Dear Denon owners! What made you to buy Denon AVR than Yamaha/Marantz for HT?

[swamytk]

Dear Denon owners! You may know that I am hunting for AVR for my HT 7.2 system. What made you to buy Denon AVR than Yamaha/Marantz for HT? Please share.
PS: Not sure, right place to post this thread. Moderators! Please move if not appropriate here.

 

[Love4sound]

Dear Denon owners! You may know that I am hunting for AVR for my HT 7.2 system. What made you to buy Denon AVR than Yamaha/Marantz for HT? Please share.
PS: Not sure, right place to post this thread. Moderators! Please move if not appropriate here.

Here is my observation. Majority of the dealers push Denon and marantz over yamaha. They also have only denon or marantz for demo.The main reason is the dealer margin is high for denon, Marantz over the yamaha so for profits all dealers push denon/marantz over yamaha. Coming to performance the sound signature of denon and marantz are the same. Operating denon and marantz you will feel the same as all the features and UI are the same and both use audyssey. The major difference with denon and marantz is the power amplifier. Marantz uses HDAM and claim its more audiophile quality. Also marantz has better built quality compared to denon. In performance they are same but lot of users claim that marantz sounds marginally better for music. I have heard marantz 5011,7011,6013,8012 and in denon owned 2400 and currently using 4500. I have only concentrated on movies and very well can assure you that you wont find any difference with Marantz and denon for movies. Both marantz and denon are soft, agile and gives a balanced, dynamic and neutral sound stage but yamaha feels more dynamic and muscular. So if you want subtle, crisp and refined sound stage Denon and marantz. If you want bold and muscular sound stage yamaha.

 

[swamytk]

Here is my observation. Majority of the dealers push Denon and marantz over yamaha. They also have only denon or marantz for demo.The main reason is the dealer margin is high for denon, Marantz over the yamaha so for profits all dealers push denon/marantz over yamaha. Coming to performance the sound signature of denon and marantz are the same. Operating denon and marantz you will feel the same as all the features and UI are the same and both use audyssey. The major difference with denon and marantz is the power amplifier. Marantz uses HDAM and claim its more audiophile quality. Also marantz has better built quality compared to denon. In performance they are same but lot of users claim that marantz sounds marginally better for music. I have heard marantz 5011,7011,6013,8012 and in denon owned 2400 and currently using 4500. I have only concentrated on movies and very well can assure you that you wont find any difference with Marantz and denon for movies. Both marantz and denon are soft, agile and gives a balanced, dynamic and neutral sound stage but yamaha feels more dynamic and muscular. So if you want subtle, crisp and refined sound stage Denon and marantz. If you want bold and muscular sound stage yamaha.

Thanks for insights

 

[Vinay2013]

I had Yamaha earlier although it was entry level HTIB so comparison would not be fair with Denon X2400. Here are my observation based on uses as well as auditions.

Marantz - I did not like it for movies. Too soft. For music it was good. Great build quality and aesthetically very good.
Denon - Balanced performance especially I felt dialogues are more clearer and it rules in the vocal department. Good separation. Great for movies and music both. Good looks and easy to clean.
Yamaha - Balanced performance. YPAO calibration needs tweaking. I did not find it musical although movie performance is good. Although it may be the case with every company but I feel every model of Yamaha looks almost the same and it's a dust magnet in my opinion.
Onkyo - Never used and never liked in the audition. Too much aggressive for my test. No offense to Onkyo users

 

[swamytk]

Denon - Balanced performance especially I felt dialogues are more clearer and it rules in the vocal department. Good separation. Great for movies and music both. Good looks and easy to clean.

Thanks for summarising.

Yamaha - YPAO calibration needs tweaking.

This one is very common opinion about Yamaha. Thanks for confirming.

 

[rpmahale]

To my personal opinion
MARANTZ-- More refined and detailed in mid to high frequency region but soft and polite towards lower frequencies. Good build quality with great look . Plenty of features with better I/O connectivity. Works better with most of the speakers but little monotonous with warm speakers.
DENON- Not as insightful as Marantz in mid to high frequency region but tight and punchy in low frequencies. Average build and looks with good features but limited connectivity. Work's better with warm to little bright speakers
Very good calibration system and yield good results.
YAMAHA - Muscular and powerful with good power reserve. Very good build quality and reasonably priced with great after sale support. Little neutral to bright in nature, careful matching of speakers required. No experience of calibration system
ONKYO - Aggressive and forward sounding with great power reserve. Good build quality but over size . Careful speakers selection required . More than enough features but facing realiblity issues. No experience of calibration system.
PIONEER -
Twice audition VSX series AVR. Not fully impressed , sound signature little lean. SC LX series is great as per reviews. No experience of calibration system but it is understood that individual frequency setting for speakers is not available .

 

[jr83]

While others will give you an insight into the characteristics of the sound of these brands, I can talk about the usability.
For the record, I own a Denon 1500h and a Marantz NR1509 in the same house. My brother owns a Yamaha RX-V585.

Usability:
Denon and Marantz are literally the same in terms of user interface and ease of use. The Marantz cousins always look better and sound slightly better for music - but that could be with my choice of speakers (see signature).
The Audyssey setup is intuitive and super easy to do, the Menu system is super simple to comprehend. Audyssey does take long with each position. And most importantly the four major sound modes - Movie, Music, Game, Pure - and their sub modes - Stereo, DD Sur+, DTS Neural X, Multi Ch in - are super simple to switch between. I prefer Neural X for up mixing, and Pure for stereo music.

Yamaha, on the other hand is a completely different beast. The sound modes are not as clear cut, YPAO is shorter to setup but not as good. And day to day usage is just not as intuitive as the Denon/Marantz setups.

 

[elangoas]

What made you to buy Denon AVR than Yamaha/Marantz for HT?

There are certain limitation with a room, one of which is the addition of room treatment in a living room.. Same was mine.. Call it the lack of hands-on experience (or) the know-how of acoustics, i chose an AVR with built in (top) room correction, non editable by user (novice) which can help overcome some of the issues in the room, the most critical ones being bass..Audyssey XT 32 was widely the best possible room correction feature integrated in AVR in affordable range..

So i chose to buy an AVR with XT 32 feature and pre-outs to add power amplifier at a later stage, and of-course my budget being the deciding factor of which model i could get and hence Denon x 3300..

I had Onkyo TX-NR 818, before Denon x 3300.. and that too had Audyssey XT32.. I got that AVR without knowing the capabilities of XT 32.. and i got the Denon x 3300 for the same feature now..

Tomorrow, if Harman Kardon / Pioneer / Onkyo had those features for less, i would ditch Denon.. To me, feature & price is important, brand / sound signature is secondary..

Same with features, if tomorrow YPAO (or) MCACC is better, i would choose that..

I have used / heard, Marantz / Harman Kardon / Onkyo / Denon.. There is no like (or) dislike with any brands.. I love my Onkyo TX NR 818 of all the AVR i have used so far..

 

[RajithKumar]

To put it simple, According to me ..
Onkyo - Kind of RAW and attacking sound.
Denon - Warm sound.
Marantz - Warm sound ,warm and mellowish for music.
Yamaha - Clear and crisp sound.
Anthem - Clean , refined ,neutral and powerful sound
Arcam - Clean ,refined , neutral and transparent sound.
The combo of speakers and Amp also matters.
Each brand has his own +ve and -ve .Select what you like and based on ur Budget.

 

[MaSh]

So i chose to buy an AVR with XT 32 feature and pre-outs to add power amplifier at a later stage, and of-course my budget being the deciding factor of which model i could get and hence Denon x 3300..

That's my only requirement from my next receiver. XT32. Rest all can be managed.

Have you tried Dirac or feeding REW results into a parametric EQ? I think Emotica XMC1 has that capability.

MaSh

 

[elangoas]

That's my only requirement from my next receiver. XT32. Rest all can be managed.

Great choice..

Have you tried Dirac or feeding REW results into a parametric EQ? I think Emotica XMC1 has that capability.

No experience with Dirac.. Using REW, and the user editable room correction feature will demand tools and fair understanding of acoustics before you take next steps.. Am not there yet.. Hope to make it someday..

 

[RajithKumar]

That's my only requirement from my next receiver. XT32. Rest all can be managed.

Have you tried Dirac or feeding REW results into a parametric EQ? I think Emotica XMC1 has that capability.

MaSh

XT32 is a good one and easy to use.
Yes as you mentioned Emotiva has released a preamp last year I think( don't know it's model no) which has REW integration to DIRAC ,which should be wonderful features .I think the REW filters can be uploaded to DIRAC which I feel is a scientific way of active room calibration.

 

[efernand1]

Dear Denon owners! You may know that I am hunting for AVR for my HT 7.2 system. What made you to buy Denon AVR than Yamaha/Marantz for HT? Please share.
PS: Not sure, right place to post this thread. Moderators! Please move if not appropriate here.

There are dedicated Owner threads for each brand where you have end user feedback posted....it will give you much better insights.

All brands have a variety of models....the base affordable model then the mid segment and then the top end ones....each of these models have their own pros and cons....connectivity and features...based on which we as buyers make our decision...budget also plays an important role. There are a variety of setup tools and features which will differ....it seems the more expensive AVR will adopt the best calibration tools.

IMHO......I used most of the brands of AVRs out there......Yamaha of the 90s was really good and cannot be compared to the models we get today unless it is the AVENTAGE series.....

Denon the higher models X3xx and X4xxx onwards are really good and offer lots of features......Marantz follows the music first principal and the SR series is really good over the slim NR series....

Pioneer is a bit neutral.....LX series is quite nice.....

End of the day, you will ultimately settle for the AVR that suits your budget, connectivity and feature requirements and most importantly what sounds great to your ears......ofcourse room aesthetics, placement of speakers etc matter........

After retiring my 90s Yamaha....used Harmon Kardon, Pioneer, Denon, Bose, then Marantz which perfectly fulfills my requirements for music and movies...been stuck with Marantz for the last 5/6 years juggling models between NR and SR series.......

 

[superczar]

That's my only requirement from my next receiver. XT32. Rest all can be managed.

Have you tried Dirac or feeding REW results into a parametric EQ? I think Emotica XMC1 has that capability.

MaSh

I have XT 32 on 1 setup, Anthem (ARC) on 3 (all full time production duty) and currently fooling around with DIRAC on a borrowed DDRC miniDSP as a temp test.
If you are keen on trying REW, the non-DIRAC miniDSP is your best bet - but be aware that room correction, esp on stereo is the worst rabbit hole of them all.
As for preferences, I feel ARC takes the trophy amongst the three but the assessment is rather subjective

 

[MaSh]

I have XT 32 on 1 setup, Anthem (ARC) on 3 (all full time production duty) and currently fooling around with DIRAC on a borrowed DDRC miniDSP as a temp test.
If you are keen on trying REW, the non-DIRAC miniDSP is your best bet - but be aware that room correction, esp on stereo is the worst rabbit hole of them all.
As for preferences, I feel ARC takes the trophy amongst the three but the assessment is rather subjective

Oh wow, that's great. Yes, I want to try REW with Dirac, maybe a nanoAVR DL one day. For now, I guess for most of us XT32 is the closest we can get the best room EQ. I believe Denon x3300/x3400 are the cheapest receivers with XT32.

Great choice..



No experience with Dirac.. Using REW, and the user editable room correction feature will demand tools and fair understanding of acoustics before you take next steps.. Am not there yet.. Hope to make it someday..

Yes, that's true. Do need an environment setup to get there. I am still 2 levels down. Have x3300 or an x3400 on my search list to play with XT32.

MaSh

 

[elangoas]

Have x3300 or an x3400 on my search list to play with XT32.

Right..Both these models would be inexpensive options with XT32..

 

[Amarendra]

Dear Denon owners! You may know that I am hunting for AVR for my HT 7.2 system. What made you to buy Denon AVR than Yamaha/Marantz for HT? Please share.
PS: Not sure, right place to post this thread. Moderators! Please move if not appropriate here.

What you hear in the showroom and what you will hear at home are two different things due to room size, build and acoustics used. In my case I found the Denon (2500) to be very good for movies and music- specially for movie dialogues. The Marantz SR series was a disappointment for movies and way behind dedicated stereo amps for music as well. Best of both worlds is my Pioneer LX series which creates a very large soundfield. There is an openness to the sound which makes the room disappear which makes it ideal for movies.

 

[Nitin K]

What you hear in the showroom and what you will hear at home are two different things due to room size, build and acoustics used. In my case I found the Denon (2500) to be very good for movies and music- specially for movie dialogues. The Marantz SR series was a disappointment for movies and way behind dedicated stereo amps for music as well. Best of both worlds is my Pioneer LX series which creates a very large soundfield. There is an openness to the sound which makes the room disappear which makes it ideal for movies.

I would differ in opinion here. I had the Marantz SR 8200 which in my opinion was excellent for stereo better than the Pioneer & Kenwood integrated amplifiers which we had & would sound brighter. But the Marantz with the high frequency roll off use to sound sweet & powerful with no listening fatigue. While I do agree that the SR 8200 was more suited for music than movies.
But the SR 7011 which I currently have does an excellent balance for movies & music. At the end I guess it boils down to each ones personal preferences. Some like it bright others prefer mellow sound.

 

[Amarendra]

I would differ in opinion here. I had the Marantz SR 8200 which in my opinion was excellent for stereo better than the Pioneer & Kenwood integrated amplifiers which we had & would sound brighter. But the Marantz with the high frequency roll off use to sound sweet & powerful with no listening fatigue. While I do agree that the SR 8200 was more suited for music than movies.
But the SR 7011 which I currently have does an excellent balance for movies & music. At the end I guess it boils down to each ones personal preferences. Some like it bright others prefer mellow sound.

True, there are no absolutes. That is the reason I bought my Pioneer LX 302 and the Denon 2500 without audition I had bought my Marantz with careful audition in an acoustically treated showroom after watching demo after demo !

 

[Nitin K]

True, I can see it in your signature.