I have old onkyo R320 AVR.Now I am looking for descent 5.1 AVR witha network feature.
I shortlisted DenonAVR 1713 and Yamaha 473.Rates quoted at Gurgaon is 33k for 1713 and 32k for 473.Is it good price or any suggestion for other AVR.My budget is around 30k. Primary use is listening to music.
There was one excellent post (I don't remember) which gave a very good comparision between Yamaha and Denon lowend receivers. Let me put my own points (based on what I read before) and some from the post that I mentioned.
- First, most of the low end/mid-range AV receivers from different brands perform more or less same. Each and every models has it's own pros and cons. So the lesson is - As an user, if you want to buy an AV receiver, it would be better to go to a dealer (who has all the brands) for doing an audition and choose what he likes the most.
- Yamaha is a pioneer in audio processing and they have a wealth of experience in reproducing the sound. The sound looks very natural and accurate on Yamaha and it tries to reproduce even very high frequency sounds accurately.
- Denon is warmer and has a laid back approach. It may not be as bright as Yamaha (when I say bright - it means how good it is in reproducing sound belonging to different frequencies accurately), but has more punch at the bass level. There are few people who like the bass level of Denon. Action movies will have some extra punches in Denon. Denon is also good in creating more immersive surround field. It doesn't mean that Yamaha is inferior in this section, it is only by comparison that Denon looks slightly better when comes to surround.
- Finally, what I also hear is the above said differences are also getting thinner and narrower between Yamaha vs Denon vs Onkyo.
So both Denon 1713 or Yamaha 473 are on even grounds. If you strictly say that your requirement is for music, people will generally recommend Yamaha. Even other wise, you can go for any model.