To the guy below who gave the store he bought the 3300 from, you're supposed to be rating the receiver!!!!!! It certainly doesn't deserve a 1. Have had this unit for 2 months. What can we say that hasn't already been said. Feature rich, quality components many of the ones used in the 5700, great performance, excellent power supply delivering what it is rated at unlike other manufacturers who quote power for 6 ohms. Check out the white paper on Denon's website and then check out other receivers and you'll come to the same conclusion that many of us have and that is for the price you can't lose.

!! everything !! except for the remote :(

The remote sucks, but hell I don't buy a reciever for its remote

9-2000 I bought a SONY STR DE545 DD/DTS Reciever, it sounded nice to me for what I was used too. But not impressive. But than I turned the volume down and I noticed It produced a HISSSSS! It was A Problem with that reciever, but I even heard it at the QS series. Than I returned it to look for other brands. I looked at Pioneer, JVC, DENON, Harman Kardon, Onkyo, etc. BUT! There wasn't a reciever that sounded so natural to me... The sony had a more Plastic sound and the Onkyo for example a metalic bonky sound. But This DENON reciever (I then heard the 2800).
I had to think about it and read here the reviews. everyone was fond about it. But i then saw the reviews of the 3300 and I decided to go and listen to that piece of beauty! And I bought it!


I have it at home for about 1,5 months and don't have any of the problems here discribed. No hiss! :) no high sound, no overheating. No nothing! I was used to buy DVD's for not only the picturequality but mainly for the sound. On my SONY the VHS tapes sounded if there was a wall between me and the speakers. But this beauty makes it sound almost just like a DVD!!! I watched LOST IN SPACE yesterday and could not beleve my ears... it just says stereo on the tape but i feld a spaceship comming and then heared it fly over me... to come and shine at my television. CD's sound wonderfull and rich in 5ch stereo and in stereo also just great. The only thing I can think off what they could have done better is the remote control and maybe the onscreen overview. But I don't feel in the position to complain about it. I would buy this thing again if I had too....

Similar Products Used:

AKAI Stereoreciever,Samsung Dolbi suroundkit, Sony STR DE545 DD/DTS reciever (Never buy that sucker!!)

Warm powerful sound, features, 8-Channel-Input, great look

Wrong factory settings so the unit gets hot, bulky remote

The first thing I noticed after I received my unit was the great sound it produced and the power it was able to send to my speakers, which are quite big (8 Ohms, 350 W sin each). But I noticed that the unit was getting pretty hot after a while. Even by doing nothing and just being on, the fan kicked in after half an hour. Although the fan is not loud nor does it produce high pitch whirring sound it is audible when everthing else is quiet in the room.
The next thing was the transformer, which made a humming sound, audible when standing in front of the unit.
So I decided to send the unit in to a Denon authorized repair center to have those problems fixed. They told me, that the Idle-Power (BIAS power) of my reeiver is set to high already in the factory, so it overheats already in idle mode. This is done to have a very low THD, like Class-A amps. But what worth is a very low THD when you have to listen to the fan? So they set it down an now the unit barely gets warm in norml stereo listening. The THD may be higher (e.g. 0,01 instead of 0,001) but you really can't hear that. The sound is as great as before, just without the heat and the fan sound, which only starts when I push the receiver to the limit.
They also changed the transformer which now hums much less.
I also found it a bit annoying that you can't select radio presets directly with the remote, you can only switch up or down.
The remote is a bit bulky but can be programmed, what I found quite useful. And it is very powerful. I can use it in the kitchen although the receiver stands in the living room.
Everything else on this receiver is just great. The powerful clean sound, the golden look, the connectivity, the great digital decoding and so on. I can't think of a better receiver for only 700 or more bucks right now.
So I give 5 Stars for Value and 4 Stars for Overall rating, because it was faulty right out of the box.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SA-AX720, Technics SA-AX6, Yamaha RX-V595a

Composite and component video input/output and digital audio input/output for newer products. TV, DVD, etc..

over heats and shuts off. and remote not exactly user friendly.

I purchased this receiver in July 2000. I hooked it up and everything worked great until after about an hour when it shut off in the middle of watching a video. It continued overheating so I sent it off to an authorized service center for Denon in Austin, TX (Pyramid Audio).

They sent it back to me over a month later and I hooked everything back up and it worked fine for a week or two using it only occassionally. Then the same problem it shuts down after being on for less than an hour. I am now sending it back to have it serviced.

Before you buy this receiver. You have been warned it would be great if it would only work.

Versatile, adequate power, adjustable output to each channel with memory for each function (DVD, CD etc. as well as memory for 5 ch. Stereo or 2 ch. stereo in each mode), surround A and B

remote, manual, no A/B switch for speaker output (can't bi-wire)

First of all, I want to say that I purchased the unit in March of 2000 and that mine was, and still is, free from flaws. I have never heard the noisy fan, it has never shut down and it has not overheated. I only have approx. 1.5" of clearence above the unit and it performs wonderfully. Perhaps I am lucky, but I have been very happy with unit. Aside from the weaknesses noted above, the unit is very strong. Only problem I have is with my wife, I constantly find myself wanting to use the majority of the 105 watts/ch. but she has a problem with walls shaking, as do my neighbors.

My set up:

Denon 3300
Sony DVP-S7700
Sony CDP-79ES
B&W 610i's - Front (older version of 602S2's)
B&W 305's rear
B&W CC6S2 - center
B&W ASW 2000 - sub

I will be upgrading (feb '01)the fronts to the B&W 603S2's, rears to 602S2's and center to LCR6S2, can't wait for the first home audition.

Have used all Monster cables for interconnects, not crazy about them, but seem to work.

A word of advice to all you 3300 bashers, don't be a cheap ba****d and go purchase a unit from an authorized dealer. Who spends several hundred dollars on a piece of equipment via the internet?...I know, a dumb as* asking for unit that someone else didn't want or abused it and then sold. As for Denon quality control, some units did have some problems, that is why I bought from a dealer, one who'd accept my return/replacement if I bought a bad one. Why complain when you can't control what you recieve when buy via the internet and have it shipped direct. This AVR has been an excellent purchase for me and I expect many years of enjoyment.

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES, Yamaha

lots of power, quiet, very clean, yadda yadda yadda

runs hot sometimes, difficult to setup w/o onscreen guide. manual and remote sucks.

Finally decided to do an overhaul on my home theatre. Used to have a harman kardon avr-45, which was a BIG mistake. Used to give this horrific hum, and you could hear the volume click incrimentally as you changed it (hey, i used to work at circuit city, got a great discount...ps, find yourself a good home audio store and stay away from there, nothing but problems from them now that they're competing w/ best buy instead of selling quality components like in the past). Anyhow, a friend of mine purchased a sony 444es reciever and a pair of vienna mozarts, sounded pretty good for music and movies, so i went down to my local home audio store to check things out. Here's how it went:

listened to the sony, while it sounded pretty decent, and had optical outputs(i own a portable MD player/recorder), i found that the overall soundquality was rather thin and tinny.

the yamaha's were good, but gave me the same impression. to me at least it seemed like they were trying to sell you on their dsp features rather than delivering on straight audio performance.

the denon was the winner.
the good:
sounded beautiful, had plenty of power, and added some life to my music collection. great seperation in stereo, and sounds wonderful in dolby digital and dts. the on-screen i found was great for setting up. there really isn't a whole lot to say about this reciever except that you don't know you're running out of a reciever, its like the music or movies are being performed right in front of you(imho the way audio equipment should be). Has plenty of connections in the back. I run my dvd player and satellite through it and there is little if any loss in signal(none that i can tell at least). Also very quiet. No hum or hiss through any of the speakers, even when turned all the way up.

the bad:
the manual sucks. Using onscreen tho is pretty simple and anyone w/ an iq of 80 or less should be able to set this reciever up. The remote is also something to be desired, although i have a touch-screen universal remote, so this is not an issue for me. Also, it tends to run a bit on the warm side. I originally had it on my shelf w/ about an inch and a half clearance, and noticed the fan coming on and giving that "whine." however, i have since given it more room to breathe(denon recommends at least 4 inches), and the problem has stopped. An optical output would be nice, as well as a couple more inputs, but these are frivilous since i will run out of things to buy before i use up all the inputs.

All in all, for the price, features, and performance(denon has since moved to the xx01 line, so you should be able to find these at a greatly reduced price!), I give it a 5.

equipment:

avr-3300
mistubishi dd-4000 dvd player
mistubishi sr-sd1(?) dolby digital DirecTV reciever
harman kardon fl8550 cd player
toshiba 55 inch cinema series tv
mirage om-10b speakers

Similar Products Used:

harman kardon avr-45, sony 444es

Excellent at DTS, DD, stereo. The sound is superb, but you need good quality, well-designed and made speakers. Enough digital hookups for my DVD, satellite TV and analog for everything else.

The remote and manual are not intuitive, but can be figured out.

I am writing this about the overheating and fan issue. My first unit had the fan problem after a few weeks, but I returned it to the dealer for exchange. No problem. This unit I've had for over a year and no fan problems. It works fine.

Looking at the reviews, there clearly was a fan problem for some units. Most of the reviews WITH fan problems were either during a certain period in early 2000 or are associated with refurbished units. Is there a pattern here? Apparently the refurbs, while not always a problem, do have a higher chance of quality issues. That is the risk one takes for a lower price.

Look through these reviews for those folks that have sent it in for repair and have had success. Then follow their advice. The Denon is worth salvaging.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

5-Channel Sound for Music; DTS; Component Video Switching

Not aware of any

My sound system was complete when I traded up to this model! I had initially purchased a receiver/speaker package deal through Ultimate Electronics and then a few months down the road saw this jewel on the Model Clearance table. As retailer's are always eager to have your money, they had no problem with me trading up. My family loves to listen to the radio and cd's and the 3300 let's them listen to music like they have never heard it before. We recently purchased the Eagles When Hell Freezes Over DVD and the DTS soundtrack is incredibly clear. And now I have found a use for the component video switching -- The XBOX!! I originally had my DVD hooked up to my TV with component cables and was curious how I was going to hook up the XBOX and get a great picture. So it hit my while staring at my Denon 3300 - component video switching. Got the XBOX and hooked it and the DVD to the 3300 and am having a great time watching movies or racing cars with great sound and video!!

I have observed the fan kicking in, but only because I am attuned to fan noise working with PC's and servers every day. My family has never complained or questioned any noises from the receiver because they really can't hear any. But there have been some great suggestions if you read through the reviews of ways to keep the unit cooler.

Enjoy!!

Similar Products Used:

Denon 1601

the name

stupid things keeps turning off after less than half hour playing then you have to re-set. Denon's tech support and manuals stink.

This item looks impressive but it keeps going off while playing for very short periods and I can't get much tech support to rectify the problem. I tried investing in a cooling fan even though it often does not feel as if it is overheating but to no avail. Now when I want uninterrupted music I use my old Yamaha or my little Aiwa shelf system in the bedroom - less need to constantly reset. It just sits there - I have no faith in the product.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

On screen setup menu, plenty of power, great sound for movies or music, cinema EQ

Fan noise when ambient temperatures are high

I bought this receiver after reading a fantastic review by David Ranada in Sound and Vision. I was not disappointed. The receiver is plenty powerful and movies sound great in Dolby Digital or DTS. Music is reproduced fine also. There are a limited number of soundfields for movies and music, but I could care less about those kind of gimmicks; they usually do little to add to the sound anyway. The on screen setup menu is great for setting up your system and setting the sound levels for home theater. The Cinema EQ function tones down the brightness of movie sountracks which are mixed on the high side for movie theater playback. The power level is not quite THX level, but at 105 watts represents peaks only 1.25 dB less loud than the AVR-5700's 140 watts.
The receiver has multi-surround speaker outputs for both dipole/bipole and monopole surrounds. It also has multi-channel inputs for a future DVD audio or SACD player. It has 4 assignable digital inputs(3 optical), but no digital output(a minor quibble).
The one flaw with this receiver is that when ambient temperatures get into the mid 80's and higher, the fan in the unit starts to make a high pitched squealing noise that occurs intermittently. I have read many reviews here and many others have had this problem. I suppose if you have central air one does not have to worry about it. I keep my cabinet door closed so we cannot hear the noise and I have never had any other problems with the receiver at all. I am remiss to get this problem fixed because I'd rather not un-hook the myriad of connections to take it in.This problem only occurs during the really hot summer weather and is not annoying enough nor has the receiver shut down at all to warrant taking it in.
Nonetheless, if you want a great receiver for the price I would highly recommend the 3300. If one wants 6.1 surround they can get the upgraded AVR-3801, but if this doesn't matter, one should be able to get a good price on the older 3300. Hopefully , the fan noise will not be a problem in other units.

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES