Denon AVR-X6700H Home Theater AVR Review

[zelig]

So I can for sure say that the 6700 is very very hot, without actually being driven hardly at all. Maybe it’s the 8k increase needed in the chip sets.

I doubt the 8k will make a difference unless you're actually using 8k. Based on zero knowledge but only what I'm reading, one possibility is that Denon are continuing the trend of putting less material in their heatsinks to reduce costs and ensure time-based self destruction.

Hmmmm. I really must think of something good to say about Denon. Thinking....




Nope, not coming... give me a little while longer...




Got it! They are probably better than Onkyo.

Phew! I need a rest now. Night night.

 

[Baff]

time-based self destruction.

Planned obsolescence.

 

[studiocity]

I better get the external fan.

 

[theory]

I know you guys all like science, but me being maybe the only only one on here who had the x6700h and the x8500h both connected and listening only, no measurements, and I know that some of you won’t believe this but the 6700 was much hotter on top with the same 5.2.2 channels driven. It was so hot it nearly burned your hand. The x8500h is much much cooler....possibly because of more or fans that work sooner or better, however I have not heard any fan noise in either the 6700 or the 8500. So I can for sure say that the 6700 is very very hot, without actually being driven hardly at all. Maybe it’s the 8k increase needed in the chip sets.

Well the layouts of the amps and heat sinks are also very different.

 

[mcdull]

Denon are continuing the trend of putting less material in their heatsinks to reduce costs and ensure time-based self destruction.

Unless Denon thinks they're Apple. If the product meets early death, the consumers will most likely buy another brand, and badmouthing it on Internet, rather than buying another Denon.

 

[amirm]

I think a factor in reliability is how much you use the AVR. Ours is connected to our TV so runs 14 hours a day, every day of the week (it is the babysitter for dogs even when we are not home!). If its use is for home theater and watching a movie every other day, it is not going to be a major factor.

 

[rxp]

When I first got an Onkyo 838, it was cooking hot ala my Marantz. I just got a simple laptop cooler and it worked well.

My Onkyo is now at my mums who does have her TV on most of the day. I've got mine on for about 4 hours a day - but still this has made me consider getting a cooler.

Wish someone would have an Audyssey AVR with Class D! I hate the amount of electricity these things use - but I love Audyssey.

 

[carlob]

These devices are inherently not made to last, the business model is that you change them every couple of years as new features become available. This year is 8K, next year will be 16K or whatever so new tv, new avr. It's amusing that while the 8K thing happens we don't yet have a full lineup of TV 4K channels (In Europe most of us subscribe to SKY which offering is limited to a few 4K movies, football and Formula 1, most of the stuff is still HD).

 

[lashto]

So watch it and don't park your balls on it.
It's not made for that purpose

How do you know that?!
For all we know, the designer of those amps might go by the nickname cold-balls-jimmy (sorry for the approx nickname translation, my japanese and chinese are a bit rusty)

 

[zelig]

I think a factor in reliability is how much you use the AVR. Ours is connected to our TV so runs 14 hours a day, every day of the week (it is the babysitter for dogs even when we are not home!).

I have to ask... why do your dogs need an AVR? I just have an Amazon Echo and use the "Relax my dog" skill. I doubt he cares about the audio quality, or even that it's mono.

 

[rxp]

Dogs hear flat to 45 kHz. Of course you need high SINAD and ruler flat DACs!

 

[lashto]

These devices are inherently not made to last, the business model is that you change them every couple of years as new features become available. This year is 8K, next year will be 16K or whatever so new tv, new avr. It's amusing that while the 8K thing happens we don't yet have a full lineup of TV 4K channels (In Europe most of us subscribe to SKY which offering is limited to a few 4K movies, football and Formula 1, most of the stuff is still HD).

Planed obsolescence is the sales strategy of the day, the AVR industry might be one of the worst offenders but they are just a symptom.

And your "this year is 8K" might be too optimistic. Although it was marketed everywhere as 8K-10K, HDMI 2.1 was never supposed to be an 8K standard, just the first HDMI to allow full quality 4K. See this video bitrate table, the HDMI 2.1 max speed of 48Gbps is basically maxed-out-4K (in practice, HDMI 2.1 cannot even do max-4K because a +50Gbps cable/chip is needed to get proper 48Gbps).

What we are truly getting in 2020 is even worse: a truncated HDMI 2.1 at 40Gbps. Only the minimum 8K variant (32Gbps) is practically possible. This seems to be the industry mantra nowadays: implement the minimum/cheapest possible technical solution so that marketing can start shouting "features, features". (not saying that 'minimum' 8K is bad, just that the diff between marketing and reality is way too big)

Anyway, we will 'get' HDMI 3.0 or whatever-next-thing pretty soon. Hdmi 2.1 may be forgotten quite fast and may never be adopted on a large scale.

 

[peng]

This was determined to be incorrect. The network DAC (PCM5100) does not get used for HEOS in the Main Zone. Confirmed with Amir's measurements and through my communication with Denon.

View attachment 75591

It is good to hear directly from Denon. The confusion of the use of the PCM5100 started when photos were posted, and there were 3 of them in the higher end (X4700H and up), for Z2, Z3 and "Net DAC". The "Net" DAC appears to be used for network but only for Z2/3. I did (not sure if there were others) mention network use (without making it clear that it meant network use when output to Z2/3) in my post reacted to those photos, based on the block diagrams I have seen, but I am pretty sure I edited the post(s) to make it clear that it was only for output to Z2/3, when alerted by Gedeon's posts.

 

[Castortroy3]

I think a factor in reliability is how much you use the AVR. Ours is connected to our TV so runs 14 hours a day, every day of the week (it is the babysitter for dogs even when we are not home!). If its use is for home theater and watching a movie every other day, it is not going to be a major factor.

Seriously...the dogs can use TV audio.

 

[Mustangtexas]

I purchased a 6700 and noticed the front LCD flickers when it’s turned up relatively loud. The flickering matches musical bursts exactly... almost like there’s not enough power to keep it bright. Could this be related the capacitor? Apologies if the question seems uninformed.... it is definitely uninformed! My expertise is not electronics and a lot of what you all reference is outside my knowledge base.

 

[Mustangtexas]

One other question: If I plan to use an external amp for my 11-channel system, is there any real benefit to paying the extra for the 6700 vs the 4700?

 

[Bentley]

I know you guys all like science, but me being maybe the only only one on here who had the x6700h and the x8500h both connected and listening only, no measurements, and I know that some of you won’t believe this but the 6700 was much hotter on top with the same 5.2.2 channels driven. It was so hot it nearly burned your hand. The x8500h is much much cooler....possibly because of more or fans that work sooner or better, however I have not heard any fan noise in either the 6700 or the 8500. So I can for sure say that the 6700 is very very hot, without actually being driven hardly at all. Maybe it’s the 8k increase needed in the chip sets.

I just picked up the 8500 last night. Wow! I love it. I think it's so much better so far and also like you say doesn't seem to run hot at all . There seems to be much more room inside maybe because of the bigger chassis it's not blocked with a bunch of boards on top it's open. It looks to have 4 fans in there also. I did hear the fans of my 6700 run I think if they didn't the thing would have melted !!

 

[voodooless]

I purchased a 6700 and noticed the front LCD flickers when it’s turned up relatively loud. The flickering matches musical bursts exactly... almost like there’s not enough power to keep it bright. Could this be related the capacitor? Apologies if the question seems uninformed.... it is definitely uninformed! My expertise is not electronics and a lot of what you all reference is outside my knowledge base.

Edit: for a more correct functioning of the power supply look here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...00h-home-theater-avr-review.14902/post-470390

Possibly. You must know that these things do not have only a single power supply. The large caps and the big transformers is used for the high voltage rails for the power amps. The rest is fed via a SMPS. Depending on the type of display it might actually use a part of the high voltage supply for the power amps. If it is still a vacuum fluorescent type of display this is quite likely. So when your amp draws more current than the transformer/cap cobo can comfortably deliver, voltage wil sag, and your display will dim a bit.

 

[Dj7675]

One other question: If I plan to use an external amp for my 11-channel system, is there any real benefit to paying the extra for the 6700 vs the 4700?

13 channels vs 11 (7.1.6 or 9.1.4)
DTSX Pro
Auro 3D
Dialogue enhancer
I’m sure there are others but those are the big ones. I for one think all of those are compelling reasons to go with the x6700 or there x8500.

 

[lashto]

One other question: If I plan to use an external amp for my 11-channel system, is there any real benefit to paying the extra for the 6700 vs the 4700?

The more expensive 6700 may actually be a serious downgrade in the external-amps scenario. The x4700 and x3600 DAC/preamp outputs do measure (much) better.

Truth be told, nobody knows for sure. Those devices are way too complex, have hundreds of different audiopaths and settings, there seems to be serious variation between production batches and the documentation is lacking. Did I mention the word clusterfuks?