Yamaha HTib45 / HTR-5540RDS amp

[Rob Russell]

Afternoon guys

Anyone bought the Yam HTiB45 kit? Any feedback yet?

ANy ideas what the HTR-5540RDS amp is? I can't find any details on it as a seperate item (other than part of the HTiB45 package). I assume its a rebadged version of another amp but which one?

Cheers

Rob

 

[electrolyte]

Don't have a HTiB but am thinking of buying one. Do a search on HTiB and you will get some opinions on the kit.

Here is on link which clears up your amp question:

------> here <-------

 

[steev]

I've just ordered the HTiB. It arrived at home this morning, so I'll be able to report soon.

The receiver is apparently the same as the 430, but has a different remote. See

http://www.avland.co.uk/yamaha/rxv430/index.htm

I saw somewhere else selling the 5540 on it's own.

Nice to see that the 430 got an award in What Hi-fi Awards issue.

--
Steve

 

[steev]

Couldn't wait to get home last night to look at my new toy.

Huge box! All neatly packed.

The receiver is a big unit. Full depth and big feet. Feels very solid. It seems to have all the connections you could want as long as you can live with composite video. That will do for the cable and video. The DVD goes straight to the TV.

The speakers are neat little units. Not too light. They come with assorted brackets for stand or wall mounting. For now mine are sitting in convenient places around the room with the centre Blu-tacked on top of the TV. The sub is small enough to hide behind the TV. It's not the prettiest thing.

It comes with 5 lengths of cable, labelled at both ends, with the ends stripped. The rears are fairly long, but not quite long enough for me. I ended up having to run one around each side of the room to reach the back corners in our 4m square lounge.

It took me about an hour to get everything wired up. I didn't have much time to test, but we watched some of Star Trek 6 on Sky and a quick blast on Toy Story 2. The bass on the start of TS2 was quite powerful. Generally sounded good, but couldn't turn it up as the kids were in bed.

I need to have a good read of the manuals and get everything set up properly.

Overall I'm happy so far and looking forward to trying more material.

Hope this helps

--
Steve

 

[Rob Russell]

Steve

Thanks for this info.

Please let me know how you get on with the set up once you have tested it fully.

I am going to order the same. Where did you get it from? How Much? (if you dont mind me asking)

Cheers

Rob

 

[steev]

I bought from http://www.Unbeatable.co.uk for £321. I think I saw afterwards that someone paid a few quid less, but I thought that was reasonable. Ordered last Thursday and delivered yesterday.

In my case it was a way of getting something now with the possibility of upgrades later. There's cheaper systems, but they all involve compromises.

--
Steve

 

[Rob Russell]

Steve

I agree - I have spent a bit of time looking around and have found that the other systems seem to lack something or other (or are to expensive).

Let me know how you get on tonight with it.

Cheers

Rob

 

[Rob Russell]

Steve

How did you get on with the Yam kit? I have ordered one as well now so i hope its going ok!

Rob

 

[steev]

Rob,

So far, so good. Due to having small children I don't much opportunity to turn it up, but I had a quick blast of Shrek DTS yesterday. Sounded good. There's lots of programs to play with, but although they sound different, it's difficult to say which is best.

Mostly it's just been playing from the TV, but that sounds good using DPLII. I don't think the sub is coming into play much there.

I went through months of looking before I finally bought, but I think I did okay. I considered some of the cheap powered speaker systems, but thought I would outgrow that too quickly. I had to go by reviews and opinions as it's not easy to get a listen to systems like this in shops. I've heard a friend's system with a Marantz 4200 and B&W speakers. That sounded very good, but cost far more than I spent.

One day I may upgrade, but this will do for now.

--
Steve

 

[Idonex]

I got this kit a while back, and here are my thoughts i posted back then on a different forum, hope they help

"1) Amp - The amp is HUGE. But i guess most AV Amps are. Lots of connections and the speakers and things are easy peasy to setup. It has loads of presets and does all the DTS/DD/DPLII etc switching automatically. The tuner is good and you can setup non DD source inputs (like CDs, radio etc) to use the amps DSP effects. So you can listen to CDs out of all 5.1 channels for example. Also its VERY loud! Even with the volume on 2 bars out of like 10 it was shaking the room at times hehe.

2) Speakers - The sub is monstrous (active too) and seems very good. Goes very loud but can also seem to handle subtle effects and punchy bass quite well. The fronts and rears are the same model as each other and do okish. All the speakers do great for film sounds..but..They sound pretty bad for proper music (ie CDs). My Suede CDs sounded pretty damn ropey coming out of just the fronts and centre speakers. It would be safe to say that musically my JBL Control 1Gs destroy these speakers, but then are you supposed to use a home cinema speaker set for music?

So far i am very pleased with it and the Depth Charges in Das Boot sounded truly amazing. My sister was watching it with me and was sitting there very impressed too.

I've spent some time with it and have watched the following films, T2:SE (DTS), Gladiator (DTS), Das Boot (DD 5.1), Moulin Rouge (DTS, erm my sister made me put it on!) and have played Halo (DD5.1), PGR (DD5.1) and Rogue Squadron (DPLII).

All in all it's pretty damn impressive. All of those movies sound amazing. I thought overall that Das Boot was the best sounding. Although the others were great, Das Boot had the most jump in your seat moments. Especially the depth charges and when the U96 is sinking and the bolts are flying out all over the place.

Whats i also like about the amp is the number of inputs. I have the DVD player on the Optical In, the TV in DPL/II mode plugged into the Coaxial Digital In and then the GC and video into normal analogue inputs using DPL/II. Also as it's a proper seperates system, once you want to upgrade the speakers you can, as well as using the amp itself in a proper setup.

Overall it's amazing for films and consoles and the whole package is very impressive. The powered sub is monstrous and the speakers have a lot of punch for their size.

The only down side is the speakers aren't really suitable for music (as in CDs etc) so i'll b keeping my Arcam amp and JBL Control 1Gs for that purpose."

Since then my opinion is pretty much the same. Very good value for money and excellent performance with DVDs, TV and gaming. The amp itself is actually very good, and sounded almost as good as my Arcam when i hooked up the Controls and listened to a few CDs, it's just the speakers which i wouldn't recommend for music, but they do a brilliant job for the tasks listed above.

I guess what what you need in a home theatre system is impact over technical accuracy anyway?

 

[Rob Russell]

Steve

This may be a silly question but how did you connect the DVD to the AMP. I tried digi Coax but can only fix it into the CD input, i.e cannot get suuround sound. I am I being a bit thick? Does it have to be an Optical connection?

Cheers

Rob

 

[steev]

Rob

My DVD is wired via half a phono cable into the coaxial input. You have to go through the setup and assign that input to DVD. The optical can be assigned to something else e.g. CD.

I may buy a better cable for that job some time, but this crappy one works for now. I've seen some long discussions here on the value of expensive digital cables.

I'm still trying to suss out the surround programs. Some definitely sound better than others, but it's trial and error.

I also intend to make use of the video switching some time, but that will wait until all the AV equipment is put into a cabinet. I'll have to invest in SCART->phono cables. Currently I have a little switch box for this.

Let me know how you get on.

--
Steve

 

[Spacecowboy]

Originally posted by Idonex


I've spent some time with it and have watched the following films, T2:SE (DTS), Gladiator (DTS), Das Boot (DD 5.1), Moulin Rouge (DTS, erm my sister made me put it on!) and have played Halo (DD5.1), PGR (DD5.1) and Rogue Squadron (DPLII).

Whats i also like about the amp is the number of inputs. I have the DVD player on the Optical In, the TV in DPL/II mode plugged into the Coaxial Digital In and then the GC and video into normal analogue inputs using DPL/II. Also as it's a proper seperates system, once you want to upgrade the speakers you can, as well as using the amp itself in a proper setup.

Can you tell me how many digital inputs it has? I've tried to find out and it seems there is 1 Optical and 1 Coaxial.

Where do you have your Xbox plugged into?
And how good did Halo sound?