Review -> [My HT SetUp] Yamaha RX V373 + Boston Acoustics Soundware XS 5.1

[nimmagadda]

Hello,

First of all a big thanks to HifiVision forum members. This is short & brief review of my first HT SetUp

All pictures related to AVR, Speakers, Remote, Manuals, Bluray's, DVD's are attached at bottom

( I'm sorry for low quality images because pictures are taken during night time)

I have visited following HT showrooms in Hyderabad
1. Home Cinema India (DEMO room excellent)
2. USK Electronics (DEMO room good)
3. Onkyo Sight & Sound (DEMO room good)
4. Cinebels (DEMO room good)
5. Reliance Digital (DEMO room WORST)
6. AudioTeck (City - Rajahmundry, DEMO room Excellent)

Initially I Auditioned HTIB's but they were really lack of sound quality So I moved towards separaters

AVR's Auditioned : Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer, Marantz

-> Finally purchased Yamaha RX V373 (MRP Rs.24,000/-) from Local Dealer

(Each and every receiver has more or less similar features & produces similar sound quality)

Speakers Auditioned : Jamo, Boston Acoustics, JBL, Polk Audio

-> Finally purchased Boston Acoustics Soundware XS 5.1 (MRP Rs.24,000/-) from Hifimart

( Boston XS is better than Polk Audio Black Stone & JBL Cinema 300, JAMO is good but my budget is limited considering a startup system)

Cables used : 2 HDMI (DAC) + 30 Meter Speaker Cable (DAC) = Rs.6700/-

The reason why I chosen them is based on High Quality Sound @ Low Budget (Startup HT System)

My Room size is 20x12
My TV is Sony 32" LCD
My Bluray Sony BDP S190

Purchased Avatar (Bluray) and DVD's Diehard 4.0, Indiana Jones (Crystal Skull) and some telugu movies. If you are from Andhra Pradesh then telugu movies like Urumi, Simha, Adhurs are good for 5.1 DTS/Dolby effects

Installation is done by myself within 2-3 hours

Yamaha Receiver has excellent convenient features & options. I think it has more than enough features

Really Boston Rocks but I still can't found how these little speakers are able to produce a BIG SOUND. The Sub Woofer is cracking my house shacking walls. Simply what I can say is it's a pure natural sound coming from these speakers. There is NO distortion and NO noise coming from these speakers even if I kept volume to 100%

I watched Avatar(Bluray-DTS HD-MA) completely (75% volume) and felt I was in IMAX hyeah:

But don't expect rich sounds that comes from higher end systems because I auditioned JAMO THX series which sounds richer than Boston

Finally I found these things after using this HT for 30 days (these are just my opinions)

1. HT's are most likely only for Movies and NOT for Music why because of music files like mp3 contains bitrate of 320Kbps but movies with DOLBY/DTS contain 488/755 kbps and Blulray's 1550 kbps(DTS HD-MA). So larger the bit rate can give you a great sound quality

2. Bluray's & DVD's produce similar sound quality. I never seen the difference between sounds produced by DTS & DTS HD-MA. So if your TV screen size is below 50" DVD's are enough and Bluray's are recommended only if you use a BIG Projector screen since bluray's deliver 1080p content

3. Neglect inbuilt USB feature on AVR's because you can use this USB feature from DVD/Bluray players. Because you can save nearly Rs.3000 avoiding this usb feature in AVR's

Lastly thanking you one and all for your support............

 

[Rupam]

Congrats on your purchase. Good review. I have heard Yamaha is very good with music. Have you played original CDs in Bluray Player? Keep the sub under the TV.

 

[nimmagadda]

Congrats on your purchase. Good review. I have heard Yamaha is very good with music. Have you played original CDs in Bluray Player? Keep the sub under the TV.

@Rupam

Music is good but when compared to movies it's not listenable. I never played from Original CD's but I only played downloaded 320kbps mp3's. I think there might be a change in audio quality if I use Original MP3 CD's based on your post

 

[baijuxavior]

2. So if your TV screen size is below 50" DVD's are enough and Bluray's are recommended only if you use a BIG Projector screen since bluray's deliver 1080p content

I think you are speaking here about audio quality. In terms of picture quality, a blur-ray will beat dvd any day and there is no comparison.

 

[Rupam]

..., a blur-ray will bet dvd any day and there is no comparison.

Yes I second Baiju ..A blur-ray ...... has sharper sound and picture and than DVD !!! :lol:

 

[spirovious]

Congrats,I can see Boston speakers are becoming popular slowly.Thanks for review.

 

[nimmagadda]

I think you are speaking here about audio quality. In terms of picture quality, a blur-ray will beat dvd any day and there is no comparison.

@baijuxavior

Yes, in terms of picture quality bluray delivers better quality than dvd

 

[Kittu]

Pretty good setup. I feel you can give some more distance to the front left&right speakers...

PS : you are watching Balki movie on a 5.1... Gutsy ye!!!! :lol:

 

[akd]

I think you are speaking here about audio quality. In terms of picture quality, a blu-ray will beat dvd any day and there is no comparison.

beg to differ, almost all but not all, test the following and tell me whats the enhancement you get from the DVD to BD

1.Vera Cruz - Burt Lncester,Garry cooper
2.One eyed jacks - Marlon Brando
3.The Terrorists - Sean Connery
4.Sunflower - Sofia Loren

I have found just merely considering AVATAR,SAVING PRIVATE RYAN,BACK TO THE FUTURE makes a incomplete job. Nevertheless BD definitely has better prospect for crisper video and cleaner audio. But if you see the above ones you will wonder whats the use of a 35GB digital data compared to a 700MB .AVI file!!

I can tel you names of BDs (2000's films) which doesn't even have a proper menu which usually a viewer expects so that he/she can choose to see/hear different audio tracks and subs

 

[baijuxavior]

I have not watched the movies or videos you have specified. Since you are saying about 700MB files let me ask you are they BD rips? I still say a blu-ray will beat dvd in picture quality. Even a 700MB BD rip is much much better than original DVD. If something is bad with a bd, then it is obviously due to the conversion. Remember they use conversion from film for old movies.

 

[bpranay]

@Rupam

Music is good but when compared to movies it's not listenable. I never played from Original CD's but I only played downloaded 320kbps mp3's. I think there might be a change in audio quality if I use Original MP3 CD's based on your post

IMO, to enjoy music with AVRs, you need to have at least bookshelves as satellite speakers would not be able to produce the required frequencies at desired level. I got a demo of Denon1713 with Boston Acoustics XS 5.1. The scene played was from MIB3 and the speakers were producing amazing sound but when he played the CD with Sony BDP, the song Challa from JTHJ was sounding quite dull and sounding like only sub woofer and vocal frequencies were getting played.

 

[kpsharif]

thanks for review

 

[snshah]

Hi this is Gowtham Nimmagadda

First of all a big thanks to HifiVision forum members. This is short & brief review of my first HT SetUp

All pictures related to AVR, Speakers, Remote, Manuals, Bluray's, DVD's are attached at bottom

( I'm sorry for low quality images because pictures are taken during night time)

I have visited following HT showrooms in Hyderabad
1. Home Cinema India (DEMO room excellent)
2. USK Electronics (DEMO room good)
3. Onkyo Sight & Sound (DEMO room good)
4. Cinebels (DEMO room good)
5. Reliance Digital (DEMO room WORST)
6. AudioTeck (City - Rajahmundry, DEMO room Excellent)

Initially I Auditioned HTIB's but they were really lack of sound quality So I moved towards separaters

AVR's Auditioned : Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer, Marantz

-> Finally purchased Yamaha RX V373 (MRP Rs.24,000/-) from Local Dealer

(Each and every receiver has more or less similar features & produces similar sound quality)

Speakers Auditioned : Jamo, Boston Acoustics, JBL, Polk Audio

-> Finally purchased Boston Acoustics Soundware XS 5.1 (MRP Rs.24,000/-) from Hifimart

( Boston XS is better than Polk Audio Black Stone & JBL Cinema 300, JAMO is good but my budget is limited considering a startup system)

Cables used : 2 HDMI (DAC) + 30 Meter Speaker Cable (DAC) = Rs.6700/-

The reason why I chosen them is based on High Quality Sound @ Low Budget (Startup HT System)

My Room size is 20x12
My TV is Sony 32" LCD
My Bluray Sony BDP S190

Purchased Avatar (Bluray) and DVD's Diehard 4.0, Indiana Jones (Crystal Skull) and some telugu movies. If you are from Andhra Pradesh then telugu movies like Urumi, Simha, Adhurs are good for 5.1 DTS/Dolby effects

Installation is done by myself within 2-3 hours

Yamaha Receiver has excellent convenient features & options. I think it has more than enough features

Really Boston Rocks but I still can't found how these little speakers are able to produce a BIG SOUND. The Sub Woofer is cracking my house shacking walls. Simply what I can say is it's a pure natural sound coming from these speakers. There is NO distortion and NO noise coming from these speakers even if I kept volume to 100%

I watched Avatar(Bluray-DTS HD-MA) completely (75% volume) and felt I was in IMAX hyeah:

But don't expect rich sounds that comes from higher end systems because I auditioned JAMO THX series which sounds richer than Boston

Finally I found these things after using this HT for 30 days (these are just my opinions)

1. HT's are most likely only for Movies and NOT for Music why because of music files like mp3 contains bitrate of 320Kbps but movies with DOLBY/DTS contain 488/755 kbps and Blulray's 1550 kbps(DTS HD-MA). So larger the bit rate can give you a great sound quality

2. Bluray's & DVD's produce similar sound quality. I never seen the difference between sounds produced by DTS & DTS HD-MA. So if your TV screen size is below 50" DVD's are enough and Bluray's are recommended only if you use a BIG Projector screen since bluray's deliver 1080p content

3. Neglect inbuilt USB feature on AVR's because you can use this USB feature from DVD/Bluray players. Because you can save nearly Rs.3000 avoiding this usb feature in AVR's

Lastly thanking you one and all for your support............

Hi,
I have recently bought RX-V373 and NS-P40. Just wanted to know about your experience with this receiver.

Have you calibrated sound using YPAO or manually?

Your help is much needed here.

 

[nimmagadda]

Hi,
I have recently bought RX-V373 and NS-P40. Just wanted to know about your experience with this receiver.

Have you calibrated sound using YPAO or manually?

Your help is much needed here.

@snshah

RX V373 is good startup receiver. You can truly enjoy a great quality sound

Both RX V373 & RX V371 are same instead of RX V373 has
1. YPAO
2. USB input

My recommendation is to buy RV V371 because I purchased RX V373 receiver over RX V371 only looking USB input but I never used this option and also RX V371 can be easily configured with YPAO manually

Buyer can save Rs.6000 if purchased RX V371 because both are same except USB input

Thanks!

 

[snshah]

Hey @nimmagadda, I really appreciate your feedback and detailed explanation. I have little hard luck in getting your feedback about this. I purchased RX-v373 just a week ago and looking for help.

Do I setup using YPAO or manual is better option? What do you suggest?

 

[nimmagadda]

Hey @nimmagadda, I really appreciate your feedback and detailed explanation. I have little hard luck in getting your feedback about this. I purchased RX-v373 just a week ago and looking for help.

Do I setup using YPAO or manual is better option? What do you suggest?

@snshah

Setup YPAO

 

[snshah]

thanks buddy. Is there any else settings to do in receiver settings which can enhance overall experience?

 

[bpranay]

thanks buddy. Is there any else settings to do in receiver settings which can enhance overall experience?

When listening to Music, keep the Enhancer on. Also do you have sub,centre and satellites?

You can even manually do the equalizer settings in GEQ.

If you are having specific problem then do let us know.

 

[snshah]

@bpranay
thanks for suggestion. Yes, I have NS-P40 speaker set.

 

[shibashis]

@snshah, I have a 371 and music do sound good with a my Sonodyne 1501 bookshelves. However the source is important. In my case I have connected my Airport Express to one of the audio inputs and I stream to it from my iPod touch. My desktop has a Asus Xonar DX card, and it is connected to the AVR via an bandridge optical toslink cable for DTS when watching movies. When listening to music, either from the iPod or the desktop I keep the AVR in stereo mode. In the enhancer turned on in most cases, in my opinion music sounds the best in 2 channel stereo, unless it is a true 5.1 recording.
The source is important because a moderate quality DAC does magic to the final SQ. The same songs sound dull and devoid of life when played through my laptop's onboard sound.