Customer Reviews

Denon AVR-4306B 7.1 CH Home Theater/MultiMedia A/V Receiver (Black)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Absolutely outstanding feature set and performance. Very easy to set up, the net radio feature is very cool. I have and oldish VCR, a DVD player and DirecTV HD DVR set up through system, works flawlessly. I am waiting for the High Def DVD wars to settle before jumping in, but I will be ready when I do because of the outstanding number of HDMI and other inputs. The Audyssey MultEq Auto Setup/Room Eq is fabulous, worked very well in my oddly shaped room with my Klipsch surround system. I have not had any issues with the video performance, and the upscaling is wonderful. It is very nice to have one cable run to my Plasma as opposed to three! The remote is descent, but the 'hide and seek' portion is a little annoying. I was able to get all of my most needed functions into it, and the macros are nice for powering up and shutting down all components. Sonic performance is well, Denon-esque- meaning beautiful. This is a high-end AV receiver for a high-end user. If you are a true home theater enthusiast, you will extremely happy with this wonderful piece of equipment.

As a 4306 owner, I agree with many of the comments by previous reviewers. Sound and video quality are excellent, HDMI switching works fine. Tons of features and somewhat complex to set up. The manual is marginal in many respects.

As stated in previous reviews, the remote control is not very good, but you'll probably want to use a good universal remote if you have more than a few units in your system.

My big problem with the 4306 is this. When playing my Sony VCR through the Denon composite video input, the 4306 often completely freezes and displays only green and/or yellow vertical lines on the screen. This cannot be corrected with the remote control. You have to go to the 4306 and manually cycle it off/on in order to restore normal operation. This is a significant glitch in a high-priced product like the 4306.

I also discovered that the 4306 does not provide audio line outputs. I want to listen to headphones while the main speakers are turned lower or off. (I'm hard of hearing, my wife is not). The preamp outputs are controlled by the same knob as the main speakers. Turn the main speakers down or off and you turn the preamp out levels down or off. Plug the wireless headphone base unit into the heaphone jack on the 4306 and it completely disconnects the main speakers. There doesn't seem to be a clean solution.

Aside from the above problems, I am satisfied with the performance of the 4306.

I agree with pretty much every review here already done. This receiver is a tank, sounds great, but you must buy it knowing that you will be challenging yourself.

To put it this way, this receiver has been integrated into my home theater for 9 months and I sill find myself tweaking it to make it sound better.

Overall, I'm happy with it but wish I had bought the slightly newer model "CI" that supports 1080p upconversion since my projector supports it. But that's the my issue, not the receivers, and you always face that problem buying technology.

I agree with all the good things that have been said and I have just a few brief comments to add.

The remote takes time to get used to. I had to call Denon Support a few times for more than a year every now and then to learn what I needed. Now I love it.

My manual is dog-earred. It has to be because there were times that I found what I needed when Denon Support was either dead wrong and/or unaware of what I needed to know. I don't always get the technical stuff right away, but if I put the time in, its almost always in the manual. Denon Support is less than perfect. They are sometimes a little abrupt, short tempered, can take forever to get through to, and sometimes just plain wrong. However, I'll give them a B+ at worst because God knows, I've called them enough and I usually get the right answer.

I'm sold on Denon and I'm looking forward to a new 4810. Another nice thing about Denon is that there are few radial changes in recent years and jumping up a notch or two is OK from the standpoint that you are not going to be completely confused, quite the contrary the newer models seem to build on the previous.

If I can't get a new Denon soon I'll still be happy with my 4306.