New 3802 owners (1 Viewer)

[Mike Bledsoe]

I have the Denon 3802 I love it. I use Paradigm references for my mains referance cc for center polk audio 500fxs at the rear Velodyne HGS 12 sub And a Denon POA 5200 power amp to drive the main speakers. It is a shame they don't make the POA anymore it is a find amp. The 3802 I think is easier on my ears than the 3300 I used to own was. The set up was easy no problems just the usual bending and stooping
and getting myself into impossibly tight places.
I think that you made a good decision to buy it. It will keep me happy for a while. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Mike Bledsoe]

Louis

The 3802 does have separate amps for each channel but not separates power supplies

 

[Mark_Sparks]

I've been contemplating buying this unit for the last month. Then I heard the 3803 will be available by mid Sept? Should I wait or not? Seems like a lot of HTF members are getting this unit every day. I've searched the web for 3803 info but could find none. Frustated!!

 

[Michael Mathius]

Louise:
I find that the pronto is easy to setup. Checkout Remote Central for lots of useful info on the pronto. There are lots of free samples to download. Lots of helpful people on that site too.
Ecost has the pronto on sale cheap.

 

[Jason Co]

Got my 3802 when I got home from work last night. Took extra care to make sure I labeled all my wires before I unhooked my little Sony receiver. Made sure all connections
were tight (as an aside: the difference between cheap Home Depot wire and Monster is that the cheap wire sucks to work with. Stiff casing is hard to get off without fraying the copper, in general it's a PITA....Pain In The A**)
Went through the setup on the remote which seemed to go pretty smooth. Didn't calibrate the speakers cuz it was like 11:30 PM. My neighbor was as excited as I was to check out the new system so he came right over with his copy of T2 Special Edition (Hey if your gonna do it...DO IT RIGHT!)

The funny thing was I actually had to read the manual in order to play a DVD. Got the dvd picture up the only problem was...no sound. I pushed every button I could think of to get some sort of sound ...still nuttin. Then I figured maybe you had to shut off the amp in order for the settings to be programmed. BINGO! Well needless to say the intro to the digital sound on T2 may be the sickest, coolest (insert your own adjective here) thing I have ever heard. It was awesome!!!!! All I have to do now is calibrate and spend about a month with the remote...and I am set!!!

J

 

[kevitra]

I assume the receiver has to be on to do video switching, but if I want to listen to the TV speakers (ie when I'm watching news I don't need 5.1) is that possible? if so does the receiver need to be on?

Why not just use your HT speakers all the time? I have never used my tv speakers. You spent all that money on a decent setup, why not make the news sound better.

Yes, it does have to be on to do switching.

 

[AustinKW]

Hey Jason,

Welcome to the club! As you'll soon discover, calibrating the speaks is no big deal and it's really a pretty quiet operation (my wife and dogs hate it, though). In calibration mode, the receiver outputs pink noise to each channel one at a time at around 75db (roughly equivalent to -30 on the volume control). You then go through each channel and bump it up or down a couple dbs until your SPL meter reads exactly 75db at the "listening spot". Make sure you enter your delays (distance settings) before you do the level adjustments. Presto! The one that's a bitch is calibrating the sub - the RS meter is useless out of the box for this. There's a fairly simple electronic mod floating around on the web that transforms the RS meter into a VERY accurate instrument. You might want to look it up. Most folks just leave the 3802's sub adjustment at 0db and adjust the sub's output directly to what sounds best.

Austin

 

[peter a]

hey-
do you guys use a disc to tweak it all? or, do you just use the test tones...
thanks-
p

 

[Jason Co]

Peter - I have the Video Essentials disk, but I think I am just going to use the receivers test tone to calibrate. The disk comes in pretty handy for video calibration.
Austin -
I read this thread which talks about calibrating your sub. Vince's opinion for the best results on sub calibration that the volume should be wide open on the sub and the receivers output should be adjusted to reference. I was thinking of giving that a try.
Any feedback?
J

 

[Hyun K]

One word on calibrating with the 3802. I found that my 3802's internal test tones were inaccurate when compared with AVIA. First time I set up with the 3802's test tones, then to double check for DD/DTS/DPL2, I used avia and found the levels between speakers to be off by 2-3dB's from each other. So I'd make sure to calibrate with a test disk.

For my sub, I run a 20-39 CS+ with a samson 1000. I turn the amp's gain all the way up and adjust the sub level on the receiver. You want to keep the line level as low as possible to minimize distortion.

An illustration: I play electric guitar in a live sound PA environment. I control the line-level volume on my "pre/pro"(box that controls the levels, effects, etc..) When I turn up the line-level signal going to the amp all the way up, a guitar set to clean (no distorition) sounds like I have the guitar set to play distortion.

With an internally powered sub however, I could not do the same for some reason. I had an aperion audio 12 inch sub and could not turn the sub's volume all the way up and control with the receiver. It was way too loud.

 

[AustinKW]

Hi Jason,

Vince's discussion sounds reasonable but as he states, things will depend on your specific receiver, sub and its amplifier. You can try whatever methods you like - it's your stuff! In my case, one of my subs cranked would totally overpower the room at ANY level in the receiver's sub adjustment range. Also be aware that there are somewhat different calibration techniques between Denon's tones and those generated by the standard calibrations disks. There's tons of discussion on these topics in all the forums. Good luck with your setup.

Austin