Denon AVR-X3800H Review

[Chromatischism]

Can someone make it simple for me?:

What is the best sub $6000 HDMI 2.1 av receiver or processor that money can buy today w.r.t sound quality from the pre amps (for digital sources like HDMI)?
Intention is to have one system that is very good for both 2.2 channel music and 7.2 channel movies.

Do you need a lot of flexibility for immersive audio layouts and room correction? Denon 4800 or 6800. If not, get the 3800, which still does most of that, but with a few less features.

There's also Anthem to look at.

 

[RF Air]

Can someone make it simple for me?:

What is the best sub $6000 HDMI 2.1 av receiver or processor that money can buy today w.r.t sound quality from the pre amps (for digital sources like HDMI)?
Intention is to have one system that is very good for both 2.2 channel music and 7.2 channel movies.

Denon AVR-X8500HA has some of the best features including a 7.1 Pre-Amp input if you want to use with a Blu-Ray Player that has the 7.1 Pre-Amp Output. The DAC's are good and plenty of Amplifier power for Home Theater and 2 Channel Audio. That would be my go to in your circumstance. It has 2 Sub Output for your 2.2 Channel Audio and 7.2 Channel Movies.

 

[tmukh]

Do you need a lot of flexibility for immersive audio layouts and room correction? Denon 4800 or 6800. If not, get the 3800, which still does most of that, but with a few less features.

There's also Anthem to look at.

Room correction is needed. Does not need to be super fancy though.
3800?? How is that even an option with such poor (or perhaps average) SINAD from the DAC?
Is the sinad from the 4800 known to be significantly better?

 

[ArturoKiwi]

Or an Anthem mrx1140

 

[voodooless]

Is the sinad from the 4800 known to be significantly better?

It should be the same since it uses the same DACs. Same goes for the X6800H if I remember correctly. The amps may be slightly better, but I would not hold my breath.

 

[tmukh]

Denon AVR-X8500HA has some of the best features including a 7.1 Pre-Amp input if you want to use with a Blu-Ray Player that has the 7.1 Pre-Amp Output. The DAC's are good and plenty of Amplifier power for Home Theater and 2 Channel Audio. That would be my go to in your circumstance. It has 2 Sub Output for your 2.2 Channel Audio and 7.2 Channel Movies.

Looks interesting. Does the HA model (not the older H) have measurements?

 

[tmukh]

Or an Anthem mrx1140

Yes, I looked into that. Very tempting but does that not have that fan noise issue?

 

[RF Air]

Room correction is needed. Does not need to be super fancy though.
3800?? How is that even an option with such poor (or perhaps average) SINAD from the DAC?
Is the sinad from the 4800 known to be significantly better?

Same DAC's for the 3800 and 4800. The AVR-X8500HA has better DAC performance and is considered Flagship until the A1H is released sometime this Spring or sooner.

 

[RF Air]

Looks interesting. Does the HA model (not the older H) have measurements?

I have not seen them here, it was upgraded as an HA when the HDMI update to 2.1 was configured in new units. I do know the DAC's are configured differently with the 8500 that have a factory SINAD-IMD spec for lower noise and better performance. Trying to locate a comparative sheet for each Model that was released by Denon...

 

[ArturoKiwi]

Yes, I looked into that. Very tempting but does that not have that fan noise issue?

Someone says that the fan noise is loud, I'm not sure how many.
Usually an external fan solves the problem. I think it is crazy in a (relatively) new product have such a solution, but bettere an external fan than a not so good dac

 

[Chromatischism]

You will hear an external fan before you hear the DAC...

 

[ArturoKiwi]

You will hear an external fan before you hear the DAC...

It depends.
Sometimes they put a 80mm fan, cheap and noisy.
In avsforum I red of 140mm fan, that spin slower and so quiter

 

[Trell]

It depends.
Sometimes they put a 80mm fan, cheap and noisy.
In avsforum I red of 140mm fan, that spin slower and so quiter

I use Noctua fans on top of my AVR that are PWM controlled and 5V, and are powered by my TV except one that is powered by my Blu-ray player. I also use a fan controller from Noctua so that there is cooling but is inaudible from my listening position.

Noctua.at - Premium cooling components designed in Austria

Designed in Austria, Noctua's premium cooling components are renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality.

noctua.at

 

[wadimek11]

A

Supposedly that what Marantz is to Denon.

As I worked in audio store branded by denon name I was selling most of the marantz and denon products. Marantz avr was going up to 8015 which was denon 6700 counterpart. Denon 8500 was above any marantz avr. Although marantz got also model 40/30 series for stereo. I would say it depends what product you might want.

 

[Vacceo]

A

As I worked in audio store branded by denon name I was selling most of the marantz and denon products. Marantz avr was going up to 8015 which was denon 6700 counterpart. Denon 8500 was above any marantz avr. Although marantz got also model 40/30 series for stereo. I would say it depends what product you might want.

The comparison was AVR to AVR in this case.

 

[ban25]

Can someone make it simple for me?:

What is the best sub $6000 HDMI 2.1 av receiver or processor that money can buy today w.r.t sound quality from the pre amps (for digital sources like HDMI)?
Intention is to have one system that is very good for both 2.2 channel music and 7.2 channel movies.

Anthem AVM70 8K will hit all your requirements. Cons will be some potential instability, lack of certain features that have been promised but are dragging (DTS X: Pro). If you can stretch another grand, go for the Marantz AV10 to get class leading performance, solid support, and no bugs.

 

[tmukh]

Anthem AVM70 8K will hit all your requirements. Cons will be some potential instability, lack of certain features that have been promised but are dragging (DTS X: Pro). If you can stretch another grand, go for the Marantz AV10 to get class leading performance, solid support, and no bugs.

Did they just bump the price up of the AV10 from $7K to $9K?
Edit: never mind. For some reason it was taking me to the Canadian site!!

 

[Nathan Raymond]

This is 100% true and well-established. I am looking to see if issues still exist with the newer denon's. I have an x4700h and can't use hdmi 2.1 at all. The fix they sent makes audio not work, and I dont believe the fix actually fixed anything for anyone. I've heard countless testimonies to all these facts, so it would be nice to know if the issues still exist. Is someone saying they are still getting audio popping, coming in and out on PC? Because if they are, I would hesitate to say anyone is jumping to conclusions when they assume these widespread issues aren't fixed

I have kept my PC with the RTX 3080 plugged into my LG C1 and have continued to use eARC to the Denon X3700H, and at some point after firmware updates either to the TV and/or the Denon, eARC at least works without random glitches now. While I'm curious if plugging into the X3700H would work better now, I'm not anxious to try again. It's been at least a couple of months where it's been reliable.

I've also been able to make HDMI CEC work better by going into the Denon settings and changing it to listen to CEC commands from all types of sources (I believe the out-of-box settings made CEC behavior inconsistent because it was ignoring CEC from some device types). And because nobody likes to make things easy these days, to get a Roku remote to send CEC commands for power and volume, you have to go into the secret Roku Platform Details menu by pressing Home (five times) > Forward > Play > Rewind > Play > Forward, and then you go to RF Remote Menu > IR Transmit > Universal CEC > Use CEC instead of IR. IR didn't auto-configure itself on the Roku remote in a way that worked with the Denon receiver, I think it auto-configured itself to send IR for the LG TV, which wasn't actually controlling the volume on the X3700H of course. When CEC works, I prefer CEC anyway, so things are better now. It's taken a very long time to get the home theater to a state where I'd call it stable/reliable.

 

[SynthesisCinema]

 

[peng]

Why do people keep repeating something that isn't true?

Amir did not recommend the 3800 and he gave his reason clearly. He never told people not to buy it because of "SINAD". There is a big diifference between not recommended and don't buy it.