Denon AVR-1909 vs. AVR-789

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Denon AVR-1909 vs. AVR-789

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73 posts

Master Geek

#198241 26-Feb-2009 17:02

I have a Wharfedale Diamond set-up and I have to say I am very pleased with the sound, especially for the price they're going for. I decided to get these as they were a good price plus all the reviews I have read were very good so after listening to them I decided to purchase and I am so glad I did.

I am also very happy with the upscaling through the Faroudja chipset the receiver has. I will take a comparison shot at some stage when I get a camera, since I have to save some more now first haha. I have my Samsung BD-P1500 hjooked up to it which is now multizone for DVD's thankfully, and also my Pioneer DV606 which I use for Divx files etc and SACD and DVD-Audio.

Wall-E was amazing, thoroughly enjoyed by both my girlfriend and myself and I watched in awe as my system showed some of its potential.

viperguy

25 posts

Geek

#198487 28-Feb-2009 09:41

+1 on the Wharfedale Diamond setup...i paid $960 for the complete 5.1 system which is amazing value in my books....the only real reason to look at the 1909/2309 "Pro series" of Denon amps is really just the RS232 port plus an extra hdmi input and 10wrms/chan extra

oh and the audessey auto eq/time align does an excellent job along with the volume dependant eq

i highly recommend the rs232 port as i use my htpc along with eventghost to control my denon amp via an rf remote

Jaxson

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#198708 2-Mar-2009 10:02

viperguy: +1 on the Wharfedale Diamond setup...i paid $960 for the complete 5.1 system which is amazing value in my books....

When/where did you get this for that price? Great deal.

viperguy

25 posts

Geek

#198894 3-Mar-2009 09:18

Unfortunately it was the audio sale they had on at Harvey Norman about a month back...theyre back up to $1700 now

Dingbatt

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#199185 4-Mar-2009 13:05

Anyhooo.....getting back to the topic.
I notice on the glossy brochures for the two products that the only different features are RDS and RadioText. Anybody know what these are and how much use they are?

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Jaxson

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#199199 4-Mar-2009 13:32

Almost not required at all on a receiver. In UK they use this facility a bit like teletext almost for the radio. Some areas in NZ use it to display station name and I think ZM in Auckland at least shows song title currently playing etc. Cool for a few seconds. Wouldn't worry about not having this facility here in NZ. Similar thing exists on some receivers for satellite radio I think, but not sure if this would work in our part of the world either.

viperguy

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Geek

#199293 4-Mar-2009 21:53

yah, just means you get radio station name + song/artist info scrolling through the display...only useful in my opinion if you like the song but never heard the dj intro'ing it and want to know the details :)

a few stations in wellington use it, ZM, The Breeze, The Rock, Solid Gold...

oh and traffic info on one....real useful on your tuner at home :)

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Dingbatt

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#199818 7-Mar-2009 21:46

So obviously not a must have on a HT Receiver.

MCONZ, now that you have had your new toy a wee while, how have you found it?

Some of the forum reviews I have read on it rate it fairly well, only knocking it back for;
1.   a crappy owners manual,
2.   an overly complicated and confusing setup,
3.   a poorly laid out and confusing remote, and
4.   only being able to label/address 5 video-audio inputs.

Are these criticisms valid?

I am trying to get a feel for whether the step up to the 2309 (1 extra hdmi and bit more power) might be worth it, vs. a Yamaha 863.
As usual I start off looking at min spec equipment and then ratchet up.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

viperguy

25 posts

Geek

#199825 7-Mar-2009 22:32

i would agree with those criticisms, the setup isnt too bad provided you use the on-screen menu, a little tricky just going off the front panel sometimes

Dingbatt

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#199855 8-Mar-2009 08:46

viperguy: i would agree with those criticisms, the setup isnt too bad provided you use the on-screen menu, a little tricky just going off the front panel sometimes

Is it a Denon thing in general or just with the latest generation?
The setup being complicated, is it something you get used to, or is it a constant pain everytime you try to configure something?

How much information is displayed on screen during operation? For instance with the Yamaha Receivers it gives a whole lot of OSD info when you hit the display (I think its called) button on the Yammy remote. OSD would be good as I want to hide things awawy in a cupboard.

viperguy - Which Denon do you operate?

Please excuse the multitude of questions but as you know the Denon literature is useless, and after all that's what this site is all about.

The remote is of lesser concern as I use a Harmony remote most of the time anyhow.
The inputs is the other thing, I have Mysky, HTPC, Blu-Ray, HDD-DVD Recorder and a TV to hook in, so that fills up the available labels. I may have to continue using the hdmi matrix, but that drops the WAF way down.
Having spoken to my friendly neighbourhood Denon dealer the 789 and 1909 can be got for roughly the same price (+/- $100) and the 2309 is $400-500 more. It may well be worth it for the extra ports, label and power.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

viperguy

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Geek

#199866 8-Mar-2009 09:57

i have the 2309 but regards the OSD it shows everything...you get used to the front panel after a while

personally i was looking at the 789 but was concerned about number of inputs as well, but it was the serial port that swayed me and reading that the yamahas did something to the hdmi signals...didnt pass full range hdmi or something, but not sure how much truth is in that

Dingbatt

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#199871 8-Mar-2009 10:43

viperguy: i have the 2309 but regards the OSD it shows everything...you get used to the front panel after a while

personally i was looking at the 789 but was concerned about number of inputs as well, but it was the serial port that swayed me and reading that the yamahas did something to the hdmi signals...didnt pass full range hdmi or something, but not sure how much truth is in that

Thanks for the heads up on the Yammy video, I had forgotten about that.

I understand that the Denon OSD works for setup (with blockly white font on a black background?) but what about when you are actually playing something? And for instance change input and want to check input type, data rate, codec, volume, etc? That may be important since the receiver is likely to be out of sight from the normal viewing position. I assume that the OSD is available through hdmi?

Have you tried used the hdmi control to operate other components?
How exactly does the hdmi pass-through in stby work? I know you have to set hdmi control to on in the setup menu. Does it set the last used hdmi port, or does it always default to the same port (i.e hdmi1).

I must say I was swaying towards the Yammy but what you mentioned above has swung the rudder back the other way slightly.

Once again thanks for your patience in answering these questions guys.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

viperguy

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Geek

#199944 8-Mar-2009 18:27

I understand that the Denon OSD works for setup (with blockly white font on a black background?) but what about when you are actually playing something? And for instance change input and want to check input type, data rate, codec, volume, etc? That may be important since the receiver is likely to be out of sight from the normal viewing position. I assume that the OSD is available through hdmi?

yes osd works via hdmi, cant find any way to view status without going via the menu which doesnt overlay (on hdmi anyway)

Have you tried used the hdmi control to operate other components?

only hdmi control i have setup is my tv turns the denon on and off when it does

How exactly does the hdmi pass-through in stby work? I know you have to set hdmi control to on in the setup menu. Does it set the last used hdmi port, or does it always default to the same port (i.e hdmi1).

it uses the last used input, only issue with using it in standby is you will have no audio if your display cant decode the source audio format you have set

Dingbatt

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#199948 8-Mar-2009 18:58

viperguy:

........
How exactly does the hdmi pass-through in stby work? I know you have to set hdmi control to on in the setup menu. Does it set the last used hdmi port, or does it always default to the same port (i.e hdmi1).

it uses the last used input, only issue with using it in standby is you will have no audio if your display cant decode the source audio format you have set

Thanks for your reply.

Does the above answer mean that the hdmi source will re-handshake with the TV and for instance change from bitstream DD-THD to 2-channel pcm when the receiver is set to stby? Or do you have to turn the source off, after putting the receiver to stby, so that it can re-handshake with the TV?

Personally I like using the theatre system speakers because they sound better, but other family members find it simpler to just use the TV speakers.

Thank you for pointing out that the receiver can be set to start when the TV switches on because that simplifies the macros on the universal remote.

edit: Seems a bit retrograde that you have to dive into the menu and blot out the picture just to check some parameters. Can anybody reading this with experience of Yamaha 863s or Onkyo 706 comment on their operational OSDs (as opposed to setup menu)?

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

viperguy

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Geek

#199975 8-Mar-2009 21:47

Does the above answer mean that the hdmi source will re-handshake with the TV and for instance change from bitstream DD-THD to 2-channel pcm when the receiver is set to stby? Or do you have to turn the source off, after putting the receiver to stby, so that it can re-handshake with the TV?

i use a ps3 and an htpc running mediaportal, the ps3 will handshake and work, but the htpc wont as the audio format is a bit more firmly chosen in the setup (my x-series sony tv says unsupported audio format)

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