Polo, I see you are looking for some input on the new Yamaha RXZ1. I have one as (STRABO) stated. I don't know what kind of rundown you are looking for so here goes. My current system is the Yamaha RXZ1, KLF-20 mains, KSW 200 sub, and six other Klipsch surround speakers. Since we are talking music and not surround sound I will leave these out, Pioneer Elite DV47A DVD, Music Hall MMF-7 turn table with the Eroica Goldring stylus. I do have some space limitations (have not won the lottery yet)so speaker placement is not ideal, but it is pretty good. I will start with the bad things, as the list is small. The touch screen remote is not very well though out. The "buttons" (remember touch screen)are very small, I need to use the edge of my fingernail to push some of them. The response time is slow because the remote goes into standby mode very quickly, supposedly to save batteries. STRABO said his similar Denon remote really used up batteries because it did not have this feature. This means there is about a one or two second delay before things happen. There are waaaaay to many screens to page through and about 1,000,000 options and settings, so to really figure this remote out, and set all your parameters you will spend some time. The replacement cost is also very high and we all know that remotes get lost, dropped, or broken sometimes. This one you will want to keep far out of harms way. The remote does have a nice back light feature for dark situations that works well. There are a few real buttons on the front, power, stby power, mute, volume up and down. THD is very very low. The built in phono stage is quite clean. There are enough hook ups on the back to install more pieces of equipment than any one person should own. The hook ups come in a variety of styles also, analog, digital, fiber optic, s-video, and a few others I can not think of right now. The unit is quite heavy (85lbs I think) so make sure your shelf is up to the task. After playing around, and getting things set for this unit, I am very happy with the sound. I have the tone controls set in the middle, or straight up flat. Without the sub the base is quite good, very tight. With the sub I can shake the walls, literally. The sweep tones on the Allen Parsons sound check disk are quite fun. The mids and highs are picture perfect without being overly bright. While listening to LP's (no sub)I think the reproduction is very real and lifelike. The amps are high enough in quality to point out deficiencies in other equipment, so now I need a better center channel. Anyone have a couple KLF-C7's for sale? There is enough clean power to fill most any house room to the breaking point. The RXZ1's amps are clean enough, however, that the high volumes don't get irritating or harsh, just pure, clean and LOUD as hell. Some songs are just meant to be played loud. To sum this up I would say Yamaha has way too many sound fields, the remote could use some real world usage upgrades, but overall this is a very capable unit that should make almost any listener happy. If you upgrade to this you will not be dissappointed. If you can still find a new RXV1, get that. It will provide almost equal performance at half the price. There HAS to be a few still in the box somewhere. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Good luck.
