Any Denon 1803 owners yet? (1 Viewer)

[Justin H]

I'm about ready to buy it. It's a great value with all those features and at 80 wpc I think it will have enough oomph to drive my speaker set up (JBL N38's and S26 surrounds, hopefully 3 of them soon). Some first-hand input would be great. How does that 80wpc hold up? Does it seem underpowered? Are you happy with it in general?
Or should I plunk down $150 more and pick up an Onk TX-SR700?
Hope there's some of you out there.

 

[Paul_Fisher]

80 wpc I think it will have enough oomph to drive my speaker set up (JBL N38's and S26 surrounds, hopefully 3 of them soon). Some first-hand input would be great. How does that 80wpc hold up? Does it seem underpowered?

The Denon will provide PLENTY of power to your JBL setup. I have an H/K receiver with only 45 wpc and it gets really loud. I have Axiom speakers so I imagine they are pretty close in efficiency to the JBLs. So don't worry about the power issue and just buy it.

 

[Justin H]

Did it!
Input still welcome from current owners...

 

[James_Y_P]

I have the 1803 with JBL NSP1 and it's more than enough for me. I use it mainly for HT and sounds great.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I'm going to be trading my Pioneer VSX-D811S to a friend for his 1803 (and building him some speaker stands) this weekend. I know it won't be a big step up, but i think it would be worth the time i spend on his speaker stands just to have the 80hz crossover that the 811S doesn't have.

Just curious Justin, but why are you using S26 surrounds w/ the N38s up front. I know the S26s are better than N26s, but it seems that you would want to go w/ the N26s regardless because they're timbre matched with the rest of the N series. Even superior to that would be S26s all around.

Just curious why you chose to mix the N and S series, especially going with the S series for the rear instead of the front, where it would make the most sense.

 

[Justin H]

Actually, Stephen, I just bought a set of N26II's instead of the s26's. I was going to go with the S's b/c:
A) I had a good deal going on them and
B) They have had higher praise than the N's

So I figured a better speaker at a good price...why not?

But as I said I ended up with some n26II's because my deal fell through on the S's. Now that I've thought about it, and considering the timbre matching this was probably a more appropriate choice anyway. I can't wait to get the Denon and the speakers...should sound great. Now I just need to figure something out for that rear center channel...

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

You can probably save some $$ by getting the N26s instead of the N26IIs. There is no acoustic difference. The only reason JBL released the II series was as part of a settlement w/ Bose in a law suit of port design.

For the rear center, you have two solid options:

1.) N-Center in a 6.1 setup
2.) Another pair of N26s, in a 7.1 setup

I'm currently using N28 mains, N-Center, N24 surrounds, and N24 back surrounds in a 7.1 setup. I like the 7.1 setup better than 6.1 for ES and EX material because it creates a more diffused rear sound field which helps get rid of localization effects. For 5.1 material, it's better to listen in 5.1 because matrixing out a rear channel that's not there can almost destroy your rear sound stage.

Hope this helps

 

[William Wu]

Hey everyone!
Well, I just got the 1803 less than a week ago and am really enjoying it. Previously had owned a Denon (forgot which model), but it was a 5-6 year old, non-digital, Pro Logic model - probably below 50W per channel.
Currently I have 2 NHT Superones for fronts, a NHT Supercenter for the center, 2 boston dipoles for the surrounds (came with the NHTs when I bought them like 5 years ago...), and some Aiwa subwoofer (which I will replace within the next few months) that came with a small stereo system my wife bought a few years ago. It's probably only like 50-60W or something little like that.
However, I am still enjoying the digital sounds and the whole HT experience.
The 1803 gets plenty loud for me (but then again, I don't think I'm use to to whole HT-reference level-shake-your-walls mentality yet...), I have yet to turn it up past -10 (I'm in a 13'8" X 15' room, so not too big...). Looking forward to sharing some 1803 tips...
First question...can you program the remote to control other brand DVDs / TVs? I'm sure it might be in the instruction manual, but who reads those
William

 

[Aaron H]

This post will be of absolutely no help, cause I don't know the first thing about how to work receivers, but I've had the 1803 for about a week now. I mainly bought it for the assignable zone 2 output so I could power a set of speakers on the back porch without a seperate amp.
I've really only had the receiver hooked up to a set of Diva 2.1's and B&W 602's and it powered them both fine. Got plenty loud for my tastes. Sounded good, too, but again, this is really my first system, so I don't have anything to compare it to.
My HK AVR8000 should be here next week for the upstairs "real music/theater" room. I've got some work to do to try and understand how all this works....
Aaron

 

[Justin H]

I only paid $4 more for the pair of n26II's ($117) over the n26's ($113) so no harm done there, though I appreciate the suggestion.
As for the rear center...I've thought about another N-center especially at only around $100. But my problem is that I'm in a rather small room so I sit directly against the wall, which would mean finding a way to get an N-center above me, mounted on the wall pointing downward in some fashion. That sounds like no small task to me. I've been thinking about trying to get another n26II which would be easier to mount. Also, I don't think the 1803 supports 7.1 so I can't go that route.
Aaron, all I can suggest is read, read, read. Since I found this site about a week and a half ago I have picked up tons of information. I didn't even know the difference between Dolby Digital and Pro Logic 2 weeks ago, and now I'm looking at an appropriately balanced, timbre matched, system with the ability to decode any sound format out there...and I understand them all. There is hope.