Denon AVR-X7200WA Atmos/DTS:X AV Receiver Review

[PENG]

People should not expect to pay cost except for special circumstances such as discontinued old stock/demo etc. They can certainly try not to pay full margin though.

 

[surveyor]

The AVR-X7200WA states that it has separate 32 Bit Dacs for all audio channels. But it has 7 each stereo DACs for the 7 main channels. The Denon AVR 4520 ci is the same. There are not separate DACs for the other 2 of the 9 amplified channels, let alone separate DACs for the 13 for the AVR-X7200WA or the 11 for the AVR 4200ci. I'm sure of that. So what's up with the way they are advertised?

 

[Cos]

Found a pretty comprehensive review on the unit here:

http://www.audioholics.com/combo-pa...ound-receivers/denon-avr-x7200w-receiver/2977

 

[fasslars007]

I'm a current owner of a x7200w. Where have you got the information on the free hardware upgrade?

 

[Bizarro_Stormy]

I'm a current owner of a x7200w. Where have you got the information on the free hardware upgrade?

This may help...

http://firmware.denon.eu/index.php

 

[fasslars007]

#Bizarro_Stormy

Thank you for the link, but that is for the firmwareupdatepage. Not hardware, as the reviewer writes.

The hardwareupgrade is a HDMI 2.0 printboard with full HDCP 2.2 support. As far as I know the upgrade is, sadly enough, not free of charge.

(I apologize for my english)

 

[PENG]

#Bizarro_Stormy

Thank you for the link, but that is for the firmwareupdatepage. Not hardware, as the reviewer writes.

The hardwareupgrade is a HDMI 2.0 printboard with full HDCP 2.2 support. As far as I know the upgrade is, sadly enough, not free of charge.

(I apologize for my english)

That's the price to pay for being first, unfortunately. Instead of paying for the upgrade and having to ship it back and risk scratches in the process, I would just buy a dual HDMI HDCP 2.2 media player. Even then, I would wait until there is a real need for 2.2 and by that time you may be ready for upgrading to the 8200 already.

 

[JKR1963]

For what it's worth, during my review period, I really pushed the X7200 hard. The top wasn't just warm, it got a bit hot. There was quite a bit of heat dissipation that I could feel. Nevertheless, I never once heard or noticed the fans engage. Now, I had the Denon in a pro rack. The APC metal rack has top vents and is front and rear vented. Therefore, air flow was never an issue in my setup.

Theo, I was wondering how you liked the Beale Street in ceilings. I am interested in the IC6-MB or the IC6-BB (that you were using) as they seem the most likely candidates for my 7200 ceiling speakers. I will just be using Atmos and DTSX and not Auro as my ceiling is only a little over 7.5 feet (I won't get enough separation to add heights).

I currently have some Energy EAS-6C's (4) that are brand new, but I want the sealed design and I think the Beale Street speakers will provide much better performance. The only issue is that I am in Canada and it may be hard to get the Beale's. I have contacted them to ask how I can get some and what the list price is etc.

I know there is a Beale review upcoming.....but do you have a few comments? Where did you buy yours..a dealer??

Thanks.

 

[Despotes]

I enjoyed your review, but you didn't include a 2 channel stereo score like in the 5200 review. I'm very interested in this AVR and am coming close to purchasing, but only if it's music quality can surpass my Onkyo 876.
Also, an updated more detailed review as in the 5200's would be fantastic.

 

[Sky1]

Why does nobody include HD radio or XM?

 

[Despotes]

Probably because it's too dependent on location and quality of service vs. performance level of the AVR.

 

[Sky1]

They may need to make these AVR devices modular and upgradable..

 

[TheoN]

I enjoyed your review, but you didn't include a 2 channel stereo score like in the 5200 review. I'm very interested in this AVR and am coming close to purchasing, but only if it's music quality can surpass my Onkyo 876.
Also, an updated more detailed review as in the 5200's would be fantastic.

Hi @Despotes! This review ran very, very long and we had to do some heavy editing as a result. In retrospect, there are two or three things that aren't as clear or in-depth. In fact, I didn't recall dropping that paragraph until a friend of mine had said to me, "Didn't you test it with music?" He knows me well enough and I'm of the staunch opinion that if a unit cannot do two channel well then it won't do movies or multichannel well. For me, everything starts with two channel music.

You can see that we wanted to focus intently on the immersive audio aspects of the unit and went into far more detail on immersive audio and movies that we normally do and far more than I usually do in my reviews. That's understandable in this case since full support of Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Auro-3D is one of the major features of the unit.

I continue to have the X7200 in-hand and would be happy to try and answer any specific questions. I completed the DTS:X upgrade and I'll be doing a piece on that along with an extended piece that will be talking about the X7200WA with all three immersive formats.

I'll try and post something more extensive later tonight.

 

[TheoN]

Theo, I was wondering how you liked the Beale Street in ceilings. I am interested in the IC6-MB or the IC6-BB (that you were using) as they seem the most likely candidates for my 7200 ceiling speakers. I will just be using Atmos and DTSX and not Auro as my ceiling is only a little over 7.5 feet (I won't get enough separation to add heights).

I currently have some Energy EAS-6C's (4) that are brand new, but I want the sealed design and I think the Beale Street speakers will provide much better performance. The only issue is that I am in Canada and it may be hard to get the Beale's. I have contacted them to ask how I can get some and what the list price is etc.

I know there is a Beale review upcoming.....but do you have a few comments? Where did you buy yours..a dealer??

Thanks.

Theo, I was wondering how you liked the Beale Street in ceilings. I am interested in the IC6-MB or the IC6-BB (that you were using) as they seem the most likely candidates for my 7200 ceiling speakers. I will just be using Atmos and DTSX and not Auro as my ceiling is only a little over 7.5 feet (I won't get enough separation to add heights).

I currently have some Energy EAS-6C's (4) that are brand new, but I want the sealed design and I think the Beale Street speakers will provide much better performance. The only issue is that I am in Canada and it may be hard to get the Beale's. I have contacted them to ask how I can get some and what the list price is etc.

I know there is a Beale review upcoming.....but do you have a few comments? Where did you buy yours..a dealer??

Thanks.

@JKR1963 The Beale Street speakers came directly from Beale. In fact, I was unaware of the price point of the speakers when they arrived and throughout the majority of my testing period. As you can tell from the experience with the Denon, they were really great and created a wonderful sound-field and it's a real testament that they mated well with the SVS speakers. I've always been a staunch advocate of timbre-matching speakers and it will remain to be seen what the critical parameters are for timbre-matcihing across the different height speakers in relation to the floor-standing as everyone gets more real-world experience with the immersive setups.

The one thing I don't talk about yet here is how really incredible the in-ceilign subs are. There is an article queued up for review where it's the first of a three-part series talking about the installation and immersive setup. The in-ceiling subs performance was just awesome in this setup. We opted for four in-ceiling subs due to the size of my room and room modes.

I did not engage the in-ceiling subs for the Denon article and that whole section regarding Audyssey is a bit over-condensed as a result. My setup needs multiple subwoofers to perform best across all the seating positions.

I digress.

Yes, the Beale Street speakers and subs perform very, very well. The subs don't go super-deep but they are great. Stay Tuned for my forthcoming DTS:X update. The Denon now has a unified speaker layout that will support all three formats: DTS:X, Dolby Atmos, and Auro-3D. In fact, I also got the unified layout working with the Auro-3D voice of God speaker too but there's a caveat I need to check with Denon about.

Apologies for the late reply on this!

 

[DrGerm]

I'm still checking this out, but so far I love this receiver. Can't wait to get some separate amps in the future to expand this thing

BTW, act quick, because I found this 3rd party on Amazon listing this $800 less than list price with free shipping (which made it ~ $1100 less since I didn't have to pay tax for this out of state seller). I searched for a couple weeks and I still haven't found it that cheap (only a couple at $500 less, have come and gone).

[edit] I can't post links yet on these forums. But I think you can find it if you search. Also, you can find my unboxing on YouTube, so you can see that I did, indeed, receive what is listed (I was a little worried.. LOL)

 

[PENG]

Finally we can see some bench test data here:

http://www.soundandvision.com/content/denon-avr-x7200w-av-receiver-test-bench#DQM2zLrXVsKFwDcj.97

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Finally we can see some bench test data here:

http://www.soundandvision.com/content/denon-avr-x7200w-av-receiver-test-bench#DQM2zLrXVsKFwDcj.97

What do you think?

One thing that got my attention was the great crosstalk of -94dB @ 1kHz. I think back in the day when I had the Acurus RL11 preamp, the crosstalk was about -90dB @ 1kHz.

I think the ATI amps have crosstalk of -100dB.

 

[PENG]

What do you think?

One thing that got my attention was the great crosstalk of -94dB @ 1kHz. I think back in the day when I had the Acurus RL11 preamp, the crosstalk was about -90dB @ 1kHz.

I think the ATI amps have crosstalk of -100dB.

ATI's -100 dB is excellent for a power amplifier but the Demon's -94dB is from preamp input to speaker, i.e. power amplifier output. I think this Denon if used as a prepro is as good as the AV8802 for much less.

 

[Latent]

I think this Denon if used as a prepro is as good as the AV8802 for much less.

If you were going to use it as a prepro while you could add 11 channels of external power amp (requiring at least two power amp units as there are few good reasons to restrict yourself to a single 9-11 channel unit only) it would make far more sense to use at least 4 of the internal amplifiers. So 7.4.4 is powered from 7 channel external power amp, 4 powered subs and 4 internally powered height channels.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

ATI's -100 dB is excellent for a power amplifier but the Demon's -94dB is from preamp input to speaker, i.e. power amplifier output. I think this Denon if used as a prepro is as good as the AV8802 for much less.

Agreed.

Still, many hardcore audiophiles prefer a "pre-pro" because they think the pre-pro must sound better because many pre-pro costs more and they don't have internal amps, which must make the pre-pro cleaner.


You know - all those amps inside the case somehow degrades the signal.

And the fact that they are called "pre-pro" and not "AVR" makes the pre-pro better and more suited for real audiophiles.

BTW, the Denon AVP-A1 has a crosstalk of -108dB @ 1kHz.