Awsome sound quality DTS,Dolby Digital & 2 Channel stereo;Easey to use & good looks.All banana plug speaker terminals + REC out function.Auto DTS & DD detection.
Different tune settings for each device & DPS mode.

The Manual is for Nerd`s & the remote looks as well as it
operation.Wierd!!!

System:
Denon AVR-2801 A/V Receiver
Denon DCD-615 18Bit DAC CD Player
Denon DRR-680 Tape Deck (Amorphous Head)
JVC XV-501 DVD Player
JVC HRD-830U Hi-Fi VCR
27" Sony TV
Onkyo 10" 100w Sub
Speakers are built.
Audax 1"Titantium Dome Tweeters
6.5" Woven Carbon Fiber Speaker
6.5" Yellow Fiberglass Cone Speaker
Cabinet is Europeian style with TOE SPIKES.
These speaker are rated at 4 OHMS 32Hz~27KHz

I mainly purchased this receiver for three reasons 1.Denon Quality & Reputation 2.Awesome some quality. 3.DDSC,DTS & Dolby D.My First Denon product was the DRR-680 Tape Deck which blow me away with beautiful sound quality; than there`s the DCD-615 CD Player the sound is very smooth & laid back & very good sound stage + detailed; Now the AVR-2801 is just another piece of Audio Art from Denon that is top notch in Perfomance,Quality & Price; the reason I say this because I,ve had other audio brands that were good but not this good; For Example the AVR-2801 has no Hissing,Humming,Static noise in either channels all exceptional quite at low volume or high.The sound is very smooth, clean & detailed.The Bass is low, tight & accurate,
Vocals is very detailed & straight foward in 2 Channel mode
in other words(Just Right)but in DTS,DD & Dolby Pro the Dialog is clear,realistic & accurate but could be a little bit louder compared to YamahaTechnics setup.The highs are just right not to bright very detailed & realistic + natural.Now power wise this receiver can show you what your speakers can & can`t do.EXAMPLE:My Yamaha Pro Logic receiver
90w Front,Center 35w Rear sounded good but when played loud I would hear distortion from the receiver before I would hear any physical stress from the speakers.Now the Denon plays louder & cleaner but my speakers admit stress as if the voice coils are hitting the back of the magnet when playing bass material.Alot of clean power distortion free!The over all sound in my opinion is excellent.This unit rocks in 2 Channel mode & Home Theater kicks serious back side.Looks great,easy to hook up,not heavy considering the size.Every thing about the reciever I love, Denon could have put an effort in the remote control I think the remote is a freebe.
This is a true Home Theater & 2 Channel stereo receiver with
real life sound.**********5 stars*********
Bang for the buck worth every penny.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RV-902 A/V Receiver
Technics AH-D500 DD Processor

Great receiver, nice user menu. Sound great when watching DVD. Very nice.

Manual could use some help.

This receiver is AWESOME. I'm a big Denon fan. What I have noticed is that it really shines when watching a DVD via Optical. It's great for surround sound in Dolby Digital and/or DTS. I have my CD-Changer plugged in as well via Coax Digital Cable and it's great. This receiver is easy to setup and I have no complaints about the remote. I'm sure I can tweak it more, but I'm very impressed and happy to have it. I had an Aiwa receiver before this and Denon is just simply quality stuff. I've heard older Denons and they still sound great.

Setup:
Paradigm Titans (Front)
Paradigm Atoms (Surround)
Paradigm CC-170 Center
Paradigm PDR-10 Sub
Denon DCM-370 CD-Changer
Sony DVP-560 DVD Player

Stunner

Nothing

I just got my 2801 today, hooked it up with my yamaha 796 dvd player and KEF KHT2005 5.1 speakers. The sound is superb, the system sets up a treat, the remote learn function works well.
I've got it running my KEF Q75's on my KI signature CD player and that too sounds faultless.

I recommend this to anyone considering.

good build, clean looks, straight-forward set-up

hiss in every DSP mode

This is a solid amp, which I will keep, but, contrary to some of the other reviews, it does exhibit speaker hiss while in any DSP mode (including 5 channel stereo). The hiss is really not noticeable under low volumes (unless you have your ear right next to a speaker), but it is significant under high volumes. I have tried all combinations of cables, inputs (digital/coax), proximities to other electronic equipment (TV, etc), disconnecting other equipment to the amp, power conditioning, etc, and still the hiss remains. In fact, THE PROOF that the amp's DSP board is introducing the noise (and not my equipment/or some kind of external interference) is that when I connect to the amp using the "direct" inputs (thus completely bypassing the DSP), the hiss goes away.

For those of you who would like to think I just got a "bad" unit, I am absolutely confident that this hiss is present in every 2801. Why? Well I heard similiar claims about good vs. bad units on this site concerning the Sony DB940, and after exchanging that unit several times, I still heard a hiss (and so did at least two other individuals on the site who repeatedly exchanged their units). In fact, I wrote one of the fellows who claimed his unit was "dead quiet", told him what to listen for, and he too heard the hiss. Obviously, he wasn't too happy with me. ;)

My conclusion is that some people are just not that sensitive to a slight hiss (or their speakers are very inefficient!). If you are one of these truly lucky people, then this is a 5 star amp. If not, I still give it 4 stars because we probably have to live some amount of hiss in the $500 price range. And believe me, the hiss in the DENON is much, much, much quieter than the Sony DB940's I had.

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Sony STR-DB940

Plenty of power, dts, dd, pro logic, quality

none thus far

great unit all the way around. Good dound, pusjes my jbl speakers great. Easy set up. I like the remote although most seem not to. Love the way this unit automatically detects what type of didgital signal is being sent to it and switches over. I literally have no complaints about this product. I am however going to stress two complaints about related issues. First of all do not recommmend anyone buy from let's go digital (an online stereo wholesaler. I would have received this unit much sooner if I would have not started with them. To sum it up they told me they had it in stock and after a week admitted they didn't, then they said yha we will up grade you to the nect best one with free shipping and I said ok. Well after another week they did not have that one. On and on it went. They just lie to you and waist your time. Secondly the pioneer I had prior to this had a bad proccessor on arrival and after some research I learned that this was a common occurence. I would stay away from pioneer receivers if it were me.

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pioneer vsxd409

awesome DD and DTS capabilities with exquisite Stereo sound in both 5 and 2 channel.

Probably the worst remote ever included with any electronic item

this thing is perfect. I am running it through probably some of the worst speakers (technics SBCR99k but they're better than KLH!). With the Aiwa receiver the Low was always dominant and the mid was never distinguished from the high (due to the lack of control for a 15" woofer) and to get decent sound it would have to be cranked to 8 frickin db's!!! Now with the denon I rarely reach above 00 db's and the technics sound phenomenal for a $200 pair of speakers. I watched gone in 60 seconds in DD and I fell over. The scene where Nic cage jumps over the line of cars on the bridge blew me away. I would say this is the best buy for the buck and I will soon be replacing the Technics with JBL s412p's do to the imbalance with the Tech's and my JBL S-center channel speaker. Don't miss this one its great!!

Similar Products Used:

Aiwa AVS17

Don't know

No idea

My review will be short because the product arrived half destroyed and does not function!!! Neither UPS or Crazy Eddies is willing to do squat!! And to top it off they over charged me on the shipping to boot!! Great prices if you get the product in one piece, if not don't expect any customer service!

Similar Products Used:

Sony 555es, denon 1801 onkyo 575

Sound quality and solid construction

remote, and on screen programing

I have been living in the 80's with a Adcom Preamp/tuner and amp combo since the late 80's. I loved that system It had fantastic sound quality. The only thing that system lacked was all the advances that had been made over the last 15-20 years. So I finally got the bug to update my system (or at least the switching/amplification part of it).

So off to Classic Stereo I went. Classic is a Western Michigan Audio and Video chain. I went to them, as I had purchased my Adcom system and Denon CD player there years ago. I wanted to go to back to this store because they only carry high quality stuff.

I spoke with the saleman about recievers and told him that I wanted a high quality audio/video reciever and he pointed me to the Denon line. I looked at the recievers that ran in price from $300 - $1800. Wow. I listened to the AVR2801 and fell in love with it. Got to watch Kathren Zadda Jones B&E a building in Tight Rope. And during the segment of the film I could hear the sound of the fabric as she moved. This was awsome. On this I considered the price of the unit and the quality of the sound and its construction and decided that I had to go with this unit. (I also read the reviews posted here.)

When I got the unit set up and started listening to it I was
very happy with the improvement it made to my system. I do not have DVD yet but I am planning on getting one in the near future.

The only gripes that I have about the AVR2801 is the remote and the manual. I read the reviews and heard the complaints about it and thought to my self, how bad could it be? It's BAD! The manual does not explain anything. I think that it assumes to much about the buyer, like you were there at the factory giving input during the design of it or that you are up for a challange and want to make a game out of setting up your system and that you have time to play with the remote until you learn everything about it.

Overall I would buy this system again. But I would ask the salepeople to sit with me and give me a coarse on set up and operation.

Quality,Price,great sound for movies & music 5ch stereo Dolby digital and DTS

some parts of the manuel

I can not believe the differnce between Pro Logic and digital,If you are a movie enthusiast like I am and usally wait for movies to come out on DVD and can't justify spending the money to upgrade from pro logic to 5.1 digital because you think it won't make that much of a differnce and the $540.00 would be better spent else where,You are dead wrong just like I was!!! Movies come alive now and those back speakers that use to make those mono sounds now sound like a brand new pair of speakers,I have all S-video hook ups (VCR Satelitte DVD)and the switching is so easy even my wife can now operate the whole system.I have a 18'x15'room and this receiver has no problem filling it. I did a lot of homework before buying this receiver and I believe nothing with in $250.00 comes close. Don't buy it at a Big super store and spend 700.00,find a good internet site with a good reputation and a good return policy (just in case you get that 1 of 1000 receivers that is bad or shipping co. messed it up)I could have got this receiver for about 50.00 cheaper but I did not want to take a chance on 3 or 4 places with a horrible customer satisfaction record.This receiver rates a 5 on overall and a easy 5 on VALUE.

Similar Products Used:

onkyo pro logic

Build Quality, Assineable Digital Inputs, Audio Memory

None

Ok, here's an update on my wonderful Denon 2801. I've had the chance to really sit down & completely watch a few familiar movies & all I've got to say is WOW!

I'm sure the Monster 1000 PowerCenter is helping, but my home theater has never sounded better. I'm hearing things that I've never heard before. And for those that have commented on the 90W per channel as being conservative. ARE YOU NUTS!? heh. I had the T-Rex scene in Jurrasic Park going full bore & the receiver kicked it all out with a power & presence that the Sony was never able to manage.

It could also be my speakers too. I've got the new JBL Northridge's in front & those speakers are amazing for the amount of money they cost. They run circles around others costing many times as much. But anyway, this is a receiver review!

I watched Saving Private Ryan & was blown away by the imaging. Tightly controlled bass and surround envelopment that was rock on! Before, I had to use the crossover input on my ES-10 to get the kind of bass that I wanted. I know, I know, cascading crossovers is never a good idea, but the Sony, even for being the top of the line when I bought it just never gave me the kind of bass response that I wanted. The Denon has splendid bass management, so now I can use the direct in and bypass the sub's internal crossover & volume control.

So in summation, I am ecstatic about the 2801 and would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a high quality receiver in the budget price range that wants superior performance to go along with it.

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Sony STR-DE915, DE665