Home > Consumer Reviews > Denon AVR-4308CI Multizone Home Theater Receiver with Network Streaming and Wi-Fi

**Update 11.18.09: The Pioneer Elite SC-27 is fantastic. Beautiful video and sound output. I highly recommend.

I have had 3 Denon receivers in the past. Two from the 90's of which models I don't recall, but I was going to upgrade to the AVR-4308CI from the once flagship AVR-5700 that I have had for 9 or 10 years. These new receivers have plenty of great features like automated speaker setup, wifi, etc. I was prepared for the same quality of sound, at least, of the old receiver.

I currently have a 5.1 Paradigm Reference surround system. Two front, two back, Center, and Sub. Using component video inputs and optical sound inputs for HDTV/Blu-ray/Xbox/Tuner. However, this receiver will not allow me to have rears if I have no side surround. If I turn off side surround, it will not allow me to use rear surround at all. Shutting off side surround shuts off *all* surround. So I plugged the rears into side surround, which produced poor results. Then I tried turning on side surround, with the rear speakers plugged into rear, and leaving side-surround empty. This also produced poor results. Then I tried turning off surround altogether, and attempting front "faux" surround, which was very undesriable. No matter which setting I tried, the results were poor (meaning, basically, that sound was not clear and crisp and voices were mumbling or muffled.

I also tried using a Blu-ray player (LG BD390) and, from component input, I was getting horizontal dark and light monochrome artifacts. It came from this particular receiver, because I plugged in two TVs to the reciever, and the same artifacting occured with both. Plugged it back into the AVR-5700, and problem solved. I can only assume this was some attempt from the receiver to mess with video that I was never able to alter and track down in the settings.

For the sound issue, I updated all of the firmware which took 1.5 hours. I attempted to alter all of the automated settings to manual settings to try to tweak everything sound-related I could, but nothing came out un-muffled. So, I tried contacting Denon for assistance to see if they could offer suggestions. I was met with what I can only describe as patronizing "assistance" from a person who had me swap cables around and change settings I'd already changed. He acted as though there is no way the product would produce poor results, and I'm obviously an idiot.

So, in any case, plugging the AVR-5700 back in fixed every problem I had been having, so I am sending back this terrible receiver to a company I no longer respect and will purchase a Pioneer Elite SC-27 next.

This unit was very easy to set up right out of the box. The audio sound from LPCM Uncompressed, Dolby True HD, or DTS MA HD Blu ray's is amazing. Lot's of power and clean sound. Each channel is easily idenfitied. Very pleased!

I'm pretty sophisticated technically, but configuring this receiver is nearly impossible. The menus are arbitrary and incomprehensible, the documentation poor, and the two remotes almost impossible to use. The receiver keeps crashing when it tries to update its firmware. Everything about its design is unintuitive and opaque, and configuring it to get good sound out of it is very difficult without some very sophisticated professional help.

This receiver has been nothing but grief since it arrived, and correctly configuring it remains an elusive goal, receding ever further into the distance. I'm going to get rid of this and look for something with a usable interface and audio quality that's easier to obtain. If this receiver is capable of producing quality sound, you'll need luck, patience, and a great deal of technical knowledge to get it.

In the future I'll avoid this, and I'll avoid all Denon products.

As the Blu Ray / HDTV bug bit me, I had to upgrade to a receiver with HDMI switching. I upgraded from a Rotel receiver which did not support HDMI.

I did quite a bit of research and auditioning before I chose this Denon. The important features for me were HDMI switching (with full support for Dolby TrueHD and the rest of the Blu Ray sound formats) and Audissey room calibration. Since many of us watch movies and listen to music in our regular living rooms which are not specially acoustically treated, room calibration is very useful, and it only became available in receivers a couple of years ago.

Other brands / receivers considered: Integra, Onkyo, Marantz, Pioneer Elite, Yamaha, NAD, Arcam, Rotel, Sony. Of these, Arcam and Rotel do not offer room calibration and yet are expensive, so they were ruled out. Sony, Yamaha, and Pioneer have some proprietary room correction which may or may not be good. I liked the sound of the Pioneer Elite for what is worth. Integra, Onkyo, Marantz and NAD have Audissey RoomEQ, which is the most advanced tried-and-true room correction available in home theater receivers today. The NAD and Marantz feature more limited versions of RoomEQ. Marantz sounds kind of dull and smears high resolution detail; some call this sound "sweet" but it really is just dull :) Integra and Onkyo are pretty feature rich and their highest end models are in the same league as this Denon. Integra and Onkyo (which are the same company really) sound detailed and somewhat bright.

Denon won because it has the fullest set of features (you can even listen to web radio or stream your music files over WiFi!), it is network upgradeable unlike most of the other brands (kind of like your PC which gets software updates), has enough power (140 Watts/channel) to drive most speakers, and it sounds fantastic.

This summer Denon is introducing the successor to this and a few other receivers, so prices for this receiver are lower now -- it must be one of the better deals on the market right now in this price range.

Just bought this unit as an replacement for my Denon 4802R 7.1 THX AV receiver. This new unit while not THX rated out performs the other in every area. Both units were driving a set of M&K S-150 THX speakers in a 7.1 configuration. The 4308CI made more of a improvement than I would have expected. I bought the new unit for improved features which it has more than I'll ever use...the improved sound is a bonus.
I found it very easy to set up after spending some time with the unit.