The "Official" Denon AVR-4311CI/AVR-A100 thread [NO PRICE TALK] - Page 123

I hear you man, I (and I'm sure a bunch of others on here) am dying to have you do a side by side comparison.

again, can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Alas, it is not going to happen (or at least not yet). I'm sending the 4311 back unopened; I'm going to test out the Onk and see if it fits my needs. If it doesn't, it will go back and I'll reorder the 4311 (and then provide some testing data). EE is not willing to work with me on this, if I open it they will charge the 20% restock fee. I realize I could probably claim "blue rain" and return it without penalty, but, I'm just not into the dishonesty of it, and not willing to pay a few hundred bucks to A/B test..

Too bad, I really would have liked to test them side by side.

The moral of this story is that it's always better to ask for forgiveness than for permission!

I don't blame you. If you like the Onkyo, you save some money, if you don't, then you may end up with a newer 4311, which doesn't seem like a bad move at this point. Of course everyone would like to get some opinions on the two units compared, I'm mostly disappointed that the 4311 hasn't been professionally reviewed yet.

I returned my 4311 to EE two weeks ago, they received it on 11/11.

I just received this update:

Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for your order. Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming response on this item, we are temporarily out of stock on this item. I would like to apologize for the delay in shipping your product. Rest assured we are working hard behind the scene to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We will be getting a shipment of the *DENON AVR4311CI * within the next 2 to 3 weeks and we will ship it out to you with expedited shipping.
...........

I might get it before Christmas. For now still using my 3803 ...

Mine is on it's way back to them right now.. So you might get a little lucky in this one (nothing wrong with mine, just ordered a different AVR because of my fear over the HDMI issues).

I spoke to some of the folks at WWS and they still have 4311 in stock.

Djoel

And if they hadn't raised their price, they would have sold me one of them.... In fact, after raising their price, they acted as if they were doing me a favor selling it to me at the higher price. I passed on their "great offer", deciding to give my business to AVS who runs these extremely helpful forums.

I guess you spoke to them on the phone?

Djoel

Yes...after I was quoted a price a week earlier, I called to order a 4311. I spoke with, I think, the boss/owner who said, as I recall, that they had a special relationship with Denon and they were the only ones who were getting new stock....Denon wasn't going to ship to other internet vendors....but he offered me one of the stock that was coming in at their new price, some $300 more than the price I had been quoted a week earlier.

I pretty much didn't like the attitude.....so, as I said, I called AVS and placed an order (at a lower price, by the way). Hopefully, I'll get one of the next batch that come in, also hopefully with some of the bugs fixed.

To: mjfink.

By the way your final conclusion is the right one..... but....


I just don't find this whole bit at all logical, or for that matter ethical. You know EE's policy, you know they are a low budget, low cost provider who clearly publishes their rules. Now you want to take delivery of their unit, test it, see if it is better than a competitors bought at an entirely different retailer, who's policies are clearly different than EE's and then complain that EE doesn't want to deal and stands by their restocking fee.

I know you want to try both of them but seriously, don't you find the spirit of what you are trying to do just icky? Would you want a customer who is so inclined to push the limits? The right thing to do, is the right thing to do. Send the 4311 back if you want the less expensive Onkyo or if you value Amazon's return policy. Anything less, now that you stated your case with EE is wrong.

My life is spent in the world of "Do that which is right, even if it costs a bit more", to me this whole discussion is so..... so..... wrong.

Did anyone else get a firmware update notice tonight? (4311)

Just installed a pair of wides. The difference is chilling, even the sample size is one and it's just a 5.1 network TV show(a great use of Tivo to turn on or off the wides and then replay a scene. My system is installed in the living/dining room; I can only imagine the enhancement to be obtained in a real home theater. Never had Blue Rain and audio drop outs seem to be less frequent. Now to figure out how to install the heights. Should I even bother with surround backs?

another convert.. I'm really going to have to try this..maybe this weekend

Did you do the update?

I took a couple of bookshelves(Def Tec 350's), put them on stands as close as I could reasonably get to the right angles and ran Audyssey. Hit the DSX on button and you're there.

Updating as I type. I have the blue rain issue, so I'll report back once i am finished with it. This one is definitely taking a while.

I get a connection failed each time I try to update or do a manual check for update.

Okay, the update did nothing for the blue rain issue

I think I may have found an acceptable workaround for the blue rain issue. I am playing around on the web controller to see if changes to any of the options would get rid of my blue rain. I decided to try the "picture adjust" for my Dish source and changed the brightness from 0 to 1. I rewatched the opening credits for Watchmen (not that I am the biggest fan of the movie, but it is the easiest reference for me because it is recorded on the DVR, is HD, and is very dark). Sure enough, after making that one change, not a single instance of blue rain! It would require me to readjust the TV settings, but I don't feel like doing that properly tonight with my PS3 or xbox 360.

so DSX works as long as you have wides (or heights) even without rears...

The line I highlighted is a typical sales talk. They use this tactic to pressure the customer to buy from them.

No rears required ... I had a 5.0 system(The sub should be delivered tomorrow or the next day) and just added the wides. I added a pair of Def Tec 350 bookshelves as wides to my Def Tec BP8 towers. Ran Audyssey, hit the DSX button and it's there. If I can figure out a good way to mount Heights ... I'll have them next.

I have a quick select memorized ofr Pandora but it just select Net/USB and whatever input was last used on Net/USB. I'd like a Quick Select for Media Player and Pandora ... would make for much easier access for the one who mus approve my toys!

Welcome to the dark side. IMHO, Heights are only somewhat additive; nice but not the Wow one gets from wides. If'n ya can get the heights in, great if'n not..... It's still good....BTW, right now updating the 4311. At an estimated 23 minutes, this indicates pretty much a complete update of close to every subsystem. So far Main ROM, Sub (which I don't even remember on the 4810 updates), DSP2, and looks like finally..... My white whale Ether IMG. Anything starting with Ether creeps me out.

I know this thread has gone kind a Denon problem-ish and I have been accused of Fan Boy status..... But...... At least Denon zaps out the updates pretty quick. Yes, it's one giant guessing game what they fixed and their communication sucks but at least some hamsters see hitting the treadmill, somewhere.

All parameters for an AVR4311 E3 (see post 3005 for instructions)
- S/N: 0091...
- Firm. Package Ver: 0003
- Main: 00.62
- Main ROM: 00.62
- Main FBL: 00.05
- Sub: 00.28
- Sub FBL: 00.2
- DSP1: 61.09
- DSP2: 62.14
- Audio PLD: 02.08
- Video PLD: 03.03
- GUI Config: A090416A
- GUI PRG: 00007621
- GUI DAT: 10060008
- Ethernet FBL 090311-bd
- Ethernet SBL B201002081213-0A
- Ethernet IMG I201009280258
- *Ethernet MAC 0005cd-...
- *HDSDK: V1.12
- *HDBBP: C0004.200

Just an FYI, on the Ether IMG update, the 1 minute counter (For me anyway) hung for 4 minutes, threw up an ending series of asterisks and then showed a "Firmware Upgrade OK" message and restarted . Be patient in the end step.

+1

It was quite "scary"...

I just got my 4311CI last week from AVScience and in the last couple of days started to notice random audio dropouts every 15min or so when listening to radio stations on my cable box that were Dolby Digital 2.0. Seems to be the same issue others have seen.

I just applied today's firmware update and tested the same radio stations with no dropout for 1.5 hours and going so far. I don't know if this is a fluke, but hopefully this is one of the things that was fixed!

(Other than this glitch I've been in total A/V bliss with this receiver.)

Curious to hear the reports of other folks..

Frankly, I'd like to hear if it works on the cable box going forward... Unfortunately, given the audio switching issues that have existed with Denon and other AVR's, I'm betting fluke... Wish you the best. I will try going native again soon.