Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha YHT-590BL Home Theater in a Box (Black)

I wanted a nice sound system to compliment my Sony 40-inch LCD screen. Originally I purchased Onkyo 3100, however, it did not have any HDMI connections and it would cause the video to stutter on programs in HD. I wanted the Onkyo 5100 but the speakers were simply enormous. I decided to go with Yamaha YHT-590 because of the receiver and the slim looking speakers. The installation took about 45 minutes as I had to cut and splice the thin looking wire (18 gauge). Once plugged in everything sounded excellent. Cannon fire in Master and Commander and the Pirates of the Caribbean was thundering and simply mind blowing. Depth charges in Das Boot...well you have to hear it to really appreciate it. :-).

One of the previous reviewers stated that the center speaker had to be turned down to hear the dialogue and such. Setup options in the receiver allow for numerous tweaks and options which you'll want to play with as the size of your room and the room acoustics will differ from user to user. I have an odd living room with the kitchen right next to it. I had to manually adjust the distance from the speakers to our sitting position to fully optimize the sound. There are also options that will allow you to adjust audio volume from source to source....Again, to fully enjoy any HT system you'll have to spend an hour or so to make sure its configured properly. Also, of note is that I wanted to upgrade the cheap looking wire and I purchased Monster XP which is a 14 gauge thick wire. It did not make any difference in sound whatsoever....Overall, very pleased with this system, looks great and it sounds even better. Highly recommended.

I decided to go with the Yamaha 590bl after several weeks of research on Yamaha and Onkyo HTIBs in the 300 to 600 price range. I was a little apprehensive as there weren't too many reviews to be found on this particular model, but seeing and hearing it at one of the local electronic stores convinced me.

I received the system yesterday, and spent a few hours wiring and setting it up to suit our den - there are quite a few setup options and you can tailor it to perfectly match the room and your listening taste - the customization is really neat once you figure it out. I have it connected to a 46" Sony LCD and a JVC progressive scan DVD player through the component video and digital coaxial hookups, and plan on using the optical inputs for connecting the HD DVR to the Yamaha. Took a while to do all this, but once everything was up and running, boy was I amazed. I've already watched the battle scenes in Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan multiple times and still can't get over how awesome this thing sounds. Perfect highs and lows with none of the hiss you hear in some low-end systems, bass deep enough to thump the floor and rattle a few things around the house, I feel like I have my own little IMAX setup here. CD playback through the DVD player is pretty impressive as well and I plan on getting the IPod dock for it.

All in all, I am very impressed with the the Yamaha 590 BL and would definitely recommend it. Love it!!!

THE SPEAKERS ARE VERY WELL MADE THE SOUND FROM THE MAINS AND SURROUNDS ARE WELL BALANCED, THE CENTER NEEDED TO BE TURNED DOWN TO KEEP THE FRONT FIELD IN BALANCE. the sub is not as well suited to the system, the volume is very hard to get correct from program source to source. The other parts and wiring were excellent. The amp runs at good volume at 30%.

Looks more expensive than it is. 600 watts in my large living room is plenty powerful. Essentially, Yamaha just took existing off-the-shelf components (receiver, woofer, and speakers) and packaged them as an HTIB. Even though it's all in one, big box, everything has it's own separate documentation.

Documentation is written by engineers, for engineers. Plan to spend plenty of time studying and trying things (unless, of course, you're an A/V engineer). Remote control layout isn't great; lots of real estate allocated to rarely-used, single-function buttons, and the functions you want to use most are on the smallest, multi-purpose buttons. Lastly, universal remote support is very sparse; I never could get any of my other remotes programmed to turn the receiver on/off. The best I could do was program my cable's remote to adjust the receiver's volume, which is what you do most of the time anyway.

I am very satisfied with my Yamaha YHT-590BL Home Theater in a Box. It sounds great! Only one aspect threw me off when I was setting it up. Please be aware of this. You cannot use only HDMI connections for the audio. It is only a pass-through system. See the box with the asterisk after the HDMI logo.

You have to purchase separate optical audio cables to hear the audio with HDMI. This was no big deal once I read the instructions in detail.

In all, I love this system. You cannot go wrong as far as the price is concerned. It has a very awesome sound, I love it!