Looking for a new AVR - suggestions?

Hardware
21

@HorizonKane
It appears you have not bought a new receiver in a while, so here’s some anecdotal evidence: the dependability of all these devices has plummeted in the past 10 years or so. We all know about planned obsolescence and the fact that it’s not profitable any more to make HiFi gear that lasts 30 years as they used to in the 80s, but apparently there’s more than that.

I had a Denon receiver which lasted from 2007 to 2018, so 11 years (AVR 1907) and still worked although the protection would be activated after 2-3 hours. I changed it to an entry Denon, AVR-X1300W, but this one lasted 2 years and 1 month before the HDMI board went defective (1 month out of warranty, replacement cost was 75% of the price of a new receiver). I had also purchased a Denon DVD player in 2010, but it lasted only 2 years, so not great.

So I was done with Denon, started researching and people on forums say that Yamaha has the best reliability record. So I purchased the new Yamaha, but, HDMI problem aside, it burned a final transistor exactly 15 days after purchase, 1 day out of the return window. Luckily, it was repaired in 1 day and now works.

I initially thought that a higher end model from any brand would be better build, better components etc but apparently that’s not the case (according also to forums and also according to the person that repaired my Yamaha).

No conclusion, just venting out my frustration with these damn receivers :-))

22

Thats one of the reason why Im going for the 4700, it has another platform. Tests attest also the 3700 a great manufacturing, but the 4700 is from the upper class of their systems with an even better hardware platform. I hope that it will last many years. My AVR270 does and it is really cheap sh** in my eyes (case, buttons, etc - no premium feeling).

Did not take a close look at Yamaha yet, but will still do before buying. But it seems that the Denon matches my feature list better.

Edit: Just checked Yamahas products, but they don’t really have a device that compares to the Denon X4700H. The R-A2A is more in the league of the Denon 3700 or below and the better models are already much more expensive than the Denon 4700.

One more cool feature of the 4700 is a second HDMI Out (“Video Zone 2”) which might replace my HDMI Splitter in the Ambilight setup if I’m lucky.

And for Onkyo: They are currently in an insolvency with ncertain future, will not bet my money on them.

23

Seriously consider the new Anthem series of AVR’s and Pre-Pros

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Anthem is stepping up a notch. From a price and quality point of view. (for the record, I’m eyeballing the MRX-740)

Receivers are a tricky thing. Standards, options, features seem to go very fast in the industry nowadays. Buy the cheap one and upgrade regularly or buy an “expensive” one, don’t look back and enjoy it for the coming years. (which you also can do with the cheaper one)

You often can read that a good 5.1 system can easily outperform a bad installed 11.6.4 whatever system so don’t stare blind on all the features. :slight_smile:

25

Integra is the "high end "brand of Onkyo for the US market I believe.

Back in the 80/90’s the “High End” Onkyo stuff in Europe had the Integra name as a badge to distinguish it from the normal Onkyo stuff.

26

Anthem looks cool, too but again a few hundred bucks more.

What I really like about the Denon X4700H is that it offers upper end quality and features for a still reasonable price and I am not willing to go above the 1500. Also my wife might start asking questions in that case haha.

However the 4700 is not listed here: Denon AVR Network Receivers - Home Assistant

I hope just because it’s still quite new.

27

So, if you answer them correctly, 2000 is doable? :stuck_out_tongue:

But seriously, i had about the same budget, got the Denon AVR 3600H and i do not have any complain. My neighbors may have some…

28

Haha.

So initially I thought, 500EUR should be ok. Then I did some research and quickly came to the conclusion that I should invest around 1000EUR. So no, 2000 is no option, even if doable. 1500EUR is the upper end I am willing to invest here :smiley:

29

Denon 3700x 4700x seem to hit the sweet spot with many people.

If you’re tight on a budget then you might want to read this thread

and make your own decision.

Both have Heos strreaming integrated and that works with HA…

30

Thanks will read through that. However I will keep it most likely for 5 to 10 years and the 4700 still has some stuff that motivates me to give them the extra money: The better hardware platform, second video zone, metal finish front instead of plastic and very cool: The possibility to save two speaker profiles and quickly switch between them.

Of course one might doubt if those stuff is worth the extra money but to me those are things I value a lot.

31

Hello, do you know how to stream camera feed to a Denon receiver?

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You can’t send video streams to a Denon Receiver.

33

Thanks for clarification, any suggestion as what device is good for my use case. I want to call a service from node red and have stream of one of my cameras to show on my TV

34

You’d need additional hardware such as a Pi and then with Kodi it should be doable.

35

I see thanks for the input. Now that I think about it I also need a way to turn on my TV since it is not smart enough to support wake on LAN

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Or any unit with ‘Chromecast built-in’. Aren’t there receivers out there with this now?

37

My TV also does not wake on LAN. But it does wake after power loss. So i added a smart power switch to the TV and so HA is able to turn on and off the TV whenever needed.

Other possibility would be a IR remote, like Broadlink RM.

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