Customer Reviews

Denon AVR-688 Dolby Digital Surround Receiver

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

My 2005 Yamaha 650 series was very good to me until my dog chewed one of the speakers wires and shorted out the receiver, so I decided to try the new Onkyo TX-SR605 model everyone was raving about besides the overheating problem with Onkyo, everything I heard about the receiver was good. Which I agreed until I tried the Denon. I did all the automatic speaker calibration which worked very well. The sound was ok but not very impressed so I tried tweaking with the sound but did not get much better. Remember, I was comparing this unit to my Yamaha. Then I decided to look to see what else what out there around the same price and the Yamaha and Onkyo. I found the Denon AVR-688, so I tried that out since I knew Denon was pretty reputable. Both places had a 30 day return policy so I new I had 3 1/2 weeks on left on the Onkyo to do the comparison. After the lengthy set up with the Denon (took me 4 times longer to set up the Denon than the Onkyo), which is not as hard as people say as long as you go step by step through the instruction. I decided to play some music and all I can say is this thing sounds 20% better than my two year old Yamaha and 40% better than the Onkyo. The Onkyo was very good for the money but the sound did not have the depth of the Denon. Listening to a TV program, the center speaker sounds so much more life like. The Onkyo had a very thin sound compared to the Denon. It was almost like teh Onkyo was playing through curtains. This is playing on a $400 center speaker. I wish I could put a picture on here of me with both receivers just to prove that I did the test. This is not just my opinion but even my wife, who could care less of how it sounds, said she could tell a difference. I had them both out side by side so I could quickly plug up one to compare. I also use banana plugs to for the speaker connectors to make the swap even faster. I will be returning the Onkyo this weekend. I do have not have a vested interest in this article but the difference in sound was worth writing.

Watch out for one thing: this unit does not accept audio IN over the HDMI cable. This means that if you are connecting your Blu-Ray player to this receiver, the HDMI cable will only carry the video signal. For the audio signal you need to use a digital coax cable. Now, this may seem like a drawback, but let's do the math; if you want the HDMI to carry audio, you need to step up to the Denon AVR-788, which is $100 more than this unit (you also get some more wattage with the 788, although this 688 has plenty). OR, you could just buy a digital coax cable (less than 5 bucks from some place [...]) and have exactly the same sound quality. It is all digital, so you just have to get the sound in and you are fine.

People have also complained about the instruction manual--it takes time but it is not written in Greek. This is not a $40 DVD player, but a complicated piece of audio equipement, and you need to invest the time to get it set up properly. In terms of bang for the buck, this receiver is an amazing deal.

I agree with the prior review that the manual for this product is near-useless. Looks like a robotic translation of the Japanese original. I was minutes away from returning it to Amazon after 3 days of frustration.

Noticed quite by chance that the manual mentions in a footnote that HDMI cable attachmnents do NOT carry audio through the AVR 688. Had to use optical audio cables and finally figured out that these were assignable inputs. Once I assgned them correctly, everything works just fine.

I have a Sony Bravia Full HDTV, Polk Audio speakers (SW404, RC80i's, and RTi6's) a Sony upconverting HD/DVD player. Also connect an XM radio mini-tuner.

I love my current setup, but if I had it to do over I'd probably wait for the AVR788. Once I factored in the cost of a pair of optical audio cables, the price difference is nearly negligible.

While setup is definitely not for the faint of heart (a nightmare, actually) the product is a good value. Love the surround sound and the integrated XM radio is a real plus.

I purchased this receiver at Circuit City to replace an old Yamaha, having upgraded to a plasma tv, a Wii and an upconvert dvd. I wavered between the Denon and a comparably priced Onkyo (TX-SR605). What a mistake! After 3 days of attempting to get all of my components to work properly I gave up and hooked everything up through the tv and then out to the receiver. Meanwhile I attempted 3 times in the next week and a half to contact Denon customer service by email for some help without an answer. One big problem with this receiver is that it does not run audio through the HDMI hookups, a separate coax or optical audio cable is required. Of course you can't find this information until you get it out of the box and go through the manual. Even though I had all of the required cables and followed the guide I was unable to get everything working as it should.

Finally I took it back to CC and exchanged it for the Onkyo. 45 minutes later EVERYTHING worked perfectly. Over a month later I still have had no return emails from Denon. Stay away

I am writing this as many people have complained about how hard this was to setup. This astounds me, I had this setup in the matter of a couple of hours. That might sound like a lot, but I'm running a Wii, a Mac Mini, Technics CD player, bluetooth gateway and HD cable out to my main tv. I can also recommend the Polk TSi line of speakers with this for both Home Theater and Music. This receiver gives you a lot of options for input and output, deciding on what you want and need will take you a bit, but the results are well worth it. I've had this for a little over a week and I'm still discovering the full power of this beast. If you have a chance to grab this at a discount price jump for it.

Not sure about the negative comments. This is a fantastic receiver for the going price of $280. Its a generation older, but has the goods. As has been mentioned in the other reviews, unfortunately processing HDMI Audio is not supported by the unit and you need to connect either an optical or coaxial digital audio cable to get Digital Dolby or DTS. This all works fine with my HDTV and my PS3. The Dolby Pro Logic II, Neural and Neo functions do a reasonable job of converting stereo into multi-channel. True Digital Dolby and DTS both sound great! Just beware that you will not be able to access some of the newest HD Audio formats as they are only supported across HDMI, but by using a toslink cable, the PS3 will happily pump out DTS or Digital Dolby tracks.

Took me about an hour to set up everything, including setting the mic at the optimal 6 listening positions for the audyssey auto-calibration, setting up the assignable optical and coaxial inputs to the selected devices, running the tuner preset function, and setting the remote to work with my other components. Once setup, the auto-calibrate proved to be very accurate.

A couple things to note, and this is what may have led to some of the bad reviews. First, there is a small power button next to the much larger Standby/On button. I didn't expect it, but this was off when I unpacked the unit. So, after hooking all the speakers up (The Boston Acoustics Horizon Series MCS100MDNT 5.1-Channel Speaker System (Black)
also bought from Amazon on a Hot Deal of $200 and a great speaker system) and the PS3, I plugged in the unit and nothing. But after going thru the admittedly weak manual and looking carefully at the front panel I found the power switch, and everything came to life.

During the auto-calbrate, after the measurements of the 6 locations are done, the receiver will hop to the Calculate function. The manual says it will go to a check function afterward. What it doesn't specifically state is you have to kick off the calculate. I sat there for about 10 minutes before I thought something was up. Hitting the left arrow on the remote, the display then started flashing Calculating. A minute later it advanced to the check function.

The remote is a bit bizarre with the two sided operation (The back side controls are under a flip door), but works fine and can be set independently for each component. It now can control my HDTV for instance.

All in all I am very happy with this purchase and the BA Speakers.

I've had my AVR-688 for a couple of years now, and the sound has always been incredible. There are more than enough connectors, and configurations to satisfy even some audiophiles. I would have to question any bad reviews as more likely components connected to the receiver, than the unit itself. In my case, my computer, satellite, and game console are all connected, and I couldn't be happier with the performance. So long as the basics are not overlooked, such as the quality of the signal going in, anyone owning one of these units will be very happy indeed.

One must be an electrical engineer to set this junk up. Once it was finally set-up. I experienced feedback on all audio channels. This thing has never worked. HDMI without audio pass thru???? What? Stay away from this piece of Canadian trash!

After the huge pain in the ass setting this up, and then finding that it wasn't capable of audio via HDMI, the digital input board has smoked. Basically, that means it's now worthless to me. After contacting Denon and being told that it didn't matter if I registered my warranty online and that they had record of my purchase date, if I didn't have the receipt, I didn't have a warranty. I asked why they even bothered to have online registration if they wouldn't honor it and was told their "warranty registration" was for marketing purposes. Never buying a Denon product again.

I have been using an AVR*-688 for over a year now... this is my experience:
Pros:
1-Great sound quality. Using the auto-calibration systems works great. I have a 5.1 set up of Pioneers with a 12" Infinity Sub, and I can say the sound is envolving regardless where I`m streaming it from.
2-Conecctivity is awsome. 4 digital (assignable) audio inputs and an extensive amount of video imputs (3xhdmi,5xcomponent, 5x s-vid). I get digital audio out my Xbox 360, my HTPC and from my satallite box.
3- 2nd zone is great. I have a set of Bose IV hooked up in the living room away from the studio and I can tell you it`s really nice to use the 2nd zone function. Specially when you want to see the game and the wife wants to chat and listen to some music with girls.
4- great speaker expandibility. You can either have a 5.1 or 7.1 system, increase the no of frontals or bridge the conection to have even more power (16 ohm)Std is 8ohm so power is not an issue.
5- The purchasing of this piece of equipment was great. Awsome product web page with all the manulas in thre, so you really know (if you document yourself b4 your purchase) what the equipment is really capable of.

Cons:

1- User manual and set up is not for biggners. I would only recommend that mid/high experience users takle this piece of equipment.Newbies,should try to get some help.
2- HDMI neither streams audio nor does it upscales analog video imputs to be streamed through the HDMI. If you want to have your analog signal converted to HD you need to buy something else (try this http://www.amazon.com/Atlona-Scaler-Analog-Digital-Audio/dp/B0011MOVN8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1276890686&sr=1-3)
3- Zone 2 audio will not work with digital audio imputs. It will only output analog signals.

Overall I think this is a great system at a great price to what it offers. Also, build quality and durability is awsome. This isn`t your flinsy power plant that`ll heat up and die. I`m for the most part a sports fan and gamer so I do put in some long hours of work on this system and have never had a complaint.

Upgraded control for Zone 2 is available also Ipod docking as well. Defenetly has been a great buy for me.