Denon 1909 vs Onkyo 875 (for music)

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the What HiFi community: the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products.
A

Anonymous

Guest
Totally agree.. i grabbed an 875 yesterday for 600.. im chuffed!
emotion-2.gif
 

stonehound

New member
May 2, 2008
41
0
0
Visit site
Ear, got round to setting the 1909 up yesterday and am very pleased with it. I upgraded from the Sony 1200 and the Denon sounds significantly better - watched a couple of HD films last night and they sounded superb. In terms of music, I also got the Denon iPod dock and was pleasantly surprised with how good music sounds. In my opinion the sound is excellent when playing CD's ripped in Apple Lossless format, however, tracks downloaded from iTunes sound a bit lightweight and lack bass. iTunes Plus downloads sound inbetween the two.

All in all very pleased with the Denon. I havent really had a proper play with all the setting yet - the missus is going away tomorrow so will do then.
 

pete321

New member
Aug 20, 2008
145
0
0
Visit site
I've just bought a Onkyo 905 to replace my Pioneer VSX-AX5i (similar original RRP), so far there's not much difference listening to music, if anything, I'd say the Pioneer was better, more open and dynamic (I used to be a Cyrus owner/fan before I got hitched & became poor!). In this respect I may have done better using my multichannel analogue inputs of my Pioneer and buying a blu-ray player with multi channel outputs.

I would have thought out of the Onkyo and Denon, the Onkyo would sound the better to my ears, Denon tend to play it safe with their audio, not open sounding enough for my taste. Having said that, the Denon will undoubtably have the better build quality.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi peter i had similar issues when i bought my 875 to replace my pio 2011vsx, the pioneer had tighter more powerfull bass than the onkyo! but i did think the 875 was more transparent, and needing hdmi inputs i stuck with it! the onk is better with movies though!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
So overall would you say that the Denon is a better buy when it comes to playing music. I can't really afford anything above the Onkyo 606.ÿ
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
My advice is DON'T buy the Onkyo 875. I have one running pairs of B&W 683, 684, & 685. The speakers are awesome and the amp is awful, as in very disappointing. When new the amp would trip out if I tried to play the volume above 92 for more than a minute, this was solved by changing all the hdmi leads for QED Qunex-SR. Now the amp would run to 100, but after about 9 minutes on max with Pendulum the onkyo died. It went back to onkyo who changed the 'power transformer'. They would not elaborate beyond that other than to say 'possibly a surge of electricty had killed the transformer', even though it is connected through a Belkin Surger Master,(maybe I can claim on Belkin's insurance???). So I got the amp back, connected it all up, ran it for a while normally before turning the volume up to 100. It lasted 15 minutes of Pendulum before once again the transformer seems to have blown up. I am taking it back to the shop today and hoping to change it for something more robust.
Negatives of the 875 are, GETS INCREDIBLY HOT, AND BLOWS UP IF USED ON MAXIMUM...
And yes, the system was set up by the shop, the speakers were all calibrated, etc.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Full volume on Onkyo is quite loud, but not 'pop festival' loud. The clarity of the music is 100%. Silence (in the music) is so silent, (if you get what I mean).The B&W's are more impressive...on max volume they puff out large amounts of air through the trumpets that get you at 2 metres distance. Bit like air conditioners.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Im really not suprised it went pop! i havnt got mine past halfway volume and thats LOUD!!!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
In that case you should thank your neighbors for being so understanding. Perhaps you need to take your Onkyo to an Otologist.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Come on...9 minutes on maximum...that's not much surely. The drives are all fine. I would recommend B&W most highly
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
orangeburger:Come on...9 minutes on maximum...that's not much surely. The drives are all fine. I would recommend B&W most highly

I think your very lucky they're fine!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Mate, this isn't luck...it's planning. Before this hi-fi I had a Denon (?500) system which Carlos Santana destroyed in 2 hours, it melted down, and before that I had a '1000' watt sony system which died after 2 days of abuse. The Onkyo has been really lucky because I have been living in other parts of the world and haven't had the time to blow it up. Both times I have been back at my home in Spain it has died...I thought by spending a few grand on a hi-fi it would work...Neighbours in Spain don't complain about noise, unless they are from other European countries...
 

Sliced Bread

Well-known member
orangeburger:Mate, this isn't luck...it's planning. Before this hi-fi I had a Denon (?500) system which Carlos Santana destroyed in 2 hours, it melted down, and before that I had a '1000' watt sony system which died after 2 days of abuse. The Onkyo has been really lucky because I have been living in other parts of the world and haven't had the time to blow it up. Both times I have been back at my home in Spain it has died...I thought by spending a few grand on a hi-fi it would work...Neighbours in Spain don't complain about noise, unless they are from other European countries...

Are you seeing a pattern here? Home Hifi equipment is generally not designed to be run at maximum volume. The extra/reserve power in the amplifier is to help improve the dynamics of the music (often referred to as the slew rate). It's a bit like buying a car that can exert 200bhp...just because you can, dosn't mean you should cane it at max revs every time you pop down the local shops(and I'm not just talking about the traffic laws here)! If you really was to drive it that hard it will not last very long before the components start to tear themselves apart, however the extra power means that it will perform better at lower speeds.

If you really want to play music that loud then your buying the wrong kind of kit. You should be looking at DJ equipment..for halls...although it'll probably sound awful in a home environment and you'll go deaf very quickly.

Do yourself a favour..turn it down and enjoy the quality that your system can provide :O)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Man are you serious? I have a Yamaha 700cc Raptor quad bike which I thrash until it is red hot...a Kawasaki 250hp jetski which I think is too slow...a Porsche 911 turbo which could try harder...I expect some effort from my hi-fi. I don't have a nanny to tell me to 'turn it down'...
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts