Great sound for stereo music. 3 digital input, bi-wireable.

No DTS, transformer becomes pretty warm infact hot after 2-3 hours of playing. Low end transformer used. Much hotter then my AVR-3300. Weaker transformer as for lower end Denon. Panal LCD lights should be a litter brighter or can be adjust. No S-Video.

I bought this receiver for stereo music and as a tuner to listen to music to power up my Kinima Hi-G2 (*non famous Canadian made speakers, great price but company went bankrupt couple years ago). For the price I got it at, there isn't much to say. The sound is pretty good as for Denon and the price I got it at. Better cooling would be better tho as this product gets fairly hot due to the low end transformer that Denon used for this receiver. If you are planning to use for HT now a days, I wouldn't suggest it as it has no DTS. But if you are like me and just use it for stereo/2ch stuff, its great for it.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-3300, JVC RX-770, Philips 900 series

Elegant front panel design, with treble and bass knobs.
Clean sound, no matter at what volume.

Runs quite hot.
Remote looks like it was designed in the mid 80's.

Denon - the name has always had a special place in my mind.

My very first piece of audio equipment was a small Denon bookshelf stereo that served me well throughout elementary and high school.

JBL is another special name for me, from my DJ'ing days in college. Recently I found a great deal on a pair of S-38's, and thus enter the home audio component market.

I was confident about this receiver from reading the prior reviews here. There is also a good Epinion.com review on this. I bought this receiver from buy.com for $350, incl. S/H. I ordered it at 3am on Mon and got it at 11am on Wed.

At $350 the AVR-85 is a dream come true. It is worth each and every extra dollar over the $250 Kenwood VR-406, which I first bought and returned. And the VR-406 was no piece of $h!t either. From reading other reviews, I think I got better stuff than the people who bought low end Harman Kardon receivers. I do notice slightly better transients in going from Kenwood's KAM-1 circuitry to Denon's discrete amp circuits.

The AVR-85's 85W/ch plays louder than the VR-406's 100W/ch, and with noticeably less distortion when compared in the respective top third of their volume ranges. It also seems to be able to reproduce lower bass.

I know that I have yet to hit the fullest potential of this receiver as it is only hooked up to my computer. I am sure when I buy a CD player with a coax dig. out it would sound even better.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood VR-406

I bought this receiver from UBid for around $350 including shipping a month ago. I am totally satisfied with this purchase.

inexpensive, flawless audio, 10hz-50khz response

a powered subwoofer output would have been nice

i love this receiver...i got it for $290 at 6th ave Electronics...great sounding audio plenty of drive
relatively simple setup..i'm using it now for 2 channel with my klipsch SF-2's and an old radio shack passive dual coil sub that i got for $65 driving it from the Denon's sub output through an old sony receiver this system delivers the goods! lol in fact it rocks!!
i recommend the Denon AVR-85 highly...

Similar Products Used:

sony and optimus receivers

High current, simple interface, Denon quality. This is a 75x5 amp, all the talk about this being a 85x5 amp is false, read the specs in the manual!

Remote Control (pretty much worthless)

Found this beauty using pricescan.com for 299.00 at Buy.com. Comparing it to the 2000 models Denon has, the Avr 1600 and Avr 1800, I found it to be the best buy. I chose the avr 85 over the avr 1600 due to 15 watts a channel more power and binding posts for all speakers! The 1800 has the same power rating in addition to DTS, but i dont own and do not plan on owning any DTS software for awhile.

Dolby Digital 5.1 on this receiver is absolutely amazing. Tommorrow Never Dies, Matrix, and Blade really displayed what this thing can do. High Current HK's and Onkyo's do not even compare to the sound this receiver puts out. I am using the optical in for my listening enjoyment through my DVD player. The optical in has sure brought my cd collection to life, I am hearing things I have never heard before!

My setup is as follows, bordering on the budget line to mid fi:

Denon AVR 85
Panasonic DVD A115 w/optical out
Technics T100 tower mains
Teac SS400 Center and Surrounds
Acoustic Research Cables

I have come to the conclusion that the Denon can make the most of about any budget or middle quality speaker, but it is really evident that the Teac center and surrounds are not enough for this receiver. I am a firm believer that a center channel is very important the entire system, and this Denon deserves more than a Teac.

Caution: Do not buy from Buy.com, they are extremely slow when it comes to processing orders. It took 6 days for them to ship this receiver, when they said it was in stock and would ship within 24 hours! Pay a little extra and buy Denon from a store, you will feel more safe doing so. Seems like I just got lucky.

Similar Products Used:

None

looks nice

didnt blow me away

I bought this reciever from UBID for 327.00. It was advertised as new, but there was an immediate problem as soon as I plugged it in. The display was crooked and needed fixing.

I took off the cover and noticed scratch marks on the screw heads. It was obvious that someone else had been inside this reciever before me. Anyways, I was unable to straighten up the display, so it was going back to UBID no matter what. The UPS guy wasnt going to pick it up till Monday, so I decided to give it a try throughout the weekend.

My impressions were OK, but the thing didnt blow me away. The sound levels were adequate, but my 10yr old JVC 701rx would sound nearly as well. There werent any noticeable improvements in clarity or higher "highs". Bass response did improve, but again, not dramatically.

The coolest thing about this reciever was the 5 channel stereo. It does sound pretty awesome, but I could tell the difference between the fronts and rears. I now believe in buying matched speakers.

In conclusion: At $327, this reciever is a great buy. If it wasnt busted when I got it, I would have given it 4 stars. Since it was busted (cosmetic only), my opinion is a bit jaded, so it only gets 3 stars

Similar Products Used:

JVC 701 (10yrs old)

: Sound, preouts, 5.1 inputs, 5 channel surround.....list continues forever

remote lacks any intuition

The AVR-85 doesn't come with tons of bells and whistles, in fact it is very simple to use. I went through the entire manual in about 20 minutes. It has all the basics, everything you need for good sound. You can control the sound level for all five speakers and the sub, which is good if the sensitivities don't match up. You can control the surround effects, and set the distance of the speakers from the listening area for optimal performance. The reciver has very few buttons, which also adds to the ease of use. The volume knob is large and controls the volume digitally depending on the speed you spin the knob (can throw you off sometimes), and the bass and treble controls are underneath (some other units don't have them).
The tuner has a nice feature that blocks out static, so you either get a station or you don't (the tuner was the first think I used and I thought the receiver was broker until I found a station it would pick). I guess the sensitivity of the tuner could be better, but you could always run to an exterior antenna with the included attachment. I thought 40 presets was a bit much when I could only pick 15 stations.
Now to the digital part of the receiver. First of all digital is better. I hooked my Sony Cd player to both the analog and the digital coax, and the digital connection was a hundred times clearer and more vibrant. Luckily, the Denon has two coax connections so I could leave my CD player and my DVD hooked up. There is also one optical jack.
DVD is awesome when it is in 5.1 surround. I watched Terminator 2 and it rocked! The Denon did a great job of separating the channels, and no matter how loud I got it never distorted, although the Denon is a little underpowered for big room. I would suggest using the preouts, if you are looking for concert sized sound.
It automatically detects if the signal is 5.1 or Surround, and lights up the appropriate icon on the display. Regular surround, while not amazing is also impressive. While it doesn't do DTS, it has 5.1 inputs, so you can upgrade it if you want.
The sound is excellent. I have a pair of Klpisch KSB 3.1's in the front and Pioneer HPM-100's in the back. The Klipsch's match extremely well with this receiver, producing sound the manages to blast the highs and hit the bass hard, and the sound is very easy on the ears. I don't have a sub yet, but a little bit of bass can go a long way with just my fronts.
The only complaint I have is the rather stupid remote. I has tons of useless buttons, a door for common functions, and no back light (the glowing thing isn't too great). It is however very easy to program to control your TV, VCR, etc.
Overall, you get some great sound, enough power, and every feature that you really need, for a price at YourInsider.com that can't be beat. Plus, no one can match Denon's 5 channel stereo.

Great sound, simple setup, price
full speaker terminal binding posts

none

After auditioning the Denon AVR2800,
Yamaha RX-V795a and Onkyo DX575 I
found the AVR85 the best overall value. The Denon AVR2800 ran hot
enough to fry eggs on and had very
little bass, the Yamaha RX-V795a a
defective digital decoder and the
Onkyo DX575 the famous hiss along
with binding posts terminals for
only main and center speakers. The
AVR85 on the hand came defect free
provides excellent musical sound and
great HT effects when coupled with my
Klipsch 10.5 speaker system. As for
a lack of DTS I look at that as similar to a broken leg (WHO NEEDS IT)
its over rated over priced and almost
impossible to find. One thing I find,
an earlier post stated the AVR85 as
75 x 5 wpc my operating instructions
show 85 x 5 is it possible they upgraded power. For what its worth
highly recommended I found the AVR85
at Sears for $449 perhaps a bit high
however I know its new and has a full
two year warranty.

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Yahama RX-V793

Just returned the Onkyo 575 for this denon. Bought it at sears for 449 dollars with a school id. The salesman at cc keeps telling me about the 20htz to 20khtz bandwith garbage. All I can say is the denon has better highs lows and more sound than the onkyo ever had in all catagories. It doesn't have dts but I can live without it. It has 6 channel inputs however.I also have had the kenwood 2080 but there is no comparison.

good digital sound for DVD

poorly laid out remote, no Cinema RE-EQ

I auditioned Pioneer, Yamaha, and Kenwood before deciding on this. I love the sound - no distortion whatsoever. My only complaint is the lack of the standard Cinema RE-EQ option, available on all Onkyo receivers, is available only the most expensive Denon models. If the AVR 85 had RE-EQ then it would be the perfect, mid-priced, AC-3 receiver.

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Onkyo 454 + Onkyo ED301 decoder