Engaging Yamaha's YPAO, one of the few RoomEQ DSP systems I have found to work well in my listening room, was the audio equivalent of engaging the turbos and hitting the nitro button
simultaneously. Suddenly the cloying bass in the centre disappears and Will Smith's voice leaps cleanly into focus.

Stupendous detail

The eerie voice of Sonny (heavily influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL), is calmly haunting, and each character is given a defining position in the mix. The trade off is a little less gusto and sheer bass weight at the bottom end – but nothing a couple of clicks on the sub volume doesn't sort out.

Switch to a serious HD movie with HD-audio soundtrack and the Yamaha continues to find ever more solid footing. The Golden Compass (BD) is a masterpiece of sonic detail encapsulated in a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack and the Yamaha leaves few audio stones unturned.

The mix is not overtly crash-boom-bang, but instead rich in the sort of detail that puts you in the heart of the scene; distant birdsong, the flutter of tiny wings, the echo of footsteps and an enveloping background ambience that maps out the chamber dimensions with ruler precision.

Bass Impact

The sound is still rather dense in the mid-bass region, giving plenty of thunder to explosive effects (enough to remind me my projector bracket is getting a bit loose) but never really 'breathing'.

The bear fight scene, complete with deep growling roars and thumping blows, is hugely potent, but seems cramped at the front of the room, robbing the stunning final blow of its jaw-dropping impact.

A minute later and the DSP-AX763 is again doing what it is best at; crafting the scene-defining ambience of the crumbling ice bridge, complete with ear-splitting cracks and Iorek Byrnison's (Ian McKellen's) booming voice.

Cleaner performance

Yamaha was one of the first companies to integrate a Pure Direct mode to AV amps in an effort to keep audio signals clean and buffed inside a case awash with video signals, processing, displays and power supplies – and it works a treat.

With analogue two-channel music the AX763 does a good impression of a hi-fi amplifier, although the DACS are kept fired up in case you are inputting over HDMI or SPDIF without analogue inputs. With Radiohead's The Best Of... CD the sound is warm and weighty, and suitably charged with angst-filled emotion.

By the time I got to Fake Plastic Trees I was idly wondering if an HDMI cable could be tied into an effective noose, indicating the Yamaha is getting to the soul of the music. Again, it is still a little heavier and sluggish in the mid-bass than ideal, but I guess you can't have everything for £500.

Limited appeal

The Yamaha DSP-AX763 passes muster as an effective, modern AV amplifier ready for the HD age but it's not necessarily at the top of its game.

The shortage of HDMI inputs, basic menu structure and lack of video scaling put it a little off the pace feature-wise and the heavy-weight sound will definitely suit some room and speaker combinations more than others.

My advice? Put an ear to it before your credit card.