Denon AVR 1611 - 5.1 and 7.1 Multizone

[sunyapu]

Bought Denon 1611 with Polk Audio RM6750.

Congracts ! Who's the dealer and what's the price?

 

[zeeya]

Congracts ! Who's the dealer and what's the price?

I bought it from The Home Theater Store in JP Nagar 7th phase, Bangalore. PM me for the price.

 

[swami]

Re: Purchased 1611

Swami, my plans are similar. Would be using it with PSB speakers in stereo at first and looking to move perhaps to surround later. What has been your experience with the 1611 as a stereo?
Also, what is the size of your room?

It is good with stereo speakers when music is concerned (I use wharfedale 9.1). The sound excels (to me) espeacially in jazz, vocal blues etc. Its a pleasure to listen to rock, metal, grunge as well, but these may not be the strength of my setup. I haven't watched a great deal of movies yet, so not sure if you will miss the lack of complete 5.1 setup or not. My room size is 15*12 feet roughly.

 

[zeeya]

Swami,
How much did you pay for your bookshelf speakers?

 

[crewcut]

Now like in everything HT they dont talk about the cons.

Its very difficult to install multizone properly.
Also the power channels are much lower for the 2nd zone
You cannot listen along both zones at the same time - though soem newer models allow for this.
Remote control for 2nd zone is quite expensize and also need to be controlled differently than the main zone, In Logitech terms, this has to be controlled as a "device" rather than an "activity" as it might unexpectedly swtich on/off the AVR.

A better option in my view is a wireless music streamer.

Bottom line: Beware what you might need to plan to get multizone to properly work.

Some results from initial testing:
- Power on Zone 2 seems identical to the other channels.
- Both zones can be played simultaneously
- Didn't try the Harmony remote. Most likely, I can't use this for Zone 2 because I have the new basic model, Harmony 300i ($32), that supports just 4 devices.
- Zone 2 doesn't work from digital sources. So I had to connect the PlayOn HD to the Denon with both HDMI (Zone 1) and RCA (Zone 2). This seems to work though the same source has different names for the two zones, BD & Sat/CBL in my case.

Just realised that I didn't try both zones using the same source simultaneously, though I don't see why it shouldn't work. Not sure if one of the outputs will lag the other when both are played together.

Will report back after installing the second speakers. As you may have noticed, I'm not in much of a hurry.

 

[crewcut]

The Zone 2 speakers were finally mounted in the hall and we've been really enjoying the setup for the past few months. It's really everything that I planned it to be:

• Common set of sources (media player, DVD player, tuner...)
• Flexibility to play same or different sources on the different zones simultaneously (kids watch Tata Sky in the TV room, while we listen to music on the hall)
• Great stereo performance from the Wharfedale Diamond 10.1
• Wonderful 5.1 performance from Energy Take 5 Classic.

Few points:

• Zone 2 can't be played from digital sources (HDMI), so the PlayOn! HD and the DVD player have both HDMI and stereo RCA connection to the AVR.
• On a few occasions, for reasons I haven't figured out, the Zone 1 doesn't play after just this Zone has been switched off and then switched back on. Switching the AVR off and then on sorts this out.

Here's my final setup (approx values):
Bought in India:

1. Samsung 32" LCD TV (Series 5) - 35k
2. Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 stereo bookshelf speakers - 15k
3. PlayOn! HD media player - 10k
4. Seagate HDD 1TB - 3.5k
5. Step-down transformer (750W) - 4k
6. Philips DVD player (legacy) - 4k
7. Belkin Gold power strips - 2k*
8. Tata Sky HD+ - 4k
9. Speaker cabling from ProFx - 4-5k

Bought from the US:

1. Denon 1611 AVR (US spec) - 20k
2. Energy Take 5 Classic (5.1 home theatre speakers) - 20k
3. LaCie 500 GB HDD (legacy) - 5k
4. Wii game console + extra controllers - 13k
5. Subwoofer coaxial, HDMI & RCA Cables - 4k

Home Theatre system - Rs 145,000
Value of time spent on HFV - Priceless

* Power Management: One Belkin Gold for 220V and another soldered directly onto the transformer for 110V. All of the above is connected to the 110V strip, including all the Indian stuff, which are all bi-voltage. This allows me to turn off the transformer shutting down everything together. Only the Tata Sky HD+ is connected to the 220V power strip (even though it's also bi-voltage) so that it stays on to record movies.​

 

[elie]

hi all, just a week before i have purchased denon 1610 and got speakers from craftel chennai, totally 40,000 it came but worth to spend , now the room is looking like a theater and that watching movie in sun direct HD is superb. if you need any more details just msg me

Hello vsaravanavell,
I want to ask you about the sound of music is it good because I have a problem with the music but with the movies it's so nice ...

 

[crewcut]

It's been more than 10 years, how time flies. Time for an upgrade.

 

[Ravikiran 33]

What are your plans for upgrade crewcut?
For last ten years you are using the same setup ?
if so 10 years is a very long time what was your experience with the setup during this 10 years

 

[crewcut]

A lot of technology has changed in the period. The most significant was the source. I had a media server which is totally obsolete. Threw away the DVD player. Usage also changed quite a bit. Life goes on.

 

[crewcut]

Did I forget the TataSky that went out of the window?