Yammy 2600 V Denon 3805 V HK 635 V Pioneer AX4

[Rooz]

hi all. new to the forum from Australia, found you while doing my research and am interested in your opinions. i have a pioneer 4306 plasma screen and am looking to upgrade my home cinema yamaha 995 amp and 7-8 year old jbl speakers.

i have narrowed it down to 4 options, but am open to suggestions and am not leaning towards any one brand or model.

i have read a pile of individual reviews, alot of them on this site, but have not read or found any that have direct comparisons of them. i haven't been able to find a store in sydney that have all 4 on display either so am struggling to get sound comparisons.

i am not a "brand buyer" and have no loyalty or preference for any brands, i just want the best product for my pricerange. can anyone provide some advice/ experiences/ recommendations pls.

btw: the new denon 3806 is arriving in australia late march and will not be within my budget so i cannot consider it.

edit: ax4 in australia is called the VSX-74TXVi in the USA.

 

[avliner]

Hi Rooz,

welcome to the family!

Perhaps you won't find a direct comparison of the above gears that easily, but the most important is that you're heading to the right direction!

Tell you what: I have a Denon 3805 and could not be happier with it. You'll hear the same from other guys who owns Pioneers' Yammies, HK, Marantz, etc...

The only real "plus" I would consider under your options is the Yammie 2600, which really upscales video to hi-rez (all the others don't).

You can find on this forum the 2600 review, for further evaluation.

I'm sure that whatever your final decision will be, you'll be satisfied with any of the mentioned brands you're looking for.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Cheers / Avliner

 

[eriklin]

Rooz,
I'm in the same situation over in Sweden - but I narrowed it down to 2600 or AX4. Denon is good quality stuff but carries a heavier price.

Think I will settle for the 2600 after all due to the upscaling function and that I have a Yamaha today that I'm quite happy with. I think the Yamaha also has OSD via HDMI which is not the case for AX4 - here you need a composite or S-video in addition to HDMI to get the OSD.

The AX4 probably has a little more punch in the bass plus an i-link connection.

Good equipment both alternatives I think...

//eriklin

 

[kay]

The Denon is pretty old now, and it pops up every now and then at a bargain price. If you can find one like that, go for it.

Otherwise, all of them are pretty much the same. The Yamaha has "video processing" but I doubt it would make any difference in practice - look at the Audioholics review and decide for yourself.

The Pioneer looks great, in my country it's the cheapest of the lot and very well specced.

 

[Rooz]

thanx for the replies. had a listen to the ax4 and hk today and didn;t really like either, (personal preference). the ax4 seemed to distort a little at volume and the hk was a little too low end for me.

i've narrowed it down to 2 now. the yammy and the denon. i'd love to go for the 3806 but it is too expensive. torn between the 2 now. the yammy seems to provide the better sound clarity but the denon is punchier and doesn;t seem to strain at all for volume. one majpr plus is the denon remote which is superb and in itself worth at least $500 odd.

anyone else with experiences of these 2 amps ?

thanx.

 

[Jeje2]

For me the it came down to AX4 or V2600.

Chose finally the V2600 as it
* has the possibility to adjust separately the volume level for each input
* has upscaling
* was a couple euros cheaper (back then the difference was >10%)
* I didn't think I-Pod, USB or i-link availability would be needed for me.
Of those the first was most important to me in the end.

 

[tritonstudio]

2600 vs 3806

Here was my own experience only when I was compared the 2600 vs 3806 side by side back in 11/2006. I like the sleek new looking of the 2600 over 3806. The onscreen menu setting of 2600 is nicer. The sound of 2600 is shine & clear for music compare to 3806 which is a little warmer. I pick 2600 over 3806 for my jazzy music listening. Yami 2600 is also sound great for movie no question about it for yamaha in movie mode. Lastly regarding video processing, I can't comment much since there are already plenty of good review about it. Thus, it works so great for my current setup which is upscale all my regular satellite channels from 480p to 1080i/780 resolution like a dream ! 2600 is best A/V receiver in its class for now

my 2cents

 

[Rooz]

thanx for the info. i never really considered upsampling to be that big of a deal to me cos i thought it was a bit of a gimic and i would never be able to tell the difference in picture quality. my cable tv is also @ 480. does it really upsample the picture quality to 1080i and is the picture difference that noticeable ?

 

[tritonstudio]

if you currently have big screen HDTV setup then the quality can be seen like Halogen vs Xenon, or night & day! you know what I really meant

 

[PENG]

The 3806 is more powerful than the 2600.

 

[eriklin]

Just ordered a 2600. Now I'll just have to wait...

THink I made the right decision after all. The AX4 is nice but I have come to like the Yamaha sound in my current 650 and the 2600 can only be better. A lot better

//eriklin

 

[jcsprankle]

Why no Denon?

Just ordered a 2600. Now I'll just have to wait...

THink I made the right decision after all. The AX4 is nice but I have come to like the Yamaha sound in my current 650 and the 2600 can only be better. A lot better

//eriklin

If you don't mind me asking, why did you decide against the Denon. I am in the same boat, considering the 3806 vs. the 2600. Before I found this forum, I was definately getting the Denon but after I read some opinions and the review here at AH, I'm undecided. I really like the up-scaling feature of the Yammy...even though I can't use it now, I should is the near future. That might be enough for me to go with that over the Denon.

 

[Rooz]

thanx everyone for your input and help. i'm happy to say that i have purchased the yamaha 2600. i briefly considered the 3806 but after listening to it quite a bit today i could not justify the extra $1000. it did not appear to me to perform as well in HT but performed slightly better for music. seems to have better bottom end. the video conversion of the 3806 was very ordinary and the yammy peformed far better in this category. the benefits of the denon are a fantastic remote and excellent bottom grunt.

the yammy has been installed now but i still have no idea how to program the remote to my other devices. the manual is hopeless and it seems a very complicated process. maybe someone can help me out here ?? the surround sound and sound seperation in HT is excellent. movies i have seen many, many times seem better to watch. and this is just the amp i have changed; i get my new speakers in 3 weeks and am expecting a huge difference then.

this brings me to the final point which has been a let down. while the yammy seemed to convert the signal in the store better than their own analog signal on their projection tv, it does not reproduce the same picture quality as my pioneer media box is capable of.

the HD tv which originally ran from my HD set top box direct to the TV is clearer like this rather than running thru the amp. DVD's, (despite being upgraded to 1080i), run clearer direct to the tv rather than thru the amp. the differences are slight but noticeable. even my cable tv which used to run thru the tv at 625p seems clearer then than it does now at 1080p.

i have excellent quality cable. HDMI going to tv; HDMI going to HD set top box component cable going to DVD and cable tv. i have checked and rechecked the settings and it seems to be set up right on all devices. the tv is showing 1125i which is the HD pic setting on all formats but it simply is not decoding as well as my tv does. if anyone else has had this experience and changed something to make it work better pls let me know.

bottom line...sound is great, 10/10 for the price range but if you have a new tv, (i have a 2006 pioneer plasma), which has great video converting i doubt you'll use the amp for vision, just sound.

 

[avab]

So no-go on the Yamaha on video upconversion?

Hi Rooz,

Welcome to the forums. Have been following this thread with great interest since I am in the same boat.

So you haven't noticed any significant difference in video upconversion as in the store? Is there any difference in picture at all: most specifically - have you noticed any difference coming from you HD cable box via HDMI into the yammy? How about DVD movies? Has the upconversion given new life to your movies? Sounds like it by your recent posting. What new speakers are you getting by the way to match your system? I recently purchased a set of Energys - just waiting for the big-daddy to drive them.

Second question: are you using a separate amp apart from the Yammy? If so - what are you using? I am considering purchasing the Emotiva 7 channel as recommend on this site.

Thank for you input. Enjoy your new toy!

avab.

P.S. Love Australia! Used to live in Sydney (Glebe) myself - planning on moving there permanently in the next 3 years!

 

[Rooz]

hi avab. regarding video scaling;

prior to the yammy my connections were as follows:

dvd - component input into pioneer media box @ 625p
digital tv - HDMI from digital set top box to pioneer media box @ 1125i
cable tv - component input into pioneer media box @ 625p

after the yammy my connections are as follows:

dvd - component input into yammy upscaled to 1125i.
digital tv - HDMI input, (input 1), into yammy upscaled to 1125i.
cable tv - component input into yammy upscaled to 1125i.
tv connected to yammy via HDMI output.

i am going to remove everything from the amp and run it back thru my pioneer plasma becasue on all counts, they were clearer without running thru the amp.

the only thing i can think of is that in store they had a projector set up which may have been quite old. newer model tv's must have better video conversion capabilities becasue at 625p thru the pioneer plasma it is clearer for DVD, cable tv and digital TV. again, this is despite the yammy upscaling everything to 1125i. the video conversion has been a gimicky dud for me. i can only imagine how bad the denon would have been at home.

btw: is someone can explain the difference between 1080 and 1125i i would much appreciate it. i have never seen 1080 appear on my tv. i don;t even think it's a setting i can choose. i don;t even really fully understand the difference between interlaced and progressive modes. which is better and why etc.

boston acoustics speakers:

VR3 mains
VR-M50 rears
VC centre channel

Runner up for me were the Focal.JMLab:

Chorus 726s mains
Chorus 706s rears
Chorus CC700s centre channel

Initially i also looked at B&W, Energy, Dynaudio and Krix. i found the bostons produced the sound most suited to my taste. very dynamic with crisp bass. the VR-3's gave a bit more warmth than the VR-2's but retained it's sharpness. The JMLab's were also excellent...really really tough choice and i would have been happy with either package. speakers are all really a matter of personal taste though. i know many people who love the sound of the Dynaudio and B&W's, but the type of sound is not for me.

i have a seperate amp/ speakers for music in another room to my HT, it's a pretty old rotel with mission speakers that are also pretty old, (amybe 7years old), but i don't listen alot in there day-to-day. for convenience i listen to music in the lounge room where my HT is set up so it was really important that the amp performed well for music aswell.

glad you love oz and hope you get back here. why would you wanna be anywhere else.

 

[jcsprankle]

...

btw: is someone can explain the difference between 1080 and 1125i i would much appreciate it. i have never seen 1080 appear on my tv. i don;t even think it's a setting i can choose. i don;t even really fully understand the difference between interlaced and progressive modes. which is better and why etc.

...

That's a real shame about the up-scaling on the Yammy. That was the one feature that may push me from a Denon (the 3806 doesn't up-scale at all...just switches).

Regarding your question, I'm not sure about 1125i. I assume this is a high-def standard in Australia. Here, in the states, there are several: 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p, although some would argue that 480p isn't quite high-def.

As you know, the i stands for interlaced and the p stands for progressive. This refers to how the hoizontal lines of resolution are painted on the screen. For interlaced images, half the lines (every other one) are painted in one cycle and the remaining lines are painted in the next cycle. In progressive images, all the lines are painted at the same time, every cycle. As you can imagine, progressive images are much more sharp and clear than interlaced. However, when you get up to 1080i, there are so many lines that even the interlaced picture looks great.