Wow, you didn't waste any time!
Well, I didn't have much choice since the HDMI board completely failed on the Onkyo just the day before.
The 906 was a flagship, the 4800 is 2 notches below flagship. Sound quality is subjective, and unfortunately you can't get your preferred DPLII anymore.
You will find the MultEQ app useful for sure. The $20 app is worth it.
I don't consider the AVC-X4800H two notches below the flagship, because the A1H is a stand-alone A/V amplifier and falls in it's own "endgame" category.
Funny thing is that in Europe and on the European Denon website the A1H is labeled as A/V amplifier, not a A/V receiver (as AVC-A1H).
But on the Denon USA website, it's the AVR-A1H and labeled as an receiver.
I bough the Onkyo TX-NR906 for 1750 euro (MSRP was 2000 euro) in 2008.
Since then, prices gradually exploded in the past 15 years for TOTL AVR's.
Nowadays you get less for your money in terms of build quality and certain components.
1) No more massive toroidal transformer
2) No more gold-plated RCA connections
3) No more high-quality binding posts
The Onkyo probably has a better aluminium frontplate (look and feel) and a remote the looks better and has a better layout.
The Denon remote has the colored Sound Mode buttons placed too far down to hold it conveniently while pushing one of those buttons.
And the volume control on the Denon is too sensitive for my taste, it's not gradually increasing or decreasing.
I know it's just small things I complain about and it's not always sound quality related.
Maybe it's just something to get used to, but it annoys me a bit.
That brings me to the question: is the Onkyo TX-RZ70 worth almost 1300 euro more while having the same shortcomings as the Denon I just mentioned above.
Even if you factor in the Dirac Full Bandwidth license for the Denon there's still a 900 euro price grap.
So, verdict is not out yet. Maybe I'll still get the Onkyo TX-RZ70 before the 60-days return period is over to compare it with the Denon.
I was looking at that yesterday. The AH1 is the top but the 8500 and 6700H have 1 HDMI 2.1 and no Dirac Live so they're old gen.
Wouldn't that make the 4800 the 2nd from the top.
Hasn't the 4000 series always been the 2nd from the top with the 5000 series being the AH1 or 8500 equivalent?
Granted the 4800H is just under 30lbs which is on the light side especially in its class - it should have weighed 32-33 lbs which is exactly what the 6700H and Cinema 40 weigh so they did cut some stuff out. They could have put a small 3lb dumbbell wrapped in norez under all the boards to beef it up - and even called it the new high acoustic dampener - no one would have known
Remember their line-up isn't complete until the AVC-X6800H is released.