AVR-2308CI Listening Tests

I sat with anticipation of what Audyssey MultEQ could do for an untreated room with all in-wall speakers and vaulted ceilings. I wasn’t expecting much to be honest, but I figured I’d give it a shot anyways as it was a bonus feature not a defining one when I selected this receiver for the install.

SACD” Patrica Barber Modern Cool

Track #7 “Company” can really give your system quite a workout with all of the percussion work and explosive drum soloing halfway into the song. I was quite amazed at how much more focused the snare drum sounded with Audyssey engaged. Stereo separation was also much improved while the instruments all seemed to convey better articulation. The trumpet was more centered with Audyssey engaged, and the vocals were warmer and richer. During the trumpet solo, I felt as if the speakers literally popped off the front walls giving them a much more spacious and 3-D effect. I had to remind myself that this was just a two channel listening session and I was already hearing a huge benefit of the room correction system. In track #1 “Post Modern Blues”, the bongos took on a higher level of realism with Audyssey engaged. With Audyssey engaged, didn’t feel like I was listening to the speakers as much as I was enjoying the musical experience.

DVD-Audio: Beatles Love

Track #1 “Because” is one of my favorites as it really exemplifies the uncanny melodic nature of the Beatles that few if any bands today can match. With Audyssey engaged, I found the surround envelop to widen while the vocals from the front 3 speakers were more upfront and in your face. The snare drum in Track #5 “I am the Walrus” really popped into the musical landscape once I engaged Audyssey. I briefly compared “Audyssey” to “Audyssey Flat” and while initially I thought I preferred the latter, I found it wore on my over time. “Audyssey” sounded more tonally balanced to me, especially at loud listening levels. The snapping sound emanating from the left front speaker in track #12 “Blackbird/Yesterday” sounded more realistic with Audyssey engaged. Track #14 “Tomorrow Never Knows” really showed off Audyssey’s prowess. With Audyssey engaged, the cymbals took on a much wider and dynamic presence to them as they also were better articulated. In comparison, once I turned off Audyssey, the cymbal crashes sounded dull and more blended into the vocals. Audyssey also appeared to tighten up the bass response a bit but not as dramatically as what it did for the mid and high frequencies as well as increasing the enveloping effect and improving the overall multi channel experience. What really impressed me was the sonic improvement carried to all of the listening seats in the living room. This allowed for a much broader sweet spot just like Audyssey claimed it would do.

Suggestions for Improvement

From a performance standpoint, I have little to criticize about this receiver, especially at this price. I would however like to see some operational hiccups fixed with the Auto setup such as less time between speaker measurements and a hot key on the remote to engage and disengage Audyssey. I don’t like the fact that when you engage the “setup lock” feature to prevent people from messing with the receiver settings, it won’t let you choose different surround modes. I also found it puzzling that the “Pure Direct” feature seemed to only work for analog sources. When I tried to engage it for a digital source, I heard no output. Because of the setup flexibility of this receiver, I strongly encourage you to run through all of the bass management configuration options at least once. During my initial setup, I found that 2CH direct mode set the crossover to 40Hz and thus I had to select the custom configuration mode to set it correctly back to 80Hz.

Perhaps in the next iteration of this receiver, Denon would consider going back to a remote control unit that has all of the buttons on one side all with backlighting. Until that happens, look elsewhere for an all in one remote to better serve this purpose.

The lack of preamp outputs on this receiver was a bit disappointing but understandable at this price point.  I really feel the AVR-2308CI would have served as a bargain based processor for someone looking to utilize their more powerful external amps. But, you will have to step up to the next model (AVR-2808CI) for an extra $350 or so which also includes TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding to afford such a luxury.