Denon 3803 info (1 Viewer)

[Zacha R]

Nice work. Now, if we can only find the .pdf file..

 

[Yogi]

Looking at the pics, I wonder where the front AV inputs go? The 1803 has them (I checked at the store). Unless Denon doesn't want the higher end models to have front AV inputs which I would think is highly unlikely.

 

[Zacha R]

It looks to me like the 3803 is built on the 3801 & 3802 chassis - neither of which has front A/V inputs. I assume that this is why they're not present. Although, this wouldn't undermine your point about higher-end recievers.

 

[IraSWeiss]

I am planning on buying a new receiver soon and would like to see a shootout between three top contenders as noted on this Forum:

Denon 3803
Pioneer Elite VSX-45TX
Sony ES STR-DA4ES

Any takers?

 

[Matt Weldy]

any info on the 4803 like an estimated release date. Reason being is I want the 4802 and want the price to come down. I was planning on getting it around the first of the year (bonus time). So if its out by then maybe I can get a better deal on the 4802.

Thanks

also what is required to pass hd signal (the bigger hz the better right?)

 

[DaveBB]

Nice work RookieDerek!!! Now track down the pdf. file of the manual and maybe some more info on the 2803 and 4803.

 

[Bryan Acevedo]

That back panel on the 3803 is totally different than my 3802! I like it!

It looks like the heat sinks have been moved, which may mean they have changed the amplification section. I am sure the internals of this thing have been beefed up over what the 3802 had. I can't wait to get the final specs on it.

Also, I like the 2 new buttons on the front of the receiver - pure direct mode and zone 2. It looks like they finally added the ability to turn off zone 2 without having to turn the volume all the way down!

Now I really want to get the 3803 so I can move the 3802 to the game room.

Bryan

P.S. How did you find those pics? Did you just start substituting the querystring arguments on the URL to see if it would work? Pretty resourceful my man!

 

[Yogi]

It looks like the heat sinks have been moved, which may mean they have changed the amplification section. I am sure the internals of this thing have been beefed up over what the 3802 had. I can't wait to get the final specs on it.

I dont think they would have changed the amplifier section yet again. The last time they did that going to the 3802, from the 3801, the results were far from spectacular. I dont see any real issues with the way the 3802 sounds so I hope they keep that unchanged for heaven's sake. Although a recent comparison between the 1802 and the 1803 at a store made me feel that the 1803 sounded more forward and thin compared to the 1802 but then the 1803 had just arrived the day before while the 1802 had been on the floor for more than a year so break-in might be an issue with that comparison. Although I am not going to buy the 3803, I hope they don't fix what ain't broken.

 

[Garrett Adams]

As an AVR-3300 user I am looking forward to it. I bought two Paradigm Atom v3's last December in anticipation of Dolby EX. I placed them behind me as back surrounds. Now finally I'll have something to connect them to. Also appreciated are the two additional rear A/V inputs as well as the second coaxial input.

 

[Gil D]

A 2nd set of 5/6/7 channel external inputs would have been nice for switching dvd-a and sacd.

Also, is it me or does the 3803 look shorter than the 3802 in those pics? Any spec on the weight yet? I hope they haven't cut costs and compromised the performance with the new model.

 

[DaveBB]

A 2nd set of 5/6/7 channel external inputs would have been nice for switching dvd-a and sacd.

I think that's just too high-end for the 3803. It might also be too much for the back of the 380x series chasis. I know the 5803 has 2 sets: maybe the 4803 will.

 

[Jon Duke]

With and MSRP of $1200, any guesses on what the street price will be? Do you think 1000 would be a fair guestimate?

 

[Yogi]

I think $1000 would be a fair guestimate, although I am sure there will a whole bunch of them selling over the web at unauthorized dealers for something like $799.

 

[DevinT]

6 Ave is taking preorders for the 3803 on their website. It lists for 1199 and is shipping in 14 business days.

 

[Bryan Acevedo]

Yogi - I thought the change from the 3801 to the 3802 in sound was noticable, and better. I had the 3801 for a few months before replacing it with a 3802. I noticed the difference in sound immediately and I preferred the 3802's "warmer" punchier sound. I wasn't unhappy with the 3801 sound, but I instally preferred the 3802 sound - things had more depth and punch.

I am saying that maybe they beefed up the power supply and changed a few things to give a little more "oomph" to the power output. I am not complaining about the 3802 sound at all - I absolutley love its sound. I am just wondering if they can make another improvement in the sound like they did from the 3801 to the 3802. If so, I will be even more ecstatic, if not, the sound was great already, I just want the new features they are offering in the 3803.

Bryan

 

[Yogi]

Bryan, I would agree mostly with what you said about the sound of the 3802 compared to the 3801's sound. The 3802 was definetly warmer with lower end bloom, while the 3801 was more neutral, not forward, but neutral. I wouldn't call the sound of the 3802 necessarily better but just different and paired with the right kind of speakers it was at par with the 3802, soundwise. The sound of 3802 is quite excellent for its price category. I would place it at par with Marantz and HK in the same price range. I am sure the sound can be improved ever further but not while keeping the price same. If 3803 was $500 more then I would have expected an improvement in sound but for the same price, I wouldn't think so, i.e., without cutting corners again like they did when making the 3802. Changes in features, DACs etc are easy to implement and just require substitution of a faster more up to date chip, but changes in sound are harder to implement without changing something in the design and usually a change in the values of one component results in changes being made throughout the other componentry. So again, I hope Denon doesn't fix what isn't broken, again.

 

[Bryan Acevedo]

Yogi,

I should clarify that it was better to me, but not necessarily better to someone else. Obviously it is personal preference. In my mind it was an improvement, but to someone else it may be going backwards. Also, as you said, it would definitely depend on the speakers. I have Klipsch Reference series (RB5, RC3) and maybe this match sounded better to my ears.

The reason I think they may have changed something is because the actual speaker outputs have been moved. This would at least require a change in something internal. It also looks like they moved the heat sinks, as the back of the 3803 doesn't have the large opening of the 3802, where the heat sinks came right up to the opening, and the internal fan would blow across the heat sinks. I am guessing they had to change something to accomodate this, as it isn't identical in layout. This seemed to be necessitated by all of the new inputs. It also looks like they may have done this to further isolate the input stage from the amplification stage. If you notice, the digital inputs/outputs are far from the speaker outs.

But I do agree with you, the DSP and chips aren't "that" hard to change. With the 3802, they did change some bias settings and the caps, as well as the digital gain - which all affected the amplification stage and would also account for the change in sound we hear. I would think they could do similar things to the 3803, and not really raise the cost that much. They had to design this stuff originally for the 3801, so tweaking things to make them better wouldn't really cost anything more on the 3803. It's not like they had to start with a clean slate.

Also, the corners they cut on the 3802 were hardly that big of a deal - the volume controls were changed to plastic, which actually happened on all of their receivers if I remember correctly. I care about the internals, and I think Denon is one of the few companies that cuts corners on the internals to match a price point. Look at how many recievers in the 3802 price range are THX certified. This obviously adds to the cost, so they had to cut corners elsewhere. This is why I think Denon forgoes THX certification on their 3 series and lower - it just doesn't matter to them. They would rather put that money on video upconversion, beefier power supply, etc.

But all of this is speculation until we actually see a cover off view and see some specs and tests.

Bryan

 

[Zacha R]

DenonJeff, in his thread over at the AVS Forums has posted the following:

Yes we officially announced the 3803 at CEDIA. It will carry a MSRP of $1199 and be available very late October/early November.
Bass Management crossover points are now 40/60/80/100/120 like the 4802/5803. There is no BM on the EXT Inputs, however. We have added 24/192 A/D and D/A conversion. With the D/A conversion receiving dual DACs per audio channel(Burr-Browns PCM-1791)! Also Pure Direct is there, so with a digital source, in stereo, you get 4 DACs per channel. AL24 is on board for the best 2 channel digital filtering.
More juicy stuff - DDEX and dts 96/24 processing has been added, decoded by one of the Analog Devices HammerHeads from the 5803! Assignable 100MHz bandwidth component video switching with Video Conversion(composite to S and/or component)with on screen display! Audio Delay for lip sync correction.
The Multi-zone/source function is much more friendly with Remote I/O ports, Serial port for 232 protocol control, Assignable 12v trigger, discrete power on/off commands for Main and Second Zone with volume/source and now video!
New remote with LCD display and full backlighting.
I think that about covers it, the literature should be up in a couple of weeks.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...39#post1403139

 

[Kevin C Brown]

24/192 A/D and D/A conversion.

24/192 A-to-D's? I've never seen that before in a component this reasonably priced.
Now if they had individually settable crossovers, it *would* be the greatest thing since sliced bread...

 

[Jeff.bart]

Interestingly, Crazy Eddie, an unauthorized dealer, is taking preorders for the 3803 at a "sale" price of $899. The site said it would be available in late October to early November.