Denon AVR-5803 Good? Bad? Yay or nay? (1 Viewer)

[Adam_Reiter]

Just wondering if anyone has yet purchased this seemingly fine piece of equipment? Or, does anyone have some URL links of some really good reviews of it? I am really looking into this reciever as my next purchase. I would like to rebuild my home theatre around this reciever.


Also, if some has a comment of the 2ch PURE Direct feature.

""Pure Direct Mode: In addition to surround sound playback, the AVR-5803 lets you enjoy pure 2-channel stereo sound as well through its Pure Direct mode. In Pure Direct mode, power to the video circuitry and the front panel display is turned off, and during analog input, power to the digital circuitry is also automatically turned off. Furthermore, during 2-channel linear PCM input, the D/A converter section is re-configured to 8 DAC dual-differential operation (4 DAC channels for each audio channel) to provide optimum D/A conversion of 2-channel PCM sound sources, such as CD with the highest transparency and widest dynamic range.""

It would be a nice feature if it worked as it says. I also like that it has support for future firewire ieee1394 installation. All components are going to be firewire some day, IMO.


It seems that I found a "authorized dealer" selling the 5803 on eBay for just under $3000. Another guy sells factory refurbs on ebay for $2500-2600. Anyone else come across better deals?

 

[MarcW]

I also like that it has support for future firewire ieee1394 installation. All components are going to be firewire some day, IMO.

Support for future firewire installation ? Since when ? Denon has a proprietary digital link called the Denon Link or nowadays the Denon Link SE. This is rather unfortunate since firewire was picked as the industry standard for transferring digital media. According to Jeff Talmadge (US Product Manager for Denon) the 5803 was designed to be firewire upgradable but because of changes to the standard this is no longer the case. Here is a direct quote from Jeff:

"As far as firewire goes, both the 5800 and 5803 were designed for 1394 upgrading, however the standard has since changed and that may not be possible in their current designs. The 1394 that our friends at Pioneer are going to implement, is going to be the standard means of transportation, and interbrand compatibility, for all digital audio, not video for now; it has been recently been approved by the 5C group - as far as the engineering standard goes. The 4C group who handle copyprotection issues has not approved 1394, as far as we can tell. We still feel our LiNK to be superior to 1394, at this point, as far as audio goes."

Don't get me wrong. I own a 5803 and I am very happy with it but I wanted to clarify that upgradability to firewire seems highly unlikely for the time being. If Denon doesn't address this issue this may lead to you being stuck to buy Denon DVD players that can use their proprietary Denon link interface.

-MarcW

 

[Ammon]

I have the 4802 which is right below the 5803, but it does have the Pure Direct Mode. I use it quite a bit when listening to CD's and especially vinyl. The sound is incredible when compared to regular stereo. Since the digital circuitry is turned off, you can enjoy great analog sound.