Good Tuner, XM Radio intergration, Remote Control is okay, Nice stealthy look to it...

Made in China, Hissing at close range, Digital Volume Control, No Variable Loudness Control, Denon seems to be dependent on their name now and not the quality that they had in their Receivers before 2000.

First, I have to say that I've owned and listened to alot of different Denon Receivers and Intergrated Amps. I'm kind of comparing this Receiver to the others as far as this review goes. The Tuner on this model is one of the best tuners I've ever listened to, the music is very clear and well defined, and the sensetivity is pretty good aswell. It looks like Denon is cutting alot of corners on there quality features like THD levels, they are a little higher than their Receivers from a few years back and I really don't like digital volume control on stereo receivers, I just think that having to turn the volume knob 5 times to get to high party levels is kind of wimpy. Harman seems to have went that same route also as far as the digital volume. I just can't feel the power on this Receiver like the older ones. I think that the anolog volume knob is one of the big features on the older powerful Receivers, you barely need to turn the knob and your good. If your familiar with the loudness control knob on the older models, Denon no longer has that feature on any of their Receivers , If your sensetive to hissing, you will not like this Receiver, it has a hiss that is very noticable at low levels, I can here it from six feet away when the volume is all the way down. CD's sound very good if recorded very good. Overall, I think this Receiver is decent for the $200 I paid for it, I would not recommend it for anyone who would have to pay over $300. I think alot of companys like Denon are getting greedy and giving us more junk features that most of us will never use and now are doing away with the good quality features that most of us Denon fans liked on the older denon products in this price range. If you need to have that old style power Reciever in this price range get Yamaha, Rotel or Nad...

Similar Products Used:

Harman, Yamaha, Rotel, NAD