Has anyone bought the Denon AVR-3805 yet? (1 Viewer)

[Todd^B]

What do you think of the hype that has been written about the receiver, and has it lived up to your expectations? Or, would you prefer another receiver now that you own it?

How about some pros and cons...

The Denon AVR-3805 is at the top of my list to listen to and possibly buy. But, I would like to have a little input from some people that already own one.

Also, which speakers do you own, and do they sound great with the receiver?

 

[Rob Grim]

I currently own the 3805 and the 2900. This was my first Denon purchase. For the last 8 years I've been strictly a Sony person. I've had the new Denon gear roughly a week but really have not had time to do a side-by-side comparsion. The little I have listened to it, I much prefer the sound of the Denon over the Sony. The Denon seems to have a much warmer sound over the Sony which now seemes to bright for my taste. I currently running a full array of Polk Audio speakers, fronts are RTi70, center is a CSi40 (fronts and center are bi-wired), surrounds are FXi30's, rears are RTi28's and the subwoofer is a SVS PB2+. The first weekend in April, I'm having some of my Polk forum buddies come down to my house to run a full array of comparsions, Sony verses Denon. I will post the outcome as soon as possible afterwards.

 

[Todd^B]

I just purchased a SVS PB2+ also. So, you would recommend the setup that you have now (speakers, receiver and sub)?

I have not listened to the Polk speakers yet other than the in-wall speakers, but have ruled out in-wall speakers for my home theater.

 

[Brent_j]

I just grabbed the 3805 tonight, I swapped my Yamaha RX-V2400 strait across. This is also my first Denon product, I have always owned Yamaha's in the past.

First impressions, I prefer the 2400's back panel over the 3805, the Denon is not as clean as the Yamaha. I also prefer the front panel of the 2400 better. I do however like being able to do all of my "tweaking" on the front panel of the 3805 rather than always relying on the remote like the 2400. Speaking of remotes, the Denon is flat out cool, the touch panel is really cool.

when I pulled it out of the box, you cant help but notice the massive power supply that is in the left front corner, MUCH bigger than the Yamaha's.

I like the speaker input posts on the Yamaha MUCH better than the Denon, the 3805's posts are really small and dont like my 12GA. wire to much (i guess i need to invest in some banana plugs)

after hooking everything up and going through the setup (more feature rich than the yamaha) I put in my reference disk for Dolby Digital EX (star wars II) come to find out the Denon did not want to decode the EX track (One cool feature the Denon has is on the front display, where it lights up a graphic to tell you what channels are being detected and another graphic tells you what is actually being output) going through all the setups did nothing to help, so I put in Harry Potter the sorcerer stone to see if it was my hardware or a software problem, started up just fine and it finally read "Dolby D EX" on the display with the corresponding graphics lit up.
I then put in my DTS ES reference disk (gladiator) that picked up the ES track right away.

Now for the sound. Now I have only had this product for 5 hours now, and I have to say the sound is GREAT. I find it more deep sounding than the 2400 and much more powerful all around. it pushes my Polk's to sound even better than before, so now I enjoy my speakers just that much more. With my 2400 I was looking to grab a separate amp to power my fronts and center, with the 3805, I no longer feel I need one, its just that much more powerful.
I always have wondered what the heck people were talking about when they always referred to their receiver as either "bright" or "warm" and now I know. The denon is
"warmer" sounding to me.

Overall I am happy with my recent swap, I do like the look overall of the Yamaha better, but the sound is what counts and the Denon clearly wins, so its a keeper.

Hope this helps,
Brent.

Center: Polk CSi5
Fronts: Polk RTi10's
Surrounds: Polk FXi3's
Rear Center: Polk RM2600
Subs: Polk PSW404 x2


My home theater

 

[Nathan Stohler]

Brent, congratulations on your purchase...

I was wondering, when people say their receivers are "warm" or "bright", is that something that can be corrected by an equalizer (if so desired)?

 

[Shane Martin]

Some say this. I haven't been able to get rid of a little brightness from my current Sony with it yet. I just assume at this point its the nature of the gear I have...

which is about to be replaced with the Denon 3805 or the Rotel 1056.

I plan to also go with the SVS Pb2+ along with a full Phase Tech 7.1 speaker array. $1800 delivered for the speakers is a good deal I thought and the 10 yr warranty and made in the USA helped too...

 

[Nathan Stohler]

Does anyone know how the special digital link works for SACD/DVD-A? It sounds like it only works with Denon SACD/DVD-A players. Would the player actually do the decoding and then send the output digitally (as opposed to 6 analog outputs) to the 3805?

 

[Drew Bethel]

Brent, where did you purchase your 3805?

 

[Shane Martin]

Yes provided your denon dvd player has the Denon Link. The only one out there is the 5900 which is $2,000. I am guessing they will come out with some cheaper Denon Link players soon.

 

[Brent_j]

The Roseville Ultimate Electronics.

Drew, I am happy to say, I was the first consumer in the state of Minnesota to take delivery of a 3805 (i know that does not mean anything but hey, i think its cool I know a few people that pre-bought the 3805 but have not picked it up yet.

Drew, I take it you are back in the states now?

Brent.

 

[Drew Bethel]

Yeah, I'm in Mlps. Funny I just got back from UE in Ridgedale but they only had the 3803. I'm surprised that they have the 3805 already.

 

[Brent_j]

Drew, The Roseville store has 7 in stock as of right now.

They just hooked up one in the big demo room mated with some DefTechs. If you have a moment, go take a listen to it. I think it would sound better with a different pair of speakers myself.

Brent.

 

[Todd^B]

Thanks for the info guys.

BTW Brent and Drew, I live in Colorado now, but grew up in Faribault, MN. I have noticed alot of people from both states on HTF.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Brent_j,

It is possible that Star Wars II is not actually flagged as a DD EX track to trigger the processor to recognize it and start decoding in DD EX. That could be why the Denon failed to auto detect it and you have to manually tell it to decode the 5.1 track with EX.

There had been a stoppage by the studios for using the EX flag because of an encoder problem that wrecked havok on some surround processors since fixed by Dolby.

Dan

 

[Brent_j]

Dan, I got home tonight and tried every single DD EX disc I currently own and the Denon only picked up two of them. With the rest, I had to force EX matrix.

Here is the list I have tried that state on the sleeve the soundtrack is DD EX that the Denon did not pick up,

Harry Potter (sorcerers stone)
Cast Away (special edition 2 disk set)
Toy Story 2
Star Wars II
LOTR (Fellowship)

Here are the only two that came up DD EX

LOTR (Two Towers)
Harry Potter (Chamber of Secrets)

Another interesting tidbit, Cast Away also states on the sleeve that has a DTS ES track as well, the Denon would only matrix that disk. All other DTS ES disks worked just fine.

I dont know what the deal is but its a little anoying.....

Brent.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Tod, Rob and I have the same setup except I have 38's in the rear on (A) and 40's on (B) running from a Denon 3803 and I would highly recomend the Polks, they have a really good sound and blend very well together. My use is mostly HT and enjoy the experiance each and evey time. The SVS PB2+ has a strong and athoritave presance in the room and always lets everyone know who the boss is.

Dave

 

[Lewis Besze]

Currently the Denon link is only good for DVD-A.The 5900 would also convert DSD-to PCM even if it was enabled through the Denon link[SACD],nevertheless the 3805 can't decode DSD anyhow.My Outlaw 950 stays put.

 

[Daneel]

Any comments on the EQ of the 3805? I'm particularly interested in how it compares to the MCACC EQ od the Pioneers.

 

[Shiu]

Todd, I do not own a 3805 yet but planning on getting one later this year. I spent some time in a high end store yesterday and my experience was as follow:

A. 3805 with Definitive Technology.
B 2803 with Definitive Technology.
C. 2803 with Energy C9.
D. 2803 with KEF Q7.

All listenings were done with Diana Krall's Live in Paris and Denon DVD players.

A & B sounded the same. In both cases, too much bass and too "warm" for my taste.

C sounded similar to my Sony DA4ES/Adcom with Polk RTi38, CSi30 & RM2600, slightly "brighter" but not harsh. Comparison made with my Sony/Adcom/Polk could hardly be reliable because it was not "AB".

D sounded similar to C but a little less "bright".

Loaded with features and the latest electronics, the 3805 should be a better pre/pro than my DA4ES. I also expect it to deliver better sound (probably not more power) to my surround channels. Since it only weighs 37 lbs, I still would not use it to power the front channel speakers. I know weight is not everything and may be its transformer is "huge", but 37 lbs does not equate to 120W X7. Denon's own 2 X 80W integrated amplifier weighs 44 lbs.

I also did a comparison tests between a pair of RTi10 and a pair of JBL (don't know what model but half the price of the RTi10) using the HKAVR630. The RTi sounded poorer. It seemed that the AVR630 did not have enough power to drive the big RTi to their full potential. They were loud, but sounded "thin"......just lacking something.

I think my final configuration will be AVR3805/Adcom GFA555, RTi10 or Energy C9, RTi38 & RM2600 hopefully before the end of this year. My dream SVS sub will have to wait till 2005. Any suggestions, comments?

 

[Brent_j]

Shiu, you and I have had conversations in this area in the past. I must tell you that the 3805 pushes my RTi10's MUCH better than the Yamaha ever did, with that being said, I am sure that adding an amp to the RTi10's would only get better. With the addition of the Denon, I no longer need an amp to power them like I needed with the Yamaha. It really is that big a difference.
Before I swapped out the 2400 I played a good DTS soundtrack, Saving Private Ryan, in particular the scene towards the end where the "half track" gets waxed. It starts off quiet one of the soldier singing then gets loud with the bazooka going off, to Capt. Millers Thompson letting loose. All settings were the same with both the 2400 and the 3805, the 2400 sounded very weak and very flat compared to the 3805, it was night and day I could not belive it. It was so much more powerful sounding and much richer sounding than the 2400.

Again, this is my taste, but I think the Denon and the Polk RTi10's sound great.

Hope this helps you out Shiu,
Brent.