Denon AVR-X1700H vs Onkyo TX-RZ50

“Ok so while im not a professional, I went down this rabbit hole and can give some advice (all within the last year). Started with denon x1700. Speakers are Klipsch rp-6000f ii front, 500c ii center, in wall and ceiling surrounds and two ave pb-1000 subs for a 5.2.2. I was NOT satisfied with the 1700 and seeing as how it didn’t have xt32 I knew I was missing out, loved the dynamic eq but heard great things about Dirac so got the onkyo nr7100. Dirac was a GAME changer- dialog mainly was now clear!!! The problem was the receiver with my shield was buggy especially with dts pass through- audio would lag and skip in plex. Downgraded my shield to an older version and it fixed that but caused other issues with video signal getting lost plus lots of clicking when surrounds would turn on mid movie (I heard fixed with the latest fw for onkyo) I found a deal on an x3800 and jumped on it since it had xt32 and independent sub outputs which is big to me because my subs aren’t in an ideal spot Bought that and while the unit is extremely solid dialog stunk again. Went down the audessey evo rabbit hole and oh boy did it sound sooooo much better! Honestly I would have stopped there but my subs were definitely not ideal and I had a lot of nulls After spending too much time with rew and a umik I bought things still weren’t ideal I made the decision to get Dirac full license with dlbc instead of calibrating myself and let me tell you- demon with full Dirac and dlbc is “it”. It’s everything I want in hardware and the audio , including bass, is perfect. I can’t imagine it being and better than it is now. My nulls are smoothed out, dialog is crisp, and I have no issues with the hardware. Next uograde will be a power amp which I can now add but couldn’t with previous two receivers Happy to answer any questions!!”

“Too many issues with their HDMI boards. I went through 3 Onkyo RZ50’s before switching to the x3800h.”