I’m guessing you like it so far since you’ve had it since February? Any issues?
I love the 4500. It's an amazing AVR. It came factory refurbished from Denon technicians. It looked brand new when it arrived. Not a mark anywhere and it runs great. Denon tests each and every unit before it goes out as a refurb.
This was my first high powered Denon AVR. I did not have Audyssey before. That's an amazing gift right there. From auto EQ to custom curves it's all possible. Then you add the Airplay 2 features and now I'm a Tidal Hi Fi fan. It's so nice to read a review about a new speaker and pull up the songs mentioned in Tidal with Master quality. Huge selection, high quality sound at your finger tips.
I also enjoy the Denon remote control app. I use it on the iPad. It's more visual than the Denon handheld remote and provides a first class image of the sound mode source and the mode the 4500 is outputting. Plus, you can easily tweak the center channel or the subwoofers all while sitting down and never have to switch from the movie.
The $20 Denon Audyssey app is amazingly feature too. It tests all the speakers, sets distance, levels, crossover settings and offers the ability to create a new curve and save the settings. Save as many as you like and upload them to the 4500 as needed.
And if you like to expand your speakers, the 4500 offers preouts on all the amplified channels. It's a no brainer upgrade to move fronts to an external amp when you want extra power.
When you start to add up the features like 125 watts x 9, preamp, major EQ functions, Airplay 2/HEOS streaming, multi-sub support, iPad control apps and Denon Audyssey app - it's a HUGE subset of tools.
I just bought a Hegel H90 for my stereo system in my office. While it has great sound for a 65 watt per channel stereo integrated amp it's Airplay is not as smooth as the Denon 4500 streaming and it has none of the EQ features. I got a good deal at $1250 but the Denon is only $999 with 4x the channels.
The Denon 4500 is one of the best deals for a new audiophile who wants tons of features. I even see the Multi-Channel mode as a way to test various tweeters and build new speakers. I can place the tweeters on one of the channels, control the volume and test various high pass filters on them. Find a combo I like and build my own setup. So many options means the user is only limited by their imagination.
