Denon AVR-X4700 AVR Review (Updated)

[HarmonicTHD]

When I want to listen to music with the subs, I use the AVR as the source (HEOS) and DAC in stereo preamp mode. Honestly, I cannot hear the difference between the AVR's DAC and the Modius. The differences I hear are the presence of the subs and the difference between Audyssey and Dirac.

I use the system both ways. But sometimes I just want to hear the stereo pair. I have a small room and listen at ~80dB average. In that environment, my towers have an F3 of ~33Hz, and there is plenty of visceral impact using my custom Dirac target. Bass distortion is not audible to me at those levels. The subs give me a little more impact and an extra 23Hz of bass extension (10 to 33Hz). There is not much content below 40Hz in most of the music I like.

This is my current setup:

View attachment 208612


Here are my in-room measurements with DRC up to ~1000Hz:

View attachment 208613


View attachment 208614

Very clear. Thx.

Yes that’s how I used to have it too (except that I use poweramps and the nova seems to be an integrated amp correct?) until I sold my dedicated DAC (Auralic Altair) because it was to cumbersome to switch the poweramp(s) when I wanted to listen to the Altair and secondly after some (quasi blind) testing, when I was honest with myself I simply couldn’t hear the difference btw the Auralic (also ca. 110dB THDN) vs the Denon (ca 100dB THDN in preamp mode).

I suppose you have your two subs also connected via the LFE?

 

[Ruspamen]

Hello, reading the denon 8500 test, Amir sets it in pre mode but the results are very poor. for superior performance, the amp configuration must be set to custom. this mode is valid only for the 8500 or also for the 4700?

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Hello, reading the denon 8500 test, Amir sets it in pre mode but the results are very poor. for superior performance, the amp configuration must be set to custom. this mode is valid only for the 8500 or also for the 4700?

What do mean by „very poor“?

>100dB SINAD?

 

[Ruspamen]

What do mean by „very poor“?

>100dB SINAD?

View attachment 210164

at the beginning of the review Amir says to try denon in pre mode, but the results are disappointing. So his client says to put it in Custom mode, and the results are as published.

 

[Ruspamen]

at the beginning of the review Amir says to try denon in pre mode, but the results are disappointing. So his client says to put it in Custom mode, and the results are as published.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Ah now I understand. Don’t worry. When he succeeded to turn off the power amps the results was very good (see my post above). He just struggled with the user interface.

For x3700 and higher, turning off the power amps is very straightforward and easy to do - just set to preamp mode. See Amir’s reviews of the respective amps. They also achieve very good SINAD of above 100dB.

 

[Dj7675]

Hello, reading the denon 8500 test, Amir sets it in pre mode but the results are very poor. for superior performance, the amp configuration must be set to custom. this mode is valid only for the 8500 or also for the 4700?

Noted somewhere in the review thread, the preamp mode issue was in fact fixed via software update.

 

[PortableMusic]

Hi All:

i have two Denon AVR-4700 for two different rooms. BOTH of them have displayed the "update firmware" page when i turned on the system for the past 2-3 weeks (roughly).

i hesitate to install the updates immediately in fear that there might be issues with the latest firmware, so i typically wait.

now that it's been 2-3 weeks already, may i ask if others who also have the AVR-4700 have installed the firmware updates recently (last few weeks) and whether or not they've encountered issues please? or was it smooth sailing without any issues?

thank you so much in advance.

 

[tjcinnamon]

Hi All:

i have two Denon AVR-4700 for two different rooms. BOTH of them have displayed the "update firmware" page when i turned on the system for the past 2-3 weeks (roughly).

i hesitate to install the updates immediately in fear that there might be issues with the latest firmware, so i typically wait.

now that it's been 2-3 weeks already, may i ask if others who also have the AVR-4700 have installed the firmware updates recently (last few weeks) and whether or not they've encountered issues please? or was it smooth sailing without any issues?

thank you so much in advance.

Also curious, I can check my version in a few days. My avr is new, so it's likely I have the newest firmware.

 

[N1ck]

Does this firmware resolve the issue with configuring less speakers than the number of source channels? I’m wanting a simple 5.1.2 set up and have the option of buying a Denon 4700 at a knock down price. I’ve tried looking through the thread but there are so many pages and don’t know where to look to see if this has been fixed.

 

[tjcinnamon]

I'm loving this AVR. Sound is much cleaner than my NAD and coming from Dirac, I'm so happy with Audyssey and DEQ. It's brought my system alive again!

 

[N1ck]

Are you using all channels?
Can someone please confirm whether the down mixing issue is still present or did Denon fix it? I’ve spent hours looking through the thread and can’t find the answer, only the problem.

 

[azzy_mazzy]

anyone knows or even has a guess as how much power this AVR has in 5 channels+?
supposedly denon guarantees 70% into 5 channel

i didn't find anything related to the x4700 but i found this from audioholics x3600 review "Denon engineering supplied us with their test data for the AVR-X3600H showing it was able to deliver 81.9 watts/ch with 5CH driven into 8 ohm loads." and from their SR8012 review

 

[delta76]

For denon x series which is their premium line, it is actually close to specs when it comes to amp power. So 85wpc is not far off, if not even more

 

[Propheticus]

Does this firmware resolve the issue with configuring less speakers than the number of source channels? I’m wanting a simple 5.1.2 set up and have the option of buying a Denon 4700 at a knock down price. I’ve tried looking through the thread but there are so many pages and don’t know where to look to see if this has been fixed.

What issue are you talking about?

As I understood it there was a downmixing issue only relevant to:

• Configuring (PC) HDMI audio output as multichannel, i.e. 5.1, 7.1
• Sending less channels than configured. For instance only stereo.
  Essentially sending up to 6 empty channels with no audio input.
• 'Downmix' 2 actual channels and up to 6 empty ones to ...stereo.

The issue did not apply to feeding the AVR actual multichannel input and have the AVR itself downmix to less channels.

(speaking from X4500H experience; I don't notice any issues feeding 5.1 DD+ and outputting 4.1, without centre channel which the AVR downmixes into L and R.)

 

[N1ck]

That was the Dow mixing I was referring to. What do you mean by ‘sending channels’? Sending channels from source to the AVR or sending channels from the AVR to the speakers?

“The issue did not apply to feeding the AVR actual multichannel input and have the AVR itself downmix to less channels.” What did it refer to as I'm not really understanding what you are saying.

 

[Propheticus]

Just like I said; configuring the source to AVR connection as multichannel, but then only sending stereo material.
There is no issue when you send multichannel material and downmix this to stereo (that I know of).

 

[Dj7675]

anyone knows or even has a guess as how much power this AVR has in 5 channels+?
supposedly denon guarantees 70% into 5 channel

i didn't find anything related to the x4700 but i found this from audioholics x3600 review "Denon engineering supplied us with their test data for the AVR-X3600H showing it was able to deliver 81.9 watts/ch with 5CH driven into 8 ohm loads." and from their SR8012 review View attachment 219655

Here is the X3700 measured by Amir in 8ohm only for 5 channels…

 

[N1ck]

Just like I said; configuring the source to AVR connection as multichannel, but then only sending stereo material.
There is no issue when you send multichannel material and downmix this to stereo (that I know of).

Sorry, I’m just not understanding what you are saying. How do you configure a source to AVR connection as multichannel? The source plays what ever the source is. For example, a Blu-ray player connected to an AVR via HDMI will send 5.1 when playing a DVD with 5.1. It‘ll send 7.1 if it’s a 7.1 disc. It’ll send 7.1.2 if that’s what the source is on a bluray Disc. It’ll send 2.0 if it’s a CD etc. you don’t configure a source, you just let it send whatever it sends.
The AVR then downmixes should it not have the number of channels required.

I thought that the issue arose when the AVR downmixes. For example, if it receives 7.1.2 and you only have a 5.1.2. The AVR mixes the 7 channels down into 5 and you get poor performance. Have I got this completely wrong?

 

[GXAlan]

I thought that the issue arose when the AVR downmixes. For example, if it receives 7.1.2 and you only have a 5.1.2. The AVR mixes the 7 channels down into 5 and you get poor performance. Have I got this completely wrong?

My understanding is that if you send LPCM 7.1 it can be tricky to downsample to LPCM 5.1 and it is preferable to send the Dolby Bitstream to allow the processing to occur on the AVR itself. Since you're describing the extra .2 (for Atmos), then you for sure want to make sure that your source is sending the Dolby Atmos bitstream and letting the AVR do the Atmos processing to remap the dynamic sound elements to the speakers that you have. I actually don't think LPCM can transfer the height channels so you end up having 7.1 with the virtual Dolby Surround / DTS Neural X type of processing to get your height data instead of actual bitstream computation.

Atmos can be part of TrueHD or Dolby Digital+