want to get a receiver this still is easy to use and fun. It has many plugins in the back and HDMI. Also get the ipod dock with it because they go together like spaghetti and meatball.

Very good, for thew price it's a great receiver, but if you don't have the proper equipment like good 8 ohm cables and 100 w speakers the sound wont be the best, i hooked it up to my PlayStation 3 via hdmi for the video and optical for the sound, the sat receiver component for video and optical for sound, everything sound awesome, remember to crank up all of the PlayStation 3 sound options for the optical cable or you will not get sound from the optical of the play 3, i thought i was not necessary but i was not getting sound so i talk to a friend who had the same problem with his Onkyo, he turned everything and he got sound, so did i, why 4 stars? i think for the money i got what i needed, 5.1 sound and the lack of no hdmi sound, it only passesthru.

This receiver was very adequate for its intended purpose and a good value for the price I paid for it.