So what are denons? They are considered to be neutral, and marantz more of a warmish in nature.
I agree room and speakers have some impact on the sound, but in my case, it's the same room, same speaker, same cables except avr.
The moment I switched my Denon to the Yamaha, I noticed an improvement of sound, the yamaha definately sounded better in lower volumes, and more balanced, that too uncalibrated.
After calibration ofcourse it made the sound even better, so in total I would say it was 5x improvement over the Denon.
It made even my crappy subwoofer sing. Now I wasn't hearing just the boomy bass but also, well tuned subwoofer which put out some sweet low end bass notes as per the music that was being played.
But then again the Denon is X2300W which is one model lower to X36000H and that too 4 year old, but I'm still doubting whether X3600H would've sound any different than X2300W, since both are Denons and this a denon which is just 1 model above it.
I saw a post on facebook where the guy just recently bought the Denon X3700H and wanted an amp that could drive his moniter audio silver 300 better than X3700H, it's quite suprising that X3700H being a 2020 can't drive the MAs.
What I've noticed looking at the various post all over the internet is that, for Denon to sound good for music is that, an external amp is crucial part, without which they fail to sound good.
I've also heard the Denon + Taga harmony towers in the retail stores, they were too harsh and lacked the quality.
Same story with my Denon X2300W, elacs were too harsh and unrefined with Denon. This guy in the store was playing a concert DvD encoded in DTS hd format.
Switching to yamaha made a big diference in sound. I can actually hear some mid bass kickin out of the Elac speakers but wirh more accuracy.
Nothing on Denon worked for me, flat being the brightest, reference again being bright and thin, L/R bypass again being dull but did improve the bass but wasn't anywhere as good as yamaha's natural or flat setting.
Switching off audyssey made my speaker sound like an AM radio.
So, alltogether Denon isn't good for people who are a critical listener for music. Therefore I suggested OP to choose Yamaha over Denon.
But the OP feels more comfortable picking the Onkyo, well even the Onkyo will sound punchier than most Denon in the same price range. I have been hearing about it a lot. Onkyo is more punchier than Denon.
So, what in the hell does Denon do then besides sounding crap?
Even my 12 year old Sony htib sounded better than Denon X2300W.
Most pribably the Sony htib playes louder was because of the 3ohm setup making it easier for the slim reciever to sound louder and punchier.
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I sold my 7 Denon AVRs this year and replaced them with Yamaha.
I switched from the $7500 Denon AVP-A1HDCI to the Yamaha CX-A5100 AVP.
I replaced the $5500 Denon AVR-5308CI with the Yamaha RX-A3080.
It's not so much about money. If I felt that one brand sounded better ABSOLUTELY than the others, I would get that one brand that absolutely sounded better.
But IMO it's the WHOLE package (what kind of sound quality we can achieve, how easily we can accomplish that setup, reliability, compatibility, and functionality) that should determine what we buy.
For people who have much better SUCCESS with Yamaha in all the above factors, they should buy Yamaha because they can get better sound quality in their systems with the way they KNOW to set up.
For example, some people know and feel more comfortable using Yamaha's EQ (Auto or PEQ Manual). So they get better SQ. Or if they don't use EQ at all, if somehow they can achieve better SQ with their Yamaha's, then they should buy Yamaha.
In addition if their Yamaha's operate 100% cooler without the use of fans, if their Yamaha's are more reliable, compatible, and functional, they should buy Yamaha's.
But if they get exactly what they want from Denon, Marantz, Sony, Pioneer, or Onkyo, then they should get those AVRs.
Here is the thing. Our experiences will grow. And our preferences may change over time. I was a huge DM fan for like 20 years. Yamaha, Sony, Pioneer, and Onkyo never crossed my mind. But over time, my experience has grown and my preference has changed. And there is no guarantee that Yamaha is the End-All for me. Only time will tell. It's a journey of a thousand miles.
I think this can happen with everyone.
