Auto Setup and Internet Radio

Auto Setup rendered my system settings in the following manner (significant differences marked in bold ):

Obviously there are some differences. The level differences I cannot account for except that I like my subwoofer a bit more recessed than Audyssey and the surrounds got more juice with the auto setup. A 90Hz crossover was assigned, but was only valid for the Surround Back speakers since the rest were configured as Large. I can understand this setting for the SI-6100s, but with the 66-SE surround speakers 3dB point is around 45Hz. It seems like there would be some amount of "throw-away" soundtrack elements which would not be reproduced by the speakers or sent to the sub(s). In either case, the Denon settings are certainly acceptable as a starting point, and the resulting sound was pleasing and not in the least out of place.

The subwoofer distance discrepancy was not surprising since NO auto setup scheme we've tested to date can consistently calculate the correct distance of the subwoofer. Of course manual tweaking is always advised if the desire is to get the absolute best bass response in the room. I tweaked the phase of the output of one of the SA-400s which powers one of my subs in order to get a smoother bass response in the room at the primary listening area. This is something Audyssey cannot do, especially in a multiple subwoofer installation like I have.

I listened to several discs with the Audyssey EQ engaged and disengaged. To make comparisons I utilized the remote's navigation controls while in the Room EQ Setup menu. It's certainly not an instantaneous switch (about 2 seconds in fact) but it did give me a clean way to compare the "Off" and "Audyssey" modes to see what the DSP EQ system was doing to the sound (and it's far better than toggling the EQ button on the remote control). There are four EQ modes (besides OFF):

• Audyssey: Structures the automatic EQ so that room acoustics issues are negated and the room is EQ'd to the target EQ curve that they have established.
• Front: Front speakers are evaluated, but not adjusted and the rest of the system is EQ'd to match the timbre and characteristic frequency response of the mains.
• Manual: This selects the graphical EQ setup as configured in the Manual EQ section of the Setup menu.
• Flat: This mode attempts to implement EQ to flatten out the frequency response of all of speakers.

When comparing tracks (for example, "Get It Together" from Seal IV ) I noticed a couple of things. First off, the overall high frequencies were dampened a bit with Audyssey engaged. Secondly, the surrounds became a lot more discernable and mixes blended less randomly into the room. The front soundstage always remained constant and the Audyssey mode never seemed to exhibit any effects that disturbed imaging.

I restricted most of my A-B'ing between "Off" and "Audyssey" EQ modes since that was where I would find the most difference and that gave me a good baseline with which to evaluate the system. From what I experienced I preferred to leave the system OFF. There was simply too much loss of the detail associated with the many recordings I heard to allow the Audyssey system to take control. Reference System 2 isn't particularly bright or reflective, so why the system rolled back so many of the highs to meet Audyssey's target curve is a mystery. It seems ever since we discovered the lack of bass correction below 100Hz in our AVR-5805 review, the Audyssey fix has tapered off the high end response while still NOT addressing bass frequencies below 100Hz adequately. A full report of the latest Audyssey firmware will be coming in our supplementary AVR-5805 review soon. While Audyssey did appear to "clean up" some of the mixes and make surround sound music sound more "discrete" there was no way I was going to lose the "airiness" that makes the CinemaSITE system sound so lifelike. After listening for an extended period of time I took a look at the Audyssey EQ settings - and it correlated perfectly with what I was hearing:

Whoa... where did all my high frequencies go???

The Audyssey does a great job of not going crazy over boosting frequencies. Most EQ systems simply take a measurement and then push the system to that curve, regardless of what it really means to the consumer or equipment. Where the Audyssey disappointed me, however, was its tendency to pull out the high frequency information. For example, there are places where the system takes out 12dB at ~4kHz in the surround channels... That's taking EQ a bit too far, considering the resulting audio I heard in the system. Indeed, most of the top end of the Surround Back channels was removed by Audyssey. Correlating all of the EQ graphs, you could definitely see that the EQ system was attempting to compensate for the room, not for loudspeaker deficiencies. This can be seen by the consistency of the results: ~2kHz to ~4kHz were reduced across the board as was ~125Hz. Keep in mind that Audyssey has stated that the EQ Check graphs, due to limitations in the Denon Setup software, are not accurate and are only representative of the actual adjustments being made, but they give you a rough idea of the areas in which level adjustments are being made. Bottom line here, be careful when utilizing this system and use your ears to judge whether or not the results were a true improvement in system fidelity.

Internet radio on the Denon is almost flawless. You simply call up AUX (on the remote) or AUX/NET (on the receiver itself) and you have access to favorites, Internet Radio, or USB audio. I found the process to be "stupid" easy. Simply plug in a network cable to the back of the receiver and it will automatically pull an IP address from your DHCP server. If you aren't running a DHCP server then you probably had your "network savvy" uncle set up your system and I suggest you call him so he can geek his way into getting your system to work like it should. For the rest of us, setup is a breeze.

Once you call up the AUX input, you can sort stations by Genre, Countries, New Stations, or Popular Stations. There is even - and this is simply amazing - a HELP system available that TALKS you through several FAQs and answers most of the common questions. It even routes you to a website online to get more info and help should you need it. My favorite station was the popular Radio Yabiladi for its excellent Moroccan chants and grooves... ok, I'm kidding.

Once you're in, you simply browse to what you want (or what you think might be slightly interesting) and the system connects you (it typically took about 3 seconds to cache a new station). The radio station is ID'd on the screen as is the track running time. For some reason, the artist and song titles were not displayed on many of the stations I dialed in, but some stations did show this information, so it's certainly not a Denon issue. The only negative about this system I could think of was that for some reason, the stream would stop whenever you "backed out" of a section. I would have preferred for it to maintain the lock until I either a) selected another station, or b) switched to a different input on the receiver. Sometimes it's nice to just call up some music and then continue to browse around for additional choices. Pausing music is easy as you simply press "Enter" while on a station. The system also automatically updates the Internet radio station listings every couple of days and you can force a manual update through the menu system.

Another easy-as-pie feature is the USB audio function whereby you can hook up a USB device to the front connection on the receiver and stream music from that device. I utilized a simple 2GB USB key drive and it worked flawlessly, allowing navigation of subfolders and playback of my eclectic mix of MP3 and WMA files (Denon supports MPEG-1/2/2.5 files encoded from 32 - 320kbps at 32, 44.1, or 48kHz sample rates and WMA files from 48 - 192kbps). You can use the up and down navigation arrows to skip forward and back through the tracks on the USB drive. Pausing works the same as Internet Radio and the USB function suffers the same "no soup for you" track pausing whenever you back out to navigate to another location or file.

Track name and Artist are displayed as is the running time of the track. Random and Repeat modes are made available through any Internet browser connected to the AVR-4306 via its IP address. If you want to queue up a specific list of songs for a party, this is about the easiest way I can think of doing it without having to purchase any additional equipment.

We did not have an iPod to test with the Denon receiver (I know, I'm one of only three people in America that do not have an iPod) but the usability seems pretty direct. Plug it into either the front or rear iPod connectors (you can only use one iPod with the receiver at a time, so the redundancy is for convenience, not so you can use two iPods). The iPod will now show up in the AUX source list (same place where you'll find USB audio and Internet radio.) At this point the iPod will display Denon on its screen and the receiver can now control the iPod - including playing back the audio through your home theater system. The receiver's Setup menu can also route the audio and video of the iPod to any available source. The Denon takes it a step further than most, however, and even allows video iPods to display still pictures on the monitor output as well. Depending upon what model iPod you have, and whether you have the latest software update, your mileage may vary, so check with Apple's website for the latest information.

While we didn't spend a lot of time testing the XM Radio features the AVR-4306 made sure to add satellite radio to its already impressive array of features and capabilities. The XM Radio feature of the AVR-4306 allows you to verify and optimize the XM Radio signal to the receiver as well as view channel name and song title/artist information (when provided). The tuning buttons work as normal to call up the desired channels. You can also do category searches and enter in the desired station by number using the keypad.

Yes you can. It slices, it dices, it Juliennes... But wait, there's more (I've always wanted to say that in a review... OK, really anywhere). As if the above weren't enough, the Denon AVR-4306 allows users to stream files from a local networked PC. This means that for the price of a mid-fi receiver you also get a streaming media server tossed in for free. Hey, that's not too bad - and it sure beats a free steak knife. To get this part of the receiver's functionality you must first install Windows Media Connect , a free application that is only a pain to install if you are not using a licensed version of Windows XP (there is a validation process and the initial download involves three steps.)

After downloading Windows Media Connect the process of turning your Denon receiver into a media server is simple. Launch WMC and select/authorize the Denon AVR-4306 to access files on your computer. We found that you could quite easily call up files and folders from a locally networked PC and play back WMA, MP3 and WAV format files (all accessed through the same AUX/Net submenu). This is one COOL function that you should absolutely take advantage of. Incidentally, the AVR-4306 is the first receiver to attain Windows PlaysForSure certification (note the logo/sticker on the box). That means that it is guaranteed not to give you the blue screen of death when mated with other products bearing the same logo (or something like that). Now if only Windows XP would get certified... Actually it's a way to ensure that music you purchase online will play on these compatible devices (or, as we like to paraphrase, avoid iTunes if you don't want to isolate your music to your iPod).