Advice about Denon AVR (Denon AVR-X3700H)

[mike7877]

What'd be really nice is if receivers had assignable digital outs, at least 2. Then you could send fronts to one, centre to another, and hook up some well designed DACs with 106db SNR or better (imperceptible from perfect at reasonable listening levels). 90 or better for surrounds is more than good enough so overkill for upgraded DACs

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

The difference in wattage between X3700H vs X4700H is unlikely to translate to more than 1-2db max SPL. Unless you need any features of X4700H not present on the lower model, you don't need it.

Oh my. Watts and dB. Let's forget about reserves and current.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

The average power to surrounds is ridiculously low. Even with explosions and stuff, the 4700 should be fine to run all of your surrounds, unless you have a massive room or very very inefficient speakers. Before you go and buy more amps, have you tried using your 4700 to power your surrounds? You should, it probably can do an excellent job. Then just sell your multi channel amps and buy 3 nice amps to run in bridge mode to power your fronts with unlimited clear power

Don't bridge. Buy mono to resist the urge if addicted.

 

[mike7877]

Don't bridge. Buy mono to resist the urge if addicted.

Yes, bridging degrades performance slightly but the THD+n of the DAC he's using is -97db. If the amps are good, they'll still be transparent. I suggested what I did because he is planning to use very high powered class D amps for all channels.

Oh my. Watts and dB. Let's forget about reserves and current.

Yeah, 660w transformer and 710w transformer, half a pound difference in weight. Lots of reserves in the 4700. The 3700 does 114 watts, the 4700 124 watts (into 8 ohms). More like half a db. The amps are basically identical.

You might be interested to know that I tested both the 750 and 3700 and they can pull exactly half of the power printed on the back from the wall for 5 minutes straight before they go into hidden Eco mode (output rails switch to lower voltage and power consumption goes down). Short term they can take 50-70% more from the wall (~700-1100w for explosions and stuff, I'm sure distortion rises during these massive multi channel transients, but who cares? they're always gunshots or explosions, you can't hear it. I've never heard something come out of ALL speakers at the same time at the highest level either, so)

The power supplies and heatsinks are designed for playing movies and 2 channel music at reasonable levels in rooms up to 14x22 feet. And multi room amplification at levels appropriate for typical 6-8" in wall speakers. Their weight is a good indicator of this