morini3andahalf
Established Member
Hi,
I need of some advice as my head is spinning looking through AVR specs online.
Much as I have been putting it off, the time has come and I am now in the market for replacing my old Denon AVR 2310. It has served me very well for 11 years and is still going strong audio wise, but recently I'm running into several complications / compromises as I have a mix of 4k 2160p and 1080p sources, Obviously the AVR is so old it is limited to 1080p on the video side. My TV is a Samsung KS8000 circa 2016 (ish) and currently I have all my UHD sources plugged directly into the TV with audio fed back to the Denon 2310 via an optical cable. The 1080p sources are plugged directly into the Denon. This is ok (sort of) as I can get dolby digital through the TV's inbuilt Netflix / prime / disney+ apps and Sky Q seems to work as I can get DD surround when set up in this way.
What has made my mind up regarding moving to a 4k capable AVR is the addition of a google chromecast with google TV I bought just before Christmas. At the moment I am plugging this directly into the TV in order to get UHD video, but am unable to get any surround sound at all. From my limited research I believe the reason for this is the apps on the google CCTV use dolby digital plus and this can't be passed over optical (I could be wrong here, but it sounds plausible to me). My existing AVR does not have ARC so I have no way of getting the best visuals and audio out of the google device hence my looking to upgrade the AVR to something more modern. This isn't the only reason, I also want to simplify the cabling and use the AVR as it is intended for switching audio and video.
My end goal is to have a comparable set up to my existing AVR in terms of power and features but obviously UHD capable on the video side of things (i.e. I want to plug all sources into the receiver and have a simgle HDMI cable running to the TV). Spending time reading the owners threads on here for the models I'm looking at I'm beginning to think I should have done this last year. I have no need for HDMI 2.1 and from what I'm reading a lot of the current crop of HDMI 2.1 AVR's have some HDMI handshaking issues.
Been pondering :
Denon AVR-X2700H
Denon AVC-X3700H
Yamaha RX-V6A
Yamaha RX-A2A (which as far as I can see is identical spec wise though a lot better looking BUT £250 more!)
I think the closest match to my current amp audio wise is the Denon AVC-X3700H, but to be honest it doesn't seem like great value for money to me. IIRC I paid around £600 for my existing amp back in the day.
There does not seem to be a great choice available currently, but where would your money go? What else should I be considering with a max budget of £1k? I would rather buy new than second hand but I realise my options do seem rather limited.
Probably a combination of covid and Chinese new year but the models I list above seem to be out of stock everywhere. The Denon's from AVC-X4700H upwards seem to be readily available, but £1400 is way too rich for my blood! I've got to say the Denon's all look rather overpriced to me, but I guess they can charge whatever people are prepared to pay. The Yamaha RX-A2A is also in stock at several online outlets but I'm not liking what I read about not being able to select source directly and having to cycle through them. That alone would not pass the WAF tests. Besides, how do they justify the horrific price increase over the identically spec'd V6A? Looks rather expensive to me at £900.
I need of some advice as my head is spinning looking through AVR specs online.
Much as I have been putting it off, the time has come and I am now in the market for replacing my old Denon AVR 2310. It has served me very well for 11 years and is still going strong audio wise, but recently I'm running into several complications / compromises as I have a mix of 4k 2160p and 1080p sources, Obviously the AVR is so old it is limited to 1080p on the video side. My TV is a Samsung KS8000 circa 2016 (ish) and currently I have all my UHD sources plugged directly into the TV with audio fed back to the Denon 2310 via an optical cable. The 1080p sources are plugged directly into the Denon. This is ok (sort of) as I can get dolby digital through the TV's inbuilt Netflix / prime / disney+ apps and Sky Q seems to work as I can get DD surround when set up in this way.
What has made my mind up regarding moving to a 4k capable AVR is the addition of a google chromecast with google TV I bought just before Christmas. At the moment I am plugging this directly into the TV in order to get UHD video, but am unable to get any surround sound at all. From my limited research I believe the reason for this is the apps on the google CCTV use dolby digital plus and this can't be passed over optical (I could be wrong here, but it sounds plausible to me). My existing AVR does not have ARC so I have no way of getting the best visuals and audio out of the google device hence my looking to upgrade the AVR to something more modern. This isn't the only reason, I also want to simplify the cabling and use the AVR as it is intended for switching audio and video.
My end goal is to have a comparable set up to my existing AVR in terms of power and features but obviously UHD capable on the video side of things (i.e. I want to plug all sources into the receiver and have a simgle HDMI cable running to the TV). Spending time reading the owners threads on here for the models I'm looking at I'm beginning to think I should have done this last year. I have no need for HDMI 2.1 and from what I'm reading a lot of the current crop of HDMI 2.1 AVR's have some HDMI handshaking issues.
Been pondering :
Denon AVR-X2700H
Denon AVC-X3700H
Yamaha RX-V6A
Yamaha RX-A2A (which as far as I can see is identical spec wise though a lot better looking BUT £250 more!)
I think the closest match to my current amp audio wise is the Denon AVC-X3700H, but to be honest it doesn't seem like great value for money to me. IIRC I paid around £600 for my existing amp back in the day.
There does not seem to be a great choice available currently, but where would your money go? What else should I be considering with a max budget of £1k? I would rather buy new than second hand but I realise my options do seem rather limited.
Probably a combination of covid and Chinese new year but the models I list above seem to be out of stock everywhere. The Denon's from AVC-X4700H upwards seem to be readily available, but £1400 is way too rich for my blood! I've got to say the Denon's all look rather overpriced to me, but I guess they can charge whatever people are prepared to pay. The Yamaha RX-A2A is also in stock at several online outlets but I'm not liking what I read about not being able to select source directly and having to cycle through them. That alone would not pass the WAF tests. Besides, how do they justify the horrific price increase over the identically spec'd V6A? Looks rather expensive to me at £900.