Best 4K HDR AVR (Audio Video Receivers) for Consoles [2017-2019]

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In similar vein to the Best 4K TV's for Scorpio/PS4 Pro thread, I'm starting to look into updating my media center equipment to be able to experience the glory that is 4K HDR. I didn't want to pollute the other thread, as audio will have their own nuances.

What should one look for in an AVR upgrade? I know there are multiple audio paths to look for support, ranging from Dolby ATMOS to DTS-X. Are they various video formats to look into as well?

My current AVR is a Denon X3000 with a 7.1 speaker setup in the rec-room. The front speakers are mounted on stands around 3.25 - 4.5 feet off the ground. The side and rear speakers are mounted at the top of the of the wall near the ceiling and angled downward., a little above 7 feet.

I don't think I'd change the current speakers, but from a quick glance at the newer setups it seems as if my current setup might fit close enough to Dolby ATMOS to get away with it.

Thoughts?
 
how much do you love your speakers? and how often do you have guests coming over to watch?
I've gotten super lazy and a very high end pair of headphones with Dolby Atmos will probably provide better audio experience from a directional perspective at least imo. If you're entertaining guests though, the AVR route makes sense to me. I can't play games with sound on in the house when the kids sleep, I had difficulties getting 5.1 to work; always too big a hassle to get all the speaker equally distant from the couch.
 
In similar vein to the Best 4K TV's for Scorpio/PS4 Pro thread, I'm starting to look into updating my media center equipment to be able to experience the glory that is 4K HDR. I didn't want to pollute the other thread, as audio will have their own nuances.

What should one look for in an AVR upgrade? I know there are multiple audio paths to look for support, ranging from Dolby ATMOS to DTS-X. Are they various video formats to look into as well?

My current AVR is a Denon X3000 with a 7.1 speaker setup in the rec-room. The front speakers are mounted on stands around 3.25 - 4.5 feet off the ground. The side and rear speakers are mounted at the top of the of the wall near the ceiling and angled downward., a little above 7 feet.

I don't think I'd change the current speakers, but from a quick glance at the newer setups it seems as if my current setup might fit close enough to Dolby ATMOS to get away with it.

Thoughts?

HDMI 2.1 not being out yet throws some uncertainty into the mix here, because VRR seems like it'll be pretty great.

Excepting that, as far as video goes you might want to look for something that supports all the variants of HDR. The new X#400H series from Denon claims to support HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG (the latter with an upcoming firmware update).

Then it's pretty much down to budget, how many watts/channel you want and how many HDMI inputs you want.

I picked up a factory refurb Denon X3200W from an authorized reseller for around $700 about the time the X#300W series came out and it's great. 8 HDMI inputs, 105 Watts/channel, network capable (with WiFi), does Dolby Atmos and DTS-X, and scales/converts analog and HDMI video all the way up to 4k60.

AVS forum has dedicated threads for each model year of Denons that list the differences between each model and the YoY changes for each model year.

Here's the 2016 and 2017 threads.
 
I just got the HT-ST5000. It's a soundbar, but it's Sony's top of the range. 800W, Atmos, and damn it really does sound insane. Without the need for rear or ceiling speakers.
I was a bit sceptical before receiving it but all I can say is that it sounds absolutely amazing, especially Atmos soundtracks where you really hear sounds coming off from all over the ceiling.
Very impressed, but it wasn't cheap.
Plus it has 3 HDMI inputs, all 4K/HDR capable.
If you think of simplifying your living room, I'd highly recommend it.
 
I just got the HT-ST5000. It's a soundbar, but it's Sony's top of the range. 800W, Atmos, and damn it really does sound insane. Without the need for rear or ceiling speakers.
I was a bit sceptical before receiving it but all I can say is that it sounds absolutely amazing, especially Atmos soundtracks where you really hear sounds coming off from all over the ceiling.
Very impressed, but it wasn't cheap.
Plus it has 3 HDMI inputs, all 4K/HDR capable.
If you think of simplifying your living room, I'd highly recommend it.
Going to need to check this out. I moved my 2 tower speakers meant for music listening downstairs to serve as media speakers and sound, but my vinyl setup is bare upstairs now, and I miss listening to vinyl while eating. This sounds like a good alternative.

What are the price points and what is the mounting ?
 
Going to need to check this out. I moved my 2 tower speakers meant for music listening downstairs to serve as media speakers and sound, but my vinyl setup is bare upstairs now, and I miss listening to vinyl while eating. This sounds like a good alternative.

What are the price points and what is the mounting ?

I paid £1500 for it.

Best piece of kit I've bought in a long time. I got it to replace my old 5.1 system because these days ain't nobody got time for separate speakers, and this bar still manages to sound a hundred times better. I would never have imagined it would. The Atmos soundtracks I saw (John Wick, San Andreas, Everest off top of my head) are absolutely insane on this thing. Sounds bouncing off the ceiling everywhere, madness. The sub is a monster too, and anything you play on it just immerses you a lot more than my old system used to.

Don't know about the mounting though.
 
I paid £1500 for it.

Best piece of kit I've bought in a long time. I got it to replace my old 5.1 system because these days ain't nobody got time for separate speakers, and this bar still manages to sound a hundred times better. I would never have imagined it would. The Atmos soundtracks I saw (John Wick, San Andreas, Everest off top of my head) are absolutely insane on this thing. Sounds bouncing off the ceiling everywhere, madness. The sub is a monster too, and anything you play on it just immerses you a lot more than my old system used to.

Don't know about the mounting though.
guess you really do get what you pay for!

did you try it out before buying it, or was that purely on research?
hate thought of having to get rid of my speakers and sub.
how long does it take to calibrate?

i need to stop coming here until upgrade itch has gone
 
guess you really do get what you pay for!

did you try it out before buying it, or was that purely on research?
hate thought of having to get rid of my speakers and sub.
how long does it take to calibrate?

i need to stop coming here until upgrade itch has gone

It's as plug and play as they come. Plug it in, the big sub connects wirelessly, it just works. You need to set the ceiling height and distance from the sofa in the settings and that's about it.

I did research before getting it - although not a lot of reviews online - and basically just got it hoping for the best, really! And wow am I a happy customer! I mean, for the price I would have been gobsmacked if this didn't sound incredible, but on top of the clarity of the sound, the surround effects are just crazy.
 
Don't know about the mounting though.
oh so your tv sits on a tv stand and the sound bar sits also on the stand and just below the TV? I was under the assumption that everyone was mounting sound bars to the wall under their TV.
 
oh so your tv sits on a tv stand and the sound bar sits also on the stand and just below the TV? I was under the assumption that everyone was mounting sound bars to the wall under their TV.

Yup. TV, 2 Pro's and bar all on a stand... the bar is in front of everything as the upfiring speakers need room above. Managed to make it look pretty neat.
b5fa3303f421ddcbe855fecde19c4faa.jpg
 
I completely forgot about the HDMI 2.1 being on the horizon with Variable Refresh Rate being a major feature. Any projected timelines on it's ratification or initial support in the hardware?

Without replacing the AVR I'd have to connect the XBOX/4Pro straight into the 4K-HDR TV and use that to switch video inputs to support the new goodness. I could still use the current AVR for the plain old HD (1080p and 5.1/7.1 Dolby or DTS) sources like the Tivo , Chromecast, X360.

I did spend time reading up more on the current Denon AVR Models. They do have some nice features. It's nice to see they're still pretty solid and haven't gone to crap like Onkyo has. I'm talking about the well known issue of Onkyo HDMI boards completely dieing with 6+ months repair time and excessive cost.

I wouldn't mind picking up nice Dolby Atmos Headphones. Any particular suggestions? I'd probably be partial to wireless over wired. Are they mostly designed to be plugged into the console(s) or into the game controllers or do they work like a sound-bar where it has a dock that accepts Optical or HDMI signal?
 
I wouldn't mind picking up nice Dolby Atmos Headphones.
I think there are two ways you can try this (without having to pay for anything) but I could be wrong, so looking for corrections.

If you pay for the Dolby Atmos on your XBO, ($15) the XBO will output virtual Dolby Atmos over headphones. You just connect to headphones and done. There's likely going to be some limitations here, those limitations mainly being which set of cans you can support since the controller doesn't have enough power to drive high impedance headphones. The work around is to get a headphone amp, but connecting it to the controller seems... it's not a great solution. I do it at home with my E5, I'll get better sound with the amp plugged in, but it's a pain in the ass to have to connect everything together honestly.

The other solution, is to see if you can get virtual dolby atmos to your current amp. I'm assuming your current amp also has headphone port and if you could route the virtual surround sound to that then you can buy really any set of headphones and go through your existing amp for better fidelity.

edit: looking at my X1 now. Change "Headset audio: Headset Format" to Dolby Atmos (you can trial for 30 days). Check off Using "HDMI/optical audio for headset". That should pump into your amp. Switch your amp to headphones and see what you get; I would try it now, but I don't have a banana plug on these sennheisers
 
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I just got the HT-ST5000. It's a soundbar, but it's Sony's top of the range. 800W, Atmos, and damn it really does sound insane. Without the need for rear or ceiling speakers.
I was a bit sceptical before receiving it but all I can say is that it sounds absolutely amazing, especially Atmos soundtracks where you really hear sounds coming off from all over the ceiling.
Very impressed, but it wasn't cheap.
Plus it has 3 HDMI inputs, all 4K/HDR capable.
If you think of simplifying your living room, I'd highly recommend it.

You got motherfucking everything!!!

You want to adopt a starving adult from the Americas? For the cost of an XB1X + taxes, I will send you a letter and pictures every month of how your donation has changed the life of an unfortunate gamer (not really). I would produce a video of me staring into the camera all sad like with a fly landing on my eye but I'm not that versed in video editing with special effects.
 
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You got motherfucking everything!!!

You want to adopt a starving adult from the Americas? For the cost of an XB1X + taxes, I will spend your a letter and pictures every month of how your donation has changed the life of an unfortunate gamer (not really). I would produce a video of me staring into the camera all sad like with a fly landing on my eye but I'm not that versed in video editing with special effects.

I've had a very good year :) but I've already adopted a little puppy so maybe next year!
 
from what i remember if you get atmos headphones then you've already paid for the atmos licence.
if you pay for the licence on the XO then you can use any.
so it may just come down to the quality of the headphones more so than them having atmos built in.
 
I'm not a big fan of surround headphones with multiple small drivers. I'll take stereo headphones with quality drivers and stereo sound and then just use virtualized sound for gaming. It's a compromise on the gaming side for improved quality in general use, but I think it's the best option.
 
if you use HTPC or connect a laptop or windows USB stick to the TV, it have built-in free windows sonic surround sound right? Isnt it sounds comparable to atmos?
 
if you use HTPC or connect a laptop or windows USB stick to the TV, it have built-in free windows sonic surround sound right? Isnt it sounds comparable to atmos?

As far as I know, only Atmos and DTS-X give you extra height channels, such as 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 for example, where the last 2 are the height channels. Sound comes from ceiling mounted speakers or more commonly speakers that reflect sound off the ceiling.
 
if you use HTPC or connect a laptop or windows USB stick to the TV, it have built-in free windows sonic surround sound right? Isnt it sounds comparable to atmos?

Does Windows Sonic Surround work for non-headphones?
 
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