Post-Christmas receiver score

OVERKILL

$100 Site Donor 2021
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
57,913
Location
Ontario, Canada
Been looking to upgrade the receiver in the bedroom to something a bit more modern than the 2007 vintage HK that didn't have network connectivity or AirPlay support. It also lacked ARC, which is a nice feature and of course didn't support 4K.

Started keeping an eye on FB Marketplace and Kijiji in case something popped up and it did! Folks on here have been big on endorsing Yamaha for good quality at a reasonable price so when I saw this AVENTAGE RX-A730 come up, I made an inquiry and was able to get it for $175.00.

Supports bi-amping, ARC, AirPlay and 4K, which is nice, since my bedroom TV is a 4K Samsung unit with ARC. It's hooked up the B&W 802's and seems to be sufficient to drive them in this space, which isn't as demanding as the living room.

So, here's what came out:
UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_113d.jpg

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_113e.jpg

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_113c.jpg


And here's what went in:
UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1138.jpg


Upgrading the firmware:
UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1139.jpg


Tested with some AirPlay to the TV and was happy with the results!

The unit isn't insanely high powered, it's 90W/channel RMS @8ohms 0.09%THD, but that's OK. With HDMI-CEC turned on, it comes on and off with the TV and the TV remote controls its volume properly, which is what I was looking for. All-in-all, appears to be a good purchase and the price, was, in my opinion, quite good.
 
Nice find! Did it come with the YPAO mic?

Yes it did! I do not use ANY room correction however, since I run monitor speakers. I have Audyssey turned off on the DENON too for that reason. The room correction and adaption works well when you are using small surround speakers that aren't designed to be monitors, but a true monitor speaker like an 802 or my Paradigms sound much better with that stuff turned off.

Side-note: The DENON does not have the ability to disable Audyssey globally and sometimes it turns itself back on with a firmware update, which is REALLY annoying. I'll be wondering where my low-end went and why things sound shrill and then I see that little logo on the display and I'm like "ARG!!". Then have to go in and shut it off again. The Yamaha appears to only configure YPAO globally and thus I was able to switch it off completely with one click, very nice.
 
What do you mean? The TVs get slimmer and slimmer, which makes the sound from the built-in speakers worse and worse. An AVR is a must, unless you don't care much about good sound.
Oh lol my family isn’t technology savvy we have a smart tv made by Phillips seems to be ok. We never do anything but what comes with the tv we don’t ever unstock anything.
 
I'll be the first to say it:

That's your BEDROOM setup? And I thought I was extra running a basic 5.1 with a cheapy 5.1 Yammy receiver and a 65" budget LCD!

Seriously though, awesome setup!

:ROFLMAO: Yep, that's the bedroom setup. Room layouts in these century homes aren't the best for entertainment, but, I do love music, so a nice stereo setup is for me, the best I can manage and will be the most appropriate for the majority of use.
 
Nice grab! Keep your eyes peeled for late 1990's to 2000's receivers that have preamp inputs/outputs for all the channels. Pretty rare finds and a sign of superior quality.
 
Nice upgrade!

I'm actually shopping for a receiver post Christmas myself. I bought a Nintendo switch (which outputs audio via HDMI) for the kids only to discover I'm out of HDMI ports on my living room TV. I could just swap HDMI cords, but I have no way of getting audio from the Nintendo to the receiver, forcing me to enable the TV speaker. The TV has an optical out, but it won't pass-through audio that comes in via the HDMI ports.

My current receiver (Sony STR-DE985) is a good one, but lacks HDMI and all the other modern appurtenances. So I'm sort of stuck wondering if the TV or receiver would be the best upgrade. With a receiver I can route all HDMI through it solving all my problems.
 
Nice upgrade!

I'm actually shopping for a receiver post Christmas myself. I bought a Nintendo switch (which outputs audio via HDMI) for the kids only to discover I'm out of HDMI ports on my living room TV. I could just swap HDMI cords, but I have no way of getting audio from the Nintendo to the receiver, forcing me to enable the TV speaker. The TV has an optical out, but it won't pass-through audio that comes in via the HDMI ports.

My current receiver (Sony STR-DE985) is a good one, but lacks HDMI and all the other modern appurtenances. So I'm sort of stuck wondering if the TV or receiver would be the best upgrade. With a receiver I can route all HDMI through it solving all my problems.

If your TV has ARC (check to see if one of the ports is labelled ARC) then a receiver with ARC will work, that's how I have my living room TV connected. One HDMI cord from the TV to the receiver, so that anything the TV plays directly comes out the receiver (Netflix, Amazon Video, Youtube....etc) and any HDMI devices like X-Box, PlayStation...etc are just selected from the receiver. So there's only one HDMI on the TV, it goes to the receiver, everything else connects to the receiver, which has a lot more HDMI connections.
 
Oh lol my family isn’t technology savvy we have a smart tv made by Phillips seems to be ok. We never do anything but what comes with the tv we don’t ever unstock anything.
A good receiver can last you a long time. I had one last 15+ years so even though it was a couple hundred dollars, it wasn't that much on a yearly basis and it makes even bad movies sound good.
 
A good receiver can last you a long time. I had one last 15+ years so even though it was a couple hundred dollars, it wasn't that much on a yearly basis and it makes even bad movies sound good.
I’ve never used one personally. We bought a few at the pawn shop though. Maybe I’ll convince my parents to let me hook it up.
 
Back
Top