AVP-A1HDCI Remote Controls & Listening Tests

The AVP-A1HDCI comes with two remote controls – the RC-1067 which serves as the main zone remote control and the RC-1070 which functions as a simplified remote for the main zone as well as multi zone control. The RC-1067 is an updated version of their learning/multibrand touchscreen electro-luminescent remote originally offered with the AVR-5805. Gone however are some of the Colecovision style membrane push buttons and instead this remote consists of real push buttons for main function control such as selecting inputs, adjusting volume, changing channels, and using a push button fly wheel to navigate the OSD menus. The touchscreen is only used to select the device you want the remote control to operate or the surround/soundfield mode you desire. The tactile feel of this remote has been greatly improved and you can pretty much operate it with one hand without any issues. I was also pleased to see the RC-1067 requires only 2AA batteries unlike its predecessor that required 4AAA’s to operate. I have a few major gripes with this remote starting with the fact that you can no longer select what PLIIx mode you want to be in via a remote hot key. Another annoyance is the very inconspicuously “M.SEL/Home” button that when pressed will select which HDMI output you desire to send video signal to. The first time I accidentally hit this button in my dark theater room I lost my picture and had to trouble shoot for nearly half an hour until I realized the culprit. This is a dangerous button to be offered with such easy access.

I was quite puzzled by how difficult I found it to use the radio on this product. For one they didn’t integrate the HD radio feature into the standard AM/FM tuner input. Instead there were two discrete inputs and antenna hook ups for both. Since you can’t control any tuner functions via the front panel of the processor, you have to rely solely on the remote control. To make matters worse, once you select the tuner input, you have to navigate the touchscreen. To operate AM/FM, you have to select “TU” then “Dev1”. For HD radio, the input is labeled “DTU” which makes little sense. In order to operate it, you must select “Net/DTU” and “Dev2” via the touchscreen of the remote. In either case you won’t be allowed to use the center circle hard buttons or CH up/down functions to make your selections for tuner mode or changing stations. A tuner shouldn’t be this difficult to operate in this day and age and I suspect it will really discourage its use among casual users. Finally the location of the on/off buttons seem a little out of place as I found myself accidentally hitting the “off” button on many occasions since that is exactly where I position my thumb when holding the remote with my right hand.

Update on HD/FM Tuners: 07/2/08
According to Denon, you can use the HD tuner for HD and normal FM program material.  Thus they recommend using the HD tuner input solely for the main zone and FM tuner for other zone applications.

The RC-1070 is a nice addition and perhaps the most comprehensive multi zone remote control I’ve seen. You can pretty much control the entire processor with this remote as it has virtually all of the functionality of the RC-1067 but in push button version. Despite my criticisms, I still feel this is the nicest remote solution I’ve seen Denon offer in their products and I was relieved at how intuitive they were to operate most of the time.

Listening Tests

It was time to see if the AVP-A1HDCI had the sonic chops to party with the big boys. Using the matching POA-A1HDCI 10CH amp with my front channels configured for “Bi-amp” mode where the bottom bass portions of my RBH T-30LSE’s were running as 2 of the 4 dedicated subwoofers in my system, I was ready to go.

Reference Equipment
I installed the Denon AVP-A1HDCI into the premier theater room of the Audioholics Showcase home consisting of the matching Denon POA-A1HDCI 10 channel amplifier, RBH Sound T-30LSE Signature speaker system, dual Velodyne DD-15 subwoofers, Denon DVD-5910CI and Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD players and the Epson Pro Cinema 1080UB 1080p LCD projector. The cables include, Sonicwave HDMI and digital toslink/coax from Impact Acoustics, 1694A Canare terminated RCA cables and 10AWG speaker cable from Blue Jeans cable and DVI Gear SHR HDMI cables.

CD: James Taylor – That’s Why I’m Here
I’m not a huge James Taylor fan. In fact most of his music kinda puts me to sleep. But his CD’s have some incredibly good fidelity and I like listening to the title track because it really helps me gauge if the front channels are imaging correctly and everything sounds tonally balanced. When I engaged Audyssey, found the vocals to be more forward, but the highs to be a bit too laid back. I toggled between “Audyssey” and “Flat” and preferred the latter. With DEQ engaged, the bass was more prominent and full, especially at low listening levels. Toggling on/off Audyssey revealed some interesting sonic observations. With Audyssey engaged, James Taylor’s voice seemed more anchored and forward, but the snare drums seemed to loose depth in the soundstage. The speakers didn’t seem to sound quite as wide but instead took on a more focused, intimate sound. My personal preference was No Audyssey in this case but it was really a matter of taste over which end result was more accurate. I ultimately settled on “Audyssey Bypass L/R” to achieve the benefits of bass correction on my subs and activation of DEQ, while not EQ’ing the main channels.

DTS CD: Diana Krall – Love Scenes
Track #2 “Peel Me a Grape” had Diana’s vocals centered straight ahead while the bass rattled my floor joists. I was in awe that despite my room was shaking with so much tactile energy, I still heard all of the great reverb from the surround channels in the recording and the twang sound of the bass. There was excellent separation of musical instruments and no sigh of strain or smearing like I’ve heard on lesser designed systems. With DEQ engaged, the bass was definitely fuller sounding, but the surround levels seemed a bit too hot and her voice which was anchored dead center seemed further away. I toggled between Audyssey modes and DEQ on/off and ultimately settled on “Audyssey Bypass L/R” with no DEQ.

Editorial Note About Audyssey DEQ
I checked with Audyssey to better understand why I was hearing recessed vocals with DEQ engaged and here is what they told me:

Dynamic EQ is only *exactly* right for movie content that is produced to an absolute standard SPL and thus can be directly compared to the SPL measured in your room. Music content is not produced under standardized conditions and so there are cases where Dynamic EQ will be off depending on the reference level at which the music mixer made decisions about how much bass to use.

It is clear that the benefits of DEQ are really source dependent so you must experiment to determine if you prefer using it on the particular program material you’re listening to.

In track #3 “I Don’t Know Enough About You” I actually did hear distortion but quickly realized it was part of the recording possibly caused by preamp clipping during the recording process. The Denon combo was revealing enough to showcase this recording flaw.

CD: Genesis - Live Over Europe 2007
Nothing put a bigger smile on my face when the legendary progressive rock band Genesis got back together for one last tour to remind the world of their musical genius. In two channel stereo, the sound of this double disc concert CD is a bit flat and sterile, but the experience is far more enjoyable once you engage Prologic IIx Music Mode. I started out with track #3 “Land of Confusion” and toggled between DEQ on/off and Audyssey modes and settled on DEQ On and Audyssey Bypass L/R. This allowed me to achieve better bass response to make the recording sound fuller and more involving.

Track #4 “In the Cage” liked being played loudly on this system. Towards the middle of the song as they progress over to the “Cinema Show” instrumental, the music was so enveloping that I was starting to feel that “better than being there” experience on this Denon rig.

SACD: Patricia Barber – Night Moves
Track #1 “Bye Bye Blackbird” revealed that the Denon combo could handle delicate musical passages with authenticity. Piano music is very hard to accurately reproduce as the harmonic overtones are quite complex. The combined low noise floor of the AVP-A1HDCI and POA-A1HDCI revealed all of the nuances with plenty of depth at airiness. I heard all of the presence in the cymbals of Track #2 “Invitation” with plenty of body in the music. Bass was abundant and well extended in track #3 “Yesterdays”. I switched the processor to pure direct and just sat back listening to pristine two-channel audio that would make even the most critical of audiophiles drool over. The Denon gear was driving my speaker system with ease and adding no sonic nasties that would distract my enjoyment of the listening session no matter what power level I was running at. DEQ engaged boosted the bass on this already bass heavy recording a bit too much for my liking so I ultimately left it off. I was again tossed between my preferences of Audyssey on/off as I felt like the vocals were improved with it on, but the stereo separation and depth of soundstage seemed slightly diminished. By now I was realizing the subtle differences of Audyssey on/off were more noticeable in two channel recordings than they were in multi channel. So my advice to doubters is to run “Audyssey Bypass L/R” for two channel sources should you face a similar dilemma to what I have reported here.

HD DVD: Pat Metheny – The Way Up Live
Pat Metheny is one of those select guitarists that have a signature sound only he can produce. He surrounds himself with some of the world’s best musicians and produces complex rich music few can master. His playing is so effortless and fluid that you tend to forget about the musicians and just focus on the sonic nirvana you’re being surrounded by. This HD DVD is one of the reasons why my HD DVD player still occupies shelf space on my rack.

The symphonic performance of this disc can best be described as a classical masterpiece composed with progressive jazz styling. The disc is basically one long song divided only by name (“Opening”, “Part One”, “Part Two” and “Part Three”). Leave it to Pat to keep the names simple and distinct. With DEQ engaged in conjuncture with “Audyssey Bypass L/R”, I was fired up to spend an evening with the Pat Metheny group in the comforts of my theater room. My brother – a classically trained jazz guitarist, was with me in the audience and we sat back to take a listen. The sound quality was quite good considering the disc was only limited to Dolby Digital Plus. I did note some areas of compression, but overall the surround envelope was excellent and the bass plentiful. No matter how loudly I turned it up, the sound remained clean and effortless. I sat in sonic delight while my brother was in awe at the picture quality of this 1080i HD disc upscaled to 1080p and processed by Realta via the AVP-A1HDCI. He was enthralled that he could see Pat up close and better learn the finger positions of his guitar work. Incidentally within a couple of days, my brother was playing some of the most complex passages on this disc on his guitar and he commented that this wouldn’t have been possible so quickly without such a nice birds eye view. Needless to say, the picture and audio quality being reproduced on the Denon system in my theater room was nothing short of stunning.

HD DVD: The Phantom of the Opera
The picture and sound quality of this HD disc is excellent. The opening score for Phantom of the Opera sounded marvelous and the surround field was even more expansive with DEQ engaged. I didn’t detect vocal recession with Audyssey and DEQ engaged like I did on the Diana Krall disc and overall the experience seemed more enveloping with very natural panning between surround channels and front to back. The visuals were as stunning as the audio and I had a difficult time turning the disc off despite I was initially using it for quick reference for this review.

No matter what source material I threw at the Denon separates combo, it was reproduced with the highest level of fidelity I’ve heard in my theater room. While I didn’t always prefer the sonic attributes Audyssey and DEQ had to offer, I did find they greatly enhanced my listening pleasure depending on source material, especially for movies where I felt DEQ worked best. I plan on recalibrating my setup again to see if I can improve the overall results. I am confident that the Audyssey Pro upgrade will further allow me to fine tune the results and achieve an even higher level of enhancement.

Suggestions for Improvement

There is little to improve on a “does everything” product that happens to do it all quite well. That being said, I did find a few things I’d like to see adjusted or added to the AVP-A1HDCI as tabulated below.

• Solution to volume scaling issue
• Provision for “3SP L/R/LFE Super” setting in bass management
• Ability to enable Audyssey correction for subwoofer channels only
• Ability to limit Audyssey maximum gain
  
• Easier usability of AM/FM / HD tuners

Considering this is a fully firmware upgradeable product, most of my criticisms could likely be addressed should other uses agree with my assessment and motivate Denon to make some changes.