Your new receiver certainly packs a lot of features, sometimes too many. This article will touch on a few settings that might be better to leave disabled
In short, it’s best to disable as many settings as possible, to keep the signal as unaffected and “clean” as possible. When it comes to audio and HiFi, less is more, more often than not. That doesn’t mean room calibration should be disabled, as this serves an important purpose.
Specific settings
One setting we basically always recommend disabling is Yamaha’s “Enhancer” (known as M-DAX in Denon receivers). It is designed to “upscale” low-bitrate/sample rate recordings, but we have never once seen it improve the sound. Instead, it makes the bass sound muddy and removes a lot of the punch.
On Denon receivers, you have some features called “Dynamic volume“, “Dynamic EQ“, and “Dynamic range compensation“. If you listen at (or close to) reference levels, we recommend turning all of these off, as they are essentially designed to add punch, bass and “fullness” when listening at lower levels. If you listen louder than intended, these settings can remove bass-clarity and make the speakers sound muddy or congested. If you listen at lower volumes, you can experiment with a few different configurations of these settings.
In short
Disable all the settings you know you don’t need but always disable the Enhancer.
