Yamaha RX-N600 Digital Network-Ready Home Theater Receiver Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have had this unit for about 2 weeks now. Sound is as good as anything in this price range. I was coming from a Sony 900 series receiver which was failing. This is my first Yamaha. No other manufacturers had networking capability that didn't cost 3 times as much. Plan on spending most of a day setting this up unless you do that kind of thing often.
Most of my comments center around the networking and USB functions because that's why I bought it, to perhaps eliminate my PC as a music source and go direct from this receiver. We'll, it kinda works... The remote is a bit of a sore spot too as with just a bit more functionality it could have been really good, I could have gotten down to one remote but unfortunately it does not control my cable set top box.
Strengths
*Works great with my Sony VCR, remote controls everything nicely.
*Ipod dock (an extra item purchased separately) seems to work very well. Does not play Ipod video though. Remote controls this too
*Nice remote, after you figure it out it is pretty logical. Controls 3 of my 4 components nicely.
*Internet radio is a real winner, seems to have jillions of stations arranged fairly logically by locale. It would be very difficult to duplicate this on your PC unless you enrolled in a pay service. Its like having a short wave radio.
Near misses
*Remote works great with my Sony DVD player, but make sure you have the side switch on "source" to control play, fast forward, etc. Otherwise you won't be able to move the cursor through DVD menus that appear in the movie menu and make choices on how the movie plays.
*If the Remote could just have a little learning it would be great. You won't know if it will control your unit until you try it out. The list of remote codes that Yamaha supplies is vague, does not list models just a bunch of codes for each manufacturer. You just have to try each one for your manufacturer and see if any work. Hit or miss.
*Net/USB did not work with my Creative Zen Nomad jukebox MP3 player, but did work with a Corsair Memory 2gb flash voyager stick. Go figure. I did notice recently that I can set my Zen to act as a mass storgae unit, and to be fair I have not tried that yet.
Weaknesses
*Network music does not work with Microsoft Media Player 11, only 10. I called Yamaha and they said Media Player 11 was not supported. The N600 does not connect reliably to the media library store, sometimes it works fine, sometimes it errors out or just shows an empty list. Very finicky. Media player 11 is in beta so beware, it will become mainsteam shortly and is not supported. I'm not sure if/how Yamaha will remedy this for me.
*Plays wave, WMA and MP3 but not Itunes
*Crude character interface display for the Net/USB functions, like looking at a pong game on an old IBM CGA PC. About as much functionality as a typical MP3 player, you have to scroll through a page at a time in everything. A pain in the neck if you have a large music collection
*Will not control my Motorola DCT700 Comcast cable box, I tried all the Motorola codes and Yamaha says that's all there is, if they don't work you are outta luck. I am.
*Remote has no learning capability.
*Limited inputs for other components, but enough for what I need
*Documentation is OK but the manual is all there is. There is no FAQ or deeper level of detail on their website or anywhere else that I could find. You have to call Yamaha and you will get a live person, but from what I found from 2 calls is they didn't know any more than the manual.
Conclusion: Would I buy this again? Probably not because the networking is so limited, and that was the main reason I selected this model. If you buy a good receiver and go with an attached high quality PC/soundcard you'd be better off.The Yamaha interface does not come anywhere close to the ease of use and nice presentation you get on any PC media player program. That's like comparing a typewriter to using a PC with Word. The USB feature is nice but could be a lot better if it supported more devices.

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The RX-N600 is the first Yamaha receiver to offer network receiver functions. Using network connection and Windows Media Connect ver.2 technology, it lets you play MP3, WMA and WAV music from a remote PC. You can also listen to any of the thousands of stations available on Internet radio.

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LG LHB335 1100-Watt Network Blu-ray Disc Home Theater System, Black Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I recently purchased a LG LHB335 BluRay all in one surround sound home theater system from Best Buy. The center and right rear speakers emit a whistling noise that sounds like a teapot when boiling. Not quite that loud, but enough to be a very undesirable noise in a new unit. I took the first one back, BB gave me another. Same thing. Then another. Same thing. I have connected it to another location with speaker wiring and a Monster Power supply and yes, it does the same thing! I called LG and they said they have no reports on this problem, but when a search is conducted, many people are complaining. Until this issue is resolved, I would suggest not buying this unit!
EDIT---More details:
The LHB335 has a horrible "Tea Pot" whistling noise emitted from the center speaker. It also comes from the right rear speaker at times. It is so annoying that I took it back to Best Buy. Exchanged for another and same thing! I relocated the unit on a different electrical circuit and that did not help. Bought an expensive Monster power supply due to Best Buys recommendation which did NOT help at all. They asked me to try unit #3 and it also had the same noise! To make sure that it was not just a building electrical problem, I installed it in a friends home. SAME ISSUE! I called LG to discuss the problem and they said they had no reports of such a problem. That is NOT true. The internet has many comments regarding this speaker noise issue. After talking with some friends, they too have returned units with the same problem. I really liked the features of the LHB335, but will not buy another one unless LG can assure me that it will be one that does not whistle!
Edit--Even More Details:
2/24/2011--With all of the positive comments I've seen posted, especially with claims that the noise has been fixed in units manufactured after June 2010, I thought I'll try another one for the basement game room. The price has been coming down drastically, and no wonder with all the bad PR, so I picked one up for $249 from Amazon. I received the unit in a couple of days, set it up (I can do it very quickly since I've been through more than a few of these) made the tweaks for inputs and presto..... No whistle... however there was NO SOUND AT ALL!!! After turning it off and on a few times the sound began working. But the sound would quit and then restart after 3-5 seconds. After talking with LG's deplorable customer service group, they said, "We haven't had any reports of that problem, send it to us and we will look at it." Once again LG displays horrible concern for their customer satisfaction! So it is going BACK TO AMAZON and I will never ever even consider another LG product!!!! So be forewarned.... LG does NOT mean Life is Good.... it means Lots of Grief!!!


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LG has redefined what to expect from home theater. This isn't speakers and a receiver in a box. With the LHB355 Network Blu-ray Home Theater System, you get unrivaled Blu-ray technology, out-of-this world sound and instant entertainment...all in one. More than making the most of your Full HD with Blu-ray, NetCast™ Entertainment Access lets you directly tap into instant streaming movies, music and videos direct from the Internet to your TV.

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Sonos S5 Wireless Internet Music Player (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Just got the S5 about an hour ago. Setup couldn't be easier. Step 1 - connect the power cord to an power outlet. Step 2 - hit the Mute and + button to get the S5 added as a new zone, Step 3 - hmmm....I don't think there is one. Just hit play and enjoy pure bliss.
This is my 4th Zone player (see my other gushing review of the Sonos system on the Sonos bundle page), and anytime my wife asks, "how many of these white boxes you really need?", the answer is always "one more".
Portability is the key feature of S5. Moving it from Kitchen to backdeck is just a matter of unplugging the power cord and replugging at the new location. It's all in one box. And the sound quality is not bad either. With all 4 zone players on party mode - some connected to very expensive Klipsch towers - I have ran around to compare the sound quality at various locations. The verdict - this little guy stacks up nicely against the big boys.
And the iPhone controller is not too shabby either. Don't see the need to buy the new touch controller (CR200).
Awesome product. Pure genius. Just get it.

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Turn your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad device or Android smartphone into the ultimate remote control. Download the free Sonos Controller app for your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad device or Android smartphone and you'll have complete wireless control of your S5 through your home's WiFi network. Scroll through songs, browse album art, tune in to radio stations and more. Plus, since you're not streaming the music from your iPhone, like you are with docking stereos, you can take calls and receive texts without interrupting the music. Get instant access to endless music. Touch a button on your device and ZonePlayer is playing music from your computer's digital music library. Touch another and it's reggae straight from Jamaica on one of 100,000 free Internet radio stations and shows. Touch your device again and you're tapped into Rhapsody , Pandora , Napster , Last.fm, and SIRIUS . "The music sounds fantastic." The New York Times Beneath its sleek all-in-one exterior, the S5 hides five independent speakers, each powered by its own dedicated digital amplifier. This means you get rich, room-filling sound that rivals or outperforms much larger, more complicated audio systems. And, because the S5 uses a 100% digital architecture, every note from top-of-the-range highs to mids and deep, true bass comes through in brilliant clarity exactly as the artist intended. Add multiple rooms of music without adding a single wire. Get a whole-home music system without spending a dime for installation. Simply add additional ZonePlayer S5 units throughout your house and the proprietary Sonos wireless network will integrate them all into a single wireless music system. You can stream the same music to all rooms or send separate streams to each unit. And you can control it all, including individual volumes from your iPhone device anywhere in the house. "The setup process is fantastically simple." The Wall Street Journal Just plug the all-in-one Sonos ZonePlayer S5 into your Internet route

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LG LHB975 1100-Watt Blu-ray Home Theater System, Gloss Black Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased this system in May of 2010. When it worked, it worked great and I really enjoyed the quality of the blu-ray player and sound.
About a week ago the wireless subwoofer stopped working. It has power but will not link up with the wireless receiver. I tried everything I could possibly do and couldn't get it to "remate" (connect) again. I then called LG and they were unable to fix it.
LG offered to repair the system but they wants me to spend $70.00 for them to look at it and this does not include shipping. From what the customer service representative told me, the 1 year warranty means that regardless of the cost to repair, my cost is capped at $70.00. I'm not sure how that qualifies as a warranty but according to LG it does.
What is troubling about this issue is that this problem does not appear to be an isolated incident. I searched the internet for reviews from people who owned the system. There are a number of people who are having this exact same problem after using the system for about 6 months. Mine started in just 5 months. It's starting to look like this product has a defect.
I own an LG cell phone, washer and dryer, and this blu-ray theater system. I've never had a problem with any LG product before. I'm surprised that LG would put out a product that seems to have a systematic defect. I'm even more surprised that the LG customer service would be so bad and not customer friendly. This experience has really questioned my brand loyalty towards LG. At this point, they must know this product has a problem. Rather than do the right thing - which is to correct the problem and send a new unit to everyone who is having this problem free of charge - LG is instead forcing the consumer to pay for service, pay for shipping, and hope that the repair is a long term fix. I'm afraid I'll spend the money to get the system "repaired" only to have it break again in another 5 months.
Rather than deal with the nonsense I'm going through, anyone who looks at this home theater system should just avoid it.


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LG's NetCast Interface lets you easily access a vast array of internet content. This model comes with two tower speakers.

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Sony BDV-E770W Blu-ray Player Home Entertainment System Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a really a great Home Theater/BluRay combo unit. I hate clutter and went for it as this would be a single unit for Music, DVD/BluRay and Internet streaming (Netflix etc). Blu-Ray discs with 3-D surround sound are really amazing as I expected, DVD up conversion is great and sound quality of wireless S-AIR rear speaker is as good as wired (beware, they are wireless just with respect to main base/amp unit. The rear speakers have their own receiver unit that requires power plug and is wired to rear speakers. However, it serves my purpose as I don't need to run wires across my living room.). I was apprehensive that I am paying $100 extra and probably compromising on the sound quality just for little compromise of running wires across room. I did not find any compromise on sound quality (and I am quite picky). I did separate my WiFi router away from S-AIR, after reading about the possible cross-interference. That created another logistics problem: I sometimes watch movies on Netflix streamed through Internet and for best quality like to hook up the wire. Keeping router away meant that I ended up running cable across. Netflix streaming quality was awesome with wire and as good I had observed with PS3 (It's just a shade worse than DVD but way better than connecting via computer). The surprise was that WiFi connection worked almost as well as wired. So I ended up getting rid of this wire too. I have Sharp Aquos 52' LED TV and it seamlessly detects sound from this Sony unit whenever I switch to TV or switch on TV. One more tip that I discovered by chance. I have cheap $2, 6 ft generic HDMI cable and ~$10 mediabridge 6 ft and 15 ft (to connect my laptop to use TV as external monitor). While DVD and Blu-Ray disc quality was same on all 3 cables, Netflix streaming quality was way better with 6 ft mediabridge cable than other two. Probably one needs to buy decent quality shortest cable for limited signal/information relay via streaming. And don't believe in the crap that is floating on Internet. I know digital is 0 and 1. However, those morons forget that it's not just one 0 and 1; there is a stream of millions of 0s and 1s getting across. So it matters how many of those are faithfully transmitted. If input is great it does not matter, even crappiest of cable would do. However, if input is limiting, it does seem to make a difference. I did blind test with monstrously overpriced Monster cables and did not find any improvement over Mediabridge; so just the shortest and decent ones would do. I read one user complaining about lack of headphone jack on the system in reviews somewhere. IT EXISTS. Sony actually did one better. It put it on one of the rear speakers so that it's close to your couch. They just did a poor job of highlighting it. Not so detail oriented people might start crying it does not exist after not finding it on the main unit. Finally, I played tons of music from my iPhone using 3.5 mm to RCA connection (this unit can also play iPod/Phone via USB cable; I just had a very good quality 3.5 mm to RCA with me) and quality was good. It also has Pandora and other links that are suppose to become functional in next update. I tried Pandora via iPhone and it was great. I really can't see any problems with the system.
Bottom-line: It may not be the system for extreme music lovers who want to push sound quality to ultimate purity and can hear notes that pass through 99% of the people. It is indeed a very good composite unit to hook up with your TV (for improved sound) and watch movies on BluRay/DVD/Netflix and avoid clutter of equipments without compromising on the quality of either of the individual functions. I am not into gaming but Sony should come up with PS3-BluRay-home theater combo too. If I have to find fault, my only disappointment is the unfriendly user manual, hard to navigate Sony website (locating information before deciding to buy was pain) and Sony customer care (or lack of it). Also, its website use to describe iPhone app that would let you use your iPhone as a remote for this system. They have pulled it from promos and descriptions. I was indeed looking forward to it and I hope they revive it.
Note: Sony has acknowledged on their website (on eSupport page of this unit) that some of their units are prone to freeze upon software update. I was lucky that mine did not ask for any software update. Its shame that they are not paying to ship the units back to them for repair (as reported by other reviewer). It's enough hassle that you have to pack and ship the unit for something that is clearly their problem. Its not surprise to me as I have heard from many friends that their customer care has always sucked big time. Looks like, they are slipping. They are bit like Apple on making big money via accessories/support. However, apple is quick to suck up when they screw something. It's a tip for Sony management if they want to survive Apple's dominance in consumer electronics.
Update 07-19-10: I did both the software updates provided so far. It added Pandora and improved quality of HD movies available via Netflix streaming among many other small things. Software updates were easy. Only things one needs to be careful about is having wired internet for update, removing discs from the system and not switching the power off while update is in progress. This is a very good system that would take you movie or music experience to another level esp if you have a good TV. All my friends were blown away by its features and quality. We have used it extensively for playing BR discs, Netflix streaming, and music from Pandora, ipod/iphone and experience couldn't be better. It pains me to see that it has just 3.5 star rating, thanks to users who does not want to do more than clicking "add to cart" and switching on the power switch. Just reading the specs before buying and user manual after buying would address almost all of the the issues.


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Experience movies in full HD 1080p resolution and powerful 5.1-channel HD surround sound including wireless rear speakers with the BDV-E770W 3D Blu-ray Disc home theater system. This great system minimizes movie wait times so you can begin watching faster than ever. You can also wirelessly stream Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Slacker, YouTube and more.

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Creative Labs Sound Blaster Wireless Audio Transmitter and Receiver Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Having used a myriad of devices from the squeezboox boom and the squeezebox duet system -- as well as a few other devices that are not worth mentioning, I'll say that this is by far the easiest to use, install and operate.
Let me walk you through my set-up ... which took about 10 minutes ...
1. Unpacked the box and did away with all the plastic detritus.
2. Installed and registered the software on my laptop.
3. Plugged in the transmitter to a USB port in the back.
4. Rebooted my laptop, turned on iTunes and played a U2 album.
5. Plugged in the receiver (using a nicer set of cables) to my Sony Stereo Receiver on Aux 3. Was tempted to go optical.
6. Hit the find button on the underside of the little device and walked away.
7. 15 seconds later -- music played.
8. Stuck the batteries in the remote and turned it up.
That simple and absolutely no stumbling blocks to speak of.
Sound Quality? -- Better than I expected for this, but I wasn't looking for Mark Levinson to come out of my office and sit down on the couch with a glass of wine. The sound quality is more than adequate for casual home listening and the better your system is, the better the device will sound to you.
Responsiveness? -- I'm constantly unplugging the transmitter from my laptop and taking off somewhere, only to come back replug it back in, and find it working almost instantly and flawlessly. Windows and iTunes are not always asking questions or looking for drivers. It seems that whatever iTunes needed to do to make this thing be compatible with itself, was worked out ahead of time by Creative Labs and Apple. That's a first.
The Software -- is quite good and quite simple. You can customize it to play in zones, if that's your thing or adjust the quality of the sound and other minor changes. The software, from what I saw, doesn't appear to be a resource hog, nor has it been the culprit of crashes or bluescreens. If you don't use iTunes , you don't like to, or don't want to, this may be the only *real* problem one could face. The good thing is that it doesn't require you to depend on it as a player like other companies, or other devices do.
I can find no fault with this and I'm happy with the success of this device. I use it everyday now and I'm thoroughly pleased.
Well done ... a great idea to give as a gift for young or old as the ease of use with this is simple and the learning curve low. How about that for innovation?
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This bundle includes the Creative Labs Sound Blaster wireless audio transmitter and receiver giving you everything you need to set up a premium wireless sound system.The Creative Labs Sound Blaster for iTunes upgrades your PC or Mac to a premium wireless sound system. Simply plug into any USB port, connect an optional Creative Wireless Receiver to your powered speakers or home stereo system, and play your iTunes or other digital music wirelessly ¿ no cables or networking required. You can add Sound Blaster Wireless Audio ready speakers with built-in wireless receiver and in the future wireless headphones to play music wirelessly in multiple rooms. Plus, Sound Blaster for iTunes features Creative¿s award-winning X-Fi audio enhancement technology that improves the quality of iTunes media, MP3s and movies. Package Contents: Sound Blaster for iTunes USB Audio Transmitter, Audio cable (1/8" to stereo RCA), Installation CD, Quick Start Leaflet.The Creative Wireless Receiver plays the songs from your Creative wireless audio products across the room or around the house. The wireless system is designed for music, so there are no delays, no dropouts and no home network needed. Setup is a breeze, just plug the Creative Wireless Receiver into any powered speakers or your home theater receiver, the wireless connection is automatic. The wireless remote control lets you navigate through the music on your Notebook, PC or iPod;playing, pausing and skiping from wherever you are. And it's expandable so you can add as many Creative Wireless Receivers as you like within the 100' range.

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