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Covenant
28-12-2016, 10:17
I thought I might post a mini review of this AV receiver whilst it still has some novelty value!
Considerably smaller and lighter than the battleship Yamaha receiver that it replaces, the Denon has all the connections you need including 8 HDMI sockets, one fitted to the front. Component and optical connections are also provided but the speaker terminals are designed for bare wire and not banana plugs as I read in a review.
Built quality is fine except for the remote which feels very light and flimsy. Will it survive being dropped repeatedly on a hard floor? I doubt it.
The Denon scores full marks for ease of set up with a logical menu on screen guiding you through an the connections required, a neat touch is that the speaker terminals are not live until the set up is complete. A cardboard stand is provided for the microphone, the Audyssey calibration needs 8 mike positions to be tested.
The first thing that struck me after set up was the standard and HD picture quality. I am not sure if this is the amp processing or the free QED HDMI cable that came with the amp but it is noticeably improved. Sound quality is also better with a bit more life to effects. The main left and right speakers contribute more, probably due to the better calibration.
Chromecast connects easily with an HDMI socket labelled Media Streamer. Internet radio is all there but not the highest quality streams, although I have barely tried this yet.
AV gear needs to be user friendly as it gets used by the everyone and in this regard it is miles ahead of the Yamaha, which, in fairness was bought when the HDMI protocols were in their infancy. The Yamaha never liked talking to the TV.
In terms of quality it scores, IMHO, 95%-let down only by the remote. Value wise at £399 it is absurdly cheap.
Recommended.