★★★★★ 5
Excellent receiver next to the competition
Style: AVR-X2800H
Amazon has had some really good prices on the Amazon days so I bought a new receiver. Now I recently bought a AVR-S960H in 2022 which was excellent but I was needing another receiver.
I originally reviewed the S960H comparing against an Onkyo back in 2022. I mistakenly stated the Onkyo was a TX-NR6100, which it was a TX-NR6050. Very similar with the NR6100 having THX and 10 more watts of power.
This year I bought the Onkyo TX-NR6100 hoping it was better than the TX-NR6050 which it was in sound quality only, equaling the Denon AVR-S960H and Denon AVR-X2800H.
However the Onkyo TX-NR6100 just doesn't compare with missing features, weird on-line manuals that have numerous inaccuracies, and weird, none standard Dolby decoding that is mentioned in the manuals. The biggest problem that I was hoping was corrected with a firmware update for the 2 years that passed with the TX-NR6050 was the incorrect speakers, playing the wrong dolby discrete channels.
As I stated this is even mentioned in the manual as Onkyo thinks this is alright. I have a 7.1 speaker setup and listen to discrete 5.1 Dolby soundtracks of Concert Music Videos. I want to listen to the soundtrack discrete with no up mixing with a 5.1 speaker 'output'. The Onkyo's surround channel signals will only play out of the 'back' surround speakers leaving the surround speakers quiet. This is by design and acknowledged in the manual! This made the sound inferior and unacceptable to me. My Denon receivers play the surround channels correctly through the surround speakers.
Then the above goes one step further in displaying the incorrect number of channels output in the on-screen display on your tv. It will say a 5.1 signal input to 7.1 speakers output. This is wrong and should say 5.1 signal input to 5.1 speakers output. Since the "back" speakers are playing, it somehow thinks that the output is 7.1 speakers when only 5.1 speakers are playing, even if it is the wrong speakers.
Also the Onkyo has no HDR10+ for it's 3 inputs that aren't 8K compatible. Not good IMO.
So with the quirks in the Onkyo TX-NR6100, I sent it back. I replaced it with a Denon AVR-X2800H.
I could had replaced the Onkyo with a Denon AVR-S970H but I wanted the added room correction upgrade with the X2800 which is Audyssey MultiEQ XT, S970 has standard MultiEQ, no XT. Plus the X2800 in a 5.1 speaker setup will allow Speakers B to be assigned to the back surround speaker outputs or BIAMP if you have the need with your speakers. The S970 will not do that.
The X2800 also has Zone 2 preamp outputs that the S970 does not. Also the X2800 has one year longer warranty than the S970. The X2800 also has 5 more watts/channel than the S970.
At the time I bought during Amazon days, the X2800 was less than $200 more than the S970, so I bought the X2800.
The X2800 steers the correct surround channels to the correct surround speakers unlike the Onkyo and sounds just as good if not better. I have more features and a long warranty with the Denon AVR-X2800H as well over the Onkyo. Also the Denon has HDMI 2.1 inputs for all 6 inputs and will play HDR10+ on all 6 HDMI inputs, that the Onkyo can not!
I honestly have nothing to complain about the Denon. It does everything right and sounds great! It's also compatible with 8K60p(A) "UNCOMPRESSED" and 4K120p unlike some.
I didn't look at the Yamaha RX-V6A/RX-A2A twins as they were not compatible with 8K60p(A) "UNCOMPRESSED" , just 8K60p(B) "COMPRESSED". They were the same price as the Denon AVR-S970H and AVR-X2800H models. That being Yamaha RX-V6A price about same as Denon AVR-S970H, and Yamaha RX-A2A about same as Denon AVR-X2800H.
The Yamaha model compatible with 8K60p (A) "UNCOMPRESSED" is the more expensive RX-A4A but I seen no comparable pricing around what the Denon AVR-X2880H was selling at. Very similar to the Denon but more power with pre-amp outputs. I didn't need either for the hundreds more it was selling at.
The Denon AVR-X2800H is the best bang for your buck 7.1 receiver right now IMO.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2024
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