 "It is a Denon, consistant sound quality from product-to-product" | 2009-10-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: AHX0D87ZB702U |
This is to share my experience with a new 4310CI for a week:
PRICE - I just upgraded to this 4310CI from an old Denon AVR3801 which has 7x110W. From all the articles I've read which indicated 4310CI is more likely an upgrade of the 3808CI instead of 4308CI, and price was raised form the 1699 for 3808CI to the 1999 MSRP. However, I had the 4310 for 1248 ([...].) I paid ~800 for the 3801 in 2001. I think 1248 for the 4310CI is alright as of this time.
AUDIO - 1) In pure stereo mode, I cannot tell immediately of an improvement over the old 3801. However, 4310CI's HD radio can lock-in more FM and AM stations (with the 4310CI, signal dropout completely if signal quality is poor) and offers pleasant radio listening experience. I don't have XM and Sirius satellite; therefore, I cannot share any experience for those. 2) In AV mode, 4310CI does differently sensationally and somewhat better than 3801; however, 3801 is doing great basic 5.1 decoding, IMO. No need to upgrade to 4310CI just for this if I am not looking for HDMI connections. 3) The internet radio is cool, and sound quality is not bad. However, it froze on me twice thus far; power cycle brought it right back.
VIDEO - 1) no HDMI handshake issue so far with my LN52A750, and 1080P really does much better job than 1080i via component cables with my old 3801. Again, I wouldn't make the upgrade just for only the video. 2) ABT-2010 does a super job up-scaling my DVD's 480p output. IMO, it does the best up-scaling job (very SMOOTH, although yet Bluray quality) in contrast to letting PS3 (pretty decent) and Samsung LN52A750 (the worse, no acceptable) do the up-scaling.
OTHER - 4310CI gets very warm. My 3808 is running cool to touch from the top, no heat at all. I was concerned about the heat when I first had the 4310CI all connected and ran for just about 15 minutes in -30db. Don't know if this normal; however, user manual does say it would get hot and it needs room for ventilation.
It is somewhat expensive; however, I'd recommend this 4310CI for the price I paid for.
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 "Denon Receivers Signal Drop Out Problems with TVs" | 2009-09-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A7Y1687XDYDHC |
Can anyone comment if the new Denon receiver has resolved its signal dropping out problems with other TVs, especially Sony XBR6? I know many potential Denon buyers woild have this concern too.
I am interested in buying this Denon 4310Ci receiver. However, I am still hesitated because of its signal dropping out problem with many TV especially Sony's. The problem was raised by Thang Nguyen in Amazon for Denon 2809Ci and I comment it at the following link.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3HKJHEXPM4AQ8/ref=cm_aya_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B001CSEZVY#wasThisHelpful
However, it did not bring up enough attention. For further discussions of the problem please go to following forum and Youtube to see the problem:
[...]
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 "Good receiver, great audio and video, but software bugs.." | 2009-08-25 |
| - Reviewed By chandramani |
I got this only 2 weeks ago, so this is a preliminary report:
From my testing so far:
Pros:
1. Great sound; drastic (positive) improvement over previous Denon 1508 I had in this setup.
2. Video: The upconversion from any source to HDMI is great and works without a hassle
3. Audussey setup: was quite easy (just took some 10 minutes) and once done, had done a good job of measuring distances and capacities of speakers I have (Martin Logan Aeons for the front, Vignette for the center, ML Grotto for the sub, but a low end polk audio for surrounds in my 5.1 setup), and correctly set the relative power etc for the speakers. I can see the difference in one of the side chairs in my listening setup, though it is not exactly in the center of the listening area.
4. On screen GUI: Great improvement over my previous Denon/Marantz etc. Again this works flawlessly, and the GUI, while it can be improved, is good enough for most people.
5. The remote: the primary remote, after you get used to it, is great. Now I could dispose of my Panasonic TV remote as well as my DVD player's remotes and just use one remote effortlessly. I also have a Harmony remote that I stopped using long time ago, and this remote is better than the harmony remote in my experience (one simple reason is that harmony remembers the state of the equipment and expects you to use only the remote always; so if you do manual change, for e.g, walk up to the TV and switch it on, harmony gets confused!). Again a great improvement over previous/lower end Denon models.
5. Network access/firmware upgrade: just having these features is a plus (BUT...I had lot of issues with this - that I am covering below)
6. Ipod direct connectivity using front USB input: great again. (I was able to connect both iphone first gen and a ipod video 5th gen as well as a ipod nano 3rd gen and use them correctly using the onscreen menu). There is an audio improvement mode that improves the compressed mp3 music.
7. Several inputs - 6 HDMI inputs there is even a set of front inputs - hdmi, composite,USB inputs for convenience.
8. Doesn't get too hot! I tried pushing this - a higher volume on my 2 ohm Martin Logans and no sweat! Receiver does get hot but not too hot that you will burn your fingers! This is one big reason I bought this receiver - my experience with other brand rececivers was quite bad - at 75-90 watt/channel, these receivers trip my house fuses frequently; Denon (both my old 1508 at 75 watts and 4310 now at 130 watts) does admirably well in this regard and I have no complaints - only superlative praises for the efficiency and power handling of Denon.
Now for the CONS and the problems I encountered:
1. Poor, unfinished, mediocre web access - while it does allow you to change the source, do the setup of components, control multi zones, volume control etc using http (browser) access), it looks very primitive - not one that you expect in a 2000$ receiver.
2. NET/USB Modes: Several bugs here - let me try a few,, but I am not finished finding them yet!
a. Doesn't see a NAS drive I have on the network, but only sees windows media players (DLNA) running on my computers. So, to play an mp3 stored in my NAS drive, I have to have a notebook power on, so the receiver finds the notebook (running vista and media player enabled, and through that connection, finds the mp3 stored in the NAS). While navigating through the remote in the onscreen display of these songs is ok, at the minimum I would have expected a page up/down keys and don't seem to have that. Since searching is difficult with the remote (possible if you can enter as in a telephone number pad..), the least Denon could have done is to add some page functions and keys in the remote
b. Once I selected a song to play, it just continued on to the next song in the list and didn't allow me to choose another song way down 3 or 4 pages down; didn't let me change from this mode to an internet radio mode (either in the web GUI or from the remote). I couldn't stop the playing of music with any of the keys in remote, so I ended up switching off the receiver and powering it on again to get back to what I wanted to do. This, hopefully, should be fixable by a firmware upggrade, and I am hoping Denon will resolve this soon.
c. I think we can select our favorite stations to radio denon option and we can use that later as a quick pick list for radio, but I haven't come to that testing yet. I had enough trouble getting out of this media server playing, and ipod issues...
d. Ipod troubles: a little slow to get connected and show the titles and even after play button was pressed, it took some more time though I expected it to play faster with a direct USB connection.
3. Firmware upgrade is too slow - really took more than half hour!
I am giving 4 stars, only because the problems I saw can be fixed by software updates (I hope Denon will act fast), and the rest, the most important thing for me - audio quality, video quality, power handling - are worth 6 stars.
I haven't got to testing Audussey DSX - the height and wider channel features presented by this receiver. I will update this review as I test more features... |
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| "Great receiver, excellent audio and video, but software bugs.." | 2009-08-25 |
| - Reviewed By chandramani |
I got this only 2 weeks ago, so this is a preliminary report:
From my testing so far:
Pros:
1. Great sound; drastic (positive) improvement over previous Denon 1508 I had in this setup.
2. Video: The upconversion from any source to HDMI is great and works without a hassle
3. Audussey setup: was quite easy (just took some 10 minutes) and once done, had done a good job of measuring distances and capacities of speakers I have (Martin Logan Aeons for the front, Vignette for the center, ML Grotto for the sub, but a low end polk audio for surrounds in my 5.1 setup), and correctly set the relative power etc for the speakers. I can see the difference in one of the side chairs in my listening setup.
4. On screen GUI: Great improvement over my previous Denon/Marantz etc. Again this works flawlessly, and the GUI, while it can be improved, is good enough for most people.
5. The remote: the primary remote, after you get used to it, is great. Now I could dispose of my Panasonic TV remote as well as my DVD player's remotes and just use one remote effortlessly. I also have a Harmony remote that I stopped using long time ago, and this remote is better than the harmony remote in my experience (one simple reason is that harmony remembers the state of the equipment and expects you to use only the remote always; so if you do manual change, for e.g, walk up to the TV and switch it on, harmony gets confused!). Again a great improvement over previous/lower end Denon models.
5. Network access/firmware upgrade: just having these features is a plus (BUT...I had lot of issues with this - that I am covering below)
6. Ipod direct connectivity using front USB input: great again. (I was able to connect both iphone first gen and a ipod video 5th gen as well as a ipod nano 3rd gen and use them correctly using the onscreen menu). There is an audio improvement mode that improves the compressed mp3 music ("Restorer" - has 4 modes - off or no processing, 64, 96bit and HQ - high quality?)
7. Several inputs - 6 HDMI inputs there is even a set of front inputs - hdmi, composite,USB inputs for convenience.
8. Doesn't get too hot! I tried pushing this - a higher volume on my 2 ohm Martin Logans and no sweat! Receiver does get hot but not too hot that you will burn your fingers! This is one big reason I bought this receiver - my experience with other brand rececivers was quite bad - at 75-90 watt/channel, these receivers trip my house fuses frequently; Denon (both my old 1508 at 75 watts and 4310 now at 130 watts) does admirably well in this regard and I have no complaints - only superlative praises for the efficiency and power handling of Denon.
Now for the CONS and the problems I encountered:
1. Poor, unfinished, mediocre web access - while it does allow you to change the source, do the setup of components, control multi zones, volume control etc using http (browser) access), it looks very primitive - not one that you expect in a 2000$ receiver.
2. NET/USB and other network Modes: Several bugs here - let me try a few,, but I am not finished finding them yet!
a. Doesn't see a NAS drive I have on the network, but only sees windows media players (DLNA) running on my computers. So, to play an mp3 stored in my NAS drive, I have to have a notebook power on, so the receiver finds the notebook (running vista and media player enabled, and through that connection, finds the mp3 stored in the NAS). While navigating through the remote in the onscreen display of these songs is ok, at the minimum I would have expected a page up/down keys and don't seem to have that. Since searching is difficult with the remote (possible if you can enter as in a telephone number pad..), the least Denon could have done is to add some page functions and keys in the remote. The specs says it only supports windows media player (plays for sure) etc, so this is not a bug, but a big missing feature for network accessibility.
b. Once I selected a song to play, it just continued on to the next song in the list and didn't allow me to choose another song way down 3 or 4 pages down; didn't let me change from this mode to an internet radio mode (either in the web GUI or from the remote). I couldn't stop the playing of music with any of the keys in remote, so I ended up switching off the receiver and powering it on again to get back to what I wanted to do.
(UPDATE: 9/10/2009: with the latest firmware update, this bug is fixed! There is a minor, new bug now - when the display goes to sleep after some time, the song title etc disapper, but the album art stays in the TV screen at the same place - this could be an issue for Plasma TV users! Denon, please fix this too!)
d. Ipod troubles: a little slow to get connected and show the titles and even after play button was pressed, it took some more time though I expected it to play faster with a direct USB connection. It is also very slow while going through the list of songs in media server/net/usb modes also - not just a little slow - waaay too slow for me - it takes really some 10-15 seconds from the time I press a down arrow key on the remote and the next song display comes on the screen.
3. Firmware upgrade is too slow - really took more than half hour!
I am giving 4 stars, only because the problems I saw can be fixed by software updates (I hope Denon will act fast), and the rest, the most important thing for me - audio quality, video quality, power handling - are worth 6 stars.
I haven't got to testing Audussey DSX - the height and wider channel features presented by this receiver. I will update this review as I test more features... |
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