The Denon AVR-3311CI 7.2 Channel A/V Receiver: Premium Technology and Performance gets Networked. The new AVR-3311CI is a technological tour de force, designed for consumers wanting to network their AV system. It’s also one the first to come equipped with HDMI 1.4a connectivity, including 3D pass-through (Broadcast and Blu-ray), along with Audio Return Channel. Ethernet connectivity opens up your AV system to host of exciting capabilities like audio and jpeg photo streaming via as well as hundreds of Internet radio stations. Pandora is supported along with subscription music services like Rhapsody and Napster. Flickr photo streaming is also featured. The AVR-3311CI packs a punch with 7-channels of onboard amplification producing 875-watts of total power (125 per channel) delivering detail and dynamics to music and movie soundtracks. The amplifiers can be assigned for 7.2 channel surround sound, or a 5.2 channel system in the “main” room and power a pair of speakers in a second “zone”. This only scratches the surface of the AVR-3311CI Multi-zone (3)/multi-source (3) capability. Enhanced power amp assign features, second and third zone programming feature allow the AVR-3311CI to be the hub of a sophisticated whole house system. For video connectivity, the AVR-3311CI is equipped with 1080p and 3D (all formats) compatible HDMI 1.4a Repeating technology, delivering both audio and video to your HDTV with single HDMI cable. This HDMI connectivity supports the latest generation surround sound formats available on Blu-ray disc, including Dolby TrueHD and DD+, dts-HD and dts-HR. Also included is Dolby Laboratories new Pro Logic IIz Matrix decoding featuring front height effects channels that expands front soundstage.
read more..Hot Features- Fully discrete 7-channel power amplifier delivers 125 watts per channel (875-watts total)
- Decodes Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital Surround EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIz,
- HDMI 1.4a Repeater Inputs (6) and Output (1) support 1080p/24, 3D (All formats) Audio Return Channel, 7.1 Uncompressed Audio
- Anchor Bay ABT-2015 advanced analog and digital video 1080p/24fps/60fps upconversion and deinterlacing with multi-cadence detection
- Audyssey DSX surround processing, Audessey MultEQ automatic room acoustic measuring and correction system
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Terrific for Home Theater by MJC
I have this connected in our main TV watching room. 99% of the time, it is playing sound and video from either a Tivo or a Mac Mini that is setup to play our DVD movies along with video sources such as Hulu, Netflix, and the iTunes store rentals. It almost never plays back just music (but see below).
This AVR receiver, like most, is marketed and plastered with too many industry standards and proprietary / trademarked formats, such as 3D, HDMI, Windows 7 Compatible, Audyssey, Sirius, HD Radio, iPod ... I don't mean they are meaningless (some are to me), but when comparing this receiver to the Pioneer VSX 1120 and to the Yamaha offerings, the sea of sometimes interchangeable acronyms surged and flowed around me like hype, not help.
One of these, however, I have really come to value - Audyssey. The Denon 3311ci comes with a microphone that you place at and around your main listening areas (up to 8 spots). Then you run the Audyssey program that is built into this receiver. It sends out a bunch of tones and clicks from each of your surround sound speakers, processes the results, stores it to memory, and ... greatly improves the surround sound performance! (My prior receiver's performance was probably better than most people's as I had calibrated each speaker using precisely using a Sound Pressure Level meter, special calibration DVD's, and measuring the distance from each speaker to the main listening position). Audyssey's faster and more sophisticated measuring and processing made a big improvement. I think the results that it processes take into account the room's acoustics (furniture placement, walls, windows ...) in ways that a human just couldn't do. Very impressive. In the first weekend, two other people (wife and mother) watched Tivo and a movie in that room and separately commented on the amazing sounds they heard. ("I thought there was a siren on the street behind me, but it was the movie." and "I got up to answer the phone, but it was just part of the Tivo show.")
The video looks very good, too. Both the Tivo and the Mac MIni are connected to the Denon 3311 via HDMI through one HDMI cable, each. Then, a third cable runs to the HDTV. That's it. Three cables. Very easy setup. Everything has worked well.
I'll be integrating the 3311CI's webserver into our home automation system, which is a main reason for selling a beloved Arcam AVR 350 that it replaced. That's a bigger project, but the basic movie and TV video and sound of this unit has impressed us so much, that we thought we'd share.
So, why only 4 stars? It's been 5 on everything so far, but there are many other things to test on it. Also, it's not as spectacular for just listening to music in stereo as the Arcam was. It's very good, but not stellar for good old fashioned music playback. However, that's something I'll do with it 1% of the time, at most.
