Denon AVR-1611 7.1 Channel A/V Home Theater Multi-Source / Multi-Zone Receiver with HDMI 1.4a supporting 1080p and 3D (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)After having an unfortunate incident with a lightning strike at my home, my Denon AVR-1908 suffered irreparable damage. Within a few weeks my insurance company sent the check to replace it and the hunt for a new receiver was on.
Having owned a Denon, I was very familiar with the quality and outstanding sound their receivers can produce - but made the decision to research other brands such as Onkyo, Yamaha, Pioneer and of course the new line of Denon AV receivers. I have a 7.1 surround sound Home Theater so my future purchase had to meet that criteria. After some research I had narrowed my search down to the Denon AVR-1611 and the Onkyo TX-SR508 receivers, then visited a local electronics store to compare the two receivers in functionality and sound. After comparing the two I found that the Denon delivered a more rich, deep sound reproduction with outstanding surround sound imagery as compared to the Onkyo, at least in my opinion.
The Denon AVR-1611 offers some features that I definitely wanted, and some that I may want to utilize should I decide to upgrade my Home Theater. It offers HDMI 1.4a inputs and output for 3D movie features (still on the fence with 3D), if I decide to upgrade to a 3D capable Home Theater this receiver will accommodate this option. The rear I/O panel is extremely clean compared to older AV receivers, due to HDMI. There are 4 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output eliminating the need for multiple component inputs, this made for a much quicker and cleaner equipment setup. The various available sound formats, i.e., DTS Master, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus encoded with this receiver switch very efficiently with the source material - to date I have not had to adjust this manually. The receiver is very pleasing aesthetically, and fits in well with the rest of my components but does have some heft to it. The Denon AVR-1611 also offers ARC (audio return channel) via the HDMI output to allow for both sending and receiving an audio signal, but please note that your television must also have the ARC feature. The other plus with this receiver is the upconversion of standard definition DVD's due to the HDMI upconversion feature, althought it now sounds cliche - it truly makes my older movies look like new again with near HD resolution. The only criticism I have that prevented my awarding this receiver a perfect 5 stars is the lack of an AC Power Outlet in the back of the receiver. I found this to be a real convenience option for plugging in my JBL PB10 powered subwoofer. I wonder if this has been eliminated due to reducing the overall power draw for electronics in meeting with "GREEN TECHNOLOGY"? Regardless, I found that I missed having the outlet and wish they would incorporate it back into the design.
The owners manual can be intimidating, with its overview of all the features and functions designed in the AVR-1611 - this is where the AUDYSSEY AUTO SETUP feature shines! Denon included a specialized microphone to allow owners the convenience of letting the receiver setup your surround parameters without hours of manual work. Not only did this feature effectively set the surround sound parameters of all 7 speakers and my subwoofer, it also measured the distance from each speaker to the listening area, as well as decibel/gain setting for each individual speaker. It even determined the size of my speakers from small to large! To gauge the accuracy, I took out my tape measure and my Radio Shack sound level meter and began testing, and found the accuracy of Audyssey to be remarkable! For the novice setting up their Home Theater this feature would be invaluable.
To date I can offer no complaints, save for the missing AC power outlet. The surround sound imaging is outstanding, music CD's sound amazing, and the Denon AVR-1611 has real ease of use. It supports all of the most popular sound formats and upconverts my standard definition DVD's beautifully. I would highly recommend this receiver to anyone who is on a budget looking for an AV Receiver that offers a multitude of features and is as close to audiophile reproduction as you can get. It certainly pleases this movie buff.


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A versatile A/V surround receiver with a 7.1-channel amplifier, the Denon AVR-1611 is designed to be the centerpiece of an exciting home theater system. It supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and it includes the latest HDMI 1.4a technology, which provides for 3D pass-through capabilities to your HDTV (broadcast and Blu-ray). It also features Dolby Pro Logic IIz, a technology that adds a vertical dimension at the front for a more exciting surround sound experience. Last, but not least, the high-performance AVR-1611 includes Audyssey MultEQ, Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume for optimum tonal balance, with no volume jump due to commercial interruptions.

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Onkyo DV-SP506 1080p Upscaling Super Audio CD/DVD Audio/Video Player - Silver Review

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(More customer reviews)I was on the fence with this player, I narrowed my choices down to this Onkyo and a Pioneer Elite DV-58AV and ended up going with the Onkyo since it was lower cost and new (I could only find refurbished DV-58AV's at the time for $100 more). I'm happy to say I was not disappointed with this player. It passes DSD bitstream over HDMI straight to my Onkyo Receiver (TX-SR706) and the sound is as good as my old Sony DVP-S9000ES for SACD's, passing DSD to a my receiver was key to this though as I found that using it's internal DAC's for SACD wasn't as good as Sony ES SACD player. DVD-Audio also sounds very good when using this unit's internal DAC's using the Analog 5.1 channel out, in this case it did sound better than having it pass over HDMI like the SACD's. I actually bought this to only play SACD's & DVD-Audio primarily, which it does very well (especially at this price) so I was pleasantly surprised when I played a DVD in it, the up-conversion is done very well, it even does a better job of up-converting than my BluRay player (Sony BDP-S500) with standard DVD's. If you're looking for a great up-converting DVD player you can't go wrong, If you want to use this as a SACD player I have to say I was impressed when sending the DSD steam to the receiver, as for DVD-Audio I really don't have another player to compare it to, it sound good, not as good as it does with SACD's but much better than the CD versions of the albums. To sum up, this is a great multi-format player for the price, I think the majority of listeners & movie goers would be impressed with the quality and performance.

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Denon AVR4310CI 7.1-Channel Multi-Zone Home Theater Receiver with Networking Capability and 1080p HDMI Connectivity Review

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(More customer reviews)I got this only 2 weeks ago, so this is a preliminary report:
From my testing so far:
Pros:
1. Great sound; drastic (positive) improvement over previous Denon 1508 I had in this setup.
2. Video: The upconversion from any source to HDMI is good and works without a hassle. (The worst case testing of standard cable to 1080p doesn't look good and is more grainy than I would have liked; but standard DVD looks fantastic on my Panasonic 1080p plasma with this receiver).
3. Audussey setup: was quite easy (just took some 10 minutes) and once done, had done a good job of measuring distances and capacities of speakers I have (Martin Logan Aeons for the front, Vignette for the center, ML Grotto for the sub, but a low end polk audio for surrounds in my 5.1 setup), and correctly set the relative power etc for the speakers. I can see the difference in one of the side chairs in my listening setup.
4. On screen GUI: Great improvement over my previous Denon/Marantz etc. Again this works flawlessly, and the GUI, while it can be improved, is good enough for most people.
5. The remote: the primary remote, after you get used to it, is great. Now I could dispose of my Panasonic TV remote as well as my DVD player's remotes and just use one remote effortlessly. I also have a Harmony remote that I stopped using long time ago, and this remote is better than the harmony remote in my experience (one simple reason is that harmony remembers the state of the equipment and expects you to use only the remote always; so if you do manual change, for e.g, walk up to the TV and switch it on, harmony gets confused!). Again a great improvement over previous/lower end Denon models.
5. Network access/firmware upgrade: just having these features is a plus (BUT...I had lot of issues with this - that I am covering below)
6. Ipod direct connectivity using front USB input: great again. (I was able to connect both iphone first gen and a ipod video 5th gen as well as a ipod nano 3rd gen and use them correctly using the onscreen menu). There is an audio improvement mode that improves the compressed mp3 music ("Restorer" - has 4 modes - off or no processing, 64, 96bit and HQ - high quality?)
7. Several inputs - 6 HDMI inputs there is even a set of front inputs - hdmi, composite,USB inputs for convenience.
8. Doesn't get too hot! I tried pushing this - a higher volume on my sub-4 ohm Martin Logans and no sweat! Receiver does get hot but not too hot that you will burn your fingers! This is one big reason I bought this receiver - my experience with other brand rececivers was quite bad - at 75-90 watt/channel, these receivers trip my house fuses frequently; Denon (both my old 1508 at 75 watts and 4310 now at 130 watts) does admirably well in this regard and I have no complaints - only superlative praises for the efficiency and power handling of Denon.
Now for the CONS and the problems I encountered:
1. Poor, unfinished, mediocre web access - while it does allow you to change the source, do the setup of components, control multi zones, volume control etc using [...] (browser) access), it looks very primitive - not one that you expect in a 2000$ receiver.
2. NET/USB and other network Modes: Several bugs here - let me try a few,, but I am not finished finding them yet!
a. Doesn't recognize any NAS drives in the home network; only sees Windows media servers in the network! So to play music in a NAS drive, I have to first add it to a WMP library and then I can play that from Denon. This is more a feature request than a bug.
b. While navigating through list of songs/albums etc, there is no page up/page down keys and so going down one entry at a time and lack of search is a pain when you have thousands of songs.
c. There is a minor bug in playing media server/USB files: while the display goes to sleep after a minute or so, the album art stays in the screen in the same place - this will be bad for plasma TVs!
d. Ipod troubles: I have a first generation iphone and so when I connect that, there is a warning on iphone that says this device is not compatible and so I should put the phone in airplane mode. Say no to this screen and it continues to work normally! Not sure if it is apple's bug or denon's bug! But Denon is recognizing older ipods to current generation.
Quite a few problems I saw with NET/USB/Media server/internet radio have been solved with the firmware updates over the last month..
I want to give 4.5 stars, only because most of the problems I saw can be fixed by software updates (I hope Denon will act fast), and the rest, the most important thing for me - audio quality, video quality, power handling - are worth 6 stars.
I haven't got to testing Audussey DSX - the height and wider channel features presented by this receiver. I will update this review as I test more features...
Update: July 2010: After almost a year and several firmware upgrades later, I still haven't tested the Audissey DSX feature. But the problems I noted with media server/Net are still there - in particular, the media server is still sooooo slow, I can't really use it. In fact, my Denon is wired to the wireless router. Sharing music between my systems using wireless on Windows 7 pcs/notebooks is reasonably (much) faster but Denon is quite slow - literally takes several seconds for each key press. Internet radio, napster, usb drives etc are quite useable (no issues there).
The http screens for this receiver are still primitive - no changes there. You will still need the on-screen menus if you want to make changes. The best you can do with http access is to change the input, change volume/mute (more like a simple remote).
Ultimately, the sound quality is great and audio performance of this receiver rocks - the sole reason for my buying this receiver. In spite of all the other small issues I mentioned, the sound quality and power performance (runs quite cool for the power it handles) is one of the best I have seen at this price range.
UPDATE: 11/26/2010: With the latest firmware updates, the network access and Ipod/USB access etc seem to have improved several fold. Now access to media on my NAS box in the home network is quite snappy, and I can play a song in a couple of seconds after selecting the song.


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The new AVR-4310CI is a technological tour de force, designed for consumers wanting to network their AV system. Ethernet connectivity opens up your AV system to host of exciting capabilities like audio and jpeg photo streaming and Internet radio. Additionally, subscription music services like Rhapsody and Napster are supported. The AVR4310CI packs a punch with 7-channels of onboard amplification producing 910-watts of total power (130 per channel). The amplifiers can be assigned for 7.1 channel surround sound, or a 5.1 channel system in the 'main" room and power a pair of speakers in a second 'zone". This only scratches the surface of the AVR4310CI Multi-zone (3) / multi-source (3) capability. Enhanced power amp assign features, second and third zone programming feature allow the AVR4310 to be the hub of a sophisticated whole house system. For video connectivity, the AVR4310CI is equipped with 1080p compatible HDMI 1.3a Repeating technology, delivering both audio and video to your HDTV with single HDMI cable. This HDMI connectivity supports the latest generation surround sound formats available on Blu-ray disc, including Dolby TrueHD and DD+, dts-HD and dts-HR. Also included is Dolby Laboratories new Pro Logic IIz Matrix decoding featuring front height effects channels that expands front soundstage. The AVR4310CI boasts a number of Audyssey technologies, and is the first to offer Audyssey DXS processing. DSX (Dynamic Surround Expansion adds front height and/or width channels to expand the soundstage. Advanced Audyssey MultEQ XT analyzes a speaker systems interaction with room acoustics at 8 positions, and then delivers custom tailored correction processing to optimize clarity and tonal balance throughout the listening space. Audyssey Dynamic Volume is an automatic volume-leveling system that tracks audio dynamics to eliminate the irritating volume swings between TV shows and commercials.

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ASUS Xonar Essence ST Headphone 7.1-Channel Audio Card for Audiophiles Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought I'd try to give a layman's view of this sound-card who has dabbled a bit as Im sure you will get plenty of audiophiles talk about this card and in my past experience that has left me baffled as I didn't relate to it.
let me give you a background: I have used onboard audio and an audigy 2zs.
I can't comment on the gaming part of this card as I have not tried it. I bought this card purely for two channel audio on speakers and headphones.
I was attracted to this card as this is one of the few cards I've seen that were genuinely dedicated towards proper two channel audio. I have a Sennheisser HD600 powered by Xenos H3A and pair of Axiom M80ti's towers powered by a decent power amp and also a regular tv sound. Have also used Cambridge Megaworks 510D for many years (and loved it!) and experienced many different PC speakers like Logitech Z-5500, Klipsch promedias etc.
If you don't have a really good set of speakers or headphones, don't bother buying this card because you won't find much of a significant difference from this and any other regular decent soundcard out there.
So to make this very clear, if you have a good PC speaker system like Logitech Z-5500 or a Cambridge Soundworks Megaworks, the sound quality you will get will be decent but the upgrade over a mid-range PC soundcard like an Audigy 2 that you own will probably not be worth it to you (10%-20 in my estimation).
On the other hand, if you own a good set of headphones like a sennheisser HD600 or similar or a proper set of speakers and amplifier, the sound quality increase you are going to get is exceptional and very worth it!
I thought my audigy 2zs was worlds above the onboard sound card, Live! and Monster sound MX300 cards I owned. I also really enjoyed the sound.
So when I moved on up, here are the things I experienced. Proper soundstage. Very very detailed sound. For the first time I started to criticize not just the recording quality of musicians but also the producer's job of presenting the sound.
Old records like Diana Ross, Remastered Beatles all started sounding way better than most of the rock and rap I was listening to. Also classical music started flooring me! The reason is that despite the age of some of these recordings, they were actually recorded and produced well, but this effort only comes through on a quality card like this!
The quality of this card over an audigy 2 is honestly on a whole new level far above it. it took some time for this new sound to get used to my old ears, mostly as it didn't sound like what I expected. I expected music that had bass that stressed my headphones to have much deeper bass and recordings that sounded harsh to sound worse on this because of its revealing nature.
When I first got it, the bass felt very poor to me. It didn't boom out in my ears and it wasn't loud. The mid-range and the treble seemed way too foward from what I was used to. I turned up the volume to get more bass up and my ears just felt worse for it. But even then I started hearing all these details and even entire melodies that I had not heard before in tracks I had listened to for years.
This was either the card needed some sort of burn in or my ears had never heard good audio. My best explanation was a bit of both.
Well a few days later, my ears adjusted and then OH-WOW!!
First, the bass was exactly what was present in the recording. Also, there was NO distortion. Also every bit of the music just sounded ridiculously detailed and sharp, clear as day. Nothing was excessive, nothing was lacking.
So here we go:
Bass: very very deep extension. Also the bass is defined to a point that I didn't think was possible. For instance in songs that you thought that had synthesized bass (not from an actual instrument) turned out to had a very defined voice rather than just producing a note. It was showing the instrument that produced the note. For instance the electric bass, you could now tell the grittiness or the smoothness and the subtle texture of the effects used on it. You could tell if the guy did a very subtle double tap, picked it slightly softer than usual etc.
The drums sounded really good. You can tell overtones being produced by a deep bass which isn't localizable where you hear the deep bass but then hear the "top-end" of the point when it was plucked and you can localize that. Also, if you are bored, this card has an EQ which is very well implemented and can boost the bass if you want a party beat(however, I don't use it.)Midrange: Here is a caveat, this card did not produce distortion, because of that the sound you get used to when it gets louder and you are feeling that you are rocking out isn't quite what you get. It just gets louder but the quality is preserved in all its detail and this can get fatiguing as it does this for mid-range AND treble. So, I found myself listening to music at lower levels because at higher levels the mids and trebles stayed true without getting mushed up and fatigued me. A better way of saying it was that I listened to music at healthy volumes and enjoyed the heck out of it! This is a strange thing but it is not a fault of the sound card, my ears were just not used to it and initially listened at higher levels than I could take.
So the mid-range is really good. You get depth in the soundstage which I had not experienced before. I don't have the necessary words or the articulation to describe the many ways the soundstage is just amazing but this is honestly the BIGGEST plus of the card hands down. mid-range drums sound REALLY good. Acoustic instruments sound gorgeous. Placement is also very good. Also transient response and attack is much much better than the audigy 2.
Treble: The treble was great, never sounded too much or harsh. It was just exactly what was there on the record. Cymbals sounded fantastic. Never sounded stressed.
Dynamic range of this card is very good. However, I had to get used to the fact that when the dynamics increased this card did not produce distortion at all (even subtle) so you don't realize that the dynamics have gotten really loud until you train your ears to spot it. The distortion on my audigy and pretty much any other system including movie theaters I heard where the system reached its limit made you feel like the sound got louder. So this took some getting used to.
Headphone amplification. I tried this out for a few days. The headphone amplifier had enough juice to power my 300 ohm sennheissers to very loud volumes and retain good quality. This is saying a lot as the sennheissers are notorious for being hard to drive. The bass goes low. The highs are nice. The mid-range feels very smooth. Having said that, its output isn't quite as breathtaking as the RCA line out which maintains a much higher SNR ratio.
I felt that my Xenos 3HA headphone amplifier did a better job of placing instruments solidly in the soundstage around me. Also the dynamic range was significantly better. The difference is I believe in how tight the thing sounds, but the difference is subtle. Now my amplifier cost me about $140.00 by itself so that is saying a lot about this card that retails for $200. If you don't have a headphone amplifier and you are on a budget this card will give you much more benefit by providing both a quite nice amplifier and a terrific sound output. For the price I am not aware of any soundcard/headphone amplifier combo bought together or separately that can sound good by spending only $200. And yes, this is a proper headphone amplifier and not an afterthought. But like I said, my headphone amplifier is simply better (not by worlds, but by about 20%). If I hadn't had this amplifier before, I would have been very satisfied with the HA on the card.
Cons: Despite all the yelling about Dolby digital, this doesn't have onboard DVD or blu-ray dolby digital 5.1, TrueHD or DTS decoding capabilities. The Dolby capabilities I see it having is not very practical for my personal use. However, most of the software players you will use like PowerDVD and WinDVD have a deluxe version that can decode dolby and DTS without needing an onboard decoding.
Also this card cannot output blu-ray audio at 96Khz and instead outputs it at 48 Khz. This is not for lack of capabilities (it goes upto 192Khz) but because the only soundcard PERIOD that has the protected DRM mechanism for blu-ray is the Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3, and that's the only soundcard that can
do 96Khz DT and Dolby on the PC.
Also for recording purposes, this card has an unusually high latency which does not seem to have been fixed. I haven't actually experienced this but I've read about it from other posters. For playback this problem doesn't happen.
This card has a great warranty on paper. However, I read some bad things about Asus's customer support from newegg where people tried to return the card but they were sent it back saying that there was nothing wrong with it. Asus actually replied to them on newegg and apologized and said they would try to take care of them. I don't know how true it is but you might want to read up just to be careful.
The Asus has only stereo outputs but can be expanded to give surround sound using the H6 daughterboard, but as of the writing of this review, I haven't been able to find one.
It also comes with adapters in case your headphones don't fit.
And last and certainly the least, the digital out on the back of the card on the BACK of your PC has a red light on it. This should not bother people but I have read some reviews where this was annoying.
Things to note: another thing cool about this is that (like most soundcards) if you output this card to a...Read more›

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