For that price, its all-round performance makes it a real contender, worthy of consideration by discriminating home theater buyers. The Denon AVR-S730H is the least expensive receiver we've tested with Dolby Atmos/DTS:X surround processing. After all this tweaking, though, we had the HEOS 1 and the AVR-S730H playing music in perfect sync.
For instance, we had to consult the manual on how to group rooms (hold and drag) and we had to drill down into each device and set them to "High" quality to get hi-res music to play. The app is a little hard to use compared to Yamaha's MusicCast or Sonos, as it doesn't always work how you expect it to. Lastly we tested the receiver's multiroom capabilities with HEOS, and it works as well as previously.
The ELAC bookshelf speakers may be downright affordable, but they shined with Krall's big-band jazz, and the ELACs sounded like bigger speakers with the White Stripes' blistering rock, especially when Meg White's hard-hitting drums were given their full due. We also watched some concert music Blu-rays, including Diana Krall's "Live in Rio" set and the White Stripes' "Under Blackpool Lights" with the AVR-S730H. The music's flow, pace and uncompressed dynamics sounded great with both receivers.
With music from violinist Joshua Bell and bassist Edgar Meyer's "Short Trip Home" all-acoustic classical-cum-bluegrass album, the two receivers were equally accomplished performers. The whole operation took around 12 minutes to complete.įor this review we used a pair of ELAC Debut B6 bookshelf speakers in the front left and right positions, an ELAC Debut C5 center channel speaker, ELAC Debut B5s as surrounds, a pair of Klipsch RP-140SA height speakers up near the ceiling in the front of the room, and a Klipsch R-110SW subwoofer. Next, we plugged in the included calibration microphone, and continued to follow the prompts and moved the mic to six different locations in the CNET listening room for an extended series of automated test tones that sequenced one by one through the speakers and subwoofer. Starting the AVR-S730H's Audyssey MultEQ auto speaker setup program, onscreen prompts advised us to turn the subwoofer's volume control halfway up, and input the number of speakers we had hooked up to the receiver. If you're an audiophile it can also do hi-res music with support for 24-bit/192kHz as well as DSD over the network or via USB. Other features include Audyssey Room Correction and compatibility with the Denon 2016 AVR Remote app (iOS, Android and Kindle Fire) which offers control of the receiver as well as network/streaming playback.