Head to Head Receiver Challenge. Spending $3,000 for Yamaha RX-A2010 vs Denon 4311ci

So .... after playing a bit with Denon 4311 and Onkyo 818 .....

No offense to Onkyo 818 owners but that unit is going back.

To me, even though sound was pretty good from Onkyo ... compared to Denon 4311 I found the following...

Onkyo 818

1) Sound felt a bit too plastic. Don't know how to explain it but Denon just felt more real. Maybe it's all in my head but I was there with a friend and even though he liked Onkyo too ... he felt the same about plastic sound. Denon felt more natural

2) Unit is wayyy too big. Barely fit into the space I had.

3) Knob felt cheap. Not providing a paper manual made me feel as if they were trying to save money on every possible thing and that means that there could have been many other things that got little attention.

4) Color on display. Sorry but huge turn off. Who uses that 15 year old green color on display and then adds light blue glowing color on the knob??? These 2 just don't go together and it looks bad. I am not a designer, but believe me ,,.,, if you care how your unit looks at night .... colors are bad.

5) Running Audyssey gave similar settings as Denon but not identical. I think Denon set speakers to large but crossover to advanced at 40hz fronts, 60hz surrounds. Onkyo set everything to 40Hz.

6) Denon has this nice info on the screen .... on left side of it it shows you the source capability like .... if it's dolby 5ch or 7ch or stereo ... and on right side of the screen it shows what your receiver is outputting. I like this info.

anyway .... i am sure i did not give Onkyo a fair chance. I had it on for about 3-4 hours, did not read the manual ..... cause it was on CD .... and packed it back into the box. My heart just wasn't with it.

I think I know what you mean regarding the sonic difference between the 2 units. I went from a Denon to an Onkyo. The way I'd describe the sonic difference is like this: The Onkyo is a meat cleaver while the Denon is a scalpel.
I sold the Onkyo and picked up a Marantz SR6003. I have the sound I was missing in the Onkyo.;)

Hi Pianist,

Thanks for the update. As I mentioned earlier, this is the right way to approach and evaluate new equipment--in your own home and in your own setup. Even at home, there are enough variables to worry about, let alone trying out a component on a showroom floor when there are new speakers and new electronics all set up in a different room!

Anyway, I can appreciate what you mean about the appearance and aesthetics of the Onkyo. Of course, it is a subjective thing, but it's one I can agree with. I wish you would have given it a fair shot in the sound quality department. Receivers have lots of features and (sometimes) have difficult menu structures. However, I can understand your lack of enthusiasm if your heart wasn't in it.

So, it's one down. Denon and Yamaha RX-A2010 to face off next, yes?


EDIT: Let me just say that I don't have a stake in this game. Currently, I don't use a receiver, but I have used and tried models from all three brands Pianist mentioned. I'm just along for the ride. :)

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Originally Posted by Dark Ranger

Hi Pianist,

Thanks for the update. As I mentioned earlier, this is the right way to approach and evaluate new equipment--in your own home and in your own setup. Even at home, there are enough variables to worry about, let alone trying out a component on a showroom floor when there are new speakers and new electronics all set up in a different room!

Anyway, I can appreciate what you mean about the appearance and aesthetics of the Onkyo. Of course, it is a subjective thing, but it's one I can agree with. I assume you gave it a fair shot in the sound quality department. Receivers have lots of features and (sometimes) have difficult menu structures.

So, it's one down. Denon and Yamaha RX-A2010 to face off next, yes?

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Yea I know I should have used each for at least a week to get a better idea, BUT .... don't feel like keeping expensive things in my place for too long and I just didn't feel it, you know what I mean? I hate that green display color from Onkyo. Had the same green with my 11 year old HTiB system. Also it just felt cheap to me. Them saving money on manual, giving us expensive Audyssey EQ32 might have made them cut on many other things.

Regarding Yamaha ....... a friend who has been pushing me to try Yamaha (he would bet his life on Yamahas) is now giving respect to Denon after he heard what that unit got out of my speakers.

before I go on to purchase Yamaha for testing ... I want to switch back to my old Yamaha in 2-3 weeks after I perfect Denon just to see if it's worth it for me to spend $1,200 on a new receiver.

nice to go to old things to appreciate new things.

No worries, I understand. :)

The Denon model you tried is a very nice receiver and I'm not surprised to hear it performed well. Switching back to your current Yamaha for comparison is a good plan. I've done that myself with various things and it makes the differences more apparent. I'm curious what Audyssey would do in that room compared to YPAO (albeit an older version). However, don't forget to try music in Direct mode with no processing.

Good luck and remember to have some fun! :D

Did you use an SPL meter to level match the output for comparing?

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Originally Posted by curtis

Did you use an SPL meter to level match the output for comparing?

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Have no clue what SPL meter is, but ...... I was able to get the sound i initially liked. I just turned on dynamic eq AND dynamic voice control to "evening" and that did the trick. Still get my sound effects but now it just sounds better.

I do have my blu ray player also set to dynamic sound control ON. I'll try disaableing it tomorrow. We'll see what happens. I just hate grabbing the remote when movies go into shooting or blowing up scenes.

An SPL (Sound Pressure Level) meter measures how loud the music is. The unit if measurement is Decibels (dB). An increase of 10dB is considered doubling perceived loudness of a sound.

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Originally Posted by Pianist718

Have no clue what SPL meter is, but ...... I was able to get the sound i initially liked. I just turned on dynamic eq AND dynamic voice control to "evening" and that did the trick. Still get my sound effects but now it just sounds better.

I do have my blu ray player also set to dynamic sound control ON. I'll try disaableing it tomorrow. We'll see what happens. I just hate grabbing the remote when movies go into shooting or blowing up scenes.

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Sorry....I missed this.

Interesting that you like dynamic controls set to on. This reduces dynamic range, and I suspect that the dynamic voice control raises the volume of the voice range.

What was the outcome of this ?