Denon X4200W vs X3700H - help!

[darkblack]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and seeking advice.

1. Would the 3700H be considered an "upgrade" to the X4200? I've had it for 5 years now.
2. The X4200 has started showing some issues, like HDMI signals dropping out randomly and would not come back on until I cycle through other HDMI sources
3. Planning to set this up with the PS5 and LG 77GX OLED. Am I on the right path?
4. I like that the X3700H is sub-£1K, should I be looking at another AVR at this price point or under? I am by no means an audiophile but can appreciate good sound. Primary usage is tv/movies (Oppo UHD player, Apple TV 4K, Kodi library in mostly HD) & casual gaming. Speaker setup is not very elaborate: 5.1 B&W MT-60D which I find adequate for the limited room space I have. Would upgrade when I move into a bigger house.
5. Looking for an AVR which is as future-proof as possible (next 5 years, at least) with room to expand my speaker setup to 7.1 if & when possible.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Crane]

It's best to read the review for the 3700, however i would say it is an upgrade. For AVR, just look for the best priced for you with the features you want.

In terms of sound you wont notice much outside of clipping the amps after i believe 1.5V which might limit the volume for you (probably outside your typical listening range). If you use an external amp that should bypass that issue ( read the review page to be sure).

Either way if you didnt have a problem with the 4200 soundwise you wont face anything with the 3700. The HDMI 2.1 chipsets seem to have issues on the new receivers for 4k120hz passthrough، so you may want to double check on that (not all devices i believe PS5 is safe).

 

[peng]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and seeking advice.

1. Would the 3700H be considered an "upgrade" to the X4200? I've had it for 5 years now.
2. The X4200 has started showing some issues, like HDMI signals dropping out randomly and would not come back on until I cycle through other HDMI sources
3. Planning to set this up with the PS5 and LG 77GX OLED. Am I on the right path?
4. I like that the X3700H is sub-£1K, should I be looking at another AVR at this price point or under? I am by no means an audiophile but can appreciate good sound. Primary usage is tv/movies (Oppo UHD player, Apple TV 4K, Kodi library in mostly HD) & casual gaming. Speaker setup is not very elaborate: 5.1 B&W MT-60D which I find adequate for the limited room space I have. Would upgrade when I move into a bigger house.
5. Looking for an AVR which is as future-proof as possible (next 5 years, at least) with room to expand my speaker setup to 7.1 if & when possible.

Thank you for your help!

I would bet the 3700 is future proof if our goal is for just 5 years and if this 8K thing will hold valid, unlike the 4K, that was a really bad experience for those who jumped in too early. I bought the AV8801 thinking that it would be future proof for 5 years but by the time 4K movies were out, the 8801's 4K feature was already outdated, the PS4 was the same in that sense, just a little better.

So if you can wait, you probably should wait for the AVR-X3800H and see what happens with the 8K thing. Your X4200W's HDMI issue may be just due to dirty connections if it had been connected for 5 years without being disconnected/connected and/or dusting etc.., so tried unplugging all of them, give them a good cleaning, vacuum the ports, plugging them back in and make sure connections are all tight. Obviously also make sure it is not the cable.

Edit: Forgot to mention, if you are going to clean the HDMI connectors, please turn power off first.

 

[darkblack]

So if you can wait, you probably should wait for the AVR-X3800H and see what happens with the 8K thing.

Do we know ETA in terms of availability for X3800? The only thing bothering me at this time is the HDMI 2.1 chip issue with these AVRs, some reports say the PS5 remains unaffected. Worse case scenario, I'll use ARC.

Your X4200W's HDMI issue may be just due to dirty connections if it had been connected for 5 years without being disconnected/connected and/or dusting etc.., so tried unplugging all of them, give them a good cleaning, vacuum the ports, plugging them back in and make sure connections are all tight. Obviously also make sure it is not the cable.

Edit: Forgot to mention, if you are going to clean the HDMI connectors, please turn power off first.

That could possibly be the issue, I'll give it a shot. The signal dropping occurs almost exclusively with the Apple TV device, and some HDMI ports are not working at all. When I replaced the PS4 with the PS5 (on the Game port) there was no signal detected even though it was working fine with the PS4. It only worked when I connect the PS5 to the front HDMI port on the AVR. The PS5 didn't work with any of the rear ports. I still need to explore what happened there. Any clues, apart from the possible dust, which I'll check as well. Thank you.

 

[Crane]

You are probably better off connecting the PS5 to your TV for HDMI 2.1 from that

 

[peng]

Do we know ETA in terms of availability for X3800? The only thing bothering me at this time is the HDMI 2.1 chip issue with these AVRs, some reports say the PS5 remains unaffected. Worse case scenario, I'll use ARC.

I don't know but a good guess would be about a year after the launch date of the X3700H. About the HDMI 2.1 chip issue, that's exactly why I prefer not to jump right away (based on past history) for any major HDMI version change that seems to always involved hardware change, same for the 8K based on the 4 K history, though I bet 8K or not may not be a factor for a lot of people.

 

[Chrispy]

Not only the 2.1 chip thing, but the DAC chip supplier AKM being out for a while could affect new models too I'd think.

As to the 4200 vs 3700....other than perhaps getting rid of the hdmi issues, I wouldn't expect any particular change in audio except for any difference in feature set.

 

[peng]

Not only the 2.1 chip thing, but the DAC chip supplier AKM being out for a while could affect new models too I'd think.

As to the 4200 vs 3700....other than perhaps getting rid of the hdmi issues, I wouldn't expect any particular change in audio except for any difference in feature set.

They will most likely switch to another make, hopefully a better one than the AK4458 and not the ES Sabre that has the IMD bump.

 

[Chrispy]

They will most likely switch to another make, hopefully a better one than the AK4458 and not the ES Sabre that has the IMD bump.

From the update I saw about AKM kinda not being too forthright with the extent of the damage to the plant, and the uniqueness of the plant doing DACs, it may not be so easy to replace the AKM with others, tho....not a drop in thing apparently.

 

[peng]

From the update I saw about AKM kinda not being too forthright with the extent of the damage to the plant, and the uniqueness of the plant doing DACs, it may not be so easy to replace the AKM with others, tho....not a drop in thing apparently.

I bet you are right, but D+M has been using the AK4458 5-6 years now so by 2021 it shouldn't take a lot to motivate them to switch back to TI that they had used for many years prior. The issue could be that there might have been no precedence for a DAC chip change in the past, on different model years but same AVR/AVP model.

 

[Dj7675]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and seeking advice.

1. Would the 3700H be considered an "upgrade" to the X4200? I've had it for 5 years now.
2. The X4200 has started showing some issues, like HDMI signals dropping out randomly and would not come back on until I cycle through other HDMI sources
3. Planning to set this up with the PS5 and LG 77GX OLED. Am I on the right path?
4. I like that the X3700H is sub-£1K, should I be looking at another AVR at this price point or under? I am by no means an audiophile but can appreciate good sound. Primary usage is tv/movies (Oppo UHD player, Apple TV 4K, Kodi library in mostly HD) & casual gaming. Speaker setup is not very elaborate: 5.1 B&W MT-60D which I find adequate for the limited room space I have. Would upgrade when I move into a bigger house.
5. Looking for an AVR which is as future-proof as possible (next 5 years, at least) with room to expand my speaker setup to 7.1 if & when possible.

Thank you for your help!

My 2 cents.... Yes, it is a worthwhile upgrade, but not for the reasons you might think... The 3700 will work with the audyssey app and the 4200 won't. The app will let you do 3 important things:
1-change the slope of the curve. Without it you are stuck with Flat or Reference. Neither is very good in my opinion.
2-You can turn off midrange compensation
3-You can limit the frequencies that Audyssey tries to correct. Without the app you don't have this option. Many have best results limiting EQ from the 200-1K region.

 

[darkblack]

Thank you all for the advice, its very appreciated.