Does upgrading a receiver for better sound quality makes sense at 60DB?

[Goldhamster916]

Hi all,

i am half way through building my first home theater setup. Its a 7.1.4 system in a 4x3m room. the average distance to the speakers is 1.7m. I usually set the denon x3800h AVR to 60DB and cap it at 70DB because of living with girlfriend. I have 4ohm KEF LS50 META as FR/FL and 8ohm KEF Q150/Q50a as surround/height. The x3800h got a rather mixed review here from AMIR https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/denon-avr-x3800h-review.38574/. Especially the distortion issues makes me wondering if i could gain fidelity by upgrading to a higher quality receiver in the 1-2.5K price range. What i am asking is: would i even be able to hear any difference at my low listening distances/level?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Steven Holt]

The short answer is no. You would be better served by investing in room correction software. I'm sure many of our other members will be happy to help you in this matter. Welcome to ASR!

 

[Goldhamster916]

Thank you, I appreciate your insight. I will get room correction software for sure once everything is finished. I am debating between Dirac and the windows Multi EQ X App. I don’t mind having to learn Multi EQ X but i wonder what will deliver better results for my 11 channel small room scenario assuming I master Multi EQ X.

 

[Beave]

I second the advice from Steven Holt. Further, I would add that the AVR you have now has enough power to blow your KEFs to bits, so adding more power would just allow you to blow them to bits a little faster.

 

[Chrispy]

The absolute volume control settings are calibrated? Really mostly relevant to standardized movie content.....I use the relative scale but my volume use is similar to yours in any case, altho I do set max a bit higher to 0 (reference level for such films on relative scale).

Ps your current avr is fine, would the extra 2ch of onboard amp be the only feature you want to gain...or?