Denon AVR-S930H

[king3pj]

I think you will like it. Congrats. I almost bit on the 6400 for my Theater room, but that sale didn't last long. By the time I got back on later in the day, it was back up to MSRP

Thanks. The Denon S730H is on sale for $349 today. That seems like a pretty good price for it's feature set. I know that this is a budget system compared to what some of you have but as long as it's comparable to the Onkyo TX NR609 it is replacing I'll be happy.

Do you know if Dolby Atmos does anything for spatial audio accuracy in a 5.1 setup, especially when the speakers aren't in the perfect position? Maybe this isn't even necessary when Audyssey MutiEQ is already supposed to correct for your room.

I'm just curious whether there will be any difference between Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Atmos from a Blu-ray with an Atmos track on a receiver that supports Atmos with only a 5.1 speaker setup. I bought the receiver for 4K/HDR, not Atmos/DTS:X but I'm wondering if I will get any benefit without adding height speakers since the receiver supports those formats.

 

[jayn_j]

I also think you will be happy. I've had a mix of Denon and Onkyo over the years and both brands have served me well. I am currently running a Denon 4300H (and an Onkyo 706 downstairs). I also added the height speakers to my 7.1 setup and ATMOS disks are absolutely amazing on the Denon.

The ATMOS should correct for improper placement of 5.1, but I haven't tested that. I do know that the 5.1 system I was originally using sounded better with the ATMOS receiver, and has improved each time I add a speaker. Very precise placement of sound.

 

[king3pj]

So I got the Denon S730H setup and rented a few UHD blu-rays from the local store for testing. The first movie I tried out was Atomic Blonde. This movie is DTS:X MA and it displayed as such on the AVR's screen. It sounded great but I'm still not sure whether there is actually any difference between DTS:X MA and DTS MA in a 5.1 speaker setup. Everything I've read says DTS:X and Dolby Atmos are object based instead of having specific audio channels but they also always talk about height speakers so I'm not sure what it does when you don't have those.

I also rented Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and Logan on UHD blu-ray. Both of these are Dolby Atmos titles. When I watched Guardians the AVR screen just displayed Dolby TrueHD. I pressed the info button on the remote and it also just said Dolby TrueHD there. I confirmed that I did have the audio set to the Dolby Atmos track in the blu-ray menu. Even though I didn't have time to watch the whole movie, I popped Logan in and it did the same thing. I also tried the Dolby Atmos test bundle through Vudu on my Roku and the receiver displayed standard Dolby Digital Plus instead of Atmos.

At least with the Denon S730H it appears that you have to have height speakers or you get the Dolby TrueHD core instead of Dolby Atmos. I found this thread at AVForum where they seem to come to the same conclusion. As soon as the OP there tells his receiver he has height speakers even though he doesn't Atmos displays on his AVR screen when he watches Atmos content. Obviously you wouldn't want to leave it set this way though.

This article from Crutchfield seems to confirm what I am seeing too. This seems like it should be a pretty huge advantage for DTS:X over Dolby Atmos but almost every UHD blu-ray seems to be going with Atmos instead for some reason.

Dolby makes specific speaker recommendations for Atmos to achieve optimum performance. This includes a standard 5.1 or 7.1 surround speaker system, plus at least one pair of “height” speakers. The height speakers can be either in-ceiling, or upward-firing Atmos enabled speakers.

DTS:X has no official requirements for the number of speakers or their locations in your room. Simply arrange your speaker system to best fit your space. Then let the receiver’s auto-calibration and object-based surround processor sort out the details. It will determine where to best send dialogue and sound effects.

Regardless of all of that I'm very happy with the Denon so far. It was easy to get up and running and it lets me have 4K/HDR movies and games without having to give up my lossless audio. That was the main goal. DTS:X and Atmos were just a curiosity since this is my first receiver that supports those formats.

 

[dfergie]

I bought the pioneer Andrew Jones up firing speakers for my Yamaha system, work pretty good for heights...

 

[king3pj]

I bought the pioneer Andrew Jones up firing speakers for my Yamaha system, work pretty good for heights...

If I do add Atmos speakers this is probably the way I will go. I’m sure real height speakers would sound better but I don’t see myself hanging speakers on the ceiling of my living room. For now I’m happy with my 5.1 setup.

 

[jayn_j]

I committed to Klipsch many years ago, so my setups are based around classic Klipsch stuff.
My family room setup is the one that has been upgraded to 4k, so when I decided to add the Atmos height speakers, I looked at the ones that sat on top of the mains and fired up. When I looked closely, I found them to be RB-14 bookshelves in a funky up firing case. However, the cost was 3 times that for actual RB-14s.

So, I bought a pair of RB-15s (bigger midrange speaker) and some cheap wall mounts. Got better speakers in an ideal location and saved $150 over buying the upfiring ones. They sound great and look clean in the theater. Here is a picture of the family room setup.
Samsung 65" UHD 9000 series TV
Denon AVX4300H receiver
Samsung UHD player
TIVO Roamio DVR
Toshiba HD-DVD
Klipsch KG-4 Mains
Klipsch Academy center
Klipsch RB-15 heights and surrounds
Klipsch 12" sub

 

[Foxbat]

"You can never have too many speakers..."

(heh-heh, Toshiba HD-DVD player, just like the one I have...)