The Short Form

YAMAHA.COM/YEC / 800-492-6242 / $550 / 17.125 x 6.75 x 16.5 IN / 27.75 LBS

Plus

•Well-integrated XM Radio option. •Fine performance with broad selection of surround modes. •Simple, easy-to-use remote control.

Minus

•Only two component-video inputs. •No DVI or HDMI connectors.

Key Features

•95 watts x 7 channels •Automatic setup •Video upconversion (composite to S-video and S-video to component) •14 proprietary DSP surround modes, including virtual surround and headphone surround •9 selectable crossover frequencies, 40 to 200 Hz (common to all channels set to "small") •Back surround speaker outputs reassignable to Yamaha-specific Presence (front surround) outputs •Zone 2 audio capability (can reassign Back Surround/Presence speaker outputs to Zone 2) •8-component preprogrammed system remote

Test Bench

The Yamaha delivered plenty of power at its 8-ohm speaker setting, well exceeding its rating with two-channels driven. A modest and unusual error was detected in the performance of the digital-to-analog converter with uncompressed stereo signals from CDs, but this didn't seem to produce any audible effects in music listening. Full lab results

During my test, XM hosted a Coldplay session on XM Live (Channel 200) as part of its "Artists Confidential" series. The up-close, in-studio sound provided a good baseline for sampling the RX-V657's music-surround modes. After a bit of fiddling among user-adjustable parameters like Liveness and Room Size, I found that the Bottom Line mode (named after the famous, recently closed New York City club) produced a very convincing and musical in-the-room effect that was still reasonably natural-sounding on the interview parts of the program - no small feat.

Close listening to XM's fairly deep roster of jazz channels and its depressingly thin classical choices demonstrated that XM can, in fact, sound very good indeed, given material that doesn't obviously expose the vulnerabilities of its data-compression scheme (MP3 and its cousins suffer the same). A performance of Copland's Rodeo on Channel 110 sounded big, clear, and sharply defined in both plain stereo and DPL IIx Music. Aside from a very occasional "swirly" texture on soft strings and a slightly "flat" tonality to cymbal crashes, I was hard pressed to tell XM from CD here, though with things like solo piano the difference was more obvious.

MOVIE PERFORMANCE Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow's soundtrack is fast becoming a favorite. If you love full-range, room-zooming effects, hyper-active surround channels, and lots of big-bass moments, and don't mind a little silliness (okay - a lot of silliness), check it out.

The Yamaha acquitted itself with honors on this stiff test, never exposing any shortage of power in 6.1-channel playback even with my moderately watt-hungry speakers. It preserved excellent dynamic impact, clarity, and depth in even the busiest scenes, such as the attack of the flappy things in Chapter 6. The RX-V657 also supplies several surround alternatives for movie sound. Its Movie Theater-Adventure setting, suitably adjusted, produced a more spacious, widely spread ambience than straight Dolby Digital during a scene in an echoey giant hanger, though at the cost of a slight twanginess that was occasionally audible.

OPERATION Yamaha supplies a basic but well-thought-out full-system remote control. It requires some switching back and forth between modes (for instance, AMP and DVD) in everyday use, but its logical groupings of keys in different colors and shapes is intuitive and pleasant to use. I also liked the straightforward onscreen menus - too bad they're supplied in only standard-def (480i) video. When watching high-def sources or progressive-scan DVD (480p format), you have to wait for your TV to resync every time you call up or close an onscreen menu.

BOTTOM LINE Take away XM, and what you have here is a very capable, nicely balanced, midprice A/V receiver with plenty of power and a superb selection of excellent-sounding surround options. But why take it away? Sure, you could buy an XM portable for little more than the cost of the XM Connect & Play add-on, but you'll sacrifice the integrated display and control that makes Yamaha's solution so elegant. The RX-V657's XM capability doesn't appear to add much to the price, so consider it the icing on an already very tasty cake.