Symphy944
Established Member
First of all: I just made the mistake of saying the Yamaha surround receivers don’t do 5.1.4. They do 5.1.4 starting from the (to expensive - for me) RX-A2080. But I already was on 7.1 on my Yamaha and didn’t want to step down to 5 lower channels when adding 4 height channels. So I needed 7.1.4. Something the Denon AVR-X4500H can deliver with an extra external amplifier.Thanks man.
I do love the Yamaha sound signature and only started looking at Denon due to raved reviews and features set. I don’t plan to upgrade for a while so need an amp that’s going to be future proof too. Did you miss the sound on your Yamaha when moving to Denon? What was the thing that stood out most? I’ve looked at that B&W sub but looking for one with more modern feature like the svs app control etc
I made the jump from after having three Yamaha’s in succession to my first Denon about a year ago, under pressure of an unreal promotion. And I was also afraid of losing the pure sound quality of the RX-A1020, but since I already planned to extend the setup with a good stereo amp with HT bypass, I took the risk. And I must say, the X4500 surprised me tremendously. It’s music performance is greater then the Yamaha. Slightly more dynamic, more detail and most of all an even lower noise floor. And because I heard a X3500H briefly in a shop, the surprise was even bigger. I cannot really recommend the X3500H. The X4500H is a whole other amplifier. I suspect that the AL32 processing is the key difference.
Another big difference from the Yamaha: the DSP. Since we moved to another house, about 8 months before the change, I was more or lesse dissapointed by the YPAQ sound corrections in the new situation. The Audessey MultiEQ XT32 of the Denon does a much better job in correcting the acoustical anomalies of our new living room. I almost don’t dare to admit it, but I mostly listen in STEREO mode to music (with DSP active) instead of the PURE DIRECT mode. It does a fantastic job. I suspect it even does correct the phase in one way or another, because even stereo image is better in stereo mode... But I am planning to do some acoustical corrections in the future to be able to listen to pure stereo on my forthcoming stereo amplifier.
And yes, I also think a Marantz will do even a better job in music performance, but it won’t be able to beat a good stereo amp with Home theatre bypass like a Hegel H120 or comparable when you combine it with your surround amplifier. Plus you get the extra benefit of relieving the surround amp of the task of amplification of the two front channels.