Denon 1911 vs 1912 vs 2112

[chizim]

Hi Guys,
I Have a Denon 1911 with incredible sound (when driven with the right source), the music sound quality was top on my list of priorities for an AV receiver. Problem is that it does not have a FLAC decoder, so I stopped by a local audio retailer to audition a Denon 1912 and 2112.
I cant say for sure how their sound quality compares with the 1911 (could probably evaluate this if I had them side by side). Looking through the manuals and specifications online, the 1911 appears to have the same specs as the 1912 (except the 1912 does not have HD radio, and the 1911 does not have FLAC decoding and network functions).
Also the 1912 and 2112 appear to have exactly the same specs (apart from an extra RS-232 port on the 2112, the specs sheet could have been a photocopy of each other! the 2112 costs about $100 more). Despite the similarity in their specs the 2112 appears to sound fuller than the 1912 when I auditioned it at the store.
I would rather buy the cheaper 1912 if its audio quality equals that of the 1911 I currently have. But if the 2112 has superior sound I would have to think about it.
Is there any reason why the 2112 would have superior sound to the 1912 when they both have similar specs sheet?
Is the 1911 likely to have less,same or superior audio quality to the 1912 and 2112 (they have same audio specs)?
Thanks

 

[avnetguy]

After a quick glance it looks like the 2112 has the one higher version Audyssey. Not sure if there is anything else, looks pretty much the same otherwise ... well, other than the front panel.

Steve

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

2112 has amp pre-outs

 

[avnetguy]

2112 has amp pre-outs

Doesn't look like it has full pre-outs, they did add pre-outs for Zone 2 only.

Steve

 

[sholling]

Why not save money and use an external device for FLAC? A WDTV Live for around $90 will handle 16bit FLACs (the most common) and at least one other company claims their device will play 24bit FLACs for less than $200.

 

[chizim]

Why not save money and use an external device for FLAC? A WDTV Live for around $90 will handle 16bit FLACs (the most common) and at least one other company claims their device will play 24bit FLACs for less than $200.

Wow Sholling, that an interesting approach. Does anyone know how good the output audio from this is (does the audio quality even matter? Considering a digital optical audio output is available from WDTV Live media player which I can hookup to my receiver optical input. I am assuming this optical output is a direct digital decoding of the FLAC file without any intermediate analog conversion, dose this sound right?)

I just took a look at my FLAC files, they are sampled at 44.1KHz per channel, I cant quite tell if they are 16 or 24 bit though (they were created from audio CDs, and my understanding is that audio CDs are encoded at 16bit 44.1 KHz per channel, so I shouldnt gain anything by converting them to 24bit FLAC files, is this correct) .

On the other hand, has anyone used a 24bit media player? Is there any noticeable difference?

Thanks guys

 

[sholling]

Wow Sholling, that an interesting approach. Does anyone know how good the output audio from this is (does the audio quality even matter? Considering a digital optical audio output is available from WDTV Live media player which I can hookup to my receiver optical input. I am assuming this optical output is a direct digital decoding of the FLAC file without any intermediate analog conversion, dose this sound right?)

I just took a look at my FLAC files, they are sampled at 44.1KHz per channel, I cant quite tell if they are 16 or 24 bit though (they were created from audio CDs, and my understanding is that audio CDs are encoded at 16bit 44.1 KHz per channel, so I shouldnt gain anything by converting them to 24bit FLAC files, is this correct) .

On the other hand, has anyone used a 24bit media player? Is there any noticeable difference?

Thanks guys

I used a WDTV Live in my family room for a year or two and still use one in my bedroom and they work great for playback of FLACs and DVD and Blu-Ray* rips. You just connect it to the receiver via HDMI and plug it into your network or external drives and kick back with your remote. It uses your TV for a display. It's even compatible with a Harmony remote. These are good little boxes with a spouse friendly interface. And for what it's worth the newer "plus" version (same price) is Netflix ready.

CDs are encoded as 16bit/44.1khz and unless you're buying HD-FLACs from HDTracks you probably don't have any 24bit albums. I do have a collection of 24bit audio and also wanted Blu-Ray DTS-HD and Dolby True HD support so I built a HTPC for my family room that will play pretty much anything. IMO unless you have one heck of a set of speakers and a great ear you won't hear much if any difference between 16bit and 24bit. It's a very subtle difference.

There are a couple of devices that claim 24bit FLAC support but I haven't heard one yet. Netgear has one but it's so new that I'm not willing to spend $200 on it until they have time to get the last of the bugs out. Perhaps after the the first of the year I'll spring for one for the bedroom. Anyway just be aware that some devices claim 24bit support but actually down-sample to 16bit during the decoding process. The WDTV live does that with 24bit/96khz files but chokes on 24bit/88khz.

*Note Blu-Ray requires too much bandwidth for wireless.
*WDTV Live supports DTS 5.1 and Dolby 5.1 but not DTS-HS or Dolby TrueHD.

 

[Gustavo]

Regarding 24-bit/96 kHz flac, I convert to dvd using Lplex, burn and play them on a dvd player that reads 24-bit/96kHz files.