Dorian
Prominent Member
I was struggling to decide between the 3700 and 4700 because on paper they are quite similar, and after a lot of searching various forums and Reddit threads I couldn't see any opinions from people who had actually listened to both of them back to back. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to do so, so here's my experiences. I'm not a professional reviewer, so please take my opinion as just that!
Intro
On paper, the 4700 is slightly more powerful, has a slightly cleaner front panel (sockets hidden behind a panel), and has AL32 processing. The dimensions of the units are pretty much identical. There's £300 RRP difference between the two (£1099/£1399), although it looks possible to get a bit more money off the 3700 from shopping around, street prices may be more like £999/£1399. I couldn't see any deals on the 4700, but you may be able to negotiate a small discount if you ask nicely!
Both AVR's were tested with an LG CX screen, Kef Q35/95C/85S speakers (these are all around 20 years old!), BK XLS200 active subwoofer, and input sources were Nvidia Shield, Xbox Series X, and Sony UBP-X700
Setup
I don't remember seeing any differences between the setup routines of the two machines. Both got on with the job well. I noted that both AVR's reported my rear speakers were out of phase, but I have checked and double-checked the wiring and cannot see how this is correct, so opted to ignore the warning and continue.
Post-setup, I noticed some extra settings on the 4700 for 2 channel playback that I don't think are present on the 3700. It's a nice feature that lets you do things like set the front speakers to large for music playback, while keeping them small for movies. You can also choose how the sub should operate in 2 channel mode. A nice feature. If you care about this and are considering the 3700, check whether the feature is present.
Sound quality
I tested both amps with a mix of music and film soundtracks. My previous AVR was a Sony STR-DN1080, so both Denon AVR's are a big step up in terms of cost.
The most obvious thing to say is that if you want to listen to music (without a separate stereo amplifier) then you should definitely get the 4700 if you can afford it. I don't want to come down too hard on the 3700, but on music playback I was expecting better for the price, and struggled to notice much improvement over my Sony. I personally wouldn't want to sit and listen to it - music just didn't breathe and capture my attention. The 4700 is not quite hifi audio quality, but it's definitely much better. I could (and do) happily listen to music with it. I am still planning to buy a separate stereo amplifier like the Audiolab 6000A, but will want a home listen now to measure the gains over the 4700
With movies, things are much closer between the 3700 and 4700. Bass through my active sub sounded the same, and it was difficult to hear much difference in other sound effects. Both sounded excellent and a considerable improvement over the DN-1080. My wife noted that it sounds like the sub and rear surrounds are much more active. I believe some of this is due to the excellent dynamic volume feature which works very well for my listening, most of which is lower volume. I believe it's essentially dynamic range compression but it seems very well done - rather than just squashing the top end, it seems to lift quieter sounds to make a film soundtrack seem more alive and involving. There's simply more sound coming from the surrounds which adds to the experience immensely.
That said, I would still say there is a small improvement on movies with the 4700. In every film I tested, dialog sounded a bit clearer. And it's obvious to say but films do contain music, so one of my test pieces - the intro to Jackie Brown - does sound better on the 4700.
On the plus side for the 3700, the slightly subdued midrange gives a bit more emphasis to the lower frequencies so it sounded weighty and bassy.
Other stuff
On both AVR's I occasionally ran into issues with losing the image. This was when closing a 24fps movie stream in Plex on the Shield, and going back to the 60fps menus. This never occurred on the Sony. It required switching to another input and back again to get the picture back. I think this has been resolved by changing the HDMI output from Auto to Monitor 1, and I've also disabled all HDMI picture processing and onscreen displays. I don't really like the onscreen displays.
Denon's implementation of eARC works very well in my setup - the Xbox is connected directly to the TV, and the other devices are connected to the AVR. Switching between inputs works fine, and the TV sees the devices connected to the AVR as inputs rather than the AVR itself. What I mean there is instead of seeing "HDMI 2" as the Denon, it shows the Shield and UBP-X700 as individual devices, meaning the TV can be used to switch between devices connected to the AVR. This feature may be more to do with the LG TV than the Denon though.
The 4700 has a slightly different remote - it's heavier and uses AA rather than AAA batteries. As a result of the weight it feels like a better quality item, but the button layout is considerably more cluttered so it's not a total win.
I read somewhere that the 4700 has a metal front panel. I took that to mean the whole front fascia but that didn't seem any different to the 3700. It may just be be that the fold down panel is metal.
Both AVR's seem to output the same amount of heat.
Build quality seems the same between the two. The rear panels are almost identical.
Summary
With the exception of music playback on the 3700, I was very happy with both devices. I think the 4700 is the better performer, so if it's within budget the 4700 is the obvious choice. In movies it's close - you'd probably have to listen back to back to hear the difference. If you're after both music and movies and want to maximise both value and performance, then the 3700 plus a separate stereo amp looks like a very smart move.
That's all folks, hope this is useful. I chose the 4700 and no longer have the 3700 but if you have any questions please let me know.
Intro
On paper, the 4700 is slightly more powerful, has a slightly cleaner front panel (sockets hidden behind a panel), and has AL32 processing. The dimensions of the units are pretty much identical. There's £300 RRP difference between the two (£1099/£1399), although it looks possible to get a bit more money off the 3700 from shopping around, street prices may be more like £999/£1399. I couldn't see any deals on the 4700, but you may be able to negotiate a small discount if you ask nicely!
Both AVR's were tested with an LG CX screen, Kef Q35/95C/85S speakers (these are all around 20 years old!), BK XLS200 active subwoofer, and input sources were Nvidia Shield, Xbox Series X, and Sony UBP-X700
Setup
I don't remember seeing any differences between the setup routines of the two machines. Both got on with the job well. I noted that both AVR's reported my rear speakers were out of phase, but I have checked and double-checked the wiring and cannot see how this is correct, so opted to ignore the warning and continue.
Post-setup, I noticed some extra settings on the 4700 for 2 channel playback that I don't think are present on the 3700. It's a nice feature that lets you do things like set the front speakers to large for music playback, while keeping them small for movies. You can also choose how the sub should operate in 2 channel mode. A nice feature. If you care about this and are considering the 3700, check whether the feature is present.
Sound quality
I tested both amps with a mix of music and film soundtracks. My previous AVR was a Sony STR-DN1080, so both Denon AVR's are a big step up in terms of cost.
The most obvious thing to say is that if you want to listen to music (without a separate stereo amplifier) then you should definitely get the 4700 if you can afford it. I don't want to come down too hard on the 3700, but on music playback I was expecting better for the price, and struggled to notice much improvement over my Sony. I personally wouldn't want to sit and listen to it - music just didn't breathe and capture my attention. The 4700 is not quite hifi audio quality, but it's definitely much better. I could (and do) happily listen to music with it. I am still planning to buy a separate stereo amplifier like the Audiolab 6000A, but will want a home listen now to measure the gains over the 4700
With movies, things are much closer between the 3700 and 4700. Bass through my active sub sounded the same, and it was difficult to hear much difference in other sound effects. Both sounded excellent and a considerable improvement over the DN-1080. My wife noted that it sounds like the sub and rear surrounds are much more active. I believe some of this is due to the excellent dynamic volume feature which works very well for my listening, most of which is lower volume. I believe it's essentially dynamic range compression but it seems very well done - rather than just squashing the top end, it seems to lift quieter sounds to make a film soundtrack seem more alive and involving. There's simply more sound coming from the surrounds which adds to the experience immensely.
That said, I would still say there is a small improvement on movies with the 4700. In every film I tested, dialog sounded a bit clearer. And it's obvious to say but films do contain music, so one of my test pieces - the intro to Jackie Brown - does sound better on the 4700.
On the plus side for the 3700, the slightly subdued midrange gives a bit more emphasis to the lower frequencies so it sounded weighty and bassy.
Other stuff
On both AVR's I occasionally ran into issues with losing the image. This was when closing a 24fps movie stream in Plex on the Shield, and going back to the 60fps menus. This never occurred on the Sony. It required switching to another input and back again to get the picture back. I think this has been resolved by changing the HDMI output from Auto to Monitor 1, and I've also disabled all HDMI picture processing and onscreen displays. I don't really like the onscreen displays.
Denon's implementation of eARC works very well in my setup - the Xbox is connected directly to the TV, and the other devices are connected to the AVR. Switching between inputs works fine, and the TV sees the devices connected to the AVR as inputs rather than the AVR itself. What I mean there is instead of seeing "HDMI 2" as the Denon, it shows the Shield and UBP-X700 as individual devices, meaning the TV can be used to switch between devices connected to the AVR. This feature may be more to do with the LG TV than the Denon though.
The 4700 has a slightly different remote - it's heavier and uses AA rather than AAA batteries. As a result of the weight it feels like a better quality item, but the button layout is considerably more cluttered so it's not a total win.
I read somewhere that the 4700 has a metal front panel. I took that to mean the whole front fascia but that didn't seem any different to the 3700. It may just be be that the fold down panel is metal.
Both AVR's seem to output the same amount of heat.
Build quality seems the same between the two. The rear panels are almost identical.
Summary
With the exception of music playback on the 3700, I was very happy with both devices. I think the 4700 is the better performer, so if it's within budget the 4700 is the obvious choice. In movies it's close - you'd probably have to listen back to back to hear the difference. If you're after both music and movies and want to maximise both value and performance, then the 3700 plus a separate stereo amp looks like a very smart move.
That's all folks, hope this is useful. I chose the 4700 and no longer have the 3700 but if you have any questions please let me know.
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