Hi Peng, and Happy New Year to you and family.
Have been reading this string with interest but am slightly confused.
I run a 5.1 system currently with a self powered subwoofer. Might upgrade to a 7.1 later to include to front height speakers).
Am looking at the Denon X4700h to update my system and want to use a 2 channel amp for the front L/R speakers. So the X4700h will just power just the Center and Surround L/R.
Can I assign the Front L/R pre-outs to the amp without the amp assign trick?
Would it be the same process if I add Front Height speakers someday?
Thanks in advance
Happy New Year to you and family too.
You can only assign Front L/R channels to pre -out using the amp assign trick. I called it "trick" because it is not really intended for disconnecting the power amp to gain performance, but for the flexibility to re-assign those two amps to the heights. Gene is the one who first discovered this feature could be used to improved SINAD of the front L/R by using it to disconnect the internal amps (not sure if he called it a "trick") when he reviewed the AVR-X3600H.
Whether you actually use the front height/or Atmos speakers or not has little to do with that, so yes to your question, except until then, once you are done with the trick you should go back to the speaker menu and set the front heights to "none".
One word on the AVR-X4700H, apparently Denon has substituted the AK4458 DAC IC with PCM5102A that has quite a bit lower specs. Denon/Marantz have been given inconsistent responses to some ASR members, mostly telling them they would not disclose the information.
The lower specs would not likely result in audibly worse performance, but if measured on the test bench, it would most certainly get poorer results, though would also likely be still better than many of the AVRs measured there on ASR.
