DENON AVR2112CI INTEGRATED NETWORK A/V SURROUND RECEIVER REVIEWS

My six year old Onkyo TX-SR502 was an entry level AV Receiver and it was time to upgrade. It did not have HDMI connectivity and did not have an onscreen show. It also did not have an automobile speaker setup and I was not quite capable to configure them myself to produce great sound. We also observed lip sync issues when watching DVDs on our PS3. So after considerably analysis, I determined that my second receiver would be the Denon AVR-2112CI.

1st, I will deal with the problems listed above. I now have my DirecTV and PS3 wired to the receiver by means of HDMI and my Wii linked making use of component cables. From there, we have one HDMI cable running from the receiver to the Tv. Utilizing this connection scheme, we seemed to eliminate the lip sync concern when watching DVDs and had been also ready to eradicate any delay when playing video game systems among the controls and the real on display action. The onscreen show is great for a number of good reasons. It was nice to have something to look at even though setting up the receiver, but it is also good to see the volume level on display when adjusting the volume. Our coffee table blocks the line of sight to the receiver and we would have to get up and search at the old receiver to see the volume level. Lastly, the included Audyessy MultEQ XT setup configured the speakers so that they sound wonderful. The genuine test was my wife who explained that the sound is significantly greater now with the new receiver.

On top rated of these rewards, this receiver has some other wonderful features. When hooking up to the world wide web by means of your home network, the receiver can stream audio from quite a few different world wide web solutions. I mainly use Pandora, but Rhapsody and Napster are a handful of other services offered. You can also access your laptop or personal music files by way of DLNA engineering. Now if you have Apple portable audio devices with wifi (believe iPhone, iPod touch, iPad), then you can listen to music off of these devices wirelessly through the Apple AirPlay characteristic. I identified this function to be flaky (time to connect and music stuttering), but when it operates, it is a good element to be in a position to listen to your iPod library with gadget nonetheless in hand. You can even listen to Pandora this way as nicely, so it is up to you which method you prefer. AirPlay also operates with iTunes on your Mac or Pc. Just choose the little icon in the bottom corner of iTunes and choose “Denon AVR-2112CI.” As I pointed out, the AirPlay function can be a tiny flaky, but this may possibly be due to a poor connection in between my D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Gigabit Wireless Router and my D-Hyperlink DAP-1522 Xtreme four-Port GigaBit Selectable Dual Band Draft 802.11n N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point.

Lastly, this receiver features Audio Return Channel and HDMI Standby Passthrough. If you are tv also has this function, then one particular of the items you can do is run the video and audio signal through the receiver to the TV whilst the receiver is in standby mode. This was crucial to my wife given that she likes to view TV shows utilizing the tv speakers. Nevertheless given that the new receiver generates a a lot far superior sound, she’s often watching her exhibits employing the surround sound, something she never did with our Onkyo.

My initial receiver was a fantastic entry degree receiver for a new college grad residing on his very own for the initial time. But this Denon is a excellent upgrade and is wonderful for watching motion pictures, playing games, and listening to music.

I’ve had my AVR-2112CI for about two weeks. I purchased it for two causes. I have an odd sized space with hardwood floors and odd speaker placement (4 ceiling speakers are centered on 4 vaulted parts of the ceiling with the center more than a fireplace in a corner). I required the Audyssey MultEQ XT to get the sound appropriate. Secondly, I wanted the use of Airplay for our two iphones and our ipad two.

The MultiEQ XT is excellent! I have practically nothing but praise for the big difference it has created more than my old Onkyo receiver. The sound is really complete and I have had several men and women comment on the sound distinction.

Airplay started off with issues. I tried hooking it up with two different repeaters with no success (sound was continually breaking up). I then attempted making use of Trendnet 200 mbps powerline. I had the exact same problem with the music slicing out and for some purpose my web was finding cut out every day. Ultimately, I hired some specialists to fix my old cat5e cable that essential to be repaired. I hooked it up directly to a gigabit Netgear N600 router and issues have enhanced substantially. I have ten meg net at my property, so my speed is fairly excellent via gigabit cat5e. My iphone 3gs even now breaks up when employing Airplay. There may be a compatibility issue with the 3gs. It does have the most current firmware update, but nonetheless has problems. Nevertheless, my ipad 2 and iphone four perform great. You can place the receiver in network standby and use the Airplay icons (in Pandora, Slacker, Rhapsody, Youtube and Ipod) to turn the program on instantly and start off playing music through Airplay. You can also manage the volume with your iphone/ipad when making use of Airplay. The top quality of sound from Airplay is great!

At times, the Airplay icon will not appear. If it does not, I have found turning off the phone/ipad and turning it back on will typically fix this matter.

I cannot say a lot far more about the receiver, because I genuinely have not had the time to test all of the other options. Mainly, I got it for the two factors over. I will be replacing my iphone 3gs in a couple of weeks with the iphone four, so I expect the Airplay issues will disappear for me.

All round, I am fairly pleased with program. Airplay is a little finicky, but my guess is long term firmware updates on the apple devices will remedy this.

UPDATE: 7-24-11. I finally got my iphone four and Airplay is nevertheless slicing out intermittently. Largely it operates, but it is not unusual for it to cut out for anyplace between 5-15 seconds in the middle of a song. My wife has an iphone 4 that cuts out significantly less for some explanation. My wifi signal strength is complete when this takes place at times. I am not confident what this issue is. I am hoping a firmware update on the mobile phone side or on the Denon side will at some point fix this.

UPDATE: 9-6-11. I finally figured this out following studying lots of posts of forums. There appears to be an problem with a couple of the settings on the iphone interfering with Airplay. Go to your iphone settings and turn off bluetooth. Then go and turn off “Inquire to Join Networks” in the wifi possibilities. This fixed my difficulty and now Airplay operates fantastic! I hope this aids some other people that are possessing this difficulty with Airplay on this Denon or any other Airplay gadget. The difficulty was with my iphone, not the receiver. The purpose why my wife’s phone had not been slicing out was because these choices had been off on her telephone.

I can not sing the praises of this receiver substantial enough. I spent an awful lot of time studying what Airplay capable receiver to acquire and settled on two, this and the Pioneer 1121K. I had initially deemed getting the Denon 1912 but Batpig’s thread on avsforum.com convinced me to upgrade to the 2112 for the superior calibration method. Possessing a hell of a time trying to decide between this and the Pioneer, I ordered each and made the decision to test them in my residence hooked up to a set of fantastic Power Take Traditional speakers. The result: the Denon blew the Pioneer away. Now perhaps Pioneer’s MCACC calibration system just cannot evaluate to Denon’s amazing Audessy MQ and maybe with some tweaking it would have approached the Denon in sound top quality but I figured if Pioneer could not get that appropriate, what else did not they get correct. Whereas the Denon is crystal clear with every note distinct and crisp, the Pioneer had a muddled, muted sound to it. Each I and my spouse could not feel the variation. I honestly do not feel I would have kept the speakers had I gotten the Pioneer 1st, blaming the speakers relatively than the receiver for the mediocre sound.

When I Airplay through this receiver, it is like I have by no means heard this music prior to. It sounds so very good and immediate! Far greater than when I Airplay the very same music through my Apple Television. I can only assume that Airplaying directly through the receiver takes complete benefit of its amplifying and sound processing powers. The truth that I can also Airplay my music to Zone 2 which runs my outside speakers is a quite nice plus provided the great sound.

I’ve had no network problems whatsoever with this unit as opposed to others but I do have the receiver hooked up to an Apple Airport Express that is in turn wirelessly communicating with an Apple Severe Base Station so that may be the purpose it functions so well for me. I thought setup was far less complicated than with the Pioneer which I located unnecessarily complicated and convoluted. The onscreen volume indicator is also a good touch missing from the Pioneer.

No, it doesn’t have as a lot of inputs as the Pioneer but given that every little thing I personal has an HDMI output this was not an problem for me. If there is a weak point about purchasing this Denon it really is with the ridiculous determination to place the owner’s manual on a CD fairly than give you with a paper copy. Not only is this extremely impractical unless of course you have a personal or laptop in the same room as the receiver, navigation by means of the manual, even after duplicating it to your difficult drive, is slow. Out of utter aggravation I decided to print out the 100 plus pages to have at the ready. I would have gladly paid a little additional not to have to do this.