What Hi-Fi? Verdict
Lots for consumers to admire and rivals to envy, but lacks the balance of the very best
Pros
- +
Great functionality and flexibility
- +
big and bold with multichannel audio
- +
richly informative midrange
Cons
- -
Bombastic low frequencies make for a rather lopsided sound
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Goodness knows it’s tricky to deliver a home cinema product with a Unique Selling Point.
The Denon AVR-4311 does at least have a Fairly Unusual Selling Point: it’s one of the very first items to come through our testing rooms to be compatible with Apple AirPlay.
It’s a nice touch – although a glance at it and its price-tag lets you know there’s a bit more to the AVR-4311 than just that.
Features aplenty
As befits a receiver of this price and this position in the Denon hierarchy, the 4311 is positively bristling with features and functionality.
Nine channels of 140 Watts each should be ample (and there are pre-outs to supply a hair-raising 11.2 set-up if it isn’t), as should seven HDMI inputs and a pair of outputs (all 3D and ARC compatible).
Wide-ranging sound
It’s similarly wide-ranging when it comes to movie sound.
Dialogue is isolated well, so inflection and detail are readily available, but it’s also incorporated seamlessly into the overall sound.
There’s no sense that treble sounds might ever become problematic, and the 4311 dispatches the considerable dynamic fluctuations of the soundtrack without breaking stride.
This confidence is rather more qualified where stereo music is concerned – in fact, it’s music that really throws the Denon’s one major difficulty into sharp relief.
A little too large in the bass
What at first sounds like an excitingly chunky and forthright presentation is, before too long, revealed as a rather muscle-bound, bass-forward signature.
The low end hogs the limelight somewhat, and it’s far from light on its feet.
A bit like a ballet dancer forced to perform in Doc Martens, the Denon is weighed down at the bottom end and consequently isn’t as manoeuvrable as it might otherwise be.
