virtual cinema silent cinema which by the the way they both work!!! clean high power user friendly Of course the DSP's radio channels come in clear and easy Cinema DSP This receiver does not give off any heat low distortion rate (0.06%)

the only weekness i have is the remote but i am going to buy a learning remote to fix that problem.

Man!! this receiver rocks!!!!!! I just bought the receiver on may 2, 2003 and i am just blown away from the sound it produces!!! Now on this very review, i read a review by bogel and he said the kenwood vr-6050 is a better receiver at higher volume. what in the hell is he talking about?!?! This guy obviously does not know what he is talking about. before i had the htr-5540, i own the kenwood vr-6050 and the volume on the kenwood sucked big time!!! true the kenwood has more power but i sure as hell did not hear it. but anybody who is looking to buy a receiver less than $300, than they can't go wrong with this receiver or two others i can recommend (Denon AVR-1603 or AVR 1803) or the onkyo reciever that sells for $299. now the receivers i just mention are awesome receivers, but if you only have just two speakers and you want to do surround sound, the htr-5540 has two special features none of the receivers in the 300 dollar price range has. they are called virtual cinema and silent cinema. vitural cinema lets you do 5.1 dolby digital and dts through the center and front left and right speakers!! the virtual cinema even lets you do surround sound through the front left and right speakers!!!!!! and silent cinema is the same thing as the virtual cinema but instead of doing 5.1 dolby digital and 5.1 dts surround through the speakers, it will let you do the 5.1 dolby digital and 5.1 dts surround through the ordinary hedphones with the bass!!!!!!! also the virtual and silent cinema is so convincing i had to make sure i turn off the center channel and surround speakers when i was doing virtual cinema. even though i was running two speakers, it sounded like all the speakers was on. i did a test between the regular surround and virtual cinema and there is no difference in the sound!! same test applies to the silent cinema. again no difference in the sound!!!!!!!! and one more cool feature all yamaha receivers have as well as the virtual and silent cinema, is cinema dsp. this will let you mix 5.1 dolby digital with the DSP modes and 5.1 DTS with the DSP modes the reciever offer. as well as mixing dolby pro logic with dsp. no other receiver offers that feature no even the kenwood lets you mix their dsp modes with dolby digital or dts!! last but not least is the heat test. when i played the kenwood vr-6050 for over 10 hours with the receiver having great ventilation, the receiver was very hot!! I did the same test in the same spot the vr-6050 was with the same ventilation in the same 10 hour test, and the receiver did not break a sweat!!! during that time period i placed my hand on the unit and it did not feel like the receiver was on!!! it was that cold!! everybody else said on the review that the htr-5540 heats up, well if you have stuff on top of it that is blocking the vents, well of course it is going to heat up! over the past 4 years of selling home theater equipment and having previously own a yamaha, i know for a fact these receivers do not get hot! again if you are looking for an receiver with a tight budget, then i will recommend the htr-5540 to anybody!!

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