Yamaha Receiver Mods

[EchoWars]

Watch this thread for:

{{{Canadians Gone Wild!!}}}

Coming soon to a forum near you...

[anatech]

Hi morfeeus,

The mods I refer to are serious component replacement parts that would make an absolute dramatic improvement in sound quality.

Okay, a few comments then .... Keep your shirt on meantime, okay?

My reciever is 2 years old not some ancient decades old archived stereo product.

The average consumer audio component reached it's peak in performance and sound quality in the late 70's and early 80's. Since then, most of it is significantly worse than those earlier sets. Never mind that the earlier sets had larger power transformers and bigger heat sinks. By comparison, your 2 year old thingy is supposed to have higher power and 5 channels on top of that. I'm shakin' in my boots .... Dude!

Cheaply $100.00. My sound card modded to me sounds like a 5k CD player.

I doubt that very strongly, but okay. If you say so.

The mods I have done to my soundcard I believe to be are the best parts available at a reasonable price that could acheive the best sound qualities possible for my sound preferences today, for the parts I required. I am looking to do the same mods for the receiver to bring up the level of performance that I've done for the PC card.

Now here we see where you have little understanding when it comes to power amplifiers.
You may be able to improve the sound, I'll bet you can. The problem is that the way these new sets are made, including the power supply and heat sinks, you are attempting to make a pig fly. The amplifier design and layout have sunk you before you even start. You're stuck with it. So you will improve the sound quality but it will never be great. Sorry.

iF ANYONE CAN HELP i WOULD LIKE TO GET MY HANDS ON THE RX-V1600 SCHEMATICS. thanks.

I have a shocking suggestion for you. Why not call Yamaha and buy the service manual? You will need it and they are not expensive. I used to know their number off by heart. (416) 298-1311. After 10 years! That's scary!! I wonder if Matt Hubbard is still the service manager, he's a decent guy.

-Chris

[suzyj]

Why not just blow your $100 on wanky interconnects, then you don't run the risk of burning yourself with your soldering iron.

I say this as someone who, like you, has modified their soundcard to improve its performance, but I did this thoughtfully, not by just whacking in some overpriced capacitors.

I'm with anatech. The performance of your amplifier is not going to be limited by distortion in a few random passives.

[AKN]

On more on the topic...

Hi morfeeus,

consider this:

A good decoupling cap with long leads will be degraded to a not so good cap, maybe not an improvement at all over the original cap.
A large coupling cap will pickup more airborne noise then a small cap due to larger surface area. Take great care where to place the cap if it not fits in the original place, definitely not directly over a digital chip.

[sam9]

I think we are back to my observations near the start of the thread. Receivers cram so much functionality in to so little space that they have to make compromises. One compromise is that in general they leave very little leeway for making mods. AVR's even more so. The manufacturers have pretty much learned how far they can push the limits. Back i the good old 70's, the same company would have been less sure how far it could (for instance in terns of power density) and tended to "over build" the product for typical consumer use.

Actually I think this is good thing so far as the average (non-audio nut) buyer goes. The functionality to price relationship is very good. It's what I would do if I were running the company. Of course, if I were running a smaller audiophile oriented company I would probably do something different, like not even offer a receiver.

[sam9]

I just had another thought. Does this unit have pre-outs. One of the more useful things you can do with a receiver especially an AVR is to use it like tuner/preamp/processor and use a separate and core capable amplifier. Audiophile processor/preamp are pretty pricey and may or may not perform better (noise floor etc) compared to the corresponding section in some receivers.

[anatech]

Hi sam9,
Most Yamaha receivers do have RCA outputs. They also use the better DSP chips in their upper models. This is one area where Yamaha is very good, but that is for surround sound. 2 channel audio is very limited in North America.

-Chris

[morfeeus]

Hey DIY'ers.

I would like to take back a few hasty words from my previous post specifically "some ancient decades old archived stereo product" Sorry for the insult and the intrusion of discussing my soundcard mods on this thread.

I understand the all the rage I've wrongfully so initiated. I have overstepped the boundiries by being so negative.

Just like you to know sum bits about myself. I am by no means knowledgable in the field of electronics. I've been a audiophile in audio equipment most my life taking pleasure in enjoying music and experiencing decades of audio products that have forth come.

My earliest product experience (ownership) being the INFINITY QLS 1 and PHASE LINEAR 500 and 4000. Next decade being Classe' DR2 25 watt class A power amp and Presence Audio Linestage 1 Then a few years later Bryston 4bst with Balanced Audio Technologies VK-3i Pre. Just like you to understand and not boast my experience with audio equipment.

Basically I would like to enhance the equipment I presently own being on another level of performance of course.

Keep up the informative posts. I'm takin it all in.

[anatech]

Hi morfeeus,
That's fair enough. I'm glad you are posting on this topic again.

Realistically, you can improve the signal stages with op amp upgrades. You may want to look at your low voltage power supplies also.

The power amplifier stages can be improved also, but don't expect fabulous performance. Yamaha MI amps are good, and some consumer separate amplifiers. Late model receivers are hampered by cost constraints.

To start, did you order the service manual from Yamaha? When I did warranty service for them, the manuals ran about $20. Not bad at all.

-Chris

[morfeeus]

Hey anatech

Still haven't got around to ordering the service manual. But will get to it. Worse yet I yet to uncover my reciever case to have a peek inside. When I do I will take some photos and post them. To see how condensed internallly it may very well be.