Denon AVR-1613

Even just a few years ago, many home theater receivers required optional iPod docks that were clumsy to set up and featured primitive on-screen user interfaces. The Denon AVR-1613 ($399.99 direct) has baked-in iPod and AirPlay capability, and sits squarely in the mainstream end of Denon's lineup. It's a solid receiver and a good buy as an up-to-date centerpiece to a home theater system, even though it clearly shows signs of its 1990s-era roots.

Design, Inputs, and Features
Measuring 5.9 by 17.1 by 13.0 inches (HWD), the The AVR-1613 weighs just over 18 pounds. A front-panel USB input makes it easy to pop in a thumb drive, or access the stored contents on an iOS device while charging it simultaneously. The power cord is hardwired, which is unfortunate if it fails down the road, but it's not a big issue for a lower-priced receiver. In standby mode, Denon claims the AVR-1613 draws just one tenth of a watt.

There are five HDMI inputs?one more than the Yamaha RX-V473 ($449.99, 3.5 stars)?including a convenient port on the front, which is great for plugging in a smartphone, tablet, or laptop computer. All of the HDMI inputs support video switching, so you won't have to use two remote controls to watch different sources. There are no component or S-video inputs and outputs, though. All you get besides HDMI are two sets of composite inputs and one set of outputs, although at this point that's less of a problem than it would have been, say, two years ago. If you need these connectors, the RX-V473 is a better choice.?

AirPlay support is a recent addition. It lets you stream music over the air wirelessly from an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, or even a computer running iTunes. Unfortunately, the AVR-1613 itself does not integrate Wi-Fi. To use AirPlay, you need to connect the receiver to your home network via a wired Ethernet connection. Pandora and Sirius XM streaming, as well as access to Denon's own radio site, which delivers more than 12,000 Internet radio stations, are all onboard.

The AVR-1613 is also DNLA 1.5 certified, but there's no HD Radio or even AM tuner?your only terrestrial option is FM stereo. I would have liked to see stereo Bluetooth support, especially now that Android handsets dominate smartphone sales by a significant margin. On the plus side, you'll still get better sound quality via the phone's headphone output?using an inexpensive Y-cable available at Radio Shack, as the AVR-1613 lacks a front-mounted stereo mini-jack.

The included remote control is much simpler than the one Yamaha bundles with the RX-V473. Unfortunately, it was rather stubborn in my tests. Sometimes the AVR-1613 just didn't respond to my commands, as if it were stuck thinking about the last thing I asked for.?In addition to the remote, the receiver comes with an Audyssey setup microphone for speaker calibration, a Getting Started guide, and an owner's manual in PDF format on a CD. Denon also, inexplicably, throws in a copy of Nero 9 Essentials.

Setup, Calibration, and Amplification
To get started, you'll need an HDMI cable, a set of passive speakers (either stereo or 5.1), and a TV, which you'll need for setting up the receiver and accessing the iPod interface as well as for watching movies.

On first bootup, the AVR-1613 will walk you through an on-screen setup wizard using the remote control. It asks whether you have a center channel, surround speakers, or a subwoofer. Then it offers to measure the acoustics of your room using the included microphone and a series of sound tests. You plug the setup microphone into the Setup Mic port on the front panel. From there, the system walks you through setting up your input devices (such as a Blu-ray player or Xbox 360), and then prompts you to connect to a wired network.

As a proper home theater receiver, the AVR-1613 includes five discrete channels of amplification, with each outputting 75 watts at 0.08 percent THD. Audiophiles still prefer separate preamps and amplifiers, but Denon receivers have always acquitted themselves well in terms of sound quality.

Fortunately, the Denon AVR-1613 simply sounds great?anyone concerned about the actual output will be more than pleased with this receiver. I tested the AVR-1613 with a set of Energy Take Classic 5.1 ($399, 4 stars) speakers, which includes five two-way satellites and a 200-watt, 8-inch powered subwoofer. Through the satellites, I heard clean, powerful sound at full tilt, with smooth, transparent highs and a clearly defined, three-dimensional image. The Take Classic 5.1 satellites offer 89 dB sensitivity, which isn't the most efficient design out there. But even so, the AVR-1613 had no trouble driving these to ear-splitting volumes.

To test the Denon AVR-1613's home theater prowess, I ran scenes from the the 2010 DTS Demonstration Blu-Ray Disc through the receiver, a Samsung BD-D5500 ($159.99, 3.5 stars) Blu-ray player, a Sony Bravia KDL-46EX620 ($809.99, 3.5 stars), and?the Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers. Generally speaking, the Denon handled the job with aplomb; it sounded slightly warmer than the Yamaha RX-V473, with less treble emphasis and a slightly more full-bodied lower midrange. Even so, voices, arrow shots, and horse gallops sounded clear and distinct in Robin Hood (the 2010 film with Russell Crowe), and the Take Classic 5.1 had no problem rendering many sound sources simultaneously throughout the image. With the DTS-encoded Despicable Me, the AVR-1613 clearly separtated the rocket ship engines and low rumble while in flight, and put up clear dialog throughout.

iPod Playback and UI Issues
The AVR-1613's digital music chops need work. I plugged my iPhone into the front-mounted USB port and switched the Denon's source to iPod/USB. (Unfortunately, it doesn't work with iPads in this mode.) You can play stored iPod music two ways: In Remote Mode, which lets you control playback directly from the iPod, and Browse Mode, which puts up track and artist info on the screen, and lets you select it using the Denon's remote control. I tested the iPod playback with two devices: the aforementioned iPhone, and a 4th-generation iPod nano. Both worked, although the AVR-1613 was temperamental. Sometimes it played music back fine; other times, it remained stuck at the beginning of the song.

A firmware update became available toward the end of the review period, which promised to take 21 minutes to install. Excited by the prospect of eliminating the bugs, I installed it?only to see that the on-screen menu text, already buggy, pixelated, and slightly wobbly, became downright unreadable on the music playback screen. Everything looked doubled; rebooting the monitor and the receiver didn't help. Worse, iPod playback was buggier than before. Once, it started a song at full blast, threatening to deafen me and blow out the speaker system. It wouldn't respond to the volume dial, and wouldn't even shut off with the power switch; I had to hold it down for five seconds to get the receiver to power down. (Next up would have been pulling the plug.) It didn't do this again, but the intermittent playback issues continued.

AirPlay and Conclusions
On the plus side, AirPlay connectivity worked great. Once I configured the unit over wired Ethernet, I had no problem streaming music from various AirPlay-compatible devices to the AVR-1613. The receiver displays album art on screen whenever available, which is something the Yamaha RX-V473 doesn't do. Pandora playback also worked well; I logged in with my account, started several of my stations, and listened to uninterrupted streaming Internet radio.

I also tested Denon's free iOS remote control app, which works with the AVR-1613 and other networked receivers from the company. It does the job, but it has a very confusing UI?it took plenty of tapping and head-scratching to figure out where everything was. Yamaha's free iOS app is much more thoughtfully designed, although actual functionality differences between the two are less than they appear once you figure out where Denon hid the source select, DSP modes, and other playback and setup controls.

All told, the Denon AVR-1613 makes a solid centerpiece to a proper home theater system in 2012. But thanks to its lack of Wi-Fi and its rudimentary display graphics, there's a bit of a disconnect between 1980s and 1990s-style home theater components, and the complex, fragmented world that is music listening today. So while the AVR-1613 could use more refinement, it's impressively well specified otherwise, and should let you do just about anything you'd want with a home theater setup today.

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