Sounds, connections, assignable digital inputs. A super, super reveiver if you get one that works.

serious quality control issue on some of the 3300s

Follow up to my previous review dated 6/17/00. Well I'm sad to say I boasted a little early on my unit. I think Denon makes great products and the 3300 is a wonderful unit provided you get one that was built correctly w/o any defective components
I wrote my first review after an initial 30 min. quickie with the unit. It turns out I climaxed a little early. Damn, I hate when that happens! Anyway once I had it on for about an hour, the protection circuit flippped and she shut down. The fan was running but it wasn't noisy as some had mentioned. I felt the top and back of the chassis and it was scalding hot. I'm running Infinity RS series(8 ohm) front, rear, and center so it's not a heavy load. I was told by my dealer that I probably had a connection or wiring problem. They all checked out ok. Next day I let her run for another hour and she shut down again. This time I unhooked all the speakers and turned her back on. Again she shut down after 1-1 1/2 hrs. I returned it and and picked up another 3300 thinking I just had a bad one in the batch which happens. Second one did the same thing. Then I bought a line conditioner(Monster HTS-2000-nice!!)and that seemed to solve the problem. NOPE!! It only helped enough to keep it running about 4 hours then it would shut down again. When I got on here and starting reading all of the other owners with overheating and thermal issues I just figure there has got to be a quality control concern wherever these 3300s are built, or a bad batch of components made it through into alot of these reveivers. I finally returned the second 3300 and got full credit toward an AVR-4800. I won't prematurely write a review yet but it is noticeably built better, not that the 3300 appeared to be of bad build quality. The 4800 just looks that much better. I have no idea if the 4800s are built some place different than the 3300s but I would be willing to bet so.
Conclusion: I thoroughly enjoyed the 3300 when it was on. It has a lot of clean power and sound, with tons of features and connection options. There is just a serious quality control issue or design flaw with some these units. If you decide to buy one you are not making a bad or stupid choice. Just make sure you can return it so you can test it fully and lengthy in your home. Or hog the local dealer's listening room for an entire afternoon. I would definately not buy a 3300 mail order or online. The 3300 is a 5 and a 5 if you get a properly operating unit, but based on my personal experience, I have to give her a 4 for value and a 2 overall.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-4800

Everything

can not think of one weakness

I have to tell you I am very impressed with this Denon 3300. Music is just stunning in the 5 channel,matrix and direct modes. I am using the Denon dcm370 cd player which is awsome. Home theatre is just simply awsome, you cant wait to watch your next dvd. My wife thought i had lost my mind when i was buying all this new equipment until she saw and heard a dvd through it and she said she didnt care what i spent it was well worth it.
I also have the M&K 750 speaker sys and the pioneer 302 dvd player.

Sound and Clarity, Remote, Power

none

When I initially bought mine it immediately started a noise with the fan. I had my DVD player on it so I picked it up and it was cookin. So I moved DVD and let the receiver cool. I turned it back on and it sqealed and got real hot again. I tolerated it for a little while as it only seemed to happen occasionally. Once it got too much I called Denon they referred me to an authorized repair center I took it there and they had it for about a month. I got a call from the Technician it was a bad transistor making the squeal and cooking my receiver. I got it back and I can pump it for hours and there is no heat coming out of it period.

This receiver sounds phenomenal I only use Direct mode and DD.

DD. The Movie effects are incredible when I watch the Matrix everybody loves it when Trinity jumps in the air for like 5 seconds the LFE sends earthshaking subsonic waves to the sub. Movie soundtracks are clear and well defined some of my casual listening friends find themselves upgrading to audiophile grade equipment after a movie watching interlude at my house. What I especially like is the way the sub seems jumps a few DB's when put in DD and gives the extra thump while movie watching. Although music listening is quite enjoyable without the overpowering bass when in Direct mode. Can't say enough about how pleased I am with my choice for HT.

Direct Mode. When listening to music this is my favorite. I can listen to music for hours and it's tireless and pure enjoyment. The separation of the instruments is live quality. On a good recording the music is in your face like the live band is 10 feet from you couch. I recently went on a cruise and that was when I really began to appreciate my setup. An acappella group was walking throughout the ship singing and I thought I heard that somewhere before.... home. Detailed, separated, wide sound field everywhere in the room is the sweet spot, clean, and although I have small front speakers the sub matches very well even though it's a 12 inch. I set the front speakers to Small and took all the bass out and sent it to sub result: NO DISTORTION even when blasting Ruff Ryders. So I love the Direct Mode as music never sounded so good.

The remote is the Bomb because I have everything programmed in it. An EXAMPLE, I programmed my Toshiba SD-3109 in the remote and all the butons worked as they were supposed to. There was an extra button that I could use on the remote, so I used the learn feature to make it change the disc. The buttons glow for a few hours when It's pitch black movie watching time. I haven't heard any receiver sounding better than this yet let alone run out and consider getting something else. I got it at shop4.com right now they have them for $699- but don't plan on getting it over night.

SUMMARIZATION: I initially had a problem with this receiver and Denon handled it with the quickness now it runs long and loud and doesn't even get warm. I'd recommend this to anyone on the hunt for a quality receiver with uncomparible sound and features in it's class. Denon is a great name I've since acquired CD player from them and am extremely pleased with that as well. I've had this receiver for almost a year now and it sounds better all the time.

Current system:

DVD Toshiba SD-3109
CD Denon DCM-370
Receiver Denon AVR-3300
Subwoofer Acoustic Research ARS300
Front Speakers KEF Q15's
Center Speaker KEF Q95c
Monster Cable - Fiber to DVD, Coax to CD, Subwoofer Cable 3m

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo 777, Yamaha 995

AMAZING SOUND!! Lots of features!

POOR DENON QUALITY CONTROL!!! BUY LOCAL, DON'T BUY THIS OVER THE INTERNET UNLESS THE COMPANY HAS A SOLID RETURN POLICY!!

I bought my 3300 back in July, but have only had it arround to listen to for about 3 days total. The rest of the time it was in New Jersey at Denon getting repaired. I bought it online and could only return it within 7 days :( It was shutting down and overheating at low volumes and producing static out of the right channel, even with no input!! So I finally got it back two days ago, and this morning the static started again!!!! I'm really pissed off and I'm calling Denon to try to get a NEW unit.

The time I've had it has been wonderful! This thing can pump out all the power and bass I need and if I ever get a completely working unit, it will be the workhorse behind many parties to come at school this year!

My saga is not yet over, and I really wanted to like this receiver after all the research I put into finding it, but unless I get a NEW or working unit soon, I'm going to be pretty depressed about the whole situation. I do love the working receiver and that's why I'm giving it 5 stars... If they had a rating for quality control however, it would easily earn -5. If you do buy this, buy it local!! Don't mess with the internet! Learn from my experience and pay the extra money!!

Similar Products Used:

None, first receiver.

Smooth sound

None yet, except a little confusing at first

I mostly listen to music. I bought a yamaha 995; it was great at first. Clarity of detail was incredible. Movies sounded awesome. But the more I listened the less I liked the Yamaha. It tired me out with it high end and lack of lows. A snap on the drum snare would leave me overwhelmed. I began only listening to music that sounded great on the Yamaha, but not the rest of the music I owned and loved. After three weeks I couldn't take it any longer, and I went back to the dealer to test drive the denon 3300. I listened to the Denon 3300 against the Yamaha 995 using B&W floor standing speakers; I also listened with a denon set of Headphones. What a difference; the Denon was so much smoother and easy to listen to. The Yamaha sounded almost tinny at this point. I traded the Yamaha in for a Denon 3300 (still under 30 days). Once I installed it at home it sounded less lively than the prior Yamaha, but as I listened I began to appreciate the wonderful bass and midrange, and the highs were crystal clear. I currently have RogerSoundLab speakers, which sound pretty good, but I think a speaker upgrade will really make this Denon shine. Remote works for me - way better than the Yamaha. Manual was mostly good; I only needed it for those items that were not intuitive on the Denon. I'm big on the technical goodies, but in the end only the sound matters, and in this range of stereo equipment the Denon is the best.

Current System:
Denon 3300
Pioneer Elite DV-05
Monster cable fibre optic
RogerSoundLabs C-8 Speakers
AudioQuest QaudHelixHyperLitz CV4 SpeakerWire

Similar Products Used:

yamaha 995

Good clarity, DTS and Dolby Digital, inputs

remote

After reading the reviews about the fan and heating problems I bought this with some apprehension. I visited many stereo stores and asked all the dealers if they had heard of the problem. None of them had. I still was unsure. However during the auditions I liked the sound better than any of the other receivers. Even my tone deaf wife noticed the improvement in sound over the other models. It had a good rich tone. It did not sound like the sound was forced like some other models. I have liked the Denon very much. I use this primarilly in my dedicated home theater but the sound is equally good for music. The clarity, volume, and sound movement are all very good. It has all the inputs I need. Since I still consider $ 850.00 a lot of money I can only give four stars for value, but I could not ask for more in a sub $1,000.00 receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Techniques

Excellent surround sound quality for my movie setup. Very customizable setup for my particular room. This is a very crisp, clear unit, no hiss. plenty of imputs for optical, svideo and composit. I am glad that I read the reviews and found this unit.

Would have liked a different controller-LCD would be really nice.

I am very pleased with the quality of this product. It is well built and delivers excellent sound quality, clean power and clarity. I use thi smainly for DVD movie played throught a Toshiba DVD player and Klipsch speakers all around. Fronts have integrated Subs on both sides and when set up correctly via the Dennon, provide excellent recreation of sound, and effects. Even Video's seem better now. Thanks to all who reviewed this before. It helped a lot!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Panasonic and Sony.

Peerless sound, especially with audiophile-grade cables.

The processing options (Video Game, Matrix, Hall, etc.) are kind of weak, but then again, I'm comparing it to a Lexicon MC-1 here...

Okay, first off, Jeff, you hardly register as human in your infinite foolishness. I'm amazed that you have the brain capacity to remember to breathe, much less write a decent review of a product as amazing as the Denon 3300. That said, on with the review...

My circle of friends have three things in common: Computers (we're all Senior Admins or Senior Programmers), Cars (we like driving fast), and Home Audio (which we only buy creme de la creme), so when shopping for a system to reside in my small listening room (11' x 13' x 8') I was able to audition some of the greatest gear out there. Ultimately I settled on the Denon AVR3300. The first one I picked up was indeed plagued with things not working, poor and unadjustable bass output, etc., so I exchanged it for a new unit and have been utterly content with it ever since. I have it attached to a full Energy 5.1 setup (LR=C4s, C=EXLC, Rears=Mirage HDT Surrounds, Subs= a pair of EXLS10s). And yes, Mirage is made by the same company that makes Energy. Anyway, once I got the replacement unit home, I set everything up, sat down in my listening chair, and proceeded to try out the new system (after a little adventure you can read about in my Energy C4 review). Even now, over nine months after I got the system burned-in, I am never less than amazed at how phenomenal the sound is coming from this system. I will say this: Biwire your speakers and you will not be disappointed. I give the Denon 3300 my highest recommendation for a smaller listening room on a budjet, or a second listening room. Granted, the sound doesn't quite keep up with say, a Proceed AVP hooked to a Conrad-Johnson tube amp pushing Veritas 2.8s, but Denon is the closest I've heard yet. That said, if you're in the market, this is the one to buy, especially if you can get it between $600-$800.

Similar Products Used:

Lexicon MC-1
Proceed AVP
Bose Crap (yes, it is crap)
Sony Crap (yes, Sony is crap too)
Harmon Kardon 7000
Marantz SR8000 and SR19

Very detailed sound especially while listingen to DVD-sound. Very powerfull amplifier and superb dynamics.

Sometimes a little bit noise from the fan. Yes, it runs hot but no problems with cooling so far.
It does not have digital out.

If you're going for superb listening to DVD Dolby Digital/DTS, you can go for this baby. Also performs great listening to music, even classical music. The dynamics and sound positioning already scared most of my friends and our dog.

The fan almost never switches on listening to music in 2 channel mode, it's the five channel mode that's driving this great receiver hot.

If you don't like the remote control, buy yourself a Philips Pronto. You then do have a great receiver and a great remote control.

Similar Products Used:

Did not own a DD-receiver before. Read many reviews and listened to this baby....and bought it. You know why....

clear with fantastic movment sound between each speaker

no osd for volume

i replace yamaha rxv995 because the boomy sound all my friend felt that. and bought denon 3300.
now i want to make bi amp between both of them if any body has an idea please e-mail me on (thxultra@hotmail.com)

Similar Products Used:

nothing