The X4700H, and all previous 4000-series processors, have Auro3D. You need the proper speaker layout to use it though, whereas 2D can be used in any layout.
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Denon AVR-X3800H is released.
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symphara
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I was wondering about that. The difference is that with the 4700 I have 5.1.2 while with the 8500 I have 5.1.4.
lexelot
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Got my X3800H setup today and here are some very unscientific examinations:
Came from an X4500H which is now gracing a different room. LCR are connected to a NC252MP & NC250MP 3 channel amplifier via Monoprice RCA to XLR
On the X4500H, I had no speaker hiss at all.
On the X3800H, I had a faint speaker hiss from just the left channel. Thinking it may be a cable issue, I swapped the center and left cables around, then tried the right cable, then just the left cable elevated from all other cables.
Nothing got rid of the speaker hiss until I went into Speaker Configuration and set the channel to Preout Only.
This was only happening on the left channel so that seemed pretty odd. I hooked up an older ICEpower amp and sure enough, hiss in the left speaker only, but it disappeared with Preout Only selected. Thank god for this option, I won’t have to worry about it.
The speaker just plugged into the Denon amp eliminates the hiss as well — appears to be something causing havoc with that Preout when the amp is engaged.
I did the initial Audyssey setup using the MultEQ phone app. Uploaded the settings and got a success message. I normally go in and adjust it from Reference to Flat to test and I discovered the Audyssey menu was grayed out and told me I never ran a calibration. I tried reuploading the file, and still no dice. Re-uploaded the file to Preset 2 and whala, both presets worked as expected. Seems like an odd bug that will get worked out shortly.
Other than that, all of the other features seem to be working as expected. Sounds pretty much identical to the X4500H, although I never could get much better than -36 at klippel, so YMMV. Runs a hell of a lot cooler with the amps disengaged though!
Came from an X4500H which is now gracing a different room. LCR are connected to a NC252MP & NC250MP 3 channel amplifier via Monoprice RCA to XLR
On the X4500H, I had no speaker hiss at all.
On the X3800H, I had a faint speaker hiss from just the left channel. Thinking it may be a cable issue, I swapped the center and left cables around, then tried the right cable, then just the left cable elevated from all other cables.
Nothing got rid of the speaker hiss until I went into Speaker Configuration and set the channel to Preout Only.
This was only happening on the left channel so that seemed pretty odd. I hooked up an older ICEpower amp and sure enough, hiss in the left speaker only, but it disappeared with Preout Only selected. Thank god for this option, I won’t have to worry about it.
The speaker just plugged into the Denon amp eliminates the hiss as well — appears to be something causing havoc with that Preout when the amp is engaged.
I did the initial Audyssey setup using the MultEQ phone app. Uploaded the settings and got a success message. I normally go in and adjust it from Reference to Flat to test and I discovered the Audyssey menu was grayed out and told me I never ran a calibration. I tried reuploading the file, and still no dice. Re-uploaded the file to Preset 2 and whala, both presets worked as expected. Seems like an odd bug that will get worked out shortly.
Other than that, all of the other features seem to be working as expected. Sounds pretty much identical to the X4500H, although I never could get much better than -36 at klippel, so YMMV. Runs a hell of a lot cooler with the amps disengaged though!
hiphop_odc
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Hi there and congratulations on your new toy
If you have time and more than one subwoofer, could you try that. Directional Subwoofer Mode and see how that works?
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I bought my X4500H, which is a superb av receiver, for 380 euro new, at a clearance sale.
Upgrading to a X4800 or even X3800 means selling a kidney.
But then again, my simple family station wagon is costing new 6.000 euros more 7 years later.
Upgrading to a X4800 or even X3800 means selling a kidney.
But then again, my simple family station wagon is costing new 6.000 euros more 7 years later.
you are lucky. x4500h is still very capable, and unless you need Dirac, you can play waiting game for quite some time. even the lack of HDMI 2.1 on older version can be remedied quite easily and cheaply...
I'm definitely waiting on this. desperately need Atmos capable AVR but spending this much money on an AVR in this economy is not the choice I'm willing to make
symphara
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Does anybody need Dirac?
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Wait.
Let me get the popcorn for yet another round of Dirac vs Audyssey vs None at All.
lexelot
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Sure thing! It seems like a good option for those looking to run their subs in stereo or similar setup and have good control over placement/seating to combat the additional nulls. I utilize two subs in that room and it switched it to Standard automatically during Audyssey setup. I checked in the manual and it looks like the auto EQ is incompatible with this setting:
‘Audyssey Sub EQ HT will not work when “Subwoofer Mode” is set to “Directional”.’
If I have some free time this weekend I’ll see if I can dig out my miniDSP and REW to get it working well.
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No. We also dont need AVRs, Speakers, Homecinma. But wo do want to have those anyway.
symphara
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No popcorn, I just made a bad joke. I'm sure Dirac is fine, Audyssey is fine (especially when carefully set up), I don't have a horse in this race.
I know some people willing to pay extra just for a "made in Japan" label...
It should. You can individually turn off each amp channel so i can't see why you can't turn all off
From everything I've read, when using preamp mode on a per-channel basis the selected channels will disconnect from the internal amp, but the amp remains powered. When using full preamp mode (all channels) there were some indications that the amp might be shut down, but I don't think I've seen a definitive answer on that yet.
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The previous X3700 and up all shut down the amp. See Amir’s reviews. Mine certainly does. So it is very very likely the X3800 does too in pre-amp mode.
Tabby Koneko
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I bought the X3800H as a basis for a future surround sound setup. This is the first receiver I've ever owned (so bear in mind this is a beginner post). I currently have 2 KEF R3 in a tiny, reverberant room (not ideal, will solve in the future). I specifically bought it based on previous ASR review of the X3700H combined with future Dirac support to form a slowly expanding system on. My previous system was a JDS Atom+ feeding a SMSL AO200. It arrived today, and I set it up.
Overall (subjective) notes and observations in case it is useful to anyone:
Initial audio configuration sounded identical to the previous configuration. Without room correction, I did not observe any noticeable coloration. Time between setups was too long to A/B test detail though.
After room correction, audio felt something like "3% better". A wonky room mode in the sub frequencies was cut, as were a few mid-high frequencies. Made the sound more comfortable to listen to. Stereo separation felt better, but I suspect it was psychosomatic. Wasn't a silver bullet as there's a sibilant mode in the room that was tamed but not eliminated. I am satisfied with the results for now. I have not tried the app, so I do not yet know how I feel about the dip.
User interface is somewhat, but not unbearably, slow. There's a consistent 1/8-1/4 second between any UI movements that require animation, causing it to be frustrating to quickly click through menus. Since I do not expect to be in the menus regularly, this is not an issue for me.
Playing with the preamp settings (and using the AO200) was fun. Switching the whole thing to preamp results in a satisfying but unexpectedly loud relay clunk. Similarly, when I was experimenting with a ghetto 4.0 rig using scavenged speakers, disabling amplification on each pair would cause a relay clunk. In full preamp mode, it was notably cooler to the touch. In 2ch amplifier mode with a mid-load, the exhaust at the top was 39F over ambient.
I'm really picky about noise. The receiver does make noise, but at whisper level with my ear next to it. With the amps more heavily loaded, I suspect it would be louder, but then I'd hopefully be hearing what the amps are throwing through my speakers. No detectable coil whine, but I can't hear past 16.5 kHz.
I experimented with a 4.0 setup so that I could get excited about surround as it's the first time I've had one. Attached a pair of Vanatoo T0s to the back attached to the surround preamp jacks. I found them to be very quiet compared to when they're on my desk, possibly due to a low output voltage + overhead for movies? Unclear. Anyways, I maximized the volume, and found some moderate noise, so I dropped their volume until the noise was tolerable. I also do not know if this noise was directly caused by the amp or ground loops or something. Someone with measurement equipment could tell.
I then ran the room correction and got everything set up. I watched some stuff, started enjoying the surround, then noticed in quiet spots my front KEF R3s had noise on them and panicked. After much playing around, putting the system in direct mode or disabling the surrounds and re-running the room correction both fixed the noise issue. I suspect that the room correction algorithm attempted to fix some of the volume mismatch through DSP and ate up all the SNR overhead. So I sadly removed the Vanatoos from the system and started researching surrounds that'd match the R3s better in volume that won't be too mad about being within a foot or so of a corner.
I did find a few UI quirks. I found the main "Speakers" menu Audyssey setup always assumed I had a 5.1 system with 4.0 set up and would stop when it found the sub not producing sound. Inexplicably the "Setup Assistant" menu Audyssey setup had no problems with 4.0. Also, escaping from the "Setup Assistant" Audyssey setup sometimes would turn on speakers I didn't have. Couldn't reproduce it reliably. The "Setup Assistant" Audyssey was extremely verbose and was the only time I got frustrated with the slow UI. Entering the some menus, particularly Video, would cut audio for a fraction of a second. And every once in a while, a setting wouldn't save.
Interaction with my Apple TV was good. Got CEC working, with quirks. If I was calibrating and the Apple TV was on and shut down during calibration, the AVR would stay on but the TV would turn off. When I first connected it, I had some issues getting visual output. Possibly user error.
Overall I am satisfied with the device. I need to test latency, and expand the speaker array, but that is for later. I have some movies to watch.
Overall (subjective) notes and observations in case it is useful to anyone:
Initial audio configuration sounded identical to the previous configuration. Without room correction, I did not observe any noticeable coloration. Time between setups was too long to A/B test detail though.
After room correction, audio felt something like "3% better". A wonky room mode in the sub frequencies was cut, as were a few mid-high frequencies. Made the sound more comfortable to listen to. Stereo separation felt better, but I suspect it was psychosomatic. Wasn't a silver bullet as there's a sibilant mode in the room that was tamed but not eliminated. I am satisfied with the results for now. I have not tried the app, so I do not yet know how I feel about the dip.
User interface is somewhat, but not unbearably, slow. There's a consistent 1/8-1/4 second between any UI movements that require animation, causing it to be frustrating to quickly click through menus. Since I do not expect to be in the menus regularly, this is not an issue for me.
Playing with the preamp settings (and using the AO200) was fun. Switching the whole thing to preamp results in a satisfying but unexpectedly loud relay clunk. Similarly, when I was experimenting with a ghetto 4.0 rig using scavenged speakers, disabling amplification on each pair would cause a relay clunk. In full preamp mode, it was notably cooler to the touch. In 2ch amplifier mode with a mid-load, the exhaust at the top was 39F over ambient.
I'm really picky about noise. The receiver does make noise, but at whisper level with my ear next to it. With the amps more heavily loaded, I suspect it would be louder, but then I'd hopefully be hearing what the amps are throwing through my speakers. No detectable coil whine, but I can't hear past 16.5 kHz.
I experimented with a 4.0 setup so that I could get excited about surround as it's the first time I've had one. Attached a pair of Vanatoo T0s to the back attached to the surround preamp jacks. I found them to be very quiet compared to when they're on my desk, possibly due to a low output voltage + overhead for movies? Unclear. Anyways, I maximized the volume, and found some moderate noise, so I dropped their volume until the noise was tolerable. I also do not know if this noise was directly caused by the amp or ground loops or something. Someone with measurement equipment could tell.
I then ran the room correction and got everything set up. I watched some stuff, started enjoying the surround, then noticed in quiet spots my front KEF R3s had noise on them and panicked. After much playing around, putting the system in direct mode or disabling the surrounds and re-running the room correction both fixed the noise issue. I suspect that the room correction algorithm attempted to fix some of the volume mismatch through DSP and ate up all the SNR overhead. So I sadly removed the Vanatoos from the system and started researching surrounds that'd match the R3s better in volume that won't be too mad about being within a foot or so of a corner.
I did find a few UI quirks. I found the main "Speakers" menu Audyssey setup always assumed I had a 5.1 system with 4.0 set up and would stop when it found the sub not producing sound. Inexplicably the "Setup Assistant" menu Audyssey setup had no problems with 4.0. Also, escaping from the "Setup Assistant" Audyssey setup sometimes would turn on speakers I didn't have. Couldn't reproduce it reliably. The "Setup Assistant" Audyssey was extremely verbose and was the only time I got frustrated with the slow UI. Entering the some menus, particularly Video, would cut audio for a fraction of a second. And every once in a while, a setting wouldn't save.
Interaction with my Apple TV was good. Got CEC working, with quirks. If I was calibrating and the Apple TV was on and shut down during calibration, the AVR would stay on but the TV would turn off. When I first connected it, I had some issues getting visual output. Possibly user error.
Overall I am satisfied with the device. I need to test latency, and expand the speaker array, but that is for later. I have some movies to watch.
Got it, thanks for that. I just looked and the X3800 user manual also says the same (page 44).
I must be thinking of the previous X3600 where there was just a disconnect vs a shutdown.
CyrusTheGreat_600BC
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The silence from Amir worries me too. Not a single comment about 800 series yet. I know my position on this. Mine was delayed to the hurricane Ian, so if/when it finally delivers, I’ve 30 days to return it. If noise level is more than my 3700, I just keep that one for another year or two.
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