av receiver grouptest

HOME CINEMA CHOICE NOVEMBER 2008

84 DENON AVR-1909 £450 Approx www.denon.co.uk

Enter the equalizerThis weighty Denon has aural grunt – but prefers movies to games

Denon’s middle-weight AV

receiver comes to our

grouptest carrying a little

more round the midriff than the

others. It’s the biggest, weightiest

and most expensive here by a fair

margin but, dammit, you sure know

you have bought a serious bit of kit.

Equipped with Audyssey RoomEQ,

video upscaling to 1080p and three-

in/one-out v1.3a HDMIs, it gets

a double thumbs up. And, compared

to a couple of the boring black boxes

assembled here, it’s no moose to

look at, either.

The Audyssey MultEQ setup isn’t

going to win any gold medals for its

alacrity. The full multi-position setup

is on par with, say, plate tectonics

speed-wise, and the dull menus

mean it’s right up there with paint-

drying for edge-of-the-seat

entertainment. And just when you

are debating if there is more chance

of the PS4 or even PS5 being

available before the AVR-1909 gets

its well-equipped backside in order,

it declares fait-accompli and

suggests you check the settings –

don’t do it! If you do, it promptly locks

you into speaker-check menu pages

with no viable means of escape from

the remote short of powering off

– which loses the settings. You have

to start the whole epoch-length

process again. Arrrgghh!

Having only narrowly avoided a

rock ‘n’ roll style exit from a fi rst-fl oor

window at this point, the Denon

comes back

with a muscular

sound and bass to wobble your

gizzards. The guttural growling of the

monsters in PS3 game Viking: Battle

for Asgard is crafted with real

presence and power; the clattering

metallic effects of sword and axe

against armour have a fast, zingy

edge and the dialogue is none too

shoddy either. The dubiously-

accented Norse voice-over (with a

hint of the Welsh valleys early on and

more than a touch of Mumbai in

places) projects well into the room,

but the Denon is not kind to its edgy

recording, highlighting the sibilance.

In fact, the Denon is far more at

home with a big movie, and the

recent re-release of Fifth Element on

Blu-ray fi nds it in its, er, element. The

pace is fast and the sheer scale of

the soundstage is huge, with the

balance crisp at the top and weighty

at the bottom in equal measure. It’s a

bit lighter through

the mid-range than

ideal, but nothing

engaging one of

the Audyssey EQ

settings doesn’t

cure. Korben Dallas

can be proud

that he was

instrumental in not

only saving the

Earth, but saving

the Denon from

a long drop, too.

Wave machine:

The curved design of

Denon’s AVRs is distinctly

upmarket

Tech LabsManufacturer’s specifications: 90W

x 7 channels (into 8 ohms)

130W (2 channels driven, 8 , 0.5% THD)




Fidelity firewall:120W (0.042% THD, 8 ,

1kHz)

THD @ 50W: 0.0127% THD (1kHz, 8 )

Frequency response 20Hz-20kHz: +/- 0.05dB

Impressive figures for output power, fidelity firewall and frequency

response confirm the subjective impressions, but Denon weren’t joking

when they specified the speakerimpedance range as 6-16 ohm – try it

with 4 ohm speakers, and performance is dramatically curtailed.

HCC161.gt 84 9/9/08 11:56:58 am

NOVEMBER 2008 HOME CINEMA CHOICE

Crisp audio from OnkyoDoes its lack of HD audio decoders limit this Onkyo’s cinephile appeal?

ONKYO TX-SR576 £300 Approx www.onkyo.co.uk 85

Onkyo has been driving the

cutting-edge of the budget

AV receiver market of late

and in terms of bang-per-buck the

company has seemed unbeatable.

But not only has the competition

stiffened these days, the TX-SR576

is already looking long in the tooth

(it’s been at least six months since

launch) and may seem at a bit

of a disadvantage compared to

the newer kids on the block; it

doesn’t give too much away in terms

of core power and performance

statistics, but it only has v1.2 HDMI

connectivity and a serious dearth

of decoding for new HD audio

formats – no Dolby TrueHD or

DTS-HD Master Audio, here.

But, before you turn the page in

disgust, hang on a moment. Sony’s

PlayStation 3 can decode

both Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master

Audio into LPCM, meaning that all

HD audio soundtracks on Blu-ray

disc can be sent to the receiver.

So does not having HD audio

decoding really matter? Well, not

a lot in this grouptest. Good job then

that it offers adequate power (81W

with all channels driven), Audyssey

2EQ RoomEQ/auto setup and pretty

decent connectivity.

The sound is everything I’ve come

to expect from contemporary Onkyo

AVRs, fi ghting well above its price

point in drive and clarity. The denser

cut-scenes of Viking... are laid out in

a huge room-fi lling wall of sound

that leaves you in no doubt that you

are deep into the game. The metallic

effects have a good leading-edge

attack and the echoes ring out into

the back of the room. This AVR has

plenty of oomph on tap but it gets

very, hot at high volume.

Switch to movies and it is so easy

to see why Onkyo has been on fi ne

form. Fifth Element is presented with

considerable scale, enormous

effects and crisp dialogue. However,

the centre channel is a little laid-

back for my taste and the Audyssey

EQ is not easy to tweak using the

amp’s only interface – the fascia

display. Fiddly ergonomics aside, the

sound is thoroughly enjoyable, albeit

not possessing the clarity of the

similarly-priced Sony STR-DG820

or the Panasonic SA-BX500.

But while pushing the volume to

its limits, the amp section gets hot

near the HDMI board, and it wasn’t

long before

I began to fear that

the receiver was

heading for a

meltdown.

Onkyo’s are

traditionally hot to

trot. None more so

than this model.

That said, this

model appears

a solid offering if

you intend to base

your system

around the PS3.

Hard target: You can only

tweak the Audyssey EQ

settings via the fascia display







Fidelity firewall:85W (0.06% THD, 8 , 1kHz)

THD @ 50W: 0.67% THD (1kHz, 8 )


Tests suggest that it doesn’t reach anything like its rated power, and there

are odd anomalies in the power of 5-channel compared to 2-channel

performance, identical on two units tested. However, fidelity firewall and

frequency response results are good, suggesting a clean and undistorted

sound to the limits of its ability

HCC161.gt 85 9/9/08 11:57:0 am


86 PANASONIC SA-BX500 £360 Approx www.panasonic.co.uk

Digital crankifi cationPanasonic’s AVR has HD audio-decoding, cool-running digital amp modules

The SA-BX500 is the Amy

Winehouse of the budget AV

receiver market: incredibly

talented but not without its issues or

outright weirdness. For starters, the

case is almost the same size as

Sony’s STR-DG820 but seems to

weigh less than a DVD sleeve

– without a disc in, at that. Beneath

the lid there is enough fresh air to fi ll

a small woodland park and this is

wholly refl ected in the frugal features

count. No RoomEQ, no onscreen

display and no video upscaling. On

the upside, there are plenty of

operational tie-ins and one-button

features between this receiver and

Panasonic’s latest BD players and

Viera plasma TVs, plus wireless rears

if you buy into Panasonic’s digital

transmitter option.

Setup is a doddle, although the

segmented fl uorescent display is

strangely devoid of useful info.

Moreover, there is no easy way to

check the speaker parameters after

the auto setup, so you have to trust

its acoustic delay measurements.

In my listening room it set the

centre-channel a little light but

there is manual level adjustment

– described somewhere deep in

the latter pages of the manual.

The front-panel controls are not

exactly rock-solid, the remote is

festooned with huge legends, its

digital amp modules put in a dismal

showing in our Tech Labs and its

cosmetic appeal is marred by the use

of a complete rainbow of LEDs on the

fascia. But then it cracks out an

electrifying edition of Rehab and you

can forgive it all the misgivings...

Viking: Battle for Asgard has an

immediate, upfront and spacious

sound backed by fairly enthusiastic

LFE which the BX500 nails perfectly.

It comes across every bit as classy,

refi ned and detailed as the Sony

STR-DG820 but expands on the

sound-stage in every direction.

The sound kicks bass butt with every

crunching axe blow. The ropey

dialogue in the cut-scenes is a little

too smooth but it does at least buff

out the rough edges.

Switch to Blu-ray movies and the

elaborate guffawing of Fifth Element

swells into the room with great

emotional drive. The bass effect

of every gunshot is utterly addictive.

The Diva’s operatic song is

strangely enthralling, without

a ragged edge or

dull tone. A couple

of extra dB on the

centre channel

brings the

dialogue up.

When the going

gets tough this

Panasonic clearly

hasn’t got the

gumption of the

Denon, but what

it does have

is genuine all-

round appeal.

Black box: The SA-BX500 is big, but only weighs 4.8kg –

a consequence of its digital

amplifi cation








THD @ 50W: 3.95% THD (1kHz, 8 )


Rated at 7 x 130W, our tests show the Panasonic achieves nothing like this, 75W being more realistic. The digital

amplification suffers from a lack of poke and poor distortion, but

imaging has laser precision. This AVR is utterly confounding. It shouldn’t

work – yet it delivers the goods

HCC161.gt 86 9/9/08 11:57:2 am

NOVEMBER 2008 HOME CINEMA CHOICE

SONY STR-DG820 £320 Approx www.sony.co.uk 87

Refi ning the art of warWith best-in-class digital connectivity, does this Sony rule the roost?

Following the Denon onto the

test bench revealed quite how

very, very easy Sony’s STR-

DG820 is to set up. By the time you

have untangled the Denon’s mic

cable the Sony will be up and running

and have you half way through

Resistance: Fall of Man, searching for

Chimera to beat up with your

burgeoning arsenal of weaponry.

From box to pressing Start, the

STR-DG820 is sub one-minute and

the automatic test tones, being

musical rather than white noise, are

rather easy on the ear.

Okay, it’s not exactly bristling with

features or analogue connectivity,

no S-video for example, but four-in,

one-out HDMI connectivity leads

the pack in numbers and the remote

is best-in- class. On the missing list

is anything remotely resembling

an onscreen display, Sony apparently

preferring to use the front display

and saving a few shekels by not

bothering with video generating

silicon. Operationally, the learning

curve is like the north face of Everest,

but with day-to-day use it gets easier

and easier.

Sony has a home advantage

when working with the PS3, and it

makes the most of the synergy, too.

The mood-setting scenes in Fall of

Man are full of detail and ambience,

creating a seamlessly solid and

immersive experience.

The STR-DG820 is certainly no

overblown power-house, offering

70W with all channels driven – it

always errs on the side of refi nement

above bludgeoning effects. Then

again, when you are simultaneously

unloading the canon and machine-

gun of your M12 tank, do you want

to critique the acoustic accuracy

of the weaponry’s ballistics or really

feel those Chimera exploding?

This detailed demeanour pays big

dividends with movies. Fine detail

and accurate spatial information

emerge from the speakers in spades.

The dialogue is natural without any

chestiness and only a restricted

soundstage stops the DG820 being

the home cinema bargain of the

decade; as the bullets fl y around the

Floston Paradise spaceship in Fifth

Element, you can place every one in

the scene. However, the ‘boom!’ in the

ballroom never really lives up to its

billing as the largest indoor explosion

ever created in a movie.

And there’s the

hitch: subtlety,

refi nement and

detail are desirable

attributes for a

home cinema amp

pressed regularly

into serious

thrillers, dramas

and chick fl icks,

but for action

movies and games,

I simply want more

blood and thunder.

Call me shallow.

Black and fruity:

The STR-DG820 has

come into the world with a

mission – claim back market

share from Onkyo – but

can it succeed?








THD @ 50W: 0.0074% THD (1kHz, 8 )


Sony’s budget ‘Onkyo-buster’ has a few obvious omissions but it performs

adequately in our labs. Two-channel performance is well over spec,

although in multichannel mode it falls predictably short. However, fidelity

firewall and distortion results are respectable, suggesting that for the

money this receiver is unlikely to disappoint in terms of performance

HCC161.gt 87 9/9/08 11:57:3 am


VERDICTSony STR-DG820; £300 App

Price check: www.techradar.com

Highs: Clinically clean sound; fine with dramas; simple setup

Lows: Too clinical for game mayhem; no S-video, upscaling, or analogue

multichannel inputs

Performance:

Design:

Features:

Overall:

SpecificationsDolby TrueHD: YES

DTS-HD Master Audio: YES

Multi-channel audio: YES 7 x 100W amplifiers

Multi-channel input: NO via HDMI only HDMI Switching: YES 4-in 1-out, v1.3a

HDMI audio: YES bitstream and LPCMRoom EQ: YES DCAC

Auto set-up: YES

Video upscaling: NO sadly absentDimensions/weight: 430(w) x 318(d) x

158(h)mm; 8.4kg

VERDICTPanasonic SA-BX500; £360 App


Highs: All round performer; good Panasonic-link features

Lows: Surreal operation system; full of fresh air; dodgy remote;

no RoomEQ

Performance:

Design:

Features:

Overall:




Multi-channel input: YES 7.1 analogue inputHDMI Switching: YES 3-in 1-out, v1.3a

HDMI audio: YES bitstream and LPCMRoom EQ: NO do it yourself

Auto set-up: YES

Video upscaling: NO not hereDimensions/weight: 430(w) x 339(d) x

159(h)mm; 4.8kg

Final standings

There’s little doubt that everyone of these budget AV

receivers is capable of seriously upping the ante

with PS3-delivered entertainment, assuming you

partner them with a decent 5.1 or 7.1 speaker package.

But each model has its strengths and weaknesses and

this may sway your judgement depending on whether

your PlayStation is used primarily as a games machine or

a Blu-ray movie-player.

The Onkyo is a cracking amp to partner a PS3 despite

being on the technological back-foot by not having v1.3

HDMI or HD audio decoding on-board. But multichannel

LPCM audio is all you need from the PS3, and its sonic

character is one of the most forthright here – ideal for

both games and action movies.

The affl uent choice would undoubtedly be Denon’s substantial AVR-1909. It is the

best equipped in this group, most powerful and blessed

with a classy, refi ned sound that can be considered

arthouse home cinema. As a standalone receiver (without

the dual role gaming/movie facet taking into

consideration) it would certainly scoop top honours.

But it is perhaps a little too polite for gaming action and

at £150 more than some others here, that’s a lot of games

and Blu-ray movies you could otherwise buy.

The big twoSony’s home-turf STR-DG820 sounds very much like

a smaller, less expensive Denon. It too has very clean

processing, a richly-detailed sound and no shortage of

subtlety and ambience. It has a fi nancial advantage

that nudges it into my second spot but, like the Denon,

you can’t help but want to hear a little more mindless

violence from PS3 games.

Which leaves Panasonic’s SA-BX500 as something

of a surprise winner. While others here excel in certain

areas and are weak in others, the Panasonic has an

all-round appeal that is impossible to criticise, despite

it’s lack of absolute power. Stick on a movie and its

neutral, open balance seems to extract all the detail

and effects you could want. Switch to a game and its

reserves of bass and penchant for high-speed fun are

guaranteed to put a smile on your face, disc after disc.

And it’s brilliant value, too

VERDICTOnkyo TX-SR576; £300 App


Highs: Crisp sound; well specified for its price

Lows: No on board HD audio decoding; v1.2 HDMIs; our sample

overheated under pressure

Performance:

Design:

Features:

Overall:

SpecificationsDolby TrueHD: NO

DTS-HD Master Audio: NO



HDMI audio: YES but LPCM onlyRoom EQ: YES Audyssey 2EQ

Auto set-up: YES

Video upscaling: NO not hereDimensions/weight: 435(w) x 379(d) x

150(h)mm; 9.8kg

VERDICTDenon AVR-1909; £450


Highs: Solid build; weighty sound with good scale; great with movies Lows: So good with movies you will

forget to play games on your PS3

Performance:

Design:

Features:

Overall:





HDMI audio: YES bitstream and LPCMRoom EQ: YES Audyssey MultEQ

Auto set-up: YES

Video upscaling: YES to 1080pDimensions/weight: 434(w) x 377(d) x

171(h)mm; 11.5kg

Panasonic: consistency helps elevate the BX500

88 GROUPTEST

HCC161.gt 88 9/9/08 11:57:4 am

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