90
TEST
Receivers
W
hile AV receivers quite often
offer video to a second zone,
they usually have a significant
weakness in this endeavour:
to make use of them you need to have lots
more connections and very careful setting up.
But with the addition of one output socket, the
AVR-3313 overcomes all that.
EQUIPMENT
As far as I have been able to work out, there has
never yet been a receiver capable of converting
an HDMI video input backwards (as it were)
to some kind of analogue format, so the
provision of composite or even component
video outputs for Zone 2 (which this receiver
also has) hasn’t been of much use unless
the source intended to be used in that zone
was connected by analogue. That made for
complicated wiring, and even difficulties with
some source equipment with which you had to
choose between HDMI and analogue output.
DENON AVR-3313
So this receiver at last allows multizoners to
go almost entirely HDMI, which means that
your other room TV can get full 1080p and all
the other qualities provided by this standard.
So this receiver offers three HDMI
outputs — two main zone outputs (for TV and
projector, perhaps) plus one for the second
zone. There are a total of seven HDMI inputs
with one on the front.
The receiver has seven power amplifier
channels, each rated at 125 high-fidelity watts.
There are the usual abilities to redirect some
of these for bi-amplification or driving that
second zone, for 7.1 channels with rear
surround channels, or with front height
channels, or for front wide channels (an
Audyssey mode). There are 11 sets of speaker
connections, so you can have three different
modes wired up and then switch at will.
Composite and component video are
supported, but not S-Video. There’s a good
range of control-type connections, plus you get
an Ethernet port and a front-panel USB socket.
You even get a moving magnet phono input.
An unusual connection is the Denon HD
Link connection, which looks to be a fancier
RCA socket. But it isn’t for signal transfer.
Instead it’s for synchronisation. The receiver
has a low jitter digital audio clock and a sync
signal from this can be delivered via this socket
back to certain Denon disc players, locking
them into the same low jitter mode.
The Denon’s network connectivity gives
you some pretty good stuff. There is vTuner-
based internet radio, plus DLNA support to
play music (and photos, if you must) from
other devices on your network. There is Last.
FM, Apple AirPlay and the hottest new thing
— built-in Spotify music streaming (though
with AirPlay here as well, you may find it more
convenient to access Spotify on your iDevice
and AirPlay it over to the receiver).
What you don’t get is an AM tuner, so
you’d do best to use the network connection
and the internet radio to replace it.
The receiver supports 4K passthrough and
has a setting to upconvert incoming video —
HDMI or analogue — all the way to 4K itself.
PERFORMANCE
A nice little wizard guides you through the
set-up of the receiver. All of this worked
smoothly except, arguably, the final step. At
the end of the auto calibration not only does it
switch on Audyssey Dynamic EQ (as with last
year’s model) but also had Audyssey Dynamic
Volume set to ‘Medium’. And it makes no
mention of this during the calibration process;
it offers no choice.
Having said that, Dynamic EQ did not
sound as nasty as it did last year. Perhaps
that’s because we’re more tolerant, or because
they’ve changed the processing. Regardless,
I switched it off pretty quickly and still insist
Denon
AVR-3313
networked AV receiver
Price: $1799
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