Hey All,
Looking to upgrade my setup. I recently built some amps for my system and so I am using an old Denon AVR-4306 as a processor. I watched the recent video on the processors and it seems to me like they all rated about the same and that the real things that mattered was room correction ability and how well the video switching worked. I have seen some commentary on it being nice if the processor is fully differential from input to output.
Here is my situation...
I listen to 80% stereo music.
I am very comfortable using REW to try to get the room dialed in.
It would be nice to have balanced outputs, but I am not sure I necessarily need them because my runs are pretty short.
I would like to be able to support 4k video
It would be really nice if I could support some of the newer audio formats
My current setup is 5.1. I have some in-ceiling speakers for atmos, but I am not sure it is worth it since most of the content I watch is not Atmos enabled.
I basically have a Pi-Hat that runs Roon as one device (RCA out) and an Nvidia Shield (HDMI) as the second input device.
Options:
1.) buy a used Anthem AVM-60 - Seems like it would be about and check all the boxes including atmos. ($2200)
2.) Keep the denon and buy a minidsp DDRC-88a (dirac) as well as an HDMI audio extractor of some kind. ($1200ish)
3.) Buy a used Yamaha CX-5100 or CX-5200 and just mess with room correction until I get it dialed in. ($1800-$2000) (wondering if the 5100 would be better because of the distortion issues found in the 5200 review.)
4.) Buy a new Outlaw 976 and get a minidsp for room correction ($2000)
Wondering if I have hit all the good options and if there are other things I should consider. Thanks for taking the time to look and help me think through this.
As Pogre suggested, the AVR-X3600H appears to be a good choice. Or if you prefer Marantz, you can get the SR6013 for $899 or SR6014 for $1,499. They will all do the job for you and should not make any audible differences. Coming from the 4306, I am sure you won't be disappointed as you are getting much more for much less.
None of the processors mentioned so far offers differential signal path from input to output, the last Denon that offered the fully balanced design was the $7,500 (in 2008) AVP-A1HDCI. If Denon were to market another one, they would probably be listed in the $10,000 range. In fact Gene said at the time:
Review: The Denon AVP-A1HDCI AV processor is packed with the latest HD audio and HDMI connectivity and THX Ultra2 Certification. It supports 12 channels of audio and is a technological masterpiece.
www.audioholics.com
"Denon boasts the AVP-A1HDCI is the world’s ONLY fully balanced processor from input to output....."
So unless you are prepared to pay, may as well forget about "fully balanced.."