AV Receiver Advice

barmyllama

barmyllama

barmyllama

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To save future members reading the whole thread I've since purchased a Denon AVR X2300 and the speakers I had sound better with it than my previous amp so the actual question I asked has been answered.


I recently bought a Denon AVR X2000, a set of Q Acoustics 2020's, 2010's, 2000C and a BK Gemini II sub from the MM.

I knew at the time that my wife wasn't happy with the walnut finish of the speakers, that the rears would have to be wall mounted and fitting the front speakers on their stands in the space available would be difficult at best.

As it turns out non of the above worked out and I reluctantly sold the speakers, keeping the amp and the sub.

I then bought a set of Q Acoustics 7000 satellites from eBay. They were well reviewed and, just as important, my wife likes the look of them and they are easily wall mounted. I didn't realise at the time that the Q7000's had been replaced by the 7000i's but I'm happy with the sound so everything should be good.

Sadly no.

During the same time as buying the amp I swapped TV provider to Virgin Media so I now have the new V6 box which is where the problem lies.

Basically my amp isn't HDCP 2.2 compliant so I'm more or less excluded from 4k/UHD going forward, since the V6 box is HDCP 2.2 and so it seems is every other 4k capable piece of hardware. Now do have a mid range 4k TV and nearly bought an Xbox One S last week with a view to getting a few 4K Blu-ray films. But after some research I found out that I'll need HDCP 2.2 to run it through my amp.

So the question is (finally a question) will the speakers I have be a decent match for a Denon AVR X 2300? I'm thinking of selling the Denon 2000 amp while it's still worth selling and replacing it with the 2300, which solves all the HDCP 2.2 ball ache going forward.

Or should I stick with what I have and forget about 4k for a year or so before going back to Sky and the possibility of more widely available content?

If you've read this far then thanks for any replies and apologies for the winding preamble.
 
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Well seeing the you have the Q7000s which aren't huge speakers that need masses of power to drive how about the Marantz NR1607?

I've just picked up one to drive a set of Q7000i's but I've only tested them with an old set of sony speakers so far (pending a room re-decorate) however I'm really impressed with it and it throws out some volume for its size.
 
if the only thing holding you back from 4k is the receiver then wait a month or two for the new models to be released. pick one of them up for the same price as what last year models are selling for now. or last year models will be slashed in price when the new ones arrive.

so keep an eye out on the new models. release dates, etc should be on avforums
 
Psycho Sonny said:
if the only thing holding you back from 4k is the receiver then wait a month or two for the new models to be released. pick one of them up for the same price as what last year models are selling for now. or last year models will be slashed in price when the new ones arrive.

so keep an eye out on the new models. release dates, etc should be on avforums
Click to expand...

Probably a good call. The Denon 2300 is already down to £369 so might be £299 by the time the new model comes out, I'm guessing sometime in the Summer?

I'm certainly in no rush to upgrade, but the any drops in the future price could well be offset by my current amp fetching less money second hand.

My main concern is the speakers I currently have is, are a good match to the Denon 2300 if I decide to upgrade?


GSXRMovistar said:
Well seeing the you have the Q7000s which aren't huge speakers that need masses of power to drive how about the Marantz NR1607?

I've just picked up one to drive a set of Q7000i's but I've only tested them with an old set of sony speakers so far (pending a room re-decorate) however I'm really impressed with it and it throws out some volume for its size.
Click to expand...


Seems more expensive than the Denon 2300 and not quite as well reviewed. Although I do like it's smaller form factor. The Denon 2000 I currently have about as big as I can fit in my unit giving it a couple of inches of height clearance for the heat to escape. Not a closed unit though so it should be ok.
 
I've got a Yamaha V375 in my game room and I do like it.

But I can't say I'm an audiophile by any stretch and so the language used by reviewers reminds me of how wine tasters talk and it doesn't translate into anything I really understand.

I did set up the Yamaha in my living room with the same speakers as my Denon and all I can say is I could tell the difference. But other than that I don't think I could say which I prefer.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Well seeing the you have the Q7000s which aren't huge speakers that need masses of power to drive how about the Marantz NR1607?

I've just picked up one to drive a set of Q7000i's but I've only tested them with an old set of sony speakers so far (pending a room re-decorate) however I'm really impressed with it and it throws out some volume for its size.
Click to expand...

Actually those speakers DO need massives of power due to their sensitivity. 85dB is pretty low. In fact, they need twice as much as power as my large floorstanders.
 
barmyllama said:
I've got a Yamaha V375 in my game room and I do like it.

But I can't say I'm an audiophile by any stretch and so the language used by reviewers reminds me of how wine tasters talk and it doesn't translate into anything I really understand.

I did set up the Yamaha in my living room with the same speakers as my Denon and all I can say is I could tell the difference. But other than that I don't think I could say which I prefer.
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yamaha build quality and reliability is well known, been around for decades and have a sound a lot of people like.

warm just means less treble and human ears actually prefer a warm sound. mids and bass are more emphasised than treble.

neutral is for the audiophile who wants perfect sound for like a studio type situation. unadulterated sound. however like i said before human ears actually prefer a warmer sound some people don't like it's clinicalness. best left to recording artists or purists.

bright means more treble. i don't like this as it feels like it's piercing my ears and screeching. my ears also get fatigued listening to a bright sounding headphone for long periods of time. i personally would avoid a bright sound.

AVR's have DAC's (digital to analogue converters) these can colour the sound depending on the DAC and quality of it. AVR's also have AMP's again these can also color the sound too.

I have a tube DAC and a solid state amp for my PC for headphone use. the tube DAC colours the sound whereas the AMP doesn't. so you can have 1 part that colours it, both parts or neither part.

I like the Yamaha slightly warm sound and it's a neautral - warm amp. It's not very warm, it's more neutral than warm but it does have a slight tinge of warmness. They suit warm speakers very well.

NAD has a warm sound. It's not trying to be neutral but most amps are just that some are better than it than others. Or some like to colour their sound slightly. Their is no right/wrong. Go with what you prefer.
 
Well I've put my amp up for sale so if it sells then I'll upgrade to the Denon 2300 and keep my speakers.

Thanks for all the replies.
 
barmyllama said:
Thanks.

Hoping to sell my amp first. Rather than buying and then having a spare amp in the house waiting to be sold.
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stick it on mm, gumtree and avforums. it will sell if it's priced right. i sold mine within 2-3 days on here. i had 3 people interested then i dropped the price a little and one said they would take it at asking straight away.

if it's priced right it will sell quickly.
 
Just picked up Denon AVR X 2300 from Richer Sounds, Lichfield.

I'll stick the 2000 on Gumtree later and maybe the MM. I only bought it from there a few weeks ago.

I'll report back on the 2300 after I've set it up.
 
barmyllama said:
I'll report back on the 2300 after I've set it up.
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic:
I've just picked up the X1300W, the Denon SYS2020 surround package (will be changing the fronts and centre, and re-using 2 of the satellites for 7.1), and still in the process of setting that up (after my Sony 2400ES decided to die and take out 2 of my old speakers :( ), so be interested to see what you think.
 
Well it's all set up and all I can say is I'm blown away.

I can't believe that the couple of years difference between the 2000 and 2300 can produce such and improvement in, not only sound, but image quality too.

The biggest compliment I can give is my wife immediately noticed the picture improvement as soon as she came in to the room and was just as impressed as I was with the leap in sound quality.

And when I say improvement in picture I don't mean 1080 to 4k, I'm talking about the same resolution between the two amps.

I think it's one of the best technology purchases I've ever made.
 
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Odd , the quality should be the same if you are just passing the signal through.

The 2300 does have the processing modes on by default if I remember, which would explain the difference
 
To be honest I noticed an improvement in image quality between my Yamaha V375 and the Denon 2000 and so did my wife.

My first thought was because my Virgin V6 box had been set to output a maximum resolution of 1080p because of the whole HDCP 2.2 thing. And with the new amp I'd been able to set it to output a maximum of 4k.

But each image quality jump was noticeable streaming from my Plex server as well.
 
I have the 2300 too. Have you just done the basic setup that tests the left and right speaker or did you do the complete setup with the microphone?
 
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