[stevez11]

Hello I'm new here and not nearly as smart as the rest of you when it comes to home theater. I was in the market for a new avr to replace my Onkyo 787 which is really out dated. I went to my local home theater dealer to purchase a Denon 3808ci or a Yamaha 3900 avr. What I left with was a Yamaha RX-Z11 for an extra 900.00 dollars. I did not know to much about this unit except this was a good price.
Any thoughts or comments on this avr that maybe helpful to me are welcome. This unit weighs a ton and the instruction booklet is a 176 pages all in english. I was really hoping the book was quatered into at least four different languages.
I have it hooked up and it sounds great playing through my Energy RC speakers. I was looking for any other owners of this unit that come share some feedback, tips or tricks.

 

[nova]

Hi Steve,
Welcome to the Shack.
I do not have the Yamaha RX-Z11 but have heard it is a very nice receiver, especially if you picked it up for around $2000 - $2500 range as you indicated (that's about half price). Congrats on a great deal and an excellent receiver.

 

[tonyvdb]

Yes I agree, Welcome aboard Steve.

The Z11 is a fantastic receiver, You wont be disappointed.

 

[thewire]

I was at the store picking up some new headphones today and I was walking by the receivers to have a look and I stoped right in front of one of the Yamaha models. I think it was one step or two lower than the model you have. It had a certain look at style about it that said flagship. Then I looked at the price tag. :doh: You got a a real fair price I would say. I have heard also that Yamaha does make a good receiver.

 

[thxgoon]

The Z11 is a fantastic receiver. Don't be afraid to push buttons, I always thought that the GUI on the Z9 was one of the most intuitive I'd seen.

 

[salvasol]

Congratulations in your purchase :T

I don't own the Z11 ...but I do own a RXV2700, I'm happy with it.

If you need help, just post your question and I'm sure somebody will gladly help you ...:yes:

 

[stevez11]

Thanks to all. You made me even more excited about my purchase then I was to begin with.
I have run two of the three setups so far for the speakers. It nailed the speaker level of all seven and the sub. Checked the setting with a spl meter but for some reason it sets them all at 78 instead of 75
I left the setting at 78 since they were all even. It missed the speaker distance on two speakers. The left front and right surround by less then 1.5 feet. I thought this was pretty good since I used the setup at seven different seatting locations. I changed those two settings to match my seat.
I could not wait any longer to test the surround sound after setting up the speaker levels and distance. So I put in Master and Commander BD set the reciever to THX ultra 2 and got blown away by the cannon fire. I thought my room was coming apart:hsd: My room is 24x26
So far so good but one thing I do not like about this unit is the remote. It is just plain lousy slow to respond if it responds at all on first try. It also looks very cheap. Thanks again to all and if I can be any help to anyone let me know.

 

[nova]

Yeah, most all remotes that come with equipment are pretty lame. I highly recommend Harmony remotes :T. Much better than 98% (arbitrary number I pulled out of the air :bigsmile of the remotes supplied with TV's, receivers, DVD's etc.

 

[tonyvdb]

The remote controls that come with the Onkyo 805 and up are very well made and even light up. I don't know why more companies design a better remote.
I agree that the Harmony lineup of remote's are a great deal. However they need some time spent on them if you want them to control everything.

 

[salvasol]

... Checked the setting with a spl meter but for some reason it sets them all at 78 instead of 75
I left the setting at 78 since they were all even. ...

You did it right ...if they're even, Why bother changing them :yes:

I got the same experience with mine (RXV 2700) ...after I added an external amp, I did the autocalibration, when I checked with the SPL meter using the reference master volume @ zero, the reading was 80dbs :unbelievable: ... but all speakers were at the same level.

What I did (because I have six memories on the AVR for different places) was, I changed the reference master volume to -7.5 dbs on all memories; so if I change from one memory to another ...there's not a big change on the volume going from one to another ...:whew:

 

[surveyor]

It's a benchmark AVR!