Follow up to My Review of the "Yamaha RX-V6A"

Well I still stand by my review of the Yamaha RX-V6A from my review of the Yamaha RX-V6A. I just have a little more information about the unit now that I've played around with it for about a month now. All of my previous mentions are still pretty accurate about the unit but now I know a little more about it.

Yes the unit is amazing with sound. The glorious sound that comes out of it makes me forget about a lot of the flaws that this unit has. That is until something happens to it because of the faulty software on the unit.

I did find out that I somehow obtained the unit very early. This is what I heard from the customer service rep that I was talking to the phone to when I was trying to figure out if I had the right firmware. Apparently I wasn't supposed to have the system this early in its existence but then why would retailers have it for sale then?

Needless to say I had the right firmware because it's the latest thing that's out. My complaint was the same complaint that I was making in my review. I asked them why was I able to get HDR when I'm watching movies but I wasn't able to obtain HDR when I was playing games. The representative confirmed that the Yamaha RX-V6A does not currently support HDR in gameplay. The firmware upgrade is scheduled for April 2021. Oh my goodness, I was both relieved that it wasn't me screwing up and furious at the same time.

I will have to wait until April 2021 until this unit will be running to its full potential! That means I bought this unit 6 months too early but then I'm kind of future proofing myself because I know it's coming and I already have the PlayStation 5. So really, I can play with the system hooked directly to the TV with eARC connected to the unit for 7.1 surround. So I'm still okay.

You have to ask the question if this is what you'll be doing for yourself? It's okay for me for now but what happens when I get the Xbox Series X? I'll need 2 HDMI 2.1 ports on my TV when I only have 1! That's why I wanted this receiver in the first place. This is going to be my HDMI switch. So far so good I guess since I can wait another 6 months to get an Xbox.

Still there are a few more lingering issues that I had found out while playing around with it for a month. I noticed that once you have the PlayStation 5 hooked up to it your PS5 basically becomes the set top box for all your entertainment needs. You turn on the PS5 and everything turns on automatically and gives it priority. This is great it even automatically updates the name of the HDMI port to PlayStation 5 which is pretty cool.

The problem is that if you don't want to turn on the PS5 and you just want to watch TV on it's own the unit has issues identifying itself to act as speakers for the TV. In order to fix this problem you will have to switch your TV to the eARC HDMI input on your TV so that the RX-V6A resets itself to read itself. Then you will be able to switch back to home on the TV or whatever HDMI unit it is you're trying to view on the TV. This will reset it back to speakers for the TV. You will have to do this every single time you turn on the TV! This is the most annoying thing ever! Yamaha please fix this. It's such an annoyance!

Another lingering issue is if the unit can seem to shut off itself if there's silence on the HDMI output for a while. So say you're on your HDMI is hooked up to the computer and there's no sound coming out because you're typing or something. The receiver will just shut off. This is really annoying because once you turn it back on you'll have to do that whole sequence of events that I just explained to get the unit to read as a TV speaker again.

Then there's the issue of Bluetooth with your phone. I love this feature by the way but it's also incredibly faulty. Sometimes I like to listen to music from my phone from the receiver for obvious reasons. It's actually really easy to set up. You quickly find the receiver on your Bluetooth and it just works! The problem is that after a certain amount of time the receiver will just shut off on you! You've got to be kidding me! How can this just shut off and kill the mood like that? Incredibly annoying.

Last but not least there's the issue of the receiver constantly turning on and off by itself throughout the day. I think it may be trying to reset itself to match the HDMI setting for the PS5 through the TV but it doesn't have to turn on and off to do this does it? I'll just hear this loud clicking from the unit and I know it's turning on and off again.

It's a loud click and I'm sure all Yamaha receiver owners know this sound. It does this every time you go from one source to another. It does makes this sound a lot particularly when you're watching a 4K Movie. It'll turn on and off and switch back and forth. It's troublesome but I had this same issue even with older Yamaha receivers. I guess they don't think consumers care about this loud clicking noise that it makes.

Overall, I'm still somewhat happy with my purchase knowing that there will be an update to the firmware but April 2021? Waiting 5 months for an update is incredibly long and for those that are looking for a receiver. I still think it's best bang for your buck as of right now because it's future proofing. Just be warned it will not do what you want it to do if you're using it for gaming. You'll also notice all of the crazy glitches with the system. I hope Yamaha is able to fix a lot of these issues so that this unit will sell some more.