Upgrading Denon AVC-A11XVA amp

[JohnHolmes]

Hi, have some spare cash burning a hole in my pocking and looking to upgrade my amp to a HD receiver.

Would the Yamaha DSP-Z7 be a worthwile upgrade? any other amps I should be looking at?

Ta 🙂

 

[Anonymous]

It depends on your budget, really.

You have mentioned a very good unit in the Yamaha 'Z7. At that price-range, it is pretty much the best out there.

To get better, you will have to spend about twice as much and upwards - namely, the Arcam AVR600, Marantz AV8003/MM8003 Pre-Power, Denon AVC-A1HDA, etc.

Do get a very good source for Blu-ray play-back, as well, to do full justice to what the latest HD video and audio can do - the Sony BDP-S5000ES is a very good one.

Dan.

 

[JohnHolmes]

Is it going to be better than Ive got LPCM via hdmi though?

 

[Anonymous]

Your Denon is no doubt a very good unit.

However, I have found in my auditioning of a lot of gear that the newer Processors and A/V Receivers have improved considerably, in terms of surround sound steering.

The better Processors and A/V Receivers have excellent on-board/internal decoding of the latest HD 'lossless' audio codecs. I have found in my set-up that internal decoding (via my Marantz AV8003 Surround Sound Processor/Pre-Amplifier) is noticeably better than allowing the Blu-ray Disc Player (Sony BDP-S5000ES) to decode and send via LPCM through HDMI.

Dan.

 

[JohnHolmes]

Thanks for the reply! TBH Im not sure if it really would be a worthwhile upgrade!

My Denon was a flagship amp, Im really in a pickle what to do.

 

[professorhat]

You know the answer though don't you - take your Denon down to a dealer and do a comparison...