Yamaha RX-V685BL 7.2-Channel 4K Ultra HD AV Receiver + 2 MusicCast 20 Speakers (Black)

Bought this receiver with 2 main things in mind:1. It "works with Alexa"2. For the Dolby Atmos support.So, I setup an entire room for a good gaming and movie watching experience, cutting holes in the ceiling for the Presence Speakers (Atmos), etc. My setup is a 7.1.2.The sound quality is better than I expected and the settings possibilities are almost infinite. I have Yamaha, Technics and Klipsch speakers.My main disappointments so far are:1. You cannot have the presence (Atmos) speakers and surround back speakers going simultaneously! Just found it out today after everything is installed. I have been researching this issue for days and after a lot of digging, I got my answers not from Yamaha, but in the forums.2. The "works with Alexa" part is a joke. You have to add the Musicast skill on Alexa and that's all it does. You have very limited control of the Musicast speakers. You can't turn on the units, change inputs, etc. Nope.**** UPDATE 1: After 2 weeks of operation, the Front Right channel stopped working. Went through the troubleshooting steps, called service and they wanted to give me a discount to convince me to keep the defective unit. I returned it.**** UPDATE 2: Received a new unit. Worked great for a day. Now I get the message of "Function Not Available" when I try to choose the different sound programs.**** UPDATE 3: I was living with the problem above. Now, two years into it, the HDMI out ceased to work, making the unit useless. I did buy 4 year extended warranty, thank goodness... The return process to get it fixed is a nightmare though. Good thing I have an older but very reliable SONY receiver I can use in the meantime.VERY FRUSTRATED AND DISAPPOINTED.

Prior 16+ year experience A/V and telecomm professional so I know what I am doing from hardware to software and the infrastructure in between. Now I know this is not the best by any means but for what I wanted this seemed to be the best bang for my buck so to speak.This is on an Xbox One X with HDMI 2.1 cables hooked up to a 2018 Samsung QLED. Console to TV it can do it all, VRR (variable refresh rate), auto low latency, it can even run 1440p at 120hz, let it be known it can do the same with the original HDMI 2.0 so it is not the cables but I have tested this with all of them.The pictures provided show what my 4K options were from my One X though the reciever, the last being what actually capabilities this unit actually has on the box. The firmware was updated first thing mind you and it stays connected via hardwire to the internet, which after talking to Yamaha customer support I have tried again after resetting the receiver and trying without the newest firmware update. The pics showing all modes available minus dolby vision are straight to the TV from the Xbox One X, HDMI 2.0 AND 2.1.So far this reciever DOES NOT support all the modes it says it does, from the default mode, to auto calibration, no amount of tweaking to the actual settings on the reciever would allow for HDR10 or the modes I specifically bought my TV AND this reciever for.So I ended up using a 4K HDMI switch and it worked so I got my true uncompressed 7.1 back but this defeats the purpose of spending hundreds of dollars on a new reciever when my old one and a $40 switch do the same thing.After talking with customer service they believe the reciever to be the problem and I am going to swap it out for another and see what happens. The only reason I may keep it is to run a splitter so I can still take advantage of the ATMOS option, which keep in mind runs at a 5.1.2. You cannot run the two ceiling/presence speakers AND a 7.1, it's one or the other. Which if your wondering why I need a splitter it is because sending audio back through eARC comes through as 2.1 audio wise, which if that's what I wanted I would have just bought a soundbar. This is something the industry needs to really work on and update since eARC/ARC can be used as audio only to the reciever. Doing this uses the TV as the median instead of the reciever as I am having to do now since the reciever is a huge flop so far but I will update with what comes of this in the end.Update: got the new receiver and it did the same thing, hooked up the old one to try something and out of nowhere, same settings, HDR10 is working as well as everything but the auto low latency and VRR do not. Now before I could not turn game mode on on my TV, but now I can. I honestly don't know what happened, I'm pretty stoked about it as is Yamaha customer support, maybe the receiver needs a little time to learn the settings or the power and capabilities of the unit attached to it, I honestly can't say. But I can turn game mode on now and even though I can't select the options for VRR and auto latency on the Xbox One X the fact that I can turn game mode on the TV again shows that it's operating at high speeds visually.With all this being said I think I'm going to return this and wait a year and buy the 9.1 version next year after hopefully more kinks are worked out with HDMI 2.1

Great Receiver, and love the Music Cast 20 speakers as well once you get them connected, the problem is that was a huge headache for me (at first). So much so, that I spent 3 days tinkering with everything, including my wireless network settings to no avail, only to box everything up in frustration with the intent on sending it all back. Fortunately, once I cooled off and waited for the holiday weekday to pass I called Yamaha, and thankfully they got me working.Initially, I could only get the receiver and one speaker to add to my wireless network, but the second speaker simply would not add. I thought maybe it was a bad speaker, so I exchanged it at the store, but sure enough the new speaker also would not connect. After 3 days of trying, I finally called Yamaha, and they said it was common, and that a better method was available (though not in any manuals or guides).SO, if you are pulling your hair out trying to get your receiver and two speakers to connect for wireless rear surround sound, here is the EASY way (using a receiver and two speakers):1) HARD WIRE the receiver over Ethernet and add it to the music cast app.2) Temporarily HARD WIRE the first music cast speaker via ethernet cable and add the device in the music cast app as well (give it a specific name like “Surround Left”)3) Click on the SPEAKER in the app, and go to information > network settings (notate the IP address)4) Open a browser and go directly to the IP address of the speaker5) Click on network settings6) Click on "wired" and it should let you change it to "wireless"7) Enter the SSID, security type, and password of your wireless network, then click OK8) Disconnect the ethernet cable, & reboot the speaker (it should reconnect over wireless now)9) Now REMOVE the speaker from the music cast app10) Now that the speaker is connected wirelessly, you should be able to connect it back to the music cast app again (by holding down “connect” for 5 seconds).11) Repeat steps 2-10 with the second speaker12) Once the receiver and two speakers are added, close the music cast app completely (swipe up on iOS device)13) Re-open the app, click on the receiver, choose "music cast surround speakers" and add the two speakers.14) Once you see the “successful” message you can now enjoy wireless surround.Why the speakers have so much trouble being added wirelessly, or why Yamaha does not add the above steps in their manual is beyond me, but now that everything is connected properly it all works flawlessly!ALSO: While the advertisement of the wireless speakers says they only work with a 5.1 setup on the receiver, they DO allow adding two extra "front presence" (i.e. height) speakers, making for 5.1.2 ....... (which is basically like 7.1), FYI

As much I say is nothing until you listen to that , I am very lucky to choose that

Excellent product, does exactly what I needed it to do.

Excelente produto.

Great product. I like the apps.