good dd/dts performance, component switching

subpar 2 channel performance, a little bright

I was dissappointed in the 2 channel performance of this unit. male and female voices sounded a little hollow. Bass was thin. It sounded strained in the upper range at higher volume levels. I dont beleive for a second it puts out 105watts. maybe 80. The sony was similar on 2 channel. the denon was better on DD/dts. The pioneer was surprisingly the clean winner on 2 channel music. much warmer than the denon. DD/DTS performance was similar though the denon lacked bass compared to the pioneer. I cant wait to try an elite 26 with more power.

Similar Products Used:

pioneer vsx24, sony 555es

I don't know

Never got to use the unite

Well after waiting 2 weeks for this unit to get in stock I have to say it was not worth it. I finally get my unit and spend 2 hours flipping through the useless manual to find out it won't even power up!!! I call the store and they tell me this has been a common problem. I told the salesman where he can put this worthless piece of crap! Needless to say I fell victim to all the Denon hype on this site. Looking for another mfg. Denon has lost my business forever!

Denon is a toy and am disappointed from 2 weeks use. I returned it for a NAD. I thought future proofing was important but it's not as important as the sound and simplistic classic design. Old Denons used to be good but they are now like Yamahas and Sonys.

Similar Products Used:

NAD 770, Nak AV10, Rotel, Yam 965

5 channel stereo features galore price /performance ratio is outstanding

none to speak of

using with monitor silver series 5 wondering witch base management combo has worked best for both action fliks and music dvd overall extremely pleased with performance with 3300 for all listening and viewing conditions

Similar Products Used:

yamaha 995

Gobs of power, sound quality, on-screen Display, 3 optical outputs

Not user friendly at all.

I don't understand some of the reviews below. Some people claim of only 1 digital output, I have 3 optical and I don't know how many co-ax.

I have ZERO fan noise. None and it doesn't seem to overheat at all. Put a $8 fan near the rear vent if it's that much of a problem or take your freaking DVD player and VCR off the top of the thing!

Sound - EXCELLENT! Much fuller and richer sound. Midrange is back! Listening to other "high end" Yamaha stuff and then switching to the Denon was huge. Yamaha sounds like I was listening underwater and the Denon is what it sounds like when I come up out of the water.

The depth of the music and home theater is just amazing compared to others. People that give a freaking Sony receiver higher ratings that this Denon blow me away.

There is also a great dear of power available, you don't need to crank it up to bring out quiet sounds in movies. I use this for 90% hometheater and it does more than what I need it to do.

The downsides are -

Not very user friendly.
Remote pretty much sucks.
Its retail of $1000 is too much money.

I would recommend it if you can pick it up in the $500 - $700 range.

If you're looking for a receiver, demo this unit compared ANYTHING in that price range and you'll see what this comes out way ahead.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Sony, auditioned numerous Sony ES, Pioneer elite, Harmon Kardon, Onkyo...friend recommended Rotel.

Very quiet, great music (not harsh), 5 channel stereo is great.

Tuner is not as good as the Yamaha 2095.

I owned a Yamaha 2095 for about two months before selling it and buying the Denon 3300, which I've now had for about four months. The difference? In my case, about $500 (Yam=$1300, Denon=$800). The Yamaha looked better, was physically more impressive (very heavy), and had a better tuner (local stations came in better and somehow sounded better). The Denon has by far less noise and less "harshness". For example, I just love the Eagles "Wasted Time". I have the DTS DVD, the Hell Freezes over CD, and The Best of the Eagles 2-CD set. On the Yamaha, at higher volumes (which is my norm) and on any of these sources, when most of the music stops and Don Henley is singing solo ("so you can get on with your life...")you can easily here a hissing that was just unacceptable to me. With the Denon, I can crank it as high as I can stand, and it is as quiet as can be. Granted, this is a non-scientific experiment if there ever was, but it compares the things that matter to me. I'd rate them equal on home theatre. If they cost the same, it would be a tough choice. Since they didn't in my case, I took the Denon and a Pronto remote control (less the loss I took selling the Yamaha) and have not regretted it since.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 2095

sound quality, versatility

remote, needs lots of room to breathe, could use more digital inputs and a digital out

Here's another AVR-3300/uBid story, but this one has a happy ending! I was forced to install the receiver in a enclosed rack (although I did cut a hole in the back to get some ventilation). After a couple of hours of use the unit would get hot and the fan would kick in. While I did not hear the whining sound that have plagued others, the fan (which would turn on every 10 minutes or so) was loud enough to be distracting.

Since I figured the unit wasn't getting enough ventilation, I placed a small 12V DC blower fan on top of the hottest part of the unit. Using a variable voltage transformer I'm able to run the fan at about 6V so its almost inaudible. Problem solved! The AVR-3300 stays cool enough so the internal fan never kicks in even after several hours of operation. Cost me less than $50 bucks for all the materials at my local Radio Shack.

Of course, as everyone knows, this is just an outstanding performer. The sound is much more detailed and satisfying than my previous HarmanKardon AVR80II/Onkyo ED-901 receiver/DD decoder setup which I've used the last 2-1/2 years. It has all of the inputs and outputs that I need (although a digital out would be nice). The remote is poor, but in less than an hour I programmed all of its functions into my trusty old Marantz RC2000.

If you're willing to accept a little risk and aren't scared off by the word "refurbished", it's hard to beat the uBid deal on these machines. Get one while you still can!

Very powerful lot of features

A lot of noise with the fan(I am wating for the repair man to come to fix it)

This is a very good machine .I have 2 pairs of Ruark Templar II and a a Ruark dialogue centre with a 150W prosound sub. It delivers very sweet music with great power and with the movies is also great . The only problem is that the fan from the time I press the power on starts and never stops with a big noise, It is irritating especially when there is silence in the movie. I hope I manage to get it fixed cause I like this receiver very much and I don't want to go for other model or brand.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR 1800

Features, Sound

Noise (Fixed)

It is a great reciever though has been a frustrating experiance. I purchased it 1 year ago and put it in a cabinet with little ventalation. THat day it began to make a high pitch whirring sound as described by other people. I returned it the next day and recieved another one. The next one took higher heat to make the sound but within weeks was making the same noise even at low volumes. I was not driving hard at all. I sent it in to Denon and they have now replaced the Fan and a couple of other internal parts.

This is a known problem with the early recievers and they will fix it for free. For the money I found nothing that I liked as well and I am a musician. I liked other systems but would have had to spend at least $2,000 to get marginally better sound in home theater and that would have required seperates. I thought it a good use of money. Even my wife likes it.

I would reccomend it highly if you get one now with an assurance that the one you buy is after the problems have been resolved.

I will still give it great rating.

I have had no fan problem; no problems at all, really. Ubid sent me a great unit. Terrific sound, great build quality.

The remote is awful. The dependency on little slider switches to switch components is terrible. Fewer buttons, more onscreen menus would be better.

Put this thing in a real audio rack instead of a wooden 'entertainment center' and I think the fan troubles will be a non-issue.