everything!

nothing!

this reciever is the BOMB!!!
a full review to come!
love it

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all

does everything well, DTS ES discreet, easy to set up, sounds great, 7 channel mode

remote could be a bit better, manual is typical japanese translation

I owned an original Sony surround reciever that was over 10 years old now, not even pro logic. What a difference. I almost purchased a Yamaha AVR800 or 1000 from the Good guys but they really are not Good guys, they are butt heads and I wont buy anything from them, they reminded me of car salesman, sleazy. Well after looking around some more I decided that Denons are top rate and that For a few dollars more I could upgrade to the 3802 rather than the 2802. I'm glad I did. Channel seperation is subperb and the sound quality is awesome. It matches perfectly with my new Klipsch RF3's. I also appreciate the sub crossover so I can seemlessly blend it in for music. Plenty of power here for the efficient Klipshes. The remote was programmed with out to much effort although I find I really do need the DVD remote as some functions are lacking. I really do feel the Denons are a class above the Sonys or Yamahas. I also like the 7 channel stereo mode, it sounds better than either the Dolby PLII or the Neo 6, whether its due to DSP and is not as natural sounding, perhaps, but I guess its more a personal preference. ES discreet/matrix and 6.1 modes are great, I just need to get better rears and a place to put them where my wife wont object. I also got a great deal from a non authorizd dealer. I hope this wont end up bacfiring on me , but since I have protection from my platinum credit card I'm not too worried.

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its clean sound

none

im very please with this reciever it sound very well,when my friends come over they melt by the sound of the reciever..its pricey but worth every dollar i paid for it.This is the one ,its probably going to be the reciever of the year.

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The seperation of the sound thru the speakers

weaknenss i never heard of that word

if you are looking for a great sound this is the ticket.so far i have no known problems with the unit ..go out to the store and at least listen to the unit and you will want to take it home with you.

Gavin is an idiot. He's the kind of guy who buys a car because it's on-dash CD player has glowing buttons on it. So what? You pick a receiver because it's got nice sound (hello!). Let me go through your so called list of complains and my suggestions for the problems.

1. Last time when I checked, AVR-3802 comes with a remote so that you don't have to seat right in front of your receiver.

2. Use the remote. If you have problem pressing more than one button, you have bigger problem than that, BTW

3. Are you anti-remote or what? Is it too heavy for you to carry?

4. Big deal. Too bad.

5. So, you have problem with your hand. Gotya

Yup, I'm not a fan of Denon's remote. It's one of the worst I've used. But, solely judging a receiver with the remote? You're an idiot.

Plenty of features, clean, well balanced sound

busy, a little bulky, but useable remote

My older Kenwood 309 is a nice reciever, but this Denon is a class above. The on screen menu is a nice feature when setting up, much much nicer than changing a setting, getting back on the couch, then going to change again. The sound is flat and smooth, more natural than others I have listned to. 110 watts is enough power for most anyone. There are enough sound modes to please anyone and more features than many. I have had this a litle over a month and am still playing with settings. This thing just keeps sounding better and better. My only regret is that I did not buy it sooner. The half backlit remote is useful but a bit longer than I prefer, others may love it. I know I will not be getting rid of this reciever for many years.

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Sorry to bother anyone, but I've been reading and have been getting a few e-mails about the AM/FM Tuner. Here are some of the answers.
You can change the channels with the function dial on the reciever and go from FM to AM using this function dial. To do this you need to program the radio stations into the tuner's preset memory. Its takes some time to set-up though. The directions are chopped up in the manual and are hard to follow so I'll do my best to help. You should first Program the FM stations because this can be done automatically, then you should program the AM stations Manually. This is how you do it.

-You have to have your TV on to use the On Screen Display.
-Make sure your AM and FM antenna's are hooked up and placed in an area where the reception won't be distorted.
-Use the remote control buttons for the following steps.

1.) Make sure the remote is functioning for the AMP, the LCD will say "AMP". ( on the remote, press the button near the upper right hand corner that says "receiver" until you see "AMP" in the LCD. You might have to press that button 2 times because that button is used to scroll thru 3 functions)

2.) (Refer to pgs. 16 and 27 in the manual.) Press the "Set-up" button, look at your TV screen and use the "cursor down" button on the remote to scroll down to "Auto Tuner Presets" and press the "enter" button. For the next screen, press the "cursor left" button. When it is completed, press the "set-up" button to get out of the menu. You just programmed all the FM stations to the memory.

3.) Make note of the last FM station saved to the memory. To do this press the "Menu/OSD" button until you get to the "Tuner Preset Stations". Keep pressing the "menu/osd" button until you find the last station saved. Mine was D2FM 107.5, yours will be different. Make note of your stations Alpha-Number. (Since D2 FM 107.5 was my last station saved, D3 will be the first Alpha-Number used for my AM stations.) Press the "Menu/osd" button until the display disappears.

4. ) (Refer to pg. 61. ) These steps can be confusing because the manual shows "AMP" on the LCD. THE MANUAL IS WRONG. Change the function of the remote to the Tuner by pressing the "receiver" button. "Tuner" should be displayed on the LCD. Press the "left cursor" button to switch from FM to AM. (Get familiar with the buttons on pg. 60-61 because you get only 15 seconds of inactivity before the screen goes blank.)

To program the AM channels Look at the TV.- Press the "up or down cursor" button until you get the 1st station you want to save. Then press the "Return/Memory" button. Then press the "enter/shift" button until you get to the Alpha Letter your looking for. Then press the channel " + " or "-" button until you get to the Alpha-Number you need". When its at Alpha-Number you want press the "Return/Memory" button. It is now saved. Save the rest the stations the same way, but use the next Alpha-Number.

I Hope I helped those that were having trouble setting up the Tuner.

The PDF version of the manual can be found at -
http://www.del.denon.com/catalog/pdfs/AVR3802DFU.pdf

Price performace, built in 7 amps, sound quality, DTS/es and DD/ex decoding capability

only one coax input, only one optical output, no switching between digital in and analog outs, manual

The 3802 is a great receiver, it has a wonderful warm sound and is priced about right. Saying that I will start on the negatives and work my way to the positives. I believe that many products in this price range are good however the 3802 is the best over all product.

BTW I paid about $1520 Canadian in a package so it was hard to work out the exact amount. Usually speakers have a biger margin than the reveiver so if you are just purchasing the AVR you may not get the same deal.

Major Negatives
I agree with many of the reviews posted here about the manual. I would be nice if the manual actually gave some specific examples of things that the receiver just can’t do. Like S-Video to composite switching or optical/coax in to line out. I consider this a big issue as you are not able to use your optical or coax in and out put to the line outs, so no CD or DVD to tape (cassette or VHS) this is not a copyright issue it is a receiver issue! The only way around this is to connect your DVD or CD player to the line in for audio (analog input as opposed to digital inputs). Fortunately for me my DVD player outputs to both the digital outs and analogue outs simultaneously.

Minor Negatives
1) No tuner adjustment from the front panel, must use the remote, this is not a big deal for me.
2) If you set your left/right surround speakers to small it automatically sets the rear surround channel to small. This is a problem for me since I’m using a Definition Technology 2300 as my rear surround, this speaker has a built in subwoofer. This would force me to run a sub cable (expensive) all the way to the back of my room (40’ after going around the entire room). However the 3802 does support two sets of left/right surrounds, so I simply set the second set of surrounds to large, but never assigned them or hooked them up. This by default allowed me to now set the center rear to large, now talking advantage of the built in sub.

Major Positives
Sound! Last year I was comparing this to the 4800, ok it was a 3801 to 4800 comparison, but the difference was not noticeable unless you were in the same room switching back and forth many times. Going from one dealer to the next I couldn’t tell. This year I didn’t even listen to the 4802 as Denon had priced this unit far to high for my budget, all I can say is that it better sound a lot better to justify the price (In Canada it was $3600 compared to $1800 for the 3802). The sound quality of the 3802 is excellent, stereo imaging is excellent and the ability to listen to stereo sources in Matrix or in DTS Neo 6 is fantastic. Live recordings like Eric Clapton Unplugged and Neil Young Unplugged put you right in the audience. You will be listening to all you CD’s again probably more than once. In movie mode the Widescreen feature decodes Dolby Digital EX (rear surround) sound tracks very well. Plus this unit is fully DTS ES compatible.
The 3802 has plenty of power, the test results prove the accuracy of the spec sheet. Have a look at
You can connect up to 9 speakers with the 3802 with multi-source capability. I don’t use this yet but it is future proofing the system.

With 7 110W Channels the 3802 sound leaves little if anything to be desired. Have a look Hans Melles review he provides some measurements taken by a German publication AudioVision. Also have a look at Sound and Vision’s review of the 3801 http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/SoundAndVision/FrameSet/0,1670,_sl_SoundAndVision_sl_Category_sl_0_cm_1652_cm_100_cm_00,00.html it is very positive on the 3801, and based on AudioVisions measurements the 3802 is even better.

Other
Remote is fine, some state that it could be better and I suppose that it could. But it does about 90% of what I need it to do.
Both AC outlets on the 3802 are switched, it would be nice to have one un-switched, that way I could have my VCR plugged into it also.

Overall
Yes there are some weaknesses in the 3802, however I purchased the 3802 was because, for the price you just couldn’t beat the sound, I think the 3802 sounded better than almost AVR’s in its class, and as good if not better than some higher priced models. Don’t get fooled with 10 or 20 DSP modes that you will likely never use. You should still listen to the Yamaha, Marantz, and Onkyo etc. You may prefer the sound of one of these instead. Sound is a subjective thing, only you can be the judge. Don’t ever let a sales person tell you what sounds good to you! NEVER, NEVER NEVER!!!

Sound, # of channels supported, build quality, Remote

If you have an AVR2800, AVR2801, AVR3300, AVR3801 its not much of an upgrade, with the exception of DPL II

I must admit that I really liked my AVR2800. It is a wonderful receiver and had I not decided to upgrade to 7.1, I would have kept it until it decided to pass on to a better place. That said, upon connecting all of the components and firing up my new 3802, I noticed one great difference between it and its predecessor. The channel seperation was far more apparent. To put it simply, the detail and clarity is better on the 3802, especially when using it for music. I will also say that I really like DPL II, it has given my old video tapes (those movies which have yet to be released to DVD) new life. The other aspect of this receiver I really like is the remote. Though many will argue, I believe it to be extremely functional - far better than the masochistic thing that came with the 2800.

Now for the negative side. I have found the addition of 20 watts / channel of additional power to have only a minmal affect on the delivery of sound. The bass IS more defined, but I still keep the volume at exactly the same levels (for the different sources) as I did before. Though not related directly to the reciver or it functionality, I am still mystified as to how an owners manual can actually be counterproductive. In this case it is! I would recommend, in many instances, just doing the trial and error thing rather than reading the manual.

All-in-all, for the sound quality, price and options it can't be beat! but if you are considering upgrading from one of the models listed above - and are not interested in additional channels or DPL II - you may want to reconsider.

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This is not a review, so my apologies if needed.

This is a serious question, since I'm a bit clueless about which to get:

A) DENON 3802
B) SONY STRV555ES
C) MARANTZ SR8000

I am a big fan of Sony prods. but not sure if it beats the others here. Please advise FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks much.