Denon AVR-X4300H Zone 3 help

[chrismtb]

I'm trying to get zone 3 set up on my Denon AVR-X4300H and having some trouble. I dug through some of the big denon threads on here and haven't found my answer. With so many people buying these recently, I think this discussion might help some others.

Here's my goal:
main zone - living room with 5.2 (for now). eventually 9.2 / 5.2.4 by adding a separate amp for zone 2
zone 2 - outside with 2 speakers run off of Denon AVR amps (separate amp will be added when I go to 9.2)
zone 3 - garage with 2 speakers on their own receiver. denon pre-outs to bluetooth link to garage. I can play from my phone through this bluetooth link, so that works.

I have my AVR configured for 5.1 / zone 2/3 and zone 2 works fine (amplified). However, I can't get anything to come out of the pre-outs for zone 3. I have also tried 7.2/zone 2 and still don't get anything out of the zone 3 pre-outs.

I have been testing by plugging in headphones to the pre-outs via a RCA to headphone adapter and have not been able to hear anything through them.

Here's what I'm expecting with the 5.1/zone2/3 setting:
zone 2 through height 1 speaker posts, zone 3 through height 2 pre-outs
The manual does not make it clear whether signal is duplicated to pre-outs if an amp is assigned.

Here's what I'm expecting with the 7.1/zone2 setting:
zone 2 through height 2 speaker posts, zone 3 through height 1 pre-outs
The manual makes it clear that pre-out should work for zone 3, but does not clarify what pre-out channel to use.

A few questions:
Is plugging in headphones to the pre-out a valid test? I can't see any reason that wouldn't work.
Should digital sources work on zone 3? The specs seem to indicate so and they definitely work for zone 2.
Do the 2 configs (5.1/z2/z3 and 7.1/z2) sound valid? Are my expectations of the pre-amps correct?
Any suggestions for getting zone 3 to work through pre-outs?

 

[chrismtb]

Denon support got back to me with the following:

Thank you for contacting D+M, we value you as a D+M customer and appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance!

Zone 3 only supports analog outputs. HDMI sources cannot be passed to Zone3. Also in order to analog sources you will need to assign analog for the input assigns for the specific input you want to use.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact us again.

Thank you for contacting D+M Customer Support. Have a great day!

Thank You
D+M Group
Customer Service and Support
​

Apparently Zone 3 does not support digital sources, but I don't see that mentioned anywhere in the specs or manual.

I'll try it out tonight to see if I can get any analog sources to play out of zone 3 pre-out.

 

[everettT]

Denon support got back to me with the following:

Thank you for contacting D+M, we value you as a D+M customer and appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance!

Zone 3 only supports analog outputs. HDMI sources cannot be passed to Zone3. Also in order to analog sources you will need to assign analog for the input assigns for the specific input you want to use.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact us again.

Thank you for contacting D+M Customer Support. Have a great day!

Thank You
D+M Group
Customer Service and Support
​

Apparently Zone 3 does not support digital sources, but I don't see that mentioned anywhere in the specs or manual.

I'll try it out tonight to see if I can get any analog sources to play out of zone 3 pre-out.

Be grateful that zone 2 does, most manufacturers don't put d/a on that. Just run analog out via your sources and your good

 

[chrismtb]

Yeah, the ability to do digital in zone 2 (and I thought zone 3) was definitely a selling point for the Denon, as there are very few options at that level that do. It's unfortunate that they don't make it clearer in the specs and manual that only zone 2 supports digital. Everything in their documentation lead me to believe zone 3 did as well. It's not the end of the world, but caused some frustration.

I confirmed that zone 3 works through the pre-out with analog sources only.

If you look at the specs, it definitely seems like zone 2 and 3 have the same features:

Multi-Room Zones 3
Zone Audio Source: HDMI / Opt, Coax / Network, USB / Analog

(2ch) /

(2ch) /

/

Zone Audio Output: Speaker / Preout

/

Zone HDMI Output from HDMI Source

IP Control / RS232 Control / Web Control / App Control

/

/- /

Remote In / Out

/

DC Trigger Output2