Laura,

If you use wish to use the second, and / or third zone on the Denon, you will have to come up with some work arounds. If you have a 7.1 speaker array, the secondary zones can not be used without going into menu every time you wish to use them and change the surround back channel configuration to “off”. I’m not sure, but there may be a discrete IR command to do this, and if there is, you could program this as a “macro” with a programmable remote. As I do not use the second zone, I can not give you a definitive answer if this is possible or not.

The 3808 is not alone with this limitation. All receivers with multiple zone capabilities utilize the surround back channel to drive the other zones. You will have to pony up and spend some more coin on a true multi zone processor for independent zone configuration, and I’m not even sure if one exists. I briefly read some literature on the new McIntosh line and they may have the ability to do what you are looking for. Plan to spend no less than ten grand for a McIntosh processor though.