This is an awesome receiver you could fully adjust to full range dynamic power front left n right the whole 7ch I using skinny tower Sony with equake sub 12in it will blew you away compare mine with NHT top of the line my step dad has $5,000 on 7.1 and his denon avr 4802 $1999 he bought during his year $7000 he was amaze how it sound...I only spent $250 buying them used no shame compare to those peoples who spent tons money on surround sound I also add infinity tweeter 1inch to front tower speaker so it sound much better when there is a breaking glass sound or gun shot it sound so clearer like it bring to life my wife got heart pound n freak out when gun shot lmaO I have own tons high end speaker too big heavy take so much space too much money

I am not going to go into all of the overwhelming specifics of the receiver because it is way too much to list. You can check www.Crutchfield.com for all of the specifics (as well as other reviews from this site). Im going to give a 'somewhat' short and sweet review of a GREAT and POWERFUL amp/receiver.

I am 36y/o. I have been an "audio enthusiast" since I was a child and my mother plopped me down in front of the TV when MTV debuted...Ever since then I was hooked.

Fast forward roughly 10 years to middle school/early high school (1990-92). I was then a speaker freak. We would all search the goodwills for vintage amps and old cheap speaker cabinets. The amps we would find were usually older, high end solid state Pioneers, Marantz, Kenwoods, etc...Anyways, they were POWERFUL as heck. The speakers we would throw out and only use the cabinets with newer speakers. SO, at an early age I was listening to vintage high end receivers that put out awesome sound. I thought newer amps would sound MUCH better, so fast forward to senior year in high school...

I decided to buy a somewhat used Yamaha amp/receiver. It was a nice amp but it wasnt as strong as the vintage ones. I sold it and bought a SONY, same thing, nice amp but was just missing that "oomph"...I asked a high end sales associate at a random high end audio boutique what was the deal with new receivers and not sounding as good as the vintage ones. I cant remember his answer but he showed me some DENON's with price tags in excess of $2000 (in 1997). I was blown away! I couldnt believe the power and sound! It was as if the system disappeared and I was at a concert. I said to myself at that moment that I will own a high (mid?) end piece of equipment such as that one day.

Now, I do not claim to be an expert but I do know what sounds good. Anyways, after high school I got busy and sold all of my equipment. I never got around to buying anything "high end". Work, relationships, mortgage all kept me busy. But I never forgot the sound of that DENON...

NOW, fast forward to MAY 2015... I came upon a yard sale one early morning in Southern CA and noticed a fellow putting out some audio gear. A Velodyne CHT12, Infinity Interludes (IL40's, IL10's and IL25c) as well as a DENON 3805...I asked how much, he said $100 for everything including wood stands for the bookshelves. I couldnt believe it. My knees got weak and I went dumb. I said "SOLD" while trying to control the excitement in my voice. It was almost as if I was dreaming...lol The 'almost' entire Infinity Interlude series (non powered), a 500w 12" Velodyne and a $1000 DENON for $100 (well less than $100 because all I had was $90 and he accepted)

After lugging it all home and hooking everything up, I was a little disappointed by the sound. Everything sounded dull and way too high pitched. It sounded as if something was wrong. Well, after reading the DENON manual, I realized I was messing with an unfamiliar beast. This is no "plug and play" receiver. The manual is a MUST and the remote helps immensely...So, after buying a nice bookshelf unit on wheels and setting the IL40 towers in the proper place/distance from the walls, placing the Velodyne in its correct position and changing the delay, crossover, speaker size and EQ settings, EVERYTHING CHANGED! It now sounds AMAZING! I cannot believe the sound and power this DENON puts out!

I am normally a "2 channel" kind of guy but after I began listening to music in 5.1 channel with the Infinity bookshelves, center and towers, along with the Velodyne, I will not go back to 2 channel for a while (unless I can find a nice vintage amp and some awesome speakers of course)..My music, no matter what I throw at this DENON, keeps on chuggin along! My neighbors come out of their houses and look around confused as if the sky is falling.

All the audiophile verbiage aside, this amp can power the best of speakers. At 120w to 8ohms it is probably the best amp in its price range at this time. I dont know what that person is complaining about (cheap internals, etc) because this thing sounds amazing. Who cares about the "on screen" setup, I never use it anyways and if I did, I wouldnt care if it was "colorful". Cheap internals? What a way to nickle and dime something. You can look right through the top and see what kind of HUGE heat sinks and capacitors this thing has. AND it doesnt get that hot! Funny that the only 1-2 star review is complaining about supposed cheap internals but yet comparing this reciever to something that cost 3-4 times as much!

Given the fact that after 10 years people are still praising this DENON, that should be a sign of its quality. I can power 5 speakers with ZERO issues. From rock and roll to hip hop, to super bassy trance/house, this receiver never skips a beat...I actually bought another one that was "As-is" for $50 on ebay just in case I need any parts when and IF mine ever craps out, which I doubt it will...KNOCK ON WOOD.

I definitely recommend this DENON and if you can find one (they are all over ebay) buy one, just make sure it has the remote.

I have a Yamaha RX-V1 also ($100) on CL. Can't get the thing to sound good for music at all but it is great for Surround Movies. The Denon blows it away for ease of use and multichannel stereo listening. I have 2 of the Denon 3805's, the Yamaha, and a Denon 3801 all hooked up through a distribution amplifier and a lot of nice speakers. I use the Yamaha and Denon 3801 for movie surround (which we rarely use for TV anymore) and the 2 Denon 3805's for stereo multichannel. Anyway I am very impressed with the Denon's, they are powerful, clean and easy to configure. I have other yamaha recievers in kitchen and bedroom and garage plus a home recording studio with Pioneer vsx-9300's. These old receivers were well made and powerful. The Denon 3805 is my favorite out of them all.My wife thinks I'm crazy but I like music and most of my speakers are older acoustic suspension models (ADS M-12 towers, 2 pairs Advent Heritage, 4 pairs Advent ?, old RSL's with 12"woofer, 5' mid, tweeter that the Advent Heritage are stacked on, plus Prodigy's, B&A, an Infinity 12" powered sub, a M&S 12" sub, and another ? sub, etc).
Anyway, sounds good to me. Can't beat buying old receivers for less than a hundred bucks in most cases.

Brilliant amp/receiver. All the features you could want, with excellent sound quality. The RC 970 remote is pure junk. Cannot be read during the day, chews batteries, and remote lasted just over a year and packed up. No support or back up from local agent, who wanted to charge me R 1200 for a replacement.

Clean Sound
Build Quality
No Problems

The Manual. Denon should hire a technical writer who can simplify the infomation.

The 3805 is terrific. I purchased a brand new unit in a retail store, which was on a close out sale for $634 I could not be happier with its quality and performance over the past 18 months. Paired with Monitor Audio's Bronze speaker package, the 3805 has been a pleasure with both music & movies. I highly recommend the Denon brand. I'ver been a fan since I purchased a 2801 when it first came out and it's still going strong.

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2801

Decent video section though it lacks downconverting.
56 tuner presets though octal system is stupid
Upconverts video signals but not downconverts component video

Sound is OK only for cheap action movies but it just can't play music
Inputs can't be renamed
Manual is just a list of functions and doesn't help much explaining what they are for.
Not flexible for interconnecting and interacting components
Rec out mode is overcomplicated even for overcomplication junkie
Cheap speaker terminals
Complicated menus
Stupid octal tuner preset system
Worthless and user unfriendly remote

I've read a lot of positive reviews so when I had a chance to buy it for cheap as defective I didn't hesitate to shell out $100 - why not? I was thinking that the chance of repairing it was slim but all the problem was $0.01 thermal fuse within power transformer and just shorting it I got fully working 3805 five minutes later I opened the cover.
Well, let's see what inside. Many components especially power caps are pathetic! How do they think these tiny caps will be able to provide any current to drive 7X120W amps? I have Sony TA N77ES power amp and it has 4 (four) BIGGER caps in just pre-drive section, not to mention 6 monster caps which provide current for 2X120W output cascades.
Back to Denon - cheap and thin printed boards, caps are OK - ELNA, nickel plated cheap RCA sockets, all the decoding circuits fit the cigarette pack size printed board which is not even shielded. Most of the corners are cut literally. I was thinking that $1500.00 list price receiver should have more than just 3 gilded sockets (I'm not even sure that three front RCA sockets are gilded on this Denon - the yellow color is suspicious). Well let's stop chuckling and start listening.
First it requires some setup... I'd like to remind Denon engineers that we are living in XXI century and even $30.00 Chinese DVD players have color menu with some graphics - 3805 brings us back to DOS - black screen with white letters in 320X240 resolution. Menus are complicated and not intuitive. Some of the settings require pressing of "<" button instead of central "ENTER" button which can infuriate most patient user. I have very complicated system and I'm complication junkie but this is beyond my patience. The remote sucks - almost unreadable in daylight and to understand what mode is turned on now you have to carefully review rows and rows of tiny inscriptions which haven't any borders to distinguish one from another.
Display is laughable - cheap greenish color looks so unsophisticated and
OK, initial settings done at last and... the sound is as pathetic as power caps. Thin and lacking bass even in stereo mode. I don't know what reviewers were comparing it to but this Denon was easily beaten by 1989 Sony STR-D2020 and 1997 Technics SA-TX30 receivers I have in other rooms. I'm not even mentioning Sony TA-N55ES and TA-N77ES amps which eat this Denon for breakfast. My front 60 lbs each, four feet front channel towers each with two 10" woofers ($2300.00 list price) mated with this Denon sounded almost the same as small shelf speakers I use for surround. After spending hours trying to understand menus I discovered that auto setup rolled off bass quite significantly but restoring EQ to flat and even using direct and pure direct (whatever they meant!) modes didn't help much. The bass just still is not there - it's OK for artifical movie explosions and helicopter blades but tight, solid, rolling bass of well recorded musical instrument just don't comes out of this Denon.
Video section is good but when I tried to make some video recordings through it I discovered that rec out setup is absolutely stupid and frustrating to use. Moreover, rec out audio doesn't output the converted digital signal! - only analog inputs. Rec out is united with Zone 2 output and this complicates setup even more. To simply make a copy from one VCR to another requires complicated rec out setup procedure and often it's easier to reconnect the cables than to search for this function in complicated manual because it's impossible to memorize or find it intuitively.
Then I discovered that it can't downconvert component video. It can upconvert any video input (composite or s-video) to component which is OK but why they didn't add couple of ICs to downconvert component video is puzzling.
To the attention of Denon engineers - I have Sony preamp which has input renaming function and it was made back in 1989...Here we are almost 20 years later and Denon folks haven't figured out how to include extra 2 kilobytes of memory and couple of strings of commands in microcontroller code to ease the life of user who has to scratch his head recalling what he connected to DBS input. I have 3XVCRs, LD and DVD players justconnecting and using them is a pain in the...
Speaker terminals are very cheap - I seen a better terminals on $100 Chinese home theaters in a box. Too small for any decent cables, can't connect spades.
Overall it is very complicated and not user friendly. Dispaly and remote are hard to read and understand.
Can't recommend it especially for list price.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Technics, Pioneer Marantz and Kenwood receivers - all, even cheap ($170 list stereo Kenwood) were better at playing music
If I paid $1000 for it I would return it. For $100 it's OK to play with but only if you're very calm and patient person - some settings are almost impossible to find and even if you find them you have to figure out how to enable them. 5 stars for user unfriendliness..

Decent video section though it lacks downconverting.
56 tuner presets though octal system is stupid
Upconverts video signals but not downconverts component video

Sound is OK only for cheap action movies but it just can't play music
Inputs can't be renamed
Manual is just a list of functions and doesn't help much explaining what they are for.
Not flexible for interconnecting and interacting components
Rec out mode is overcomplicated even for overcomplication junkie
Cheap speaker terminals
Complicated menus
Stupid octal tuner preset system
Worthless and user unfriendly remote

I've read a lot of positive reviews so when I had a chance to buy it for cheap as defective I didn't hesitate to shell out $100 - why not? I was thinking that the chance of repairing it was slim but all the problem was $0.01 thermal fuse within power transformer and just shorting it I got fully working 3805 five minutes later I opened the cover.
Well, let's see what inside. Many components especially power caps are pathetic! How do they think these tiny caps will be able to provide any current to drive 7X120W amps? I have Sony TA N77ES power amp and it has 4 (four) BIGGER caps in just pre-drive section, not to mention 6 monster caps which provide current for 2X120W output cascades.
Back to Denon - cheap and thin printed boards, caps are OK - ELNA, nickel plated cheap RCA sockets, all the decoding circuits fit the cigarette pack size printed board which is not even shielded. Most of the corners are cut literally. I was thinking that $1500.00 list price receiver should have more than just 3 gilded sockets (I'm not even sure that three front RCA sockets are gilded on this Denon - the yellow color is suspicious). Well let's stop chuckling and start listening.
First it requires some setup... I'd like to remind Denon engineers that we are living in XXI century and even $30.00 Chinese DVD players have color menu with some graphics - 3805 brings us back to DOS - black screen with white letters in 320X240 resolution. Menus are complicated and not intuitive. Some of the settings require pressing of "<" button instead of central "ENTER" button which can infuriate most patient user. I have very complicated system and I'm complication junkie but this is beyond my patience. The remote sucks - almost unreadable in daylight and to understand what mode is turned on now you have to carefully review rows and rows of tiny inscriptions which haven't any borders to distinguish one from another.
Display is laughable - cheap greenish color looks so unsophisticated and
OK, initial settings done at last and... the sound is as pathetic as power caps. Thin and lacking bass even in stereo mode. I don't know what reviewers were comparing it to but this Denon was easily beaten by 1989 Sony STR-D2020 and 1997 Technics SA-TX30 receivers I have in other rooms. I'm not even mentioning Sony TA-N55ES and TA-N77ES amps which eat this Denon for breakfast. My front 60 lbs each, four feet front channel towers each with two 10" woofers ($2300.00 list price) mated with this Denon sounded almost the same as small shelf speakers I use for surround. After spending hours trying to understand menus I discovered that auto setup rolled off bass quite significantly but restoring EQ to flat and even using direct and pure direct (whatever they meant!) modes didn't help much. The bass just still is not there - it's OK for artifical movie explosions and helicopter blades but tight, solid, rolling bass of well recorded musical instrument just don't comes out of this Denon.
Video section is good but when I tried to make some video recordings through it I discovered that rec out setup is absolutely stupid and frustrating to use. Moreover, rec out audio doesn't output the converted digital signal! - only analog inputs. Rec out is united with Zone 2 output and this complicates setup even more. To simply make a copy from one VCR to another requires complicated rec out setup procedure and often it's easier to reconnect the cables than to search for this function in complicated manual because it's impossible to memorize or find it intuitively.
Then I discovered that it can't downconvert component video. It can upconvert any video input (composite or s-video) to component which is OK but why they didn't add couple of ICs to downconvert component video is puzzling.
To the attention of Denon engineers - I have Sony preamp which has input renaming function and it was made back in 1989...Here we are almost 20 years later and Denon folks haven't figured out how to include extra 2 kilobytes of memory and couple of strings of commands in microcontroller code to ease the life of user who has to scratch his head recalling what he connected to DBS input. I have 3XVCRs, LD and DVD players justconnecting and using them is a pain in the...
Speaker terminals are very cheap - I seen a better terminals on $100 Chinese home theaters in a box. Too small for any decent cables, can't connect spades.
Overall it is very complicated and not user friendly. Dispaly and remote are hard to read and understand.
Can't recommend it especially for list price.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Technics, Pioneer Marantz and Kenwood receivers - all, even cheap ($170 list stereo Kenwood) were better at playing music
If I paid $1000 for it I would return it. For $100 it's OK to play with but only if you're very calm and patient person - some settings are almost impossible to find and even if you find them you have to figure out how to enable them. 5 stars for user unfriendliness..

When I began my search to upgrade my system, my first objective was to find a unit with excellent home theatre performance. But then I realized my obsession with HI-FI started with music and stereo, so this was also important too. I had purchased all Yamaha products in the past for my sound system and found that they either did home theatre well or music, but not both. Plus I have always preferred systems that were not bright sounding, and I was not getting this from the Yamaha product offerings. I started my research hoping to spend in the 5-800.00, conceding I would not find all of the features. However, after reading many reviews from other enthusiasts, I realized I could get them all if I were to increase my range to the 1000.00 area. I was NOT disappointed. The Tweeter sales person was right in that this Denon yields a warmer sounding tonal quality, and this is what I was after for many years. Of course it doesn't hurt to have speakers to accommodate lower frequencies, especially in todays market where asthetics are more important in speaker design then performance. This unit brought my Klipsch KLFs alive, and with it's many programming capabillities, am able to control crossover and frequencies for all channels. The center channel, hooked up to a Klipsch double 8" woofers and horn mid range just absolutely blows the room away. In some instances outperforms the other channels in Dolby surround settings. Yes, the remote chews through batteries, but it isn't a perfect world. It does not in any way make the buyer regret the purchase. If this is the case, those types of buyers should focus their purchases on the remote first, then the unit...you have to prioritize your preferences.
I have found very little weaknesses with this product. I do agree there are times when I expect more from the front channels. In my case I'm fortunate to have the Klipsch center, which more than makes up for it, so it hasn't been a problem for me. I suspect Denon's higher end receivers perform better in that area, but you get what you pay for. At this price point the performance and variety of features is outstanding.

Pre amp processing for price
Good equaliztion setup feature using remote microphone
Clean sound for stereo
Good quality built unit and excellent value for price

Poor quality hard to use remote
Poor plastic speaker posts
Speaker post too close together
Amplifier not rated for driving inefficient speakers

Good processing unit, used for 5.1 system. I use the preamp outputs to drive my front left and right speakers with a Bryston 4B. I tried to drive my front speakers with the Denon but the sound had no weight or punch in bass, my speakes are 85db efficiency rating. I drive my center and rear speakers through the Denon.
The remote is very poor so i have replaced it with a Logitec harmony which works fine. I hate the plastic speaker terminals, way too close together.
The auto equalizing setup feature worked well for me.
I have used unit for 2 years on a daily basis and can recommend the Denon AVR-3805 for a high efficiency speaker setup for both stereo and home theater.

Customer Service

No reason to contact

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Audio research
Bryston
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Anthem

Great Sound, Great connectivity, Great Features, Low distortion. Plenty of power

An owners manual that was obviously written by non-native speaking Americans.
A remote that is not user friendly.
So many inputs and outputs that some connections can be challenging.

Well, after reading some obviously suspect reviews, I wanted to also write an update. I work out of the home so my 3805 operates 12 hours a day, on average. It supports two TVs and an HD front projector. It is mates with the Reference 7 series including a 2400watt peak RSW15 subwoofer with 15" driver and passive woofer.

The biggest chalenge has been getting used to the variance in sound quality from different sources. A good sound system truly reveals the poor quality of sound recorded on most CD's, AMFM stations, satellite radio, MP3's, and music downloads. What once were my favorite albums now sound flat and bassless. Or they sound bright and overbearing in the high frequency range. A good example is to watch an HD move via satellite and then rent the same movie on DVD. A day and night difference in video and audio quality. You will hear the lack of bass frequencies via satellite and the overall lack of depth. After a while, with good speakers, you will no longer listen to what once were your favorite radio stations, satellite radio, or even your favorite CD's. Now, you can get some newer remastered CDs with 20bit resolution that do bring back the fidelity missing in earlier recording but they are hard to find and far and few between. SACD and DVD Audio is also a hit or miss solution, mainly due to the lack of material. I would love to replace my Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, and Doors collection with DVD audio or SACD but it just is not available.

I will be the first to admit that the Denon remote is cumbersome. The solution. Go out and buy a Harmony Logitech remote with activity buttons. This is the best advice I can give those who struggle with the Denons operation. You will thank me and your family and friends will thank you. It makes all the input switching a one button operation so even the baby sitter can operate your complete system without fear or difficulty.

This receiver is still in high demand, even almost two years later and getting your hands on one can be difficult but can be had for half of what it originally sold for. A steal in anyones book.

Most audiophiles would scouf at the use of a receiver only, but after almost two years of constant use, I have never found wanting for more power or a need to try to improve the soud quality. The Klipsch speakers are extremely efficientsensitive and this goes a long way in making the Denon more than capable of delivering the dynamics required in even the most taxing movie sequences via DVD.

If you want to sell your because you are unhappy with your 3805's performance, I would love to hear from you. I will be more than willing to buy it off your hands. I will make this bold claim because I seriously doubt that those who have given poor reviews know what a properly set up system is or have other less honorable motives.

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Technics, Harman Kardon, Akia