Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater ?s for Denon receiver gurus

I was going to buy a Denon 1804 which is only available (at list price) for $550, but just noticed that I could get the Denon 3802 (at a sizable discount) for $650 from an authorized online dealer.

Why is the 3802 on sale and not the 1804?
Is the 3802 a much better receiver?
Is it worth the extra $100?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

This is from a Denon-receiver non-guru...

3802 is 2 generations older. It was replaced by 3803 which too will soon be replaced based on rumours in the market.

1804 is current generation but lower-end model and provides you 90 watts x 6 at 8 ohms

3802 offers 110 watts x 6 at 8 ohms. See this 3802 review

Which is better - I cant tell you since I haven't heard both.

Both these receivers do not have YPAO / MCACC (Room Parametric Eq feature) If you are going to spend USD 600, you might as well get the latest Yamaha RX-V1400 which has this very useful feature. I paid USD 622 for the RX-V1400 and it has the latest DPLIIx as well.

Good luck in your hunt !

The US does not get DBLIIx on the 1400, just DPLII.

I guess it will, soon.

Although the YPAO feature sounds good, I could never buy Yamaha eqiuipment, it is just too damn ugly. Sorry Yamaha owners, Yamaha sounds great, but I just can not get past the asthetics.

I would, however, recommend getting the 3802. I have owned two Denon recievers in my day and currently have a 2802. Denon recievers sound excellent and feature excellent features. Just because they do not have YPAO does not make them insufficient. You will just need to spend a little more time with the set up process. They look really classy, too.

But, Pioneer Elite recievers feature the MCACC feature which is identical to YPAO and they are much better looking asthetically.

So maybe look for Pioneer Elite equipment as well.

Just my two cents.

This is strictly my personal aesthetics, but... To me the Denon receivers look almost as ugly as the Yamahas. Hahaha...

My thoughts too... Denon receivers dont look that much better. If you notice the finishes available in Asia, you will notice that the champagne gold finish is predominant here (as compared to the black finish in the US and silver in Europe) which makes things more uglier.

When it comes to looks, I dont exactly love the Yamaha finish , but I definitely dislike the Denon finish (looks cheap). I love the look of the H/K receivers.





Actually I have a preconceived idea (it's only my opinion) about Denon which kinda puts me off.

Denon is owned by Hitachi and they (HITACHI) have in the past produced some very disapointing AV / TV / electronic products. So nowadays if I am at a store, I will avoid anything Hitachi altogether. Maybe their stuff has improved over the years or maybe not - I dont know better.

It's just that once you have that pre-fixed notion in your head, you tend to avoid anything to do with them.

Andy, besides looks, bear in mind that the automatic room and speaker equalization which some Pioneers and Yamahas have simply can't be duplicated in the setup process with other receivers which don't have that feature. This is something that'll probably become common in all but the lowest cost equipment.

I hope you're talking Canadian dollars, because I'm sure you can do much better than that for an 1804. I bought one about a month ago from 6ave.com for USD $299.06 including shipping (which was an excellent price).

Try dealtime.com and pricegrabber.com. Also check out dakmart.com for authorized Denon B-stock.

There is much to like about the current generation Denon receivers. I shopped for a LONG time in that price range. While the new Yamaha and Pioneer YPAO/MCACC circuitry is compelling, the price point is still a little higher than I wanted to go. The Pioneer (not Elite) 912 has some similar functionality, but I've not heard good things about the musicality of the non-Elite Pioneers.

The Denon gives me on-screen-display, a phono input, 7.1 channel power, Zone 2 outputs, S-Video switching, adjustable subwoofer crossover, the latest decoding and most importantly, good sound (to my ears). It is full-featured; especially with components in the lower price ranges, shopping for features is a good way to go, IMO. I don't love the remote, but it HAS allowed me to use only that controller for my older Yamaha CD player, Pioneer DVD, and Mitsubishi VCR and RP-TV.

I think Denon makes fine products, but so do many other companies. It's nice to have choices.

In reply to:

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Denon is owned by Hitachi and...

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Are you sure on this one??? I believe that Denon, Marantz, McIntosh et al. are all owned by D&M Holdings.