DA4ES or 3802? (1 Viewer)

[Stuart R.]

This is my first post here on this forum. It has been very educating these past few days reading this and many other online reviews. I'm seem to have the same question many others do, DA4ES or 3802(3803?)? But I haven't found the answers to some specific questions. Do both have 7 discrete "amplifiers" (or 3 or 2 or 1 or?)? Both have 7 "channels" of power, but does anyone know how this is accomplished? Is the DD Matrix 6.1 on the 3802 as good/ better than traditional Dolby Digital EX? Does the 3802 have a volume indicator on the display like the Sony? I read somewhere that the 3802 remote doesn't control sony dvd players. True? It seems to be a more features with the Sony and great sound with the Denon. Does anyone believe the DA4ES(or DA5ES) sounds great also? Or is it just "really good" (or "not good")? I haven't been able to listen to either, yet.
I also have the Sony DVP-S570D dvd player. It's been great these past 14 months, until now. C 13 00. But I ran the alignment mentioned elsewhere in this forum and I'm back up and running. Besides "gold" and "silver", is there any other way of telling single layer/dual layer dvds? Or does anyone know a specific single layer dvd or two for the alignment? My collection seems to be all dual layer.
I recently purchased some NHT's and can't wait to hook up a DA4ES/3802 to them. Any info is much appreciated.

 

[John Parris]

My advice is to wait for Denon's new line of recievers to come out (in this case, the 3803). I'm fairly certain they will include a more accurate decoding process for the back channel matrix, that is to say it will probably have "true" DD EX processing and not just custom matrixing.

 

[Zacha R]

They may be better receivers, and worth waiting for. But..

The 'unofficial' EX decoding is generally Pro-Logic centre channel decoding, as I understand it, and is, I think, the same as what is used in the cinema.

The official EX decoding (eg., on the later 03 generation of Denon receivers)uses Pro-Logic II centre decoding, which apparently sounds better.

They're both good, though.