AVR-2308CI System Setup and Configuration

System Setup & Configuration

As with any Denon receiver I’ve setup in the past, the AVR-2308CI is fairly straight forward. It gives you the option to assign connection types to each input for both video and audio which I found handy while I was trying to customize the system which consisted of an assortment of HDMI, component video and s-video equipment. You can also assign inputs to play other sources should you for example want your music server to play on the CD input but also require a simultaneous video feed from another input. There is an option to bi-amp your main speakers or route the extra two channels to a second zone should you only be setting up a 5.1 system in the primary theater room. You can even assign power up volume level as well as an absolute maximum volume setting which is useful for those with children or people around the house that think the solution to not hearing audio playing is to continually crank the volume up until they hit the correct button to make sound and blow out all of your speakers in the process. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Have some poor quality MP3 or compressed music sources you want to listen to? No problem, Denon offers several options via their “Audio Restorer” feature which attempts to restore the lost resolution of such poor quality sources. I tested it and found it did in fact improve rather poor quality MP3 or sterile CD recordings much like the system Yamaha developed for their receiver line. This is a nice tool to ad to your proverbial audio bag of tricks.

A really cool feature in this receiver which up until a year ago was unheard of at this price is its analog to HDMI upconversion and Faroudja video processing. This allows all video sources (digital or analog) to be upconverted to your display as well as simplify the video connection to your display down to one HDMI cable. I tested this exhaustively via component video and s-video sources and it worked flawlessly. The only thing to note is it takes a second or two for the video conversion to happen so you may briefly hear audio before the video comes up when you switch sources.

I connected the AVR-2308CI to an entire RBH MC in-wall speaker package consisting of 4 MC-6s, 1 MC-414 center channel, 2 MC-615 in-ceiling speakers and 1 TS-10A subwoofer. The source is the Denon DVD-2900 (an oldie but great universal DVD player) connected to a Sony 1080i RPTV. All of the cables were Sonicwave from Impact Acoustics.

Auto Setup Via Audyssey

The AVR-2308CI is armed with Audyssey’s MULTEQ automatic room correction system which checks and configures:

• Wiring
• Distance
• Speaker Size
• Equalization
• Level

Although this version only does 6 point calibration compared to 8 point on some of Denon’s higher end receivers, I found it worked just as well, and perhaps a bit better than the system on my older AVR-5805. I went through the setup process only once and Audyssey did quite a bang up job configuring the system despite all of the speakers were in-wall type which can cause auto correction systems to overcompensate for speaker correction due to boundary gain.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Audyssey pretty much nailed the distance, channel trims, speaker size and crossovers correctly. I did however make a few tweaks in level and distance (.5dB, 1/2ft, respectively) and also had to adjust the rear channel crossover from 60Hz to 80Hz which I found to be a better crossover point with the system. I was happy to see such promising results and was looking forward to the listening tests to see if Audyssey could help tame my parent's rather lively room which has high vaulted ceilings and wood floors.

There are a few quirks that trouble me with the implementation of Audyssey on the AVR-2308CI. One of them is the fact that it takes around 20 seconds for Audyssey to advance to the next speaker after it takes a measurement. Without counting the actual time taking the measurements, re-positioning the mic or accepting the final results, you are forced to wait nearly 15 minutes if you calibrating a 7.1 system. I am not sure why there was such a long delay here as I haven’t experienced that on my AVR-5805 but it can be a rather painful process if you're inpatient like I tend to be. You better be sure to have a quiet room for at least ½ hour to complete the auto setup as you don’t want to be repeating measurements caused by noise interruptions. Once you go though this long calibration process, one would think they’d be done and ready to enjoy the sonic delight of room equalization, but they would be wrong. Instead, you now have to engage Audyssey which is harder than it sounds. Instead of having a hot key on the remote or front panel of the receiver, you must go through 3 layers of the OSD to get to it (Menu > Parameter > Room EQ > Audyssey). To make matters worse, there isn’t even an LED on the front of the receiver to let you know it’s engaged. Instead you have to look for a little “MultEQ’ text message on the front panel of the receiver to be assured it’s on or verify via the OSD that you selected either “Audyssey, or Audyssey Flat”. I would really have liked to see a hot key implemented on the remote so you could easily test the benefits of Audyssey, but in the end, I was able to manage via the OSD.

Editorial Note on Choosing the Correct Audyssey EQ Mode
When enabling the EQ it’s important to select the proper type for your system. The “Audyssey” EQ mode introduces a slight high frequency roll-off to restore the balance between direct and reflected sound while the “Flat” setting still uses the MultEQ filters in the same way as the “Audyssey” curve, but it does not apply a high frequency roll-off. The “Flat” setting is more appropriate for small or highly treated rooms in which the listener is seated in close proximity to the loudspeakers while the “Audyssey” mode is more appropriate for lively large open rooms. It is recommended for all rooms when the receiver is in “Cinema” THX processing mode to use the “Flat” setting as it allows THX re-equalization to operate exactly as it was intended. If you instead use “Audyssey” in conjuncture with THX re-EQ, than you will essentially be rolling off the high frequencies twice causing too much attenuation and potentially compromising sound quality.

Bass Management

I’ve come to find one of Denon’s hallmarks is their excellent bass management and speaker setup options found on their flagship receivers. It’s nice to see some of these great features are carried down to even their sub $1k receivers like the AVR-2308CI.

Such stand out features include:

• .5dB channel trims
• .1ft delay adjustability
• independent channel trims per mode and input
• independent crossover settings per speaker pair and 2CH vs multi channel mode
• ability to combine bass from large main speakers to the subwoofer channel

I was quite surprised to find such a level of sophistication here. Custom installers and audiophiles rejoice as you can pretty much configure any type of speaker system or scenario via this receiver until your heart is content. Best of all, the filter slopes are per THX of 12dB/octave for the high pass filters to the speakers and 24dB/octave for the lowpass filter to the sub. I also verified the sub out has plenty of distortion free gain as I was able to achieve about 4Vrms into a 100 ohm load at less than 0.1% THD + N which is more than enough drive to gang multiple subs to this output.

Remote Control(s)

Perhaps the weakest link in this receiver is the supplied remote controls it comes with. This is to be expected at this price point as most decent remote systems typically cost half the retail of this product alone. There isn’t much to say here other than the remote is rather archaic looking, is all push button, has no backlighting and quite annoyingly has many of its useful functions via the star trek style flip panel on the back of the remote. It took me a good 2-3 minutes to figure out how to engage the OSD of this receiver before I realized the menu button was on the hidden backside of the remote. In order to operate other Denon equipment such as a DVD player, you must flip a tiny switch at the bottom left corner of the remote which toggles it between “Audio” and “Video” modes of operation. I found this little button to be annoying and wished for an easy slider button on the side of the remote to do the same function. The Zone 2 remote is even more basic but it does allow you input selection, volume control and limited control of an iPod system. All in all, I would suggest investing in a good universal remote system and save these for reference when you need to do specific setup and configuration in the receiver that you cannot program into a universal type remote control.