The Denon a11 and its hi-fi qaulities

alwyn

Established Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2002
Messages
570
Reaction score
13
Points
159
Location
west country
I have had the A11 now for four weeksand in that time I have run the machine 24 hours per day on both sacd and cd,each format has had over 200 hours burn in and what a difference it has made.This realy is a first class machine and can hold its own in hi-fi terms with others costing several times more.The dacs in the Denon for instance are just as good as the ones I have in my Lexicon MC8 and that cost £5000 as compared with the £1350 that I purchased the Denon for.All in all a first class unit.
 
Thats really good to hear (if you'll excuse the pun :D )... All im waiting for now is a multiregion firmware patch and a fix for the macroblocking problem and I'll be off to buy one... Given that I have a panny5 - I don't want to take the risk until the macroblocking issue is resolved, however, I will be using my unit for music so im really pleased that its sounds good.

Thanks for the comments!

Steve
 
My unit was deliverd multi region and it has no problems with macro blocking.You should contact the people I bought from and get the same
 
Glad to hear your results alwyn.. i must get mine sorted out soon.

Can i please ask what analogue cables you use to connect it to your amp? You see currently i only have it connected via coax, and was planning on just waiting until the firewire was fixed and using that to connect it to my amp for dvda and sacd, but it seems that i would be missing out on the quality of the a11 dacs if i did this.. so i'm now thinking some decent analogue cables would be the best (if not tidiest) way to go.

Cheers
 
I am using some copper silver plated insert audio cables,but any decent cable will give you good results,I even used the standard cable supplied with the denon and found they were ok.I have in the past spent a fortune on cables,but not anymore.
 
Hi Alwyn,

I believe the macroblocking problem is only evident in progressive scan component configuration & is significantly more obvious when the A11 is used with a Panny plasma screen because the A11 and the panny use a high level of digital noise reduction (from the farouda chipset). Even then, the problem is limited to approx 20% of dvds.

Regarding the multiregion firmware.. did you get your player from Av-land? If so, there has been lots of reports of random subtitle popups even when subtitling has been disabled... for example with the Matrix reloaded film.

If you didn't buy the player from there - I'd be interested to know where you got it from and what firmware they are using.

Cheers

Steve
 
Bought it from Forum HI-FI 01159622150 (NOTTINGHAM)THE FIRMWARE WAS THE LATEST FROM DENON THATS ALL I KNOW
 
does the multi region firmware for the a11 also disable the user inhibitions (ie. being able to skip the copyright warnings and go straight to the main menu instead of being forced to watch them)?

that feature on dvd players really annoys me, it should be illegal to force someone to watch something!

cheers
 
I was under the impression that Denon doesn't yet have a multiregion firmware available..... Can anyone confirm or deny?

I suspect the MR firmware is their own?

Cheers

Steve
 
Well who ever the fimware comes from it works,I have had no problems at all and at the price of £1350 compared to other places charging £350 more they seem to me to be the people to buy from.
 
To know what firmware version the Denon has please do the following:

1) power the player off with the front panel power button

2) while holding the play and open/close buttons down, power the player on using the front panel power switch until you see the play and pause icons appear on the display

3) press the enter button on the remote to toggle through the various firmware registries

Denon has its own MR firmware. Problem is they are using an older version which still has got issues like slow menus and macroblocking. Their latest US firmware version (for the 5900) has most issues fixed but is not MR. Let's hope they make their latest firmware available for the A11 (and MR).

My firmware version (has the known issues but is MR):
Make Day 1015
SYSTEM 6542-1
DSP1 6332
DSP2 6333
ESS 63341
DRV030825

Please post your firmware version.
 
Originally posted by alwyn
I have had the A11 now for four weeks ... The dacs in the Denon for instance are just as good as the ones I have in my Lexicon MC8 and that cost £5000 as compared with the £1350 that I purchased the Denon for. All in all a first class unit.

I am testing the A11 v Pioneer 868aiv: the A11's i.Link does not work with the Yamaha Z9; the 868's iLink does work.

Am I right in thinking that the i.Link route should be preferable because it avoids an a digital to analogue conversion in the player and an analogue to digital conversion in the receiver? Perhaps the picture is more complicated because SACD/DVD-Audio/96KHz signals are downsampled before transmission across i.Link (not sure about transmission across the ordinary digital co-ax connection).
 
Connections apart,IMO. There is no comparison between the A11 and the 868 from an audio point of view,the Denon is by far a superior machine,and I have tried out both.But of course,that is just my opinion.
 
But does the audio in the DVD not get by-passed with i.Link/digital?
 
Do not forget the importance that the transport plays in the rendation of the music apart from the dacs.
 
the i-link will bypass the A11s dacs. If you do choose to use i-link this is no garentee of a better sound. Digital may loose some of its warmth but increase detail a little.

But this will depend on the dacs in the amp. And if you have anything less than a flagship model, then it would be better to use the analog out of the A11.

according to AVS the vsx ax10s dacs are superior tp the A11, so i-link would be the right option to use in this case.
but if you have an ax5i then analog from A11 would be better.

Personaly i think the only weakness of the A11 is its CD playback, not too impressed with that.
 
I have burned in the cd section of the A11 for 300 hours and its transport is now as good as my levinson 37.I use the dacs from my levinson 360s for both,and on an a/b switch between them I can hear no difference.
 
Picked up 2nd hand A11 recently (thanks for the sale gandley).

I,ve connected it up to my A1SR via the Denon-Link cable and think it sounds tremendous IMHO.

Detail retrieval is superb, and I,m sure the bass is better defined and more tuneful than before.

In fact I couldn,t be happier.

Richie.
 
Rich.

it pleases me your happy with the unit.

I still dont like the way CD sounded, but its personal tast.
DVD-a was superb, the best i have ever heard. im saving like a beaver now for the X1. which i hope will be as perfect as its likly to get. but at present theres no doubt the A11 reigns supreme
 
I think I,ve finally got where I want to be with the sound.

I never thought I would say this :rolleyes: , but I can,t see me upgrading the audio side of my system for a while.

Hopefully any bugs in the A11 will be fixed by future firmware, and I,ll now be concentrating on the visuals.
 
Now you,re talking :D

I bought a AE 500 about 6 weeks ago but I think it,s a poor one with quite pronounced VB.

I,m currently in contact with Norr ( a fellow forum member who lives nearby) who has kindly offered to let me compare his PJ.

Depending on the outcome i,ll either try for a replacement or sell and buy something else.

Its never straightforward this AV lark :rolleyes:
 
Gandley,

Have you got any specs or pics on the X1?

Thanks,

Steve.
 
I`ll try and dig out a link, but at the moment its an all digital unit with HDMI. No component etc.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom