🤔 ARE cheap DENON RECEIVERS good❓Denon X1700H Receiver Review

oh man the last time we reviewed an affordable Denon receiver it did not go well didn't go well for Denon and it didn't go well for us but as the saying goes Time Heals all wounds and today we have a new affordable Denon receiver so let's see if history is going to repeat itself with the new x1700h [Music] the x-1700h is a 7.2 Channel Dolby Atmos and dtsx compatible home theater receiver that produces 80 watts per channel into 8 ohms in stereo with power likely dropping to around 50 Watts when driving multiple channels Dana does not specify the receiver's official power ratings for all channels driven so depending on your speakers your mileage may vary around back you're going to find six HDMI inputs three of which are spec to receive signals up to 8K 60. the receiver can even scale Legacy signals like HD and 4K up to 8K depending on your settings of course the Denon has Arc e-arc support through its single HDMI monitor out and it supports Dolby Vision HDR 10 plus Dynamic HDR and hlg signals and it's no doubt going to be a hit with Gamers because it has support for Alm and vrr for a full breakdown of all of the features specs including its Wireless and streaming music support please check out our links in the description setup is pretty straightforward but I gotta say a coming off our Cinema 50 and x3800h reviews I really missed the updated UI so no trickle down here is the 1700 h is Still rocking the denon's old user interface the menus are functional and give users all of the necessary controls that you're going to need but visually they look like they've been stripped from an old Game Boy rather than a piece of tax Circa this Century regardless setup is pretty painless and if you use the on-screen guide and odyssey Auto room calibration you should be up and running in about 30 minutes but getting to our test subject we use the 1700h with speakers ranging from Ultra affordable to cost No Object now obviously one isn't likely to abuse a sub 700 receiver with a pair of eight thousand dollar speakers like the Bowers and Wilkins 805 d4s but we did just that to see how well the Denon handled difficult to drive speakers the Denon will technically power a speaker like the BMW though I don't recommend it turning up the volume caused noticeable Distortion not to mention the receiver heated up consent considerably a better match would include speakers with an impedance of 6 ohms or higher or ones with a bit less impedance fluctuation in our testing speakers like the Polk xt60 Klipsch r50m and the JBL stage 190s were all better suited for the Denon for more demanding speakers like BMW focal or even Polk's own reference line I would suggest shopping a little bit more upmarket connected to our Sony x95k TV as well as our Apple TV 4K and Sony PS5 I ran our speakers through the x1700s Odyssey procedure as well as carried out a full manual setup saving each to its own sound profile which is a nice feature and a great way to a b what software like Odyssey does to the sound of your speakers versus when it's not engaged you probably already know that I'm not odyssey's biggest fan but know that it does work and for those of you with untreated or typical Living Spaces or mix matched loudspeakers Odyssey can be a godsend however for the rest of this review I will will be describing the performance of the Denon without Odyssey engaged getting right to it I am not going to go so far as to say the Denon has no sound or is neutral because it's not the Denon has a fun Punchy sound one that gives the listener a sense of a much more base energy or weight though it's not overbearing or uncontrolled and no I'm not describing its base performance when using a subwoofer the x1700h definitely sounds more confident in sure footed down low compared to the vague mushy mess that was the s960h we reviewed two years ago this receiver's base actually has more in common with the costlier X 3800h than anything from denon's cheaper s line which is a very very good thing obviously if you use smaller bookshelf speakers or speakers that need to be crossed over higher than say 50 or 60 hertz which is kind of the case with most budget speakers the bass is going to be routed to your subwoofer and will no longer be the denon's responsibility when focusing my attention on dialogue through either Arc Clips or Bowers and Wilkins center speaker I found the denon's mid-range intelligibility to be pretty solid I would classify the denon's mid-range as neutral leaning though with respect to dialogue it does seem to be just a little bit softer around the edges with respect to focus now this didn't outright her intelligibility for me nevertheless if you need more detail from your Center you can always turn the center channel up or engage one of the many dialogue enhancement features both of which work very very well as for mid-range leaning instruments when listening in Stereo the x1700h isn't going to do anything to color this sound but no I wouldn't say that it's on par with better receivers or a good integrated like the Marantz model 40n in terms of its sense of Dimension as for the highs I think they're pretty good but I am stopping short of greatness because at higher volumes or with less than Stellar recordings or movies the x1700h can thin up top and even sound a little bit brittle at higher volumes I sensed more noise or grain up top than I did through more expensive receivers when watching in the climactic dogfight of top gun Maverick missile launches machine gun fire and jet engine boost all had just a bit of added compression or Distortion when listening at volumes in excess of 90 to say 95 DB a more normal or slightly above normal volumes the Denon didn't disappoint but if you insist on taking things to 11 the Denon will lose some of its composure when it comes to Sound Stage and when listening in Stereo the Denon seems to prioritize with over depth and with respect to separation and focus things are a bit more generalized I don't think the Denon is bad for two channel listening but I wouldn't go so far as to say it is the best that I've heard if you can up your budget slightly I think you're going to enjoy better two-channel performance with the Pioneer 105 or better still the 305. As for the Denon Surround Sound Performance so long as you're content with 7.2 channels I thought the 1700h was pretty great I listened to the Denon in both a 7.1 and 5.1.2 configuration ultimately preferring the latter and even upscaling stereo or older Dolby signals to faux Atmos was effective and even impressive dynamically so long as you connect the Denon to speakers with higher sensitivities think 88 DB or higher and also who have an impedance greater than 6 ohms I doubt you're going to be disappointed more difficult to drive speakers will expose some of the Denon shortcomings so just double check your speaker specs if lightning quick or earth-shattering Dynamics are what you're after as far as comparisons go let's take a look at the Pioneer lx105 and 305 yamaha's v6a and perhaps costlier options from Denon like their own x2800h now I have not heard the Pioneer lx105 but we did review the 305 and we were very impressed with it while the Pioneer 305 is more expensive than the Denon here I think they added investment in the 305 gets you a demonstrably better receiver one that has more channels more power and direct built in something the Denon is never going to have but if you can't stretch your budget the Pioneer 105 may be worth a look before deciding between it and the dennet as for the Yamaha v6a it's a good receiver and was once even our budget reference but that receiver is getting a little bit long in the tooth the Yamaha sound it's a little leaner more agile with a greater sense of detail but I think I'd go with the newer Denon here the x1700h features newer internal Hardware with respect to its video board so it's less likely to have issues with next-gen video features such as 4K 120 or 8k60 signals in our testing the Denon had zero issues playing back games at 4K 120 in HDR through our PS5 whereas our old v6a always had issues while I have not heard the Denon x2800h we did review the x-3800h on paper the 1700h and the 2800h are somewhat comparable so I feel confident and should you have the money to jump up to the x-2800h the added investment will be worth it the 2800 brings more power to the table broader next-gen video capability as well well as preamp outs for a separate stereo amplifier should you want to play with a third-party amp down the road I don't know if the 2800 will sound night and day different but I suspect it will have an easier time powering more difficult to drive loudspeakers so in the end I'm just happy that this is an another Tenon s960h no no no denon's newer X 1700h is a budget denim receiver that I can finally get behind it's no giant killer I mean it's not going to best receivers that cost twice as much but for just under 700 bucks it gives customers a solid place to start their home theater Journey with a receiver that has a lot of what they really need without overpaying for features specs or channels they're never going to use so that's it that is now my take on denon's newish x1700h 7.2 Channel AV receiver but now I'm curious what you thought of it okay well before we get into that okay I have some I have an important update with regards to direct rack any upgrades and the release dates and all that stuff okay breaking news yeah breaking news I finally heard back uh from sound United Okay um all right regarding the release date and this is a direct quote at this point we can only confirm that Denon and Marantz will support direct live room correction limited and full bandwidth versions after the firmware update in March of 2023. okay we also plan to support Dirac live base control although the integration efforts have not yet started and we do not have a firm launch time hmm with respect to yeah yeah I have a feeling you're gonna have some feelings about this okay with respect to cost okay are we gonna have to go back and redo all of our reviews no no but I have some thoughts yeah feelings yeah feelings so with respect to cost direct live room correction will be an optional upgrade a license key for the limited version will cost 259 dollars and the full bandwidth version will cost 349 dollars it will be possible to upgrade from the limited to the full bandwidth version at a later stage with an additional cost of 99 dollars okay all right um well is that is that I mean that's yeah that's the end of my breaking news story okay with respect to I do want to stress that we are talking about the x1700h in this review and to the best of my knowledge it will never support Iraq so this is breaking news for those of you that may have seen our other Denon receiver review or the Marantz Cinema 50 review that we did um so you've been waiting and have been waiting for updates I just don't want you to be confused and go out and maybe get the 1700 h wait until March and then go where's my Dirac that's not what we're talking about um about the news we always knew it was coming later we said that in our review we did not speculate on the cost there were rumors out there about the cost I know several of you have left those comments in the cinema 50 and Denon reviews didn't stop anybody else and it didn't stop anyone else from speculating so now we know the costs um to me and this is just my opinion uh those costs seem a little high I'm accustomed to having to pay for Dirac um it's typically 99 I think the most I've ever seen it is 199 so uh 249 3 or 250 to 350 respectively give or take a couple of bucks two yeah 259 and 349. yeah um seems a little high seems a little uh super premium um especially given the fact that the Marantz receivers already kind of command a little bit of a higher price uh the fact that the the Dirac base uh package has not even begun it's kind of development or integration into the receivers I think is a huge uh bomb drop um because I know that that's something other outlets and enthusiasts and you guys uh down in the comments have been talking up so to learn that it's not even a March thing it could be a you know who knows when who knows when and for the record yeah Andrew is learning of this for the first time yeah this was a conversation that Christy took to have uh by herself um so I just found out yeah I know I know and I'm not I'm not upset about it but um if those of you that just heard Christie's news are reacting like me join me join me won't you um yeah I oh look I still would encourage people to check out both the Denon and the Marantz I think they're both great and they definitely stand on their own um as they sit right now and I'm I meant everything that I said in those reviews boy you just you I mean you just put a whole other pair of concrete shoes on the rz50 in terms of it is planted in the value Department bringing it back to the x1700h sure sure let's let's get back which is which is only twice the cost of a Drac update laughs oh boy okay yep all right what do you think of this receiver what do I think overall I think that this is a good receiver now I am not the biggest fan of Denon sound okay and that's just that's just what it is okay don't hold it against me I don't need you to you know support me in that effort I mean it's just it's just it's just personal yeah out of all the sound United Brands yeah my my personal tastes do lean towards Marantz okay but if my budget was limited and I was dead set on getting either something from Dinan you know or something from sound United I I would get this one until at least until I had the finances to go elsewhere yeah now as for Alternatives um for me the thing that is impossible to ignore is Onkyo okay and you've you've sort of alluded to the RZ 50 but that's significantly more expensive yeah I mean it's a thousand dollars more um one option you might look at is the Onkyo 5100 oh yes how did you miss that anyway I'm here to save you Andrew it is 599 for a 7.2 Channel it has 80 Watts which is the same as what you find in whatever this denim number is that we're talking about The Binding post though they are oh that's right it had those push-pinned garbage stupid stupid stupid yeah so if you are on an or tight budget and you can look push pins this is a really good option it is although this is the one that I'm actually more surprised you didn't bring up so if you can wait and save okay you know over the 5100 I would get the Onkyo 6100 it is 799 dollars it's 7.2 channels okay you get a hundred Watts it supports AK 60 4K 120 the HDMI uh ports are 2.1 it has vrr and Al LM it's only a hundred dollars more than the denim right so for me it's the one I would pick because I just personally prefer Onkyo sound um the 6100 I think that a hundred dollars more no one doesn't have to Rack but it does have Auto room EQ it's not Odyssey it is Accu something or other that that Onkyo has that's also very good um but you would have to step up to the 7100 I think um to get direct in which case I think that's a 1200 units um the 7100 yeah I think it's yeah 12.99 12.99 1300 so it is it is a little bit more and that puts you in the same league as like the costlier Dennings I talked about or the Pioneer 305 so it really comes down to if you were at the sub thousand dollar level um I'm kind of leaning more X 1700h personally I would spend a little bit more for it over the 5100 because I do believe the build quality of the Denon is better if you're able to jump up to like that 12 to 1300 price point I'm still Camp Pioneer or I guess it would be the Onkyo 7100 over Denon in this instance and then of course if you can go up even further the rz50 is still just the king of just value for money um and then at the 20 2500 level then you you're getting into like the cinema 50 and stuff all right guys that is now our review of the Denon x 1700 h AV receiver what did you guys think let us know down in the comments below oh the question of the day has to be what do you think about Christy's breaking news the question of the day is sound off on the breaking news about Dirac for Denon and Marantz products coming in March let us know uh if you like this video please do give it a thumbs up like And subscribe go ahead and ring that Bell so you're notified when new videos come out if you use any of the links Christy love for you down below know that that is a great way that you've continued to show your support for this Channel and the work that we both do here and we thank you very much for doing that follow me on Instagram at recovering audio file and that is it for us today so remember the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you so happy listening everybody thank you so much for watching thank you again for helping us to reach 300 000 subscribers I think we're at three hundred and one thousand at this point uh so thank you very much for that and uh we'll see on the next video bye

Channel: Andrew Robinson

Views: 233,264

Keywords: are cheap denon receivers good, denon x1700h, denon receiver setup, cheap denon receiver, affordable home theater receiver, best budget receiver home theater, affordable av receiver, denon vs yamaha avr, denon home theater receiver review, denon av receiver 2022, denon x1700h vs s960h, best speakers for denon x1700h, denon vs pioneer receiver, denon vs onkyo, denon receiver for movies, dirac upgrade pricing, denon x1700h receiver review, denon x1700h review, avr-x1700h review

Id: 1ycdRqio1Rs

Length: 19min 21sec (1161 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 04 2022