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.
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:
Denon is owned by Hitachi and...
Are you sure on this one??? I believe that Denon, Marantz, McIntosh et al. are all owned by D&M Holdings.
Quite sure. They also own Maxell. Look at this
link
Dear Mahesh,
I'm not trying to be confrontational; I enjoy and appreciate your posts here.
But I'm not sure I find this subsidiary theory compelling.
IF (gargantuan "if") Hitachi-branded products are substandard, I don't think it necessarily translates to the products of other, separately managed, separately engineered companies. Hitachi makes cranes and bulldozers. Mitsubishi makes ships, cars, TVs, etc. My Diamante SUCKS, my TV and VCR absolutely RULE.
For instance, we all know that Mercedes (Daimler-Benz) bought Chrysler. Does that mean that a Dodge Neon has the same engineering or build quality as an S-class Mercedes? Of course not. I believe the converse is also true. Just because Denon profits benefit Hitachi shareholders does not mean that the quality of the two product lines equate.
Anyway, I've owned Denons and had friends who owned Denons and everybody seems pretty happy.
I am learning, though. Thanks very much for the link. Enlightening, to be sure.
I don't think so, Mahesh. The fact that Hitachi owns the European branches of Denon does not automatically mean that they also own Denon the headquarter company in Japan. In fact, Denon's company profile page (in Japanese) does not list Hitachi as a major shareholder.
Here's a gist from what I read...
Hitachi definitely owned some part of Denon at some point in time not long ago.
Denon Ltd was spun off from Nippon Columbia in 2001. Nippon Columbia's major shareholders were 41.7% Ripplewood and 25.7% Hitachi.
D&M was formed by merging Denon & Marantz.
Hi Tom,
I know what you mean and I agree with you 100%. As I said in my posting it is a 'silly'
pre-conceived idea (no hard facts behind it) that is in my head which works automatically and has kept me away from owning a Hitachi-related product.
I recently almost talked a friend out of buying a 3803 because of this silly idea. He stuck to his decision and he is very happy with the 3803.
BTW, although I haven't owned a Denon doesn't mean I haven't sold any. I made very good money selling Yamaha and Denon receivers back in 1998-2000. I still have a link of one Denon product on my old and never updated
website
Cheers.
It's plain to see that if you ask for an opinion on what receiver to get you;ve got to understand that you're going to have to overlook the replyer's EGO! As for your question of 1804 or 3802, I'd say that the 1804 will have a few more reatures (like Dolby Digital ES) that the 3802 will not have but if you do not plan to use the back left and right speakers (7.1) in your main room then by all means get the 3802.. it's deffinately a better unit starting with the power supply. The 3802 will also allow you to have a 2nd zone where you can have 2 more speakers in a different room which to me is really great.
Is the 3802 only 6.1 DTS-ES compatible like my 2802? If so, it still does 6.1 DD EX sound, just not official DD EX 7.1 sound (which I do not need, three QS8's are plenty for my smallish room)
http://www.usa.denon.com/catalog/pdfs/avr38023.pdf
but they list it for 499USD. How did you get it for 299?????
I shopped hard
dealtime.com and pricegrabber.com will give results. Try doing a Yahoo and Google search too. My deal was exceptional, because I had decided to go ahead and order an 1803 from 6ave at that price, and they were out of stock so sold me the newer version for the same price. The Denon website also lists authorized resellers of remanufactured products.
btw, the 1804 does zone 2; if using the internal amplification, you can power EITHER zone 2 (in mono - ugh!) OR the 6.1/7.1 channels. If you add an external amp, you get full zone 2 stereo; in either case you have full independent audio zone control.
No argument about the 3802 having better power supplies as well as several other features and enhancements. For my particular desired feature set and price point, however, the 1804 was a better fit.
Here is the Best Deal out there for a Denon 3803 if you are interested..... Call 6th Ave Electronics, tell them you want to buy the 3802 (which is around $650 plus 6 cents shipping) they will not have that in stock and will upgrade you to the 3803 for the SAME PRICE!! This is the real deal. I got a brand new 3803 from them a month ago for $649.06 delivered to my house in 3 days. They are also an authorized dealer so you ge the full manufaturers warranty. This is not a B-stock unit. If you go to the website the price for the 3803 will show $999.00.
YOU HAVE TO CALL THEM AND ASK FOR THE 3802.
I saw a post on another forum and the person just picked one up yesterday for $648.
Good luck there is no better deal anywhere!!!
you aren't by any chance from orange county are you?
unique name and only knew one gal with that name. just wondering if you were the one i knew.
dan