DILEMA : Denon 3802 or Onkyo 797??? (1 Viewer)

[Mark Haver]

Ok, I have been reading for days & I still can not decide on which unit. I spent 3 hours in Tweeters today listening to the Denon (and alot of other receives that are WAY out of my price range). I am currentlly driving my Polks RM7600 with a jvc 9010 and although it sounds good, I know they can sound MUCH BETTER!! So I have decided to upgrade (after owning the jvc for a month) to a unit that will compliment the polks.

I have read that some Onkyo's have had a Ticking problem after a short period of use. Has anybody had this problem lately?? Other than that, seems like and awesome unit.

The Denon also is a sweet set up and has the 2 amps and capable of 7 channels without the use of an external amp.

Any feedback on either unit, pro or con would be greatly appreciated

Also if anybody could give me a heads up as to where I might get a good deal on either of these units.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Kyle_Y]

In my opinion the Onkyo has a fuller sound than the Denon. I'm not sure if you will be able to, but if you can, try and do a side by side comparo between the two, if you do that, I think you will find that with music the Onkyo sounds fuller and richer. In surround, the differences between the two are not noticable in normal circumstances. They are both very good receivers. The Onkyo dropout problem and ticking problems do not affect newer units. I have had my 797 since late Dec and have had no ticking and I use it quite a bit, 10-20 hours a week at occaisionally very high volumes. The Denon has one major weekness though, and that is its lack of digital inputs. The Denon has 4 total digital inputs, only ONE of which is coax digital, the Onkyo has nearly double the total inputs, with 7 inputs, 4 opt and 3 coax digital ins. With the Denon, if you have just two sources that use coax digital inputs, you could be in trouble, and in case you want to upgrade in the future, the extra digital inputs are very helpful. Also, the Onkyo has 192khz/24bit DAC's with upsampling which is great. Also, the Onkyo remote is so much better(although I am now using a Pronto) and IMO the Onkyo looks smoother and mroe fluid, not as many buttons etc as the Denon. Both are great, you'll surely be satisfied.

 

[Earl Simpson]

3802 is fine, and so is the 5es, jvc10, and 898. If you are stuck with those two brands and models, get the 3802. I got one from 6th ave and it's great(no problems). Call for best price.

 

[MatthewJ S]

Earl, After spending 3 hours in a B&M ,my guess is that Mark would like to reward them for providing him the opportuinity to demo equipment.

 

[Stephen Houdek]

Mark, I own the 797 and haven't had the ticking problem. I'm very satisfied with the sound, features, reliability and power of this 797. I did a lot of comparison shopping before deciding which reciever to buy.

I decided on the 797 becuase for the price it had the richest set of features. It can be had for ~$800.

 

[MichaelJ]

Mark,

I own the 797 and love it You can purchase it at bestpriceaudiovideo.com for $729.00 plus shipping.They are an authorized dealer. Good luck Michael

 

[Mark Haver]

Hey Matthew,

I went into tweeters to listen to the 3802 and ended up watching a Carlos Santana concert & Shania Twain (both awesome!!) on a set up that I can only dream of owning one day. Had a good time but they wouldn't budge on there price and if I can save 175 to 200 bucks shopping around, I'm shopping.

Kyle, Earl, Stephen & Micheal,

Thanks for your feedback. Both units I know are good sounding, reliable units, but damn it's hard to make a choice!!!

 

[KeithR]

Mark, email me offline for some great pricing from a semi-local dealer to you.

 

[Mark Haver]

Well,
placed my order for a new 3802 today. Should be shipped out in the morning and may be here by Friday!!!
I got a real good deal (thanks to a forum member) from an authorized dealer. It was a hard choice between the Denon & Onkyo until I heard about the problems the 797 where having.
I know there are alot of them out there and most are working fine but wit my luck, I just couldn't fork out the cash for a unit I might be sending back in a month or so. Guess I'll have to list my monh old JVC on ebay to help cushion the cost of the Denon.
Thank you all for your advise & opinions!!
Mark

 

[MatthewJ S]

Be sure to thank the tweeter people for providing a listening station for on-line retailers, it's cool to use them, but when there gone then what? If the 3802 had sounded bad, would you ever have known?

 

[MatthewJ S]

Be sure to thank the tweeter people for providing a listening station for on-line retailers, it's cool to use them, but when there gone then what? If the 3802 had sounded bad, would you ever have known?

 

[Mark Haver]

Will do Mat.

I was able to save 250.00. That's not chump change.

If they don't lower their prices a bit they may not be around for too long.

My guess is you buy every car you test drive regardless of price because the salesman approached you & the dealer provided the car.............I get it now.

Happy Trails

Mark

 

[MatthewJ S]

No Mark my point was I don't relish the world where I will need to buy without test driving...and If you don't need a place to go and play/listen to the gear, then fine, but if you like demoing equipment consider the future...not trying to 'jack the thread, I just understand the importance of many multiple ce retailers and the opportunity they provide to LISTEN TO THE GEAR...seems like there are fewer of them around......

 

[Mark Haver]

Matt,

And my point is that if Tweeters would have budged some on their price, I would have bought. Then I tell a few friends, they tell a few friends, ad so on & so on. They would make up thier profit in volume and would have alot more people buying instead of just listening.

I purchased my unit from and "authorized Denon Dealer", not a web site. They are independently owned & seem to know how to conform with he future.

Peace,

Mark

 

[Michael Mathius]

Good choice on the Denon. I recently sold my 3801 and then got the 3802. The 797 is also a recieve in that price range. To save $250 I would do the same thing.

 

[MatthewJ S]

Mark, I just looked at some on-line info on Tweeter, it seems that their after tax profit last fiscal year was 3.2% (which, sad as it seems, is pretty good in an industry where many of their competitors can't make any profit), so if they had offered a 3.2% reduction in the price to you ,would you have been happy?...It's cool that we all arfe getting better deals but the # of places where you can go to listen to good gear and do some comparisons is shrinking. I know ,I know, it's not our concern/problem "the industry needs a new buisness model"...there is one , and it has no sound rooms....Hell, even one of my neighbors pumps me for info then buys what I sugest on line ,AND HE KNOWS ME!.........

 

[Dalton]

Mark,

First off, congrats on your new receiver. The 3802 is a fine choice. I went with the 797 because because of the large amount of inputs and the amp section just sounded better IMO(although i have since added a multi ch. amp). The 3802 and the 797 are excellent surround processors. I'm sure the 7th channel of amplification in the 3802 will sway some people but the 797 is an excellent product also. Having had both of these units in my home, I can say that IMHO, you would be satisfied with either one. BTW, the clicking problem that plagued the early 797's is a thing of the past and has been corrected in production for some time now. Anyone experiencing this problem can contact Onkyo and get the problem fixed. I had an early 797 and had this problem fixed and now it runs perfect.

Take Care,

Dalton

 

[Aslam Imran]

Denon if you want full warm sound. Onkyos are good but drier, leaner and brighter sounding. More over Onkyo's are ticking timebombs just kidding.

 

[flenn]

Mark, I just looked at some on-line info on Tweeter, it seems that their after tax profit last fiscal year was 3.2% (which, sad as it seems, is pretty good in an industry where many of their competitors can't make any profit), so if they had offered a 3.2% reduction in the price to you ,would you have been happy?

Just because they made 3.2% doesn't mean that that's all there was to make (and offer as a discount). If they keep letting guys like Mark walk, they won't even make that.

Tweeter is in a position to command a higher price than the discount retailers who don't have showrooms. Most people would rather buy from a B&M that's local, offering them expertise/customer service, and a place to listen to the equipment. When Tweeter wants to charge another 25% to 33% for these advantages, many customers are not going to feel that it's worth it. Simple as that. Tweeter has to figure out just how much more they can charge than their discount competition, and still retain customers.

 

[Mark Haver]

Dalton,

Onkyo was my first choice until I read all the posts about the problems. As I investigated further, I found out this was mostly on their earlier models but they were already tainted in my newbie mind. I have read hundreds of reviews on both models and both are a fine choice, but what sold me was the option to go 7.1. I have a polk package (rm7600) and would like to replace the front sats with towers (lsi15?? maybe) down he road.

Aslam,

Kudos!!

Flen,

AMEN BROTHER!!

Mark