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Denon AVR-X3800H Review

Rate this AVR

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 85 18.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 214 45.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 135 28.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 36 7.7%

  • Total voters
    470
After having spent a couple hours installing the 3800 and going through the whole measurement and installation process with Audyssey it sounds absolutely horrible (I am using just the upmixing options and by now the setup is 7.0)
Is this normal? Should I ignore Audyssey and try to do the setup manually? If so, how could I do it?
What is your experience with Audyssey? What type of avr were you coming from? Sometimes are experience and expectations can affect the outcome of the product. Audioholics has a great video on the use of Audyssey and to twee it a basic level. This amp came wirh new engineering compared with the last batch, so it may sound different at roll off depending on the amps.8
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Someone just “liked” this post I made more than two years ago. Seeing this made me chuckle because I broke down and bought the X3800 for my dedicated theatre room. Would better test results give me peace of mind? Sure. But after enjoying the Denon through countless movies and series the mediocre measurements are academic. The thought of upgrading has never entered my mind.
X3800h = Best <$1K AVR on the market, hands down IMNSHO (sans pure SINAD chasers, and those that can't see the forest for the trees, and all that jazz). What will a 4800 or 6800 really get you? Nothing extra in my case, unless you count the extra funds left-over for speakers - the weakest link in any system!:p

($1K = Direct from Denon.com / Refurb)
I agree it's a strong feature set.
 
What is your experience with Audyssey? What type of avr were you coming from?
This was my first avr experience, I just followed the Audyssey's intallation app and did not like the results at all; also I do not want to have to spend so much time on setting, testing, resetting, then the device starts upgrading by itself, etc. everything feels way too complicated IMO
 
This was my first avr experience, I just followed the Audyssey's intallation app and did not like the results at all; also I do not want to have to spend so much time on setting, testing, resetting, then the device starts upgrading by itself, etc. everything feels way too complicated IMO
An AVR is a complicated device and room correction for 7.0 setups will hardly be a breezy process, regardless of using either this or another AVR/room correction software. There is always a slight learning curve to deal with in any new device / system, in order to understand the menu structure, where the settings are stored and what does each setting do. It won't take long until you've used it enough to have a better understanding of it, though I guess it will hardly be a plug and play device, particularly if you haven't used a DM AVR before.

Currently OCA's Audyssey One (which has already been recommended several times on this thread) is a tool that provides one of the easiest ways to do room correction via audyssey app + its own script, providing, what most seem to agree, better results than stock audyssey.
There is also a learning curve to it, which I don't believe to be very complicated, particularly as it relies less on measurements from multiple positions (this will depend a lot on room and setup, though I'm currently very happy with measuring only Main Listening Position).
Apparently a new version of it is being released soon(ish), so if you don't want to go through the process of calibrating again, you might want to hold on for that.

Give it some time, and experiment a bit with the device. There's several resources (both articles and videos) that can help you better understand it.
Good luck!
 
This was my first avr experience, I just followed the Audyssey's intallation app and did not like the results at all; also I do not want to have to spend so much time on setting, testing, resetting, then the device starts upgrading by itself, etc. everything feels way too complicated IMO
As noted, many "serious" room correction systems will require investment of time and effort. If first time at it, might be 10 hours, might be 20 (including watching videos, etc.), but I would not think it would be more than that to get to decent results.

I forgot how the calibration goes with AVR itself and even D&M $20 app as have been using MultiEQ-X for years now but would suspect that it also produced flat response, which to many does not sound that great. Adding additional bass gain on the subwoofer, turning off mid-range compensation and creating a "house" curve (tilt across the range, or bump in the low bass are some of the popular ones) would likely enhance your experience.

There are lots of people very happy with new line of Sony AVRs, and those are really easy to set up and don't have many adjustable parameters. Perhaps that would be an easy way out. I do not have experience with them nor I would want as I like complex adjustable EQ parameters, just noting what I came across on forums.
 
Haven't seen anyone else mention that I don't think OCA's Audyssey One works without a subwoofer.
Also, not to nitpick but lets communicate expectations accurately:
a tool that provides one of the easiest ways to do room correction
I love what A1 Evo (and later Nexus) did for my setup, but it is far from one of the easiest ways. It is probably only easier than the other freeware EQ like REW or MSO. Expect to spend a good chunk of an afternoon learning how to use them - but I can attest it is only challenging the first time. Subsequent attempts are much faster once you're over the learning curve and know your way around REW a little.
 
Haven't seen anyone else mention that I don't think OCA's Audyssey One works without a subwoofer.
Fair point. Actually have no idea if it does or doesn't. Good that you brought that up.
Also, not to nitpick but lets communicate expectations accurately:

I love what A1 Evo (and later Nexus) did for my setup, but it is far from one of the easiest ways. It is probably only easier than the other freeware EQ like REW or MSO. Expect to spend a good chunk of an afternoon learning how to use them - but I can attest it is only challenging the first time. Subsequent attempts are much faster once you're over the learning curve and know your way around REW a little.
Also a fair observation!
I still did some of OCA's manual configurations, without having any idea of what I was doing. Would just follow the steps on the YouTube tutorials and hope for the best. Since then, and particularly with the Nexus Script, a lot of the work is automated, and one of the greatest advantages of such process for inexperienced REW users is removing the doubt of having missed a step, or calculating some of the steps the wrong way.

Having said that, yes, you do need to understand a bit of how REW works and how to make measurements with it.
Other than that, it's basically a couple of clicks process where most things are done automatically for you.

Considering you have quite detailed video tutorials available and that you overcome the learning curve of the softwares, I would still say it's fairly easy to get around to using it.
I'm not sure what are the expectations around these days, but I'd say spending an afternoon learning a new software, learning how to and making measurements and calibrating your AVR still sounds quite fair, at least to my standards ;-)

Never tried a Dirac calibration, but I do wonder if it's that much easier than OCA's..
 
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In my experience, Dirac Live is the one that allows the user to just follow instructions, and will get reasonably good results in just one attempt. Sort of a one button solution. Audyssey, if used with the app, would still require a few minutes to select a few things via settings.

That means for many users, the X3800H+a DL license, or the onkyo RZ30 if 9 channels are enough and that’s for the $1500-$2,200 range.
 
As I understand Dirac doesn't have a dynamic volume/eq which to me is a problem.
Despite it's appeal, both dynamic volume and EQ are doing their "magic" in quite uncontrollable way.

I don't use dynamic volume (better to use dynamic compression if really necessary), but have tried DEQ many times. It does many things right, but then lot of it turns out completely wrong. I find it more predictable to use 4 Audy presets to account for different listening volumes and soundtrack profiles. I get what I was asking for, and nothing on the side.
 
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Despite it's appeal, both dynamic volume and EQ are doing their "magic" in quite uncontrollable way.

I don't use dynamic volume (better to use dynamic compression if really necessary), but have tried DEQ many times. It does many things right, but then lot of it turns out completely wrong. I find it more predictable to use 4 Audy presets to account for different listening volumes and soundtrack profiles. I get what I was asking for, and nothing on the side.
Presets is something I'm looking into as well with Roon presets as I don't have an AVR at the moment. No success as of yet, but these things take some thought and experimentation. Reason is music can be on for hours as I work from home, and necessarily is kept at a low volume for a good part of that time.
 
Presets is something I'm looking into as well with Roon presets as I don't have an AVR at the moment. No success as of yet, but these things take some thought and experimentation. Reason is music can be on for hours as I work from home, and necessarily is kept at a low volume for a good part of that time.
Certainly no problem just setting a loudness curve as a Roon PEQ filter.
 
Hi. Has anybody compared Auddisey and Dirac live at volume lower than reference (85db)? I wonder how well Dirac does since it doesn’t have Dynamic EQ.
 
Hi. Has anybody compared Auddisey and Dirac live at volume lower than reference (85db)? I wonder how well Dirac does since it doesn’t have Dynamic EQ.

Subjective or objective measurements? If subjective, you are going to get all kinds of comments that range from Dirac Live is night and day better, to Audyssey sounds better. For me, I prefer Dynamic EQ but overall I prefer Dirac Live and if I listen at really low volume such as <65 dB then I would use a filter that has a much tilted curve.
 
Forgot one more apparent and may be important fact that applies specifically to the AVR-X3800/4800H and Cinema 50/40, may be because I have make that point so many times now, making it easy to forget lol..:

Price differentials for those are typically 200 to 300 Euros in countries like France and Germany, probably the UK too but in £ so subject to exchange rates.

That's a lot less than the US800 or CAD$1050 for the X3800H vs C50 in the USA and Canada. If I were in the UK, France or Germany, I would go with Marantz for sure.

Regardless, this one fact really tells even D+M/Masimo knows their marketing team is able to take full advantage of the human factor, that, if you give many audiophiles enough reasons/differences, even if those reasons/differences do not result in audible (let alone better) results, they will believe it and therefore willing to pay for differences. Why and how they know North American audiophiles are more susceptible to their marketing hype is a mystery to me.;)
They know because they have AI watching us and listening to us...they know all our errors in logic and inability to make rational informed decisions...not to mention 100 years of audio history marketing mumbo jumbo and its telling results in sales numbers. I.E. - most of us have drunk the koolaid of one flavor or another thru marketing influences and are susceptible to its effects...and now AI can measure and quantify it and fully understand it. Its a scary thing
 
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