I've been reading through the posts on this site and can't seem to understand why everyone seems to be so negative towards the Yamaha receivers. I have just recently finished buying my HT and couldn't be more happy with the sound quality I am getting. Please tell me why you folks don't liek the HTR line for Yamaha. I am running all Polk speakers, and had tested out Athena, Mirage,and JBL before buying. I think the Polk/Yamaha combination works great. I have spent alot of time setting up and tweaking my system, but I think it all comes down to personal preference. And for the price of these HTR receivers I think you get a great a value. I do realize that it is their lower line but I have friends with H/K , Dennon setups that sound just as good. Mine is the new model that has 85w/6 channels, and soudns great. Anyways I was just looking for some insight that maybe I am overlooking... Cheers.
Here is my setup
Hitachi 51s510 HDTV Yamaha HTR-5740s Polk RTI6 Fronts Polk CSI Center Polk R15 Rears Polks PSW10 Sub
Just want to tell you that you are not overlooking anything. Everyone has different tastes and the most important factor in selecting equipment is that it sound good to you. The percentage you have to spend versus the performance you gain can be disappointing. Usually you have to spend a lot to get a little improvement but there are exceptions to that depending on what and how you buy. Don!t worry about what anyone else thinks, you said you could not be more happy with the sound so just enjoy it.
The negative comments you have seen are probably related to the fact that for many years Yamaha's have sounded bright and thin. This changed with the 1400/2400. Those two are no longer bright but still on the thin side. Vastly improved over previous Yamaha's. Also you may be seeing comments that you construe as negative when someone is trying to answer a question about what receivers match with particular speakers. Personally I would not match Yamaha with Polk as I think Polk's sound better with a fuller, warmer receiver but I would not say that a Yamaha/Polk system is bad, it's just not my preference. As has been said it all depends on what you like and if you like your system as you say then that's all that matters. You have a decent starter/budget system so just enjoy it and upgrade when you can, like most of us do.
Don't take the comments about the Yamaha HTR line as being applicable to everybody. Some people just are not fond of the "Yamaha" sound, especially with two channel music.
In all honesty, I think the HTR5760's which comprise many setups for mass market retailers (BestBuy) comes to mind, sound awful to me. I would not want to listen to music with that particular receiver powering everything. The sound is thinner than other receivers in the same price range and there is still a harshness to the presentation. That said, buy what sounds good to you and ignore everything else.