help hk avr8000 or denon 4802 (1 Viewer)

[Matt Weldy]

Anybody have any recommendations on these two recievers. If so WHY?

 

[matthew_rm]

many will say for that money you should go for seprates. I like the look of HK more then everything. However, the sound is more important. right? For that money it's hard to say. I mean for $4000 on the HK, this is going to be a big decision.
Unlike budget reciever choices, I do not hink this is going to be about weight and power. It will be about the sound, functions. And the seprates-receiver debate

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

I'd recommend you go listen to both before deciding. I personally ended up with the AVR8000. I positively love it. I just love Logic7, and have been watching all of my DVD's over again with Logic7 overlaid on the 5.1 source.

BTW, it's $1600 US, so both of the receivers are about the same price. If you decide on the Denon, you may want to buy from an authorized retailer.

 

[matthew_rm]

$1600 US. No way! How can it be $4000 CDN?:frowning:

 

[Wayne McRae]

Matthew,me thinks you've visited your friendly neighbourhood Future Shop What a joke!!

 

[Steve K.H.]

The one distinct advantage I can see on using the H/K is you are almost at the point of owning a Lexicon.

Ask the Lex owners about Logic 7 versus any other proprietary processing... The AVR 8000 is the only unit in the H/K series that processes 5.1 into Logic 7.

 

[Marshall Sander]

Glad you made this post. Along with Marantz 8200, I am also considering the AVR-8000 and 4802. So far, I have only listened to the Marantz. I don't think I will have the opportunity to a/b these receivers in the same setup -- so I am trying to base my decision on what I can read.

From what I have read so far, it seems that all three receivers have similar features. The Denon and Marantz boast larger watts per channel, but that difference has been discounted by many on this forum who say that HK has a more "true" reflection of this figure than the other manufacturers.

I've also never read anything but good reviews of Logic 7.

A big factor for me in making a decision is the "authorized dealer" crap by Denon. I don't believe HK has the same policy and, thus, you can freely shop for the lowest internet price without fear of having no warranty service from the manufacturer.


•

Steve, I don't think this is right. From the HK product information page on the 520:

"Harman-Exclusive Logic 7 Cinema and Music Surround Sound Processing in 5.1 and 7.1 Channels for Superior Soundstage Imaging and Playback of Both Surround-Encoded and Stereo Recordings"

 

[AntonS]

I got my AVR8000 couple of months ago for $1600 shipped.
I'm feeding everything via digital inputs, so everythng goes through AVR's D/A converters. On the overlall, very clean sound, huge soundstage, non-existent noise. Excellent for both HT and music. Too bad I'm now finding that lots of my CDs are not recorded very well...

Logic 7 is very nice, I use it for all 2 channel sources. Still try DPLII and NEO 6 sometimes, just for the kicks, but find myslef switching back to Logic 7 rather quickly.

The internal amps are pretty good and powerful, but I still found that they are not suited well to drive my Paradigm 100s, which are notoriously power hungry. So I got an external amp, and now my Paradigms sound smooth as butter.

There are minor quirks. Small OSD can not be taken permanently off the screen, the next time you power on the unit, it's there again. The gripe is that it just happened to be at the same place on the screen where the cable channel descriptions are, so they overlap and I don't's see anything. I have a remote macro programmed to remove it.

Also, I'm not sure if it's important for anybody or not (I don't care much), the crossover setting is global and is not memorized for different inputs. Everything else is memorized (speaker levels, types, etc), but not the crossover setting.

There are no fancy adjustments on processing modes, something like width/depth settings for DPLII. You only get presets for movies, music, and maybe some special enhanced mode.

The thing is very big and heavy (there is a huge toroidal transformer inside, and the apms are very big), so it will not fit into many racks. Gets quite warm too, so the rack must be ventilated.

On the overall, I'm very satisfied. I was going to get AVM-20 (and I had the money), but I think I actually did better pricewise and in certain sense performancewise.

 

[Robert_Dufresne]

Matt
You definitely have to listen and compare .I did
and I went with Denon 4802 . You have to make up
your own mind. Both are great machines and if you
dont push them too hard you wont need to add an
external amp.
Good hunting
Robert

 

[Steve K.H.]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The AVR 8000 is the only unit in the H/K series that processes 5.1 into Logic 7.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Steve, I don't think this is right. From the HK product information page on the 520:

"Harman-Exclusive Logic 7 Cinema and Music Surround Sound Processing in 5.1 and 7.1 Channels for Superior Soundstage Imaging and Playback of Both Surround-Encoded and Stereo Recordings"

Marshall,

The statement from H/K is a little difficult to discern. It states processing in (not "of")...

The Logic 7 on the models below the AVR8000 will process two channel into Logic 7. The AVR8000 will of course match this and allows for the processing of 5.1 signals into Logic 7.

This is one of the surprising items of the AVR8000 and I wonder if it was unintentional. It wasn't a selling point on the 8000 when it was released, and the subject of shock by other board members, and verification by H/K directly from their techs.

Thing is, this is crossing into Harman International's "Lexicon" domain.

(I own the 520 and can verify it will not process above 2 channel into Logic 7)

 

[Gerard Martin]

Gabriel, Anton
Mind sharing where you found the HK AVR8000 for $1600 and was it new or refurbished. Thanks.

 

[AntonS]

Both can be found all over the Internet for these prices. Just go to http://shopping.yahoo.com or http://www.dealtime.com and do a search.
Beware that Denon plays an ass when it comes to Internet sales and warranties.

 

[Daryl L]

Steve K.H. Is correct. I bought the AVR8000 2 months ago and you most definately can apply Logic7 to DD5.1 and DTS5.1 audio. I called H/K tech support and the tech verified that the AVR8000 manual was made from the AVR7000 manual info and the part about not being able to apply Logic7 to DD/DTS aiudio was incorrect. Here is also a ADDED PLUS I found out a couple days after talking to H/K that really suprised me.
I put in Evil Dead: Book of the Dead edition and turned DTS Discrete 6.1 on and I was also able to apply Logic7 to the DTS Discrete 6.1 track. I rechecked this 2 more times to be sure. And obviously you can also apply Logic7 to DD-EX and DTS-ES Matrix audio also. Neat huh?

 

[Stephen Dodds]

Unfortunately, this does not apply to other models in the H/K line. See here:
http://www.digitaltheater.com/cfb/in...estTimeout=500
Steve

 

[Daryl L]

Stephen Dodds,
True. The AVR520 was my sensible price range but thats why I payed for the AVR8000 when I really couldn't afford it. So I could use Logic7 on DD/DTS material. There was just now way possible I could afford a Lexicon AND 7 channels of amplification. So Now I'm a happy AVR8000 owner(the poor mans Logic7) and the H/K PA2000 2 channel(bridged mode) amp.

 

[Steve K.H.]

Daryl, I like the way you think... the WAF doesn't but that's a bridge I'll cross in the next 6 - 9 months...
...it's either that or a used MC-1... leaning to the 8000 though.
In the meantime, I'm counting the days for the 20-39 PCi to arrive

 

[Daryl L]

LOL Steve K.H. I don't know if I'm considered fortunate or unfortunate but I have no wife so I don't have to worry about the feared WAF syndrome. As far as the 20-39PCi. You'll love it. I recently bought the 25-31PCi(22hz tuned) sub(the poor mans high end sub, hehe) and it's awesome. In my 13.5 x 13.5 x 8 room I have literally heard the walls shaking on certain scenes. And with Logic7 on the AVR8000 in my 7.1 speaker setup I'm in Theater Heaven. Enjoy. Next is to upgrade to M&K speakers in the near future.

 

[Alex*P]

IGUESS IT MUST BE NICE TO BE RICH, BUT I'M TELLING YOU GUYS, I HAVE THE DENON AVR3802 AND IT IS ALL I COULD POSSIBLY NEED FOR MY PARADIGM SETUP!
AND I GOT MINE ON THE NET FOR $750.00, WITH WARRANTY AND ALL. NO PROBLEMS HERE.
HOW MUCH POWER DO YOU WANT? AND AS FOR CLEAN SOUND, HOW CAN YOU BEAT DENON, RELATIVELY?

 

[Steve K.H.]

Wow, BIG font! All in caps (aka "Yelling") too

HOW MUCH POWER DO YOU WANT?

As much as my circuits will support. Anyone here will tell you the greater the power, the cleaner the low end.