Warren J

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This summary is for the POA-2800, The amplifier sounds cleaner than the Monster Power MPA-2250 I replaced. It is true that, this amp will reproduce exactly what is fed into the input. The midrange spectrum (vocals, female or male) sound uncolored and airy! I am using a Denon AVR 3805 as a pre-amp, Denon DVD 3930ci as the cd player, Monster Power AVS 2000 Line Conditioner, Monster Power 2100 Line Filter, Anthony Gallo Ref 3.1, Anthony Gallo MPS 150 (subwoofer in mono) and Canare Cables. I love these cables but back to the summary! The bass is well defined as has authority on the Gallos, the clarity is just plain better than the H/K PA 2400 and the Monster MPA-2250 even though the Monster is rated at 250 w/ch, it does have power, but the Denon POA 2800 has that clean sound and the imaging is down right airy with the Gallos, the treble seems to extend beyond hearing on certain recordings, especially instrumentals... I find myself digging out old scratched up CDs just to test this beast, it runs warm (normal) but not hot. I am a big Denon fan because I love the sound of the Denon Link option ver.3, it beats RCA hands down. The best feature is the AVR 3805 can custom tune sound in any room, and when it feeds its tailored acoustic sound through the Denon POA 2800, its front seating in the arena! I paid 310.00 off ebay plus shipping, it is a "no-brainer", you can't bridge it, the binding posts suck, and the power cable looks cheap... but I am thinking about doing a power cable upgrade using an "iec" connector. I also have to figure out how to use banana cables with the factory binding posts. No electrical equipment is perfect and this thing is old, but it sounds better than my $3000 dollar Monster, $1600 H/K PA 2400 and etc.

Figaro

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The POA 2800 amp is quiet and powerful. It will drive just about any quality speaker down to very low impedance levels. At normal listening it is pure class A. Add a precise preamp and the sound you hear will only depend on your source, speakers, and listening area. For the money your ears are not good enough to tell one of these from an equivalent powered Krell, Bryston, or Threshold amp.

KingFD

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.33 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from www.trademe.co.nz

Summary:
I had seen this come up on a local auction site and decided I needed to try it.

I have been looking for a matching Rotel power amp (RB870BX) to the one I have already so I could bridge them to get the power I wanted for my Cerwin Vega E-715. A couple of months ago I had a chance to listen to a friends system which consisted of two Denon POA-4400 and absolutely loved the sound and control they seemed to have. As soon as I saw this POA-2800 I called my friend straight away for advice as to how this would compare to my Rotel. After a few minutes of discussion it was decided that i should purchase it. If it turned out it wasn't for me I could quite easily relist it.

Well it's been a few days since Ive had it connected to my system and I've had it running in. This is an absolutely brilliant amp and I will not miss my Rotel at all. First noticable difference was that it sounded very smooth but without lose of detail, compared to the Rotel which is a edgey especially at higher volumes. Soundstage seemed more defined with better placement and depth. Bass is alot more definite and very controlled. There is oodles of power and have not had to turn my pre-amp past 9 o'clock. Even at this volume the sound is very clean and clear.

For an amp of this age (suspect early 90's) it has a classic design which matches my other Denon gear without looking 15+ years old. This is great value for money and would happily buy another unit if I found one.

Strengths:
Oooodles of power
Great bottom end control
Very smooth sound
Great soundstage

Weaknesses:
Binding posts not the best. Have had to insert banana connections through small holes at the top of the binding posts. Have looked to see if they could be replaced, but looks unlikely.

Similar Products Used:
Rotel RB-870BX

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I´ve bought this amplifier in spring 2000 and have not regretted it for a second. I´ve bought it because I only have owned integrated amplifiers in my past, and now wanted to go a step further. I connected it to my system, and got really amazed, the amplifier have a fantastic grip in my speakers, even when I played really loud, was my room filled of top class sound. My previous amplifer was also a Denon but a little PMA-480R model. It has a fantastic good price/value ratio and a respectabel sound. But besides this giant it just fades away.

Strengths:
capability to play with big speaker. Very good grip in speakers. Neutral sound through the hole frequense response.

Weaknesses:
No balanced inputs.

Similar Products Used:
Denon PMA-480R, Sony TA-FE 555

Summary:
The POA 2800 delivers more power to the speakers, then any other amplifiers in the same money-value. I will set the name on this monster of an amp "THE INCREDIBLE HULK"

Strengths:
I've had this amplifier for about 3years now. And the strenghtness of this monster is enormous in my opinion. I give this fighter full score for its good quality of sound.
The good thing about POA 2800 is the power of it.

Weaknesses:
You'll need a good preamp to get the best result for this monster amp. If you use a bad pre-amp, you'll miss the strengthnes of the bass level. When playing too long at a very long period, the fuse might pop, so you'll need to turn the amp off too cool it down before playing again.

Similar Products Used:
2x NAD 216 (bridged)