Quality audio. Quality construction.

Pathetic manual.

First, a comment to Dave a few reviews down. Dave, it's obvious your receiver is *defective*. Exchange it and give the unit a fair review, one based on the quality and merits of its audio output.

I finally got the room for a small home theater so I did some research and shopping recently. I was thinking *budget* all the way and ended up buying the Sony DE545. Big mistake. Sure, it's got oodles of features for $300 but the *cheapness* reared its ugly head in the form of loud hissing in rear surrounds.

So I decided to spend a bit more and came home with the Denon AVR2801 and what a difference a few hundred dollars makes! Not even a hint of a hiss. The sound is superb, the current is strong, and it looks very sleek.

I've had the unit only for a week but so far I've been able to watch Gladiator (in DTS), The Matrix, Starship Troopers, Saving Private Ryan, and Chicken Run. All sounded absolutely amazing in Dolby Digital but Gladiator in DTS was stunning.

The few music CD's I listened to were quite good as well but this unit is primarily for home theater and it does a wonderful job in that task.

My advice if you're thinking about saving a couple hundred bucks on the 1801 or 1601...DON'T! I auditioned all three and the 2801 is a large step above both in power and quality of audio.

My only gripe is the manual. It's awful. Fortunately for me, the Tweeter salesman I bought it from has the 3801 at home and walked me through the setup on the phone in a few short minutes.

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Sony DE545

Dolby Digital & DTS A/V Receiver
24 bit DSP processor
DDSC-Digital
5 equal power amplifier channels
90 watts per channel into 8 ohms

I am amazed at how much people here spent for this receiver. I got mine for $498 at http://go.to/etronicsonline , what a deal. The receiver rocks and I am glad I got it, and at such a great price.

Burr Brown DAC's are always nice, Great feel to front panel controls, On-Screen displays are nice as well, learning remote is a plus

Remote could be improved upon as far as layout is concerned - a backlight would be even better. Also this receiver requires all of your video input types (RCA or S-Video) to be the same as your cable to your monitor. (You cannot have a RCA video signal from your VCR and a S-Video cable from the Denon to your TV)

This receiver sounds great with my home built speakers (Dynaudio drivers / Morel Tweeters) and has the power to drive them to impressive levels. The speakers are a little on the inefficient side so the 90x5 helps out. The front panel is clean and good looking as well. I am extremely pleased with this unit and recommend it as well as Sound World of Wausau, WI to anyone interested. (Ask for Stafford - great guy - I drive 3.5 hours to give him my business)

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Entry level Sony and Pioneer receivers

DOLBY DIGITAL & DTS SOUNDS ARE OUTSTANDING !! PURE CLEAN SOUND A/V RECEIVER

NONE SO FAR........

CLARITY CLEAN DIGITAL SOUND AT ANY VOLUME LEVELS. NEVER REGRET OF VANISHING MY YAMAHA AV RECEIVER. UNCOMPARABLE AV RECEIVER TO DATE.

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YAMAHA DSP-A1092

Excellent bass, good power

very bright with Edge Audio 502D's, almost hurts the ears

Bought a Yamaha 5240 to hold me over while waiting for my 2801 to arrive. Well the Denon arrived tonight. The Yamaha was actually very good. Pro Logic, DD and DTS were all decoded with outstanding quality. The sound stage was excellent as was the imaging. The problem with the Yamaha was a lousy mid bass that sounded very cup'd. Well I've had the Denon up and running all night. There is a major difference in the Bass, mid bass and down low is much better on the Denon, BUT the top end seems very harsh/bright. Its more noticiable in Stereo, in fact it can be tiring to listen to depending on the piece being played. I turned on Cinema EQ to tone in down in surround mode and I'll play around some more in the hopes of taming the sound. For now, I'd have to say I'm a bit dissapointed. It just might be the combo of the Denon and the Edge Audio speakers, but I can tell you I could crack up the volume on the Yamaha without the harshness(though the mid bass wasn't so great) and I don't think I'll be doing the same with the Denon, at least not in Stereo.

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Yamaha 5240 (OK not similar, a little lower end)

Silky smooth sound, precise DD/DTS decoding, excellent & accurate digital input detection

Manual

When I retired my decade old Sony ES components I decided to go with an AV Receiver. A year ago I settled upon a Yamaha model and was satisfied with it until I got a DTS capable DVD player (Hitachi u505). Did some shopping around and ended up paying twice as much as I had intended ($1200 Canadian) after checking out this model. Other than the barely adequate manual I have nothing but praise for this unit. Makes the Yamaha sound harsh. It's matched up with Paradigm speakers (2 Monitor 3's, 2 Mini-monitors, CC350 centre and PDR-10 sub) which it drives effortlessly. This setup gives DVDs are presence that was missing with the Yamaha. I'd highly recommend this receiver to anyone!

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Yamaha AV Receiver, Kenwood AV Receiver, Sony AV Receiver

Clarity, Quality, the real features that people want to have

Confusing manual, remote is ugly looking and the buttons are spaced for someone with 12" fingers

Overall, I am very impressed with this product. No problems at all (Other than operations but if you are the type to buy Denon you can figure it out with a small amount of time). This thing has just the right amount of power for running my JBL HLS-820 speakers in a HT arrangement for those with these speakers looking for a good amp that won't blow the tweeters :-)

If anyone knows of a place to get the remote that came with this for a decent price I'd appreciate an email from you. It isn't that mine is bad, I just got the thing 2 days ago....I am just really hard on remotes and since this one is pretty good, I wanted to get another one just like it for when I destroy this one.

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JVC RX-8000

Power enough for multiple rooms, Quality of Sound, Quality of build, Company reputation

none so far

I feel like I've just ditched my old 1974 Ford Maverick (first car I owned back in 1985) for a brand new Porsche 911 (will probably never have one now that I have kids). The great part is that I didn't have to shell out the money you'd expect to pay for such high quality.

I am far from an audiophile. In fact, I knew virtually nothing about speakers, subs, amps, dvds, cables, etc until about 8 weeks ago when I decided to make some serious upgrades to our main system. I knew I wanted a nice system but I didn't want to empty the entire vault to get it. I started the journey about 8 weeks ago by visiting several different Home Theater specialty stores and getting their thoughts on speakers, subs, dvds, amps, cds, cables, etc. I was looking for commonality in what they were saying so I could start to form some opinions of my own.

The hard thing was that each place seemed to really target one or two brands as their 'anchor' brands and everything else was secondary. I took what they said then went to this website to embark on several weeknights of reading. I found this to be a much better source for REAL ADVICE from people who really seemed to be unbiased and knew what they were talking about.

I ended up with the following A/V system:
TV: Hitachi 43" 43FDX01B ($1999)
Amp: Denon AVR2801 ($599)
DVD: Harmon Kardon DVD-5 ($499)
CD: Sony CDP CX-400 ($259)
Fronts: Def Tech Pro Monitor 100s (Package for $1250)
Rears: Def Tech Pro Monitor 100s
Sub: Def Tech Pro Sub 100 TL
Center: Def Tech Pro Center 100
Audio Cables: Monster Digital Optical from DVD and CD
Video Cables: Monster S-Video (haven't decided if Component is worth the extra money yet)

The only piece that I'm not 100% happy with is the DVD player as it has errored out a couple times (ie it will say it's trying to read a DVD but it keeps reading and eventually says is was unable to play). The 90% of the time that it works it works awesome. Picture and Sound are unbelievably crisp. Thinking about trading in for an Onkyo Integra DPC-6 due to the better warranty and supposedly equivalent quality.

Back to the rest of the system. My big problem was that I wanted to put this system in our main living area. We have a new house and like most new houses our ceilings are freakin' 18 feet tall. Not ideal for acoustics to say the least. To keep my wife happy, I agreed that the speakers would be white, wall mounted satellites so they'd be out of the way from kids and disappear into the wall to some degree. A fair compromise, but satellite speakers don't typically have the umph that I was thinking we needed to fill this entire area effectively for both music and surround sound.

I didn't do tons of personal tests like some of the guys on this site did. I basically benefitted from all the comparison tests that others have done before me and made my decisions according to their opinions and a few sound tests at the store.

The final verdict on the speakers...... The Def Techs are AWESOME!!! The only other set that I seriously considered were the Bose Acoustimas, but after listening to both at The Home Theater Store in Arlington, TX.... I came to the conclusion that the Def Techs all the way around created a quality depth for lows, mids and highs that no other set of satellites could touch. If I didn't know, I'd swear the sound was coming out of tower speakers. Now, granted these are not small satellite speakers. They're more the size of bookshelf speakers but the white boxes make them disappear into the wall, so the wife is still OK with them. I think the Direct Radiating sound out of the speakers helps 'aim' the sound down to avoid any major echoing or reverberating.


Add on to the Fronts and Rears with the Def Tech Pro Sub 100 which blew any other$400 - $700 sub out of the water that I could find through research or listening tests. The combination is amazing. The only other sub I seriously considered was a Sunfire 8" for $800. Finally decided it was too much money for what seemed to be virtually no real noticeable improvement. Bottom line... I could not be happier with the Def Tech Pro 100 series. I was trying to stay around $1000 for all 6 speakers. Ended up stretching it to $1250 but think it was well worth it.

Probably doesn't hurt that I'm powering everything with a new Denon AVR 2801. The other amps I considered were a Harmon Kardon 700 series and an Onkyo Integra 7 series. After reading all the reviews, it seemed like a no brainer. Denon has a great track record; although I'd never heard of them before doing all my research. For an amp that is likely to last for a very long time and give me high quality sound. I love the 5 channel stereo option and the surround sound DTS/Dolby Digital modes are awesome. I also liked that it had enough power for not only my living area but also through my speakers that are outside and in the gameroom for parties like the one I had yesterday when The Longhorns spanked the hell out of the Aggies.

I guess it's tough to pinpoint which pieces are playing the biggest role in the final result, but I have to believe the speakers and sub are probably playing the biggest and most critical role in the entire system with the Amp coming in a close second.

Like I said before, I am more of a research fanatic who wanted to get the best possible system I could find without spending completely crazy money. I didn't want to just pop into the first store and let someone sell me a bag of goodies without making sure I was getting the best for the money. All the way around, that's exactly what I think I got. If you disagree, don't tell me.

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Sound

I had avr-1801 at first and liked the sound. But, it wasn't powerful enough to provide me with loud enough volume when I watched some quieter movies. I exchanged it Yamaha vx596. It's got the power to make any movie/music very loud, and it brought up detailed subtle sound in movies better than 1801. However, its harssszzzzhh sszzzound made me tired. Many CDs sounded so harsh that I stopped listening to them. I realized that I should pay more to get what I want. So, I paid more and got 2801. First of all, the sound is not harsh at all and silky smooth (even my wife commented about it). It's fairly powerful enough to make me happy about it, although I would be glad to have a little more head room. Going from 70w 1801 to 90w 2801, I got the subtle sound in movies that I noticed with the Yamaha. After seeing the difference between 1801 and 2801, I'm getting really curious what I would get if I get even better Denon. But, you know... :) Anyway, 2801 sounds great and the remote doesn't look cool, but functional and acceptable. Until I get richer enough to be able to pick up 4800 or 5800, I'll keep it for now.

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Denon avr-1801, Yamaha vx596

Excellent ProLogic. The 5-Channel Stereo is to DIE for! On-Screen Setup & Display.

The remote is ugly as all hell; but functions very well.

This Denon receiver is all about the "Less is more" theory when it comes to different sound fields. There is really no need for 40 different fields when these people have really perfected Dolby ProLogic & Digital (and it shows). A wonderful unit that even has all of the setup proprieties on screen! I bought this bad boy for $499.00 + $40 S&H off of the internet; and I haven't looked back since. Don't pay $700 in a store - buy online from a decent dealer. Call them up for verification. Do your research on similar products; and don't even bother with the Sony's. Go & abuse the sales reps asking for demos of this unit compared with others! Don't forget to listen to the 5-Channel stereo (one of the strongest selling points for music lovers). CNET.COM is a great resource -- USE IT! The AVR-2801 is well worth the extra couple of bucks to get over the new AVR-1801. They are completely different systems - The 2801 IS WORTH IT.

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