Denon AVR-X6800H now released.

[Oddball]

I would agree that having an option for "modern" RC is a good one to have. However, the "modern" RC also comes with some limitations attached to it and additional price tag.

It will ultimately depend on your system/room and what gets you the best result for the amount of time one is willing to invest in tweaking. Out of the box, the "modern" solutions are probably the best you can get in most rooms.

 

[EWL5]

I would agree that having an option for "modern" RC is a good one to have. However, the "modern" RC also comes with some limitations attached to it and additional price tag.

It will ultimately depend on your system/room and what gets you the best result for the amount of time one is willing to invest in tweaking. Out of the box, the "modern" solutions are probably the best you can get in most rooms.

Yeah, but you also get any improvements to the included Audyssey RC in the 6 years since the 8500H came out!

 

[Zwepp]

Allright, I guess the concensus is clear Thanks for the input! Too bad the X6800H hasn't been measured yet. The DAC stage is probably the best out of any Denon AVR, but I'm also interested in the amp section. Power isn't an issue, I have a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 for over 2 years now and it does it's job flawlessly with it's 60/120 watts power rating. I run a 2.1 system and might expand to a 4.1 system (no more sadly) and music listening will have the priority. The reason for putting an AVR in the chain is the lack of the LFE channel with movies, series and games. LFE gets totally discarded in a stereo downmix.

 

[Oddball]

Yeah, but you also get any improvements to the included Audyssey RC in the 6 years since the 8500H came out!

I was assuming 8500HA, rather than initial 8500H, but Audyssey-wise, the situation would be the same. Both versions, as well as 6800H support XT32 which is unfortunately still the most advanced in the Audy universe. Both 8500's would also support D&M $20 app and $200 Audy X app as well as 6800H. There is not transparency to show what is the real difference between the two, but at least IMO there is quite a bit, and not just in the interface and ability for X to load REW filters.

6800H would support some additional features in Audy like directional bass and LFE distribution as that are the features added to 2023/4 D&M models. I don't think that there are many takers for directional bass, but LFE distribution has been used more widely if one has the hardware to support it, but that would still be a rare use case.

So you are right - the Audy has grown a bit over they years, namely for additional hardware features that D&M have added. Sadly, not more than that.

 

[Oddball]

Allright, I guess the concensus is clear Thanks for the input! Too bad the X6800H hasn't been measured yet. The DAC stage is probably the best out of any Denon AVR, but I'm also interested in the amp section. Power isn't an issue, I have a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 for over 2 years now and it does it's job flawlessly with it's 60/120 watts power rating. I run a 2.1 system and might expand to a 4.1 system (no more sadly) and music listening will have the priority. The reason for putting an AVR in the chain is the lack of the LFE channel with movies, series and games. LFE gets totally discarded in a stereo downmix.

6800H is expected to measure above 100dB SINAD, as 8500HA did, but no firm confirmation yet. While definitively good to have a good measuring AVR, based on you feature needs (4.1) 3800H might be sufficient otherwise. It does measure "only" 87dB though, but it is questionable if that might or might not be audible. If your are able to get one of the used 3700H units, they would measure 97dB, which would be close to 8500's and 6800H.

Denon AVR-X3800H Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Denon AVR-X3800H 9.4 Home Theater Audio/Video Receiver. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and costs US $1,699. Not much to say about the look of the unit as it is pretty much similar/same as last generations. Here is the back panel...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[peng]

Allright, I guess the concensus is clear Thanks for the input! Too bad the X6800H hasn't been measured yet. The DAC stage is probably the best out of any Denon AVR, but I'm also interested in the amp section. Power isn't an issue, I have a Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 for over 2 years now and it does it's job flawlessly with it's 60/120 watts power rating. I run a 2.1 system and might expand to a 4.1 system (no more sadly) and music listening will have the priority. The reason for putting an AVR in the chain is the lack of the LFE channel with movies, series and games. LFE gets totally discarded in a stereo downmix.

The dac sections between the two are practically equal, the 6800 should measure about the same, may be within +/- 1 to 2 dB max. The 8500 wins in the amp section but the difference in dB is not significant.

 

[Zwepp]

...and not just in the interface and ability for X to load REW filters.

With this you mean the X6800H? That would be a nice feature. The Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 has a great PEQ funtion implemented next to it's RC, and I'm thinking of getting a Eversolo DMP-A6 as a source for streaming and PEQ functionality when I swap the Lyngdorf for an AVR. However, when you can load REW filters to the AVR, that would be great for movies etc as well. Is this also available on the the 3800H and 4800H?

 

[peng]

Is this also available on the the 3800H and 4800H?

Yes, but you need Audyssey MultEQ X. Without that, you can still implement PEQ kind of filters (imo better because Audyssey would still use FIR filters to implement those so called PEQs) using the $20 app with 3rd parties software such as the free Ratbuddyssy and OCA's Audyssey One:

Audyssey One (OCA's REW + MultiEQ app based automated script) - anyone here tried it yet?

This looks interesting and promising: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/audyssey-one-oca-does-it-again.3297198/ It's a browser-based script. I'm going to give it a try this weekend. User reports at AVS sound promising (some claim it's better than MultiEQ-X and Dirac Live).

www.audiosciencereview.com

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/announcing-ratbuddyssey-a-tool-for-tweaking-audyssey-multeq-app-files.3006886/

 

[Zwepp]

Awesome, that's a whole new world to dive into. I was just getting started with REW and have made some nice changes in the 20-300Hz region (mostly the massive 35Hz and 70Hz room gain spikes). Luckily my Arendal 1723 1S subwoofer also has a 7 band PEQ built-in. Thanks for helping me out here!

 

[Newman]

the Audy has grown a bit over they years, namely for additional hardware features that D&M have added. Sadly, not more than that.

What specifically would you like, "more than that"?

 

[ban25]

What specifically would you like, "more than that"?

Impulse response correction, ability to measure using a USB mic (UMIK-1) on PC instead of the bundled mic, disable mid-range-correction by default, MacOS support for MultEQ-X, etc., etc.

 

[Newman]

Impulse response correction,

What does the science tell us about the audibility of impulse response correction, once frequency response correction is obtained?

ability to measure using a USB mic (UMIK-1) on PC instead of the bundled mic,

Does MultEQ-X allow anything similar, eg import a measurement taken that way?

disable mid-range-correction by default, MacOS support for MultEQ-X,

OK

etc., etc.

I think I asked for specifics?

 

[ban25]

I think I asked for specifics?

Pedantic much?

 

[Oddball]

Well the list is long and some of the items already noted. Some of the items on top of my list:

Aligning subs with option of LCR would go a long way. Automatic like DLBC and then with manual adjustments option.

Never really understood why they could not provide measurements after correction ie with correction applied and put it in format similar as REW. That would be more of a convenience feature but very useful.

Crossover settings in at least 5hz increments, which might also require D&M firmware support. Same for the LFE distribution and LFE+Main settings.

3D remapping like Trinnov (and Sony or YPAO), only better. They could throw in support for multiple centers as well.

I think this one does not get enough attention but is actually widely applicable as lots of people don’t have dedicated HT rooms. So measure the whole room and eventually optimize mods outside of MLP with ability to assign weighting to MLP vs other positions. Example: you have great response and graphs for MLP but at the same time your kitchenware and cabinets are almost at a breaking point.

EDIT: Almost forgot a really important one. First sweep for the whole room/space. Then recommending the sub placement based on number of subs entered and if possible with criteria in the last point above. This is what took me probably 50+ hours in my current room that is highly irregularly shaped and multi-purpose.

 

[ban25]

EDIT: Almost forgot a really important one. First sweep for the whole room/space. Then recommending the sub placement based on number of subs entered and if possible with criteria in the last point above. This is what took me probably 50+ hours in my current room that is highly irregularly shaped and multi-purpose.

That would be really nice and actually not hard at all to do.

 

[Oddball]

Do we know if anyone from Audy / D&M is on the forum so we can tag them to this thread? Lots of feature requests but perhaps they can accommodate at least some of them more easily than the difficult ones.

I would love to see Audy evolve in a more modern and lifestyle friendly system where people don’t need to have a dedicated rectangular batcave and spend weeks and months tweaking their systems.

Audy is still my RC of choice over Dirac, but some evolutionary and revolutionary progress is needed if they want to be RC of choice for a wider group of consumers.

 

[dave999z]

I still cannot seem to get my 6800 to just return to the last used sound mode for each type of signal. Everything is coming through hdmi eARC input. The signals are either stereo, DD 5.1, DD+ 5.1, or Atmos. I only want to use those corresponding sound modes. E.g., for a DD signal I want DD mode, not "DD + DSurr". But it just will not remember and return to the last mode for each type of signal. It seems to always want to use the "... + DSurr" mode for everything.

Any tips on getting this to happen? It's super annoying to have to check and switch the sound mode all the time. It seemed to be working great for a while when switching among these signal types. Then I did some AudysseyOne script tweaks (which are great), and now it won't remember the last used sound modes.

 

[Oddball]

I still cannot seem to get my 6800 to just return to the last used sound mode for each type of signal. Everything is coming through hdmi eARC input. The signals are either stereo, DD 5.1, DD+ 5.1, or Atmos. I only want to use those corresponding sound modes. E.g., for a DD signal I want DD mode, not "DD + DSurr". But it just will not remember and return to the last mode for each type of signal. It seems to always want to use the "... + DSurr" mode for everything.

Any tips on getting this to happen? It's super annoying to have to check and switch the sound mode all the time. It seemed to be working great for a while when switching among these signal types. Then I did some AudysseyOne script tweaks (which are great), and now it won't remember the last used sound modes.

Not sure if Audy One has anything to do with the issue, but certainly not out of the box feature.

Multiple soft resets might help and if not then a hard reset which will need new initial setup. If it persists than it is an issue.

 

[dave999z]

Not sure if Audy One has anything to do with the issue, but certainly not out of the box feature.

Multiple soft resets might help and if not then a hard reset which will need new initial setup. If it persists than it is an issue.

How do you do a soft reset?

 

[Oddball]

Hold the power button for couple seconds until you hear a click and that should restart it as opposed to starting from stand-by.