Hey I'm relatively new to buying receivers. I'm trying to get a receiver to match my home theater setup with HD front projector, PS3, 4 JBL stadium speakers, 1 JBL voice speaker and, 1 12 inch JBL woofer. I have about 1.5k in bestbuy gift cards so I am somewhat limited to what they carry. I'm replacing an entry level Sony receiver which sounds TERRIBLE (STR-610 or something).
That being said, I was looking at getting the Denon receivers either 2308 ($850) or 1708 ($500). They both seem to have the exact same specs except for a 25 watt difference per channel. Its hard to really test the receivers in stores. Does anyone know if there is a difference between the build quality of a higher end receiver than a mid range from the same company aside from wattage differences? Would 75 watts a channel be too underpowered for JBL staduims? Any other differences that might not show up on the spec sheet that I should be aware of?
The minimum Denon to go for at the moment is the 2808 since this is the one that can cope with the new Blu-ray uncompressed audio formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio). At the 2308 price or less, look at the Onkyo receivers. Everything from the onkyo TX-SR605 upwards can keep you future-proofed with those formats.
In fact, you don't HAVE to have the trueHD and Master Audio capabilities. If the AV receiver can receive uncompressed PCM, the unpacking (of TrueHD or Master Audio streams) can be performed in the player and sent down the HDMI connection as purely uncompressed PCM.
Of course, if you have no intention of ever going down the Blu-ray route you won't need this functionality, but I'd argue this is quite a blinkered approach as I can see Blu-ray ousting standard DVD eventually.
I was under the impression that there are not any Bluray players that send uncompressed audio to the receiver for decoding and that all players, including the PS3 do it internally so it may not make a difference.
Is there a sound quality difference between the higher end Denon and the lower end Denon at reasonable volumes?
Sorry about the wait for my response - I've been ill with a cold, and as everyone knows when a man gets hit with a cold, the whole world can go fiddle as far as he's concerned...
The PS3 can send uncompressed PCM to the AV receiver. The question at the moment is whether it can send TrueHD unpacked. I know it can't send DTS Master Audio. According to avforums (can't remember where) it can't send TrueHD as a bitstream, but the option is actually there in the audio output settings. So - not quite sure what's going on there.
I have successfully used the PS3 into an Onkyo TX-SR605 and 805 and they both confirmed that they were doing multi-channel PCM but I can't remember whether they said uncompressed PCM or trueHD! And I really can't be bothered to take in my PS3 to the shop yet another time (3 weeks in a row so far), sorry!
Now, the important bit - the only way to send uncompressed PCM, or TrueHD bitstream (if possible), or DTS-MA (on another Blu-ray player) is via HDMI. Manufacturers are not allowed to send those formats down S/PDIF or Toslink. This is because HDMI is encrypted and guarantees the audio can't be copied (allegedly).
I have not heard the latest Denon incarnations. If the older '07 models are anything to go by, then yes, the higher end models will sound better. The most obvious thing you'd notice is far more clarity in voices. It makes watching a movie a much easier process in my view.
