KeithH
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2000
- Messages
- 9,413
The upgrade bug bit me! I hadn't bought a new component since April of last year, but the abstinence ( ) ended today. Over my lunch hour, I wandered into a Tweeter store to check out the Denon DVD-3800 DVD-Audio player, a component I have had my eye on for awhile now. I was all ready to buy one, but Tweeter had no sealed units. The salesman checked the computer system and told me there were no sealed units in the entire chain because the player is being phased out. He then offered me the demo unit for $1080 (10% off).
I pondered the purchase of the demo unit for awhile, but passed on it. Unfortunately, Tweeter did not have the box (though they had the owner's manual and remote). Also, as a demo unit, it had fingerprints on the front panel, which is a pet peeve of mine, especially when it comes to expensive components. Futhermore, the unit was turned on and felt quite hot to the touch. It was on a shelf mounted on the wall, so there was no breathing room in the back, and there was limited headspace. I was concerned about the future of a component that was probably running for hours each day while sitting in an enclosed space. This was just all wrong for me.
In the end, I bit the bullet and paid full price for the '3800 through Crutchfield. I should have it by Thursday or Friday. It will replace a Technics DVD-A10. I realize the the Denon '2900 univeral player will be out in the coming months for less money than the '3800, but I was not looking for SACD. I have plenty of SACD players. Rather, I was simply looking to upgrade my DVD-Audio player. Also, I love the build quality of the '3800 and was afraid that the '2900 might not be as well endowed in this department. Although I am not looking to use the '3800 much for CD playback (perhaps its performance with CDs will surprise me), I like the fact that it has HDCD decoding capability. That suggests that Denon put some serious thought into the design of the audio section. I know the '2900 will not offer HDCD.
I will post some initial thoughts on the '3800 as soon as possible. I can't wait to give this thing a whirl.
For those who own or are familiar with the '3800, how do I determine whether I have one with the chroma-bug "fix" (firmware upgrade)? I will not be using the player for movies too often, but I would like to have the fix installed. Thanks in advance.
I pondered the purchase of the demo unit for awhile, but passed on it. Unfortunately, Tweeter did not have the box (though they had the owner's manual and remote). Also, as a demo unit, it had fingerprints on the front panel, which is a pet peeve of mine, especially when it comes to expensive components. Futhermore, the unit was turned on and felt quite hot to the touch. It was on a shelf mounted on the wall, so there was no breathing room in the back, and there was limited headspace. I was concerned about the future of a component that was probably running for hours each day while sitting in an enclosed space. This was just all wrong for me.
In the end, I bit the bullet and paid full price for the '3800 through Crutchfield. I should have it by Thursday or Friday. It will replace a Technics DVD-A10. I realize the the Denon '2900 univeral player will be out in the coming months for less money than the '3800, but I was not looking for SACD. I have plenty of SACD players. Rather, I was simply looking to upgrade my DVD-Audio player. Also, I love the build quality of the '3800 and was afraid that the '2900 might not be as well endowed in this department. Although I am not looking to use the '3800 much for CD playback (perhaps its performance with CDs will surprise me), I like the fact that it has HDCD decoding capability. That suggests that Denon put some serious thought into the design of the audio section. I know the '2900 will not offer HDCD.
I will post some initial thoughts on the '3800 as soon as possible. I can't wait to give this thing a whirl.
For those who own or are familiar with the '3800, how do I determine whether I have one with the chroma-bug "fix" (firmware upgrade)? I will not be using the player for movies too often, but I would like to have the fix installed. Thanks in advance.