Yamaha RX-V596RDS

Don't you just love the feeling you get when you arrive home and there's a letter or package waiting for you, especially when you know it's something nice? No? Oh, guess it's just me being easily pleased then. Naturally, a man with such a low entertainment threshold would be positively quivering like a jelly upon returning home to find his Yamaha RV-X596 Dolby Digital A/V amp had arrived from good old Upgrade Heaven, (for the then bargain price of £280). At last, a chance to replace his trusty Yamaha 495 Prologic amp with something special. The chance to find out if this Dolby Digital malarkey is all it’s cracked up to be. So, ...  Read the complete review

Firstly, let me get the “where did you get it?” bits out of the way. My Yamaha receiver came from www.letsbuyit.com for £259, very reasonable when you consider the Musical Images in Hounslow had a “shop-soiled” one in the window for £350! If you don’t want to risk Letsbuyit, and there seems to be a wealth of opinion why you shouldn’t at the moment, £259 is also Richer Sounds’ price (www.richersounds.co.uk). At the time of writing (10/01/01), it wasn’t in stock, but they offer to e-mail you when it is. What is it? A hi-fi tuner amplifier that doubles as a Dolby Digital/DTS surround sound decoder ...  Read the complete review