Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Denon 3805 out 4806 in.

My Denon 4806 finally arrived today. I swapped it with my 3805 but will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow to get everything calibrated.
It certainly is one nicely built piece of equipment, and has about every bell and whistle imaginable.
I'm anxious to see how the Audyssey MultEQ XT compares to my old Denons mic setup, the sound quality of SACD and HD movies through HDMI, and how THX Ultra2 Cinema mode compares to Dolby and DTS.
I'm sure it will take me awhile to figure out everything else this receiver will do, but for those interested I'll post my impressions in the next day or so.

I can't wait to hear your feedback.

Congratulations. That looks like a really nice machine.

I wish that Denon would equip a low power (say 50W/channel) model with all these bells and whistles for a price of around $500.

I, as well, am rather anxious to hear your feedback on the 4806. Congratulations on the purchase!

I, too, am really interested in how the Audyssey system works out. In theory, it sounds great. I'm hoping it proves the same in actual use.

I spent a couple hours tonight playing around with the 4806 getting it set up and doing a some listening tests.
Even though I have a long ways to go with getting through the manual and finding out what this receiver is capable of, I'll share some of my initial impressions.
The Audyssey MultEQ far exceeded my expectations, I did the measurements at six points around the room, let it calculate and saved the results. Before putting on a movie I ran test tones through the receiver and checked the results from the main listening position with my SPL meter, all 7 speakers were dead on at 78db.
Next was the most important part of the test, watching a movie, I put the Blu-ray DVD Kingdom of Heaven into my ps3, figured I might as well listen to some TruHD through hdmi for the first time also. The first thing I noticed besides the incredible sound, was that my Qs8's had all but disappeared in the room, I must have glanced at them 5 times knowing I could hear the sound around me but couldn't pinpoint them like I was able to before with my previous setup.
The second thing that really impressed me about the Audyssey is that I can now sit anywhere in my living room and feel I'm in the center of the movie, regardless of if I'm sitting at the far left or right not even in line with the speakers. I played parts of several different movies in several sound formats and was impressed each time.
So far I'm a really happy camper with this receiver, tomorrow I'll play a few SACD's , listen to some movies and compare the THX surround modes to DD and DTS. and try and learn what else this receiver can do.
The only bad thing is the AC switched outlets on the receiver aren't getting power, I think UPS did a little to much handling and knocked something loose, so I have to manually turn on my amp instead of letting the switched outlet in my Pure AV and receiver do it. If anyone knows of a device that can do the same thing I'd appreciate some recommendations.

Hey Michael,

That is very encouraging feedback. Sounds like the Audyssey is doing exactly what they claim on their website. I've been thinking about upgrading my Denon 2805 to one of the models with the Audyssey. I really love my Denon, maybe it is upgradeitis getting me again.

Hey Michael,

I forgot to ask something. Does the manual give recommendations on where you take your other measurements? I know you start with the primary seat, but for the other measurements do you sit in the other seats, or do you pick spots around the room outside of the seating area?

Randy

I use my Belkin pf60 to turn on my amps. If the amp is of any reasonable power I would think it would be too much draw to plug it into a receiver.

Very nice, Michael! When I first read about Audyssey, I hoped it wasn't a gimmick they charged more for but had little effect. Sounds like it does exactly what it's supposed to do. Very encouraging. Thanks for the report.