My friend got his replacement 8500 so I hooked up the Denon 6500 last night even though I am still waiting for the new M60 Driver (Deb just sent it yesterday). What can I say, I am impatient.

I ran the Audyssey calibration. After the first 3 steps you get the option to stop or continue so I stopped there as I didn't see any need to go further. Just running a 5.1 setup. Audyssey set everything to large and 40hz so I changed them to small and set to 80hz. Sub was set to 120hz and left it there for now.

1. Just some quick observations, Audyssey really had to crank the level up on the M2's. Poor things are getting wore out I think.

2. Denon raises/lowers the volume up by .5 ......why....oh well.

3. I am using absolute volume 0-99. On the Sony 1080, 30 was normal listening volume for most TV listening. 35-40 was pushing it pretty good especially for Dolby and DTS Movies. On the 6500 and even when I ran the 2300, I have to turn it up to 45 or higher to get the same volume....even with these new larger speakers. On the 2300 I thought it was just because it was less powerful but with the 6500 I know that's not the case. I know both Denon units have Input Source that can raise the volume per source but is that the correct way to do it?

4. Oddly, the Denon interferes with the Roku player somehow. When I had the Denon 2300 hooked up I had Roku issues but had no idea it was the Denon causing it. Issues were playback but also control which were odd. When I bought the Sony 1080, all Roku issues went away. As soon as the 6500 went in, all the old Roku issues started again accept the playback issues. I have not had them yet. Just control issues. It's really strange.

5. The speakers sound great though regardless of the small gripes. The gripes don't have anything to do with the speakers themselves. They sound great or at least as good as they are going to sound in the space they are forced to be in. I just need to upgrade the surrounds, add height speakers and I know I will be even more amazed. I could use a better base speaker too. Although I am still impressed with this little Sony base speaker.

M60
VP180
M2i
Sony STR-DN 1080