Having already submitted a review, this is concerning the last reviewer. All I can say is for people to go look at the reviews the NAD has gotten. The NADT761. I think the reason for it sounding flatter is that it's more natural. Having been a musician for 15 years plus, I know what sounds natural and what sounds "bright." Take Bose for instance. Very annoying to listen to. All highs, no lows,must be Bose. Think about the way things sound in real life. Cars racing by you, jets flying over head, cymbals crashing. When I hear these things in real life, thats what I think the Denon does. My previous Sony was very exaggerated on the highs. I thought that it sounded good. Well it did, but the Denon sounds fabulous.Because it's realer sounding to me. That's the way I think it is supposed to sound.

Good for AV work (only), build quality OK.

Boring, Flat sounding. Lacks musicality and dynamics. Expensive for what it is. Lousy lousy ergonomics. Receiver design is simply awful. Cheap and crappy remote. Simply horrible when used for anything other than Home Theatre.

This is a great Home Theatre *amplifier*. However, it is a lousy, awful receiver with the worst ergonomics you could find on a modern piece of equipment.
It's redeeming feature is its great AV performance, but at the price you'd expect that; there are cheaper models available elsewhere that are its equal from this point of view. The sound quality for normal stereo listening is decidedly average. It lacks musicality, pace, timing, and impact. Completely uninvolving. Dull, flat, boring, yawn.
Unfortunately this product has been over hyped and represents poor value when compared with products such as the Marantz 7200 and NADT761 which have far more audiophile qualities going for them (not to mention better ergonomics) at a significantly cheaper price.
If all you want is an amplifier for Home Cinema, this will do you, but look at the competition as well. If you want something that will provide you with an all in one solution for your amplification needs, definitely look elsewhere. Get's 2 stars for value (it's not a complete joke, but it is a little expensive), and 2 stars for overall (not completely happy - doesn't satisfy musically). That said, if you are less than critical about audio quality, it will probably suffice, but you would get better value elsewhere. Mine's going on to Ebay if you are still interested!

Similar Products Used:

Marantz 7200, Arcam AVR200, NAD T761

Plenty of power... 110 full-bandwidth-rated watts x 7 channels, and DTS-ES is truly amazing, you have to experience it for yourself. contrary to popular belief, I thought it was pretty easy to set up.

eh... i should have grounded it, that last time i touched the face plate, i got this huge static shock....

DENON AVR-3802:

I got this reciever for $720 which was a steal... i was considering getting the AVR-4802 but for $1700 i decided it wasn't worth it... sure it has (2) 32 bit SHARC processors, and 125 full-bandwidth-rated watts x 7 channels and THX surround EX. i just couldnt justify $1000 for the additional features.

The 3802 has plenty of power(110 full-bandwidth-rated watts x 7 channels), and if you haven't listened to DVD's with DTS-ES then you are missing out. Star Wars: Phantom Menace (the pod racing scene) was amazing...

The amp was not as diffult to set up as everyone said it was. The manual is pretty bad, but it was rather simple you souldn't need to refer to it tooo often.

The remote is alright, it's not the greatest, but it's okay.

I strongly recommend this A/V reciever, it's a terrific value, and you get a lot more then what you pay for. Good job Denon!

upgrading from an Onkyo 494, almost everything's better...

Denon should peek at Onkyo for user interface & ease of operation.

the bad stuff:
i found the manual bad. its confused, the machine who wrote it should be punished...
yet, you finally find your way through the odd on screen menues, and set this beast up.
no on screen display in component out mode, only s-video.
i plan to upgrade the tv, and wouldnt want to connect it in s video, so this seems bad.
the good:
wonderful sound! a brute de force! this reciever is big!
I finally see what home cinema is, it's like sitting in the theatre!
i've got it coupled to a paradigm reference ht set, so its a real quality expirience. you get the "i've never heard this so good in my life" from liseners.
the competition:
i wanted to keep PL-II, so it was either this or onkyo 696/797/898. i'm not too familiar with other brands offering it currently, and with those two, its a win win situation. the denon won over price. the onkyo importer in israel is a #$%#^^&* who keeps prices up.
so, there you have it, until next year's 3803,
itai.

Similar Products Used:

similar? non.

Crisp highs, spacious sound imaging, clean and simple front panel, and OSD

The remote, only one coaxial input

First let me say that the jump from sraight Dolby Prologic to Dolby Digital and DTS is like jumping from AM to FM the difference is huge. I kept a Paradigm PS100 sub and sold off my old stuff and bought the Denon and the Polk RM 6600 speaker package at the same time and for 1400 bucks its a great setup. I also bought a subwoofer specific cable with a Y splitter and it made a huge difference in my sub.

Like most of you I am big fan of this receiver but also had a problem with the remote. My complaint is that the remote's IR seems to be very directional, I have to point the thing straight at the receiver. My only other complaint is only one coaxial input but thats just a misdemeanor.

Now on to the good. For less than a grand I'm not sure how you can beat this receiver. The front panel is simple and not overdone while still providing everything you need. Musically, its ability to seperate the sound stage is awesome and the highs are very crisp without being bright, at low and high volumes, the mark of good equipment. As far as movies go its hard for me to judge fairly jumping from straight Prologic to Digital. I did play a VCR tape of Twister in PL2 and it is also a huge leap over regular Prologic. But in DD and DTS all I can say is it sounds awesome! The dialouge is clear, the base is crisp and the rear audio is well placed. It takes a while to get it set up correctly but once you do, this unit is a work horse, Denon just needs to tweek the remote a bit. I am much more than satisfied and urge anyone shopping to take a hard look at the Denon AVR3802.

On a side note: if your going to buy the Denon AVR3802 over the internet make sure they have it in stock. It's a hot item right now. I was mislead by Dealznet and it took me over 3 weeks to get mine.

Similar Products Used:

7 year old Adcom equip.

Surprisingly powerful, clean sound. Nice to have 7.1 surround capabilities.

Lousy remote, lousy volume control, problem with ground loop

Pros:
The Denon 3802 is a pretty clean unit. Power is more than enough for my home theater (25'x17'). It is nice to have Dolby Digital as well as DTS surround. The 7.1 surround mode improves the spatial effects a lot over the previous 5.1 system I had. Sounds a bit flat as compared to the Sony I previouly had which seemed to add a bit to the bottom end.

Cons:
The remote really sucks. I have to switch between my source and the receiver for almost every function. The Sony I had before would allow me to use the source controls and the amp controls without switching back and forth. The volume control is irritating. It starts off with fine adjustments and takes off with large adjustments. I wish it would just have one single speed for control. I cannot adjust the surround volume levels with an external source. Switching between surround modes uses different buttons.

When i plugged in my Sunfire Subwoofer, i got a strong humm from the sub, indicating a ground loop problem. I had no problem with my previous Sony unit. Humm remained after i unplugged everything except the sub. Also had a higher pitched buzz which seemed to come from another device plugged into the same circuit. Again, I did not have this problem with my Sony. The LEDs on the front panel are too small to see past several feet.

Miscellaneous:
I noticed that AV receivers are now posting their amp ratings with only single channel output. Before, my Sony receiver stated 100 wpc/5 channels driven simultaneously with .02% distortion into 8 ohms. Now the Denon just states 110 watts for each channel without stating all channels driven. I noticed that the new Sony and Marantz units tested cannot drive the full rated output with all channels driven (the Marantz 85 wpc unit drops to about 25 wpc with all channels and the Sony 80wpc drops to about 45wpc) Add to the fact that some (Pioneer and Kenwood) are rated only at 6 ohms which artificially inflates the power ratings.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-80ES

Sound quality was pretty good.
Good quality build.

The power cord. It would have been nice to have a heavier gauge power cord to allow more current flow to the amp especially if people are using the built-in amps in this receiver. I don't think it would have added that much more on the construction cost of the unit and it would provide even better performance from this already very good av receiver. A detachable power cord would have been a nice option.

This av receiver is reasonably quiet but I suspect there would be an even lower noise floor had Denon used a better power cord to provide better grounding and current flow to the receiver.

I will try to comment on things that have not already been mentioned about this receiver.

I basically only using this av receiver as my av sound processor, DACs for my stereo music listening, and for the amplification stage of the rear surrounds until I buy a separate amp for my rear surrounds, and until a couple of years more in the future when the price of the theatre-phile/audiophile quality pre-amp processors become more reasonably priced.

Truth is I am over-all very pleased with the sound quality and the build quality of this unit for its price. My Aragon Aurum pre-amp sounds better than the pre-amp section of this receiver (which basically isn't a fair comparison considering the price difference of the two), so I retained my Aurum pre-amp in-line with the pre-outs of the Denon receiver which works fine. In addition, I use my rotel cd player as my transports via the digital co-ax cables and use DACs from the Denon receiver for my stereo music listening, because the DACs on the Denon are better than the one from old Rotel cd player. By doing this, I could get better quality sound with my existing stereo setup, and have the benefit of theatre sound when I am watching movies.

Music renditions sound pretty good using the Denon DACs.

Before hooking up the Denon receiver, the noise floor on my system was almost dead quiet. The noise floor did raise a tad when I hooked up this receiver. I tried to investigate the usualy culprits for this like ground-loops, and came to the conclusion that it was definitely from the Denon receiver. Don't get me wrong, it was only a bit of added noise (hiss) from my very revealing front monitor speakers when you had your ear about 1+-feet from the speakers. For the price of the unit, one can't expect a dead quiet Receiver. I still think a better quality power cord may have helped this receiver on that front.

Remote: I didn't mind the remote all that much.

Manual: I didn't mind the manual as well. Yes, there is room for improvements but all in all, it was satisfactory for me.

ON a side note to those who are using the amplification stages of Denon Receiver, if it is feasibly for you, try plugging the Denon receiver into its own wall power outlet with its own breaker switch, or on a circuit that is not already in heavy use. I believe, the denon draws 7.1 amps of current when put to heavy use. This way the Denon receiver is not sharing power with the other electrical components, and so it gets all the power that it needs to allows the Denon avr3802 to perform to its full potential. You will be very happy with the results.

I am not sure if there is a minor glitch in the Denon REceiver, or if I am too fussy, but when the input source is set to DVD and to "auto" detect mode, the display line on the player always shows a default of dolby prologic 2 , cinema, which is kinda silly since a dvd would not have dolby prologic encoded into it anyway. Only, after the dvd movie plays, and the dolby digital or DTS encoded sound is played off the dvd, does the receiver switches it to the dolby digital or DTS respectively, because that is when the receiver picks up the encoded digital sound track signal. However, when you stop the movie, the receiver switches back to the default dolby prologic 2, cinema. I suppose if Denon was going to program a default display for the DVD input when under auto detect mode, they should have used the default for at least Dolby Digital, and not Dolby Prologic.

Although, the Denon receiver does do a proper job of detecting the right encoded signal when the source is played.


Thusly, I give this player a 4.5 / 5.0. Since they don't have halves, and since there have been some entries that involved updates (which is understandable and a lot of times very helpful to the readers), I will enter a 4 to try to neutralize the upward average skewing effect of the updated entries. A highly recommended player.

Similar Products Used:

Never used any av receivers.
Only used pre-amps: Rotel, Aragon.

Sorry to do this but I made an error in my last posting in regards to a dvd not having prologic encoded into it. Dvd's do have dolby surround encoded into it. What I meant to say was a person who had a dvd player, and who bought a denon avr3802 would most likely use the dolby digital or dts format when playing a dvd movie. Hence, it would have been more practical for Denon to program dolby digital or dts as a default line entry for the denon receiver when a person has dvd input source under auto mode. Sorry for the error.

Sound Quality/Ease of Use/Flexibility

Limited memory in DSP mode. Must re-scroll if you leave DSP mode. (very minor)

After much research and analysis I decided to return my unopened 2802 for the 3802 and boy I’m I glad I did. I got it for the same amount that most retailers were asking for the 2802 ($800). For another $100 I could have taken a chance with an unauthorized internet dealer but to me for $100 it wasn’t worth it. Even for $800 it is still a great bargain! For the extra couple hundred (vs. the 2802) I got a much improved remote, both functionally and acsthetically. In addition it has 20 watts more power, but more significant than that was the extra 10 lbs in the same frame, i.e. not only more power but higher quality power (souped up V-6 vs a V-8). It also has the better processing chip (32 bit vs. 24) and to me this is not an area where I wanted to skimp. Throw in that extra channel and it was a no brainer. Now about the performance. My previous receiver was a 1st generation (Dolby Digital only)Yamaha with 70 watts. I’m running B&W SE1’s for my mains and center and B&W in wall 650’s for my 3 surrounds. My sub is a Def. Tech. 15TL (325 watts).

Ease of Use- I had done my homework and was prepared for an arduous setup (you must use on screen display for initial setup). After a little more than a hour I had connected my new rec’r. I fired up "The Mexican" since it had DTS and dialed in what I believed to be the correct settings…dead silence, nothing. I tried different settings… nothing. I went back to the disc and switched it to DD. It worked! Out of the blue it occurred to me to check my pioneer 333 DVD setup. Lo and behold DTS was in the off position. Flick of the switch- full DTS!

Overall the remote is very user friendly; sure its complicated, but considering the complexities of today's high end audio equipment it is very well laid out. If you want top quality sound you need to invest some time in learning how to operate the equipment. Only extremely minor complaint is everytime you switch away from the dsp function within a given mode and return to the dsp function you have to scroll down to get the desired effect. Matrix is my favorite and naturally it is the last one listed.

Performance- Blows my yamaha to heck and back! The yamaha, by comparison is overly bright and harsh at times. The denon is warm, clean, and loud. Very pleasant to listen to. I want to go back and play all my favorite CD’s and DVD’s to hear what I’ve been missing. The eagles "When Hell Freezes Over" sounds fantastic as did Evolution in DTS. Regular TV even rivals DD.

Overall- If you have the $ to upgrade I would highly recommend this receiver. This will be the last receiver you buy for a long, long time.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RX-V 595

Good balanced sound, feature rich, build quality (made in Japan)

remote, too close binding posts

Well, I upgraded my receiver from AVR2801 to this babe. AVR2801 was nothing wrong and doing its job great with my Def-Tech ProCinema100 system, but you know. :)

Sound: not much louder than 2801, but brings out more details when I watch movies. If you don't care, you won't notice it. DPL2 sounds better than DPL. (Duh) But, I still prefer to listen to music with 5 channel stereo instead of DPL2 music nor Neo6. Unlike Yamaha or other receivers, the amp doesn't try to exaggerate bass. So, some people may think it's flatter sounding, but to me it's more balanced in overall sounding. I think, Denon is not in-your-face kind of receiver and I like that gentle manner. BTW don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this receiver is not powerful enough because when I watched Saving Private Ryan, I couldn't listen higher than -25~-20 volume because it was way too loud and the bass literally shaked my apartment. It plays louder than Marantz SR8000 that I demoed, and Marantz' DTS performance wasn't impressive. Also, Onkyo 787 had some hissing when I auditioned it at my local CC with Polk Audio 7500 speaker system at high volumes, just like Harman Kardon.

remote: remote looks fancier than 2801/2's, but the fact that I have to press the same DVD button twice because same group of buttons are used for basic DVD navigation and fast forward, rewind, play, and stop. I wish they gave separate buttons like other brands. I'm not too excited about the remote, but, it's better than 2801's.

overall: I think, this is a one solid performer. Yeah, 4802 would sound better, but than I would have to sell my car. Among Denon 3802, Onkyo 797, Yamaha 1000, and Marantz SR8000, I'm certain I made a right choice.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR2801, Yamaha RXV596, Yamaha RXV800/1000, Marantz SR8000, Onkyo 787