Total lack of quality control at the factory. Rather messy manual. Not so good remote.

The unit emmitted a very noticeable humming noice the moment i turned it on. Sounded like it came from the power transformer. Noticeable when listening at moderate volume 3 metres from the unit - very annoying. Also the radio had a high pitched signal sounding on all channels.

Turns out that the BIAS voltage was between 10 and 14 mV when it should have been 3 mV. This made the unit start the fan immediately since it got too hot. The lack of quality control at the factory for a unit within this price range is rather dissapointing.

I definately recomment anyone looking for this unit to get it at a local dealer so that you can exchange it easily. Unfortunately the unit is totally sold out in Sweden so it's hard to get a replacement. The shop claims that they have fixed the aforementioned problem, so maybe I'll try it again.

The remote can't program the number buttons on VCR, so I must use VDP mode for that even though my VCR was within the remote's pre-programmed units - not good IMO.

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AVR-2800

Great 5 channel stereo, plenty of power

AM FM tuning

I have had this unit for a few months now and I think it's a great unit. I think Denon could have done a little better with the remote, but no big deal.I have had quite a few recievers in my time, and I am enjoying this one the most.( I had a 3600 which was also very nice). I just sold the Sony 935 when I got this one, let me tell you there is no comparing the two.For the $$$ it's hard to beat!!

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Sony 935

Sound, Adaptable, Ease of use.

Manual made initial setup more difficult than it should have been. Non standard banana plug spacing.

I bought mine at a large electronic chain and had to twist their arms to get $50 off list. Salesman had to call several stores before he found one that had these hot cakes in stock. I avoided net retailers as they were all backordered and I heard talk of noisy fans. The cash outlay was worth it as I have no regrets or problems. The Denon does its job quietly and allows me to fully enjoy music and home theatre without any distraction. It has no features that annoys me and lots of connections in the back. I like the preouts and ins that ensures flexibility with outboard amps and future formats. Its very quiet and has a steep 24db/octave sub out that allows easy sub placement. I have not heard any stress from the amps even when playing loud action movies, just give it lots of room to breathe. Despite being ideal for home theatre, I use it most for music. The 5 ch stereo is an especially liked feature as it allows stereo in any part of the listening room. The surround speaker switch is usefull and I can switch between my front firing and dipolar speakers to suit the program material. An enthusiastic thumbs up!

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Kenwood prologic receiver

sound, overall ease of use

Only one coaxial input, remote, speaker binding posts

My first unit was defective. It emitted a shrill whistle just before the fan kicked in, which was often (as others have noted, this receiver runs hot). About three weeks ago, alt.home-theater.misc carried a brief thread in which other people reported a similar problem. I exchanged the receiver for a new one, which is free of the defect. The fan itself is audible but not nearly as annoying.

I've given the receiver a 5-star rating. This is relative to other $1000 receivers. Relative to good separates, the sound is soft and the bass lacks punch. If you're looking to spend more than $1000, my advice is to start thinking seriously about jumping up to about $3000 and getting separates. As others have noted, an attractive way to upgrade is to use this receiver as a pre/pro and buy a separate amplifier. But I suspect that even as a pre/pro that fan will be kicking in a lot.

A related comment is that the receiver is rated only to 6 ohms and the manual warns that if you try to drive speakers with a lower impedence, the thermal protection circuit will shut the receiver down from time to time. (The 4800 carries the same warning.) But the Denon website FAQ explicitly states that Denon products in general will drive 4 ohm loads. My experience is that the 3300 will indeed drive 4 ohm loads.

The 3300's Dolby surround (as opposed to Dolby digital or DTS) processing is underwhelming. Its main virtue is that it directs sound to the center channel speaker.

The infamous remote is not all that bad. It has two main defects: it is not backlit and you have to manipulate two tiny sliding switches to tell the remote which A/V unit it is controlling. You get used to it but it isn't ideal.

The speaker binding posts are somewhat flimsy and are too closely spaced.

Component video switching is not wideband, so I view this feature as almost worthless.

Very musical with the right source material, nice DAC

I've seen better manuals, the remote is pretty busy

With so many comments on this piece, let's see what I can add that's new...

I want to repeat one item: this unit leans toward a warm, non-fatiguing sound... depending on the source and how it's connected.

CD: This unit won't make lower quality CD players sound good. I had a Marantz CD 63SE available. From the analog outs, it's still pretty fatiguing. From the digital out, there was a HUGE improvement - clean sweet sound. My guess is that a high end CD player would do even better analog.

DVD: Using a Pioneer Elite DV-05, I again found the analog outs fatiguing, but the digital out sounds great. After extended listening and comparison to the Marantz CD player above (also on the digital outs), it's such a close sound match that the difference isn't consistently discernible by my wife or me. I'm unloading that CD player.

Tuner: I had an entry level Magnum Dynalab FM tuner on hand for an A/B comparison to the built-in tuner. While the Denon tuner is OK, the outboard tuner was cleaner and had more detail. If you only listen to FM occasionally, this may not be an issue for you. As for the AM section, it works but isn't much fun to listen to. What AM is?

Connections: About what you'd expect at this price point, but I'd sure like to see a better FM antenna connection, like a threaded 75 ohm cable connector instead of one of those cheesy slide-on deals.

Manual: It's about 1/2 inch thick and is divided into three languages. I didn't expect a rosetta stone, but that seems to be the trend these days. It's readable but not a lot of fun. Hey Denon, have you heard of a concept called an index? For that matter, ever consider spending a few bucks for a English language proofreader? Sheesh! (OK, I'm done ranting. ;-)

Remote: For straight receiver operation, it's pretty good. Going off to other devices is less good. If you're looking for the universal remote of your dreams, this isn't it unless you're a switch & button freak. There's a flip down panel that hides buttons in the lower half which kind of makes you feel like you're in a bad episode of Star Trek. That being said, you can make it work with some effort.

Price: I got my unit from a local bricks-n-mortar for $900. In this price range, it's a heck of a bargain.

I hope to do a follow up in a few months after more play time. I know my comments here were picky, and I don't want to leave the wrong impression. Overally, I think this receiver is a great value, and with high quality sources, it's tough to beat.

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Pioneer Elite VSX-27 TX, Denon AVR-5700

Pristine DD performance; detailed, musical sound; features

runs hot, fan occassionally audible

Well, it looks like I'm the big sap who actually paid pretty close to retail for the AVR-3300 not long ago, but I've got (almost) no regrets. This A/V receiver has performed solidly under almost continuous usage. I am most impressed with its Dolby Digital prowess, most notably its dynamic range and precise resolution of even the subtlest details. This receiver is also quite musically satisfying, especially in the Direct Mode, which bypasses the digital processors within the unit. Music sounds like music, with clarity and spaciousness, yet the presentation can lean toward being over-etched and slightly dry, as Japanese-designed electronics are wont to do. Just a bit of tonal warmth is sacrificed here in favor of slightly hyper-analytical detail. These quibbles are quite minor, though. The overall sonic presentation is involving and satisfying and over time has proven to be revealing rather than fatiguing to listen to. The noise floor is extremely low: this receiver is QUIET.
Ironically, this ultra-quiet receiver has a noise problem of a different sort, one which has been widely reported here in this website: its cooling fan emits an unsettling, radiator-like whistle and ticks very softly like an old clock. In many, many hours of listening I've heard the "whistle" exactly twice. I've heard the soft clock sound on perhaps three occassions now, with the volume set quite low (maybe -45dB) and so far only during multichannel operation.
What to make of this? The AVR-3300's performance has been remarkable, and I've grown attached to the thing, but is this annoying fan noise going to get worse? Should I bring it back and upgrade to the AVR-4800, or just forget the whole HT thing and buy a Musical Fidelity A300 integrated for 1500 bucks and stop worrying about it?? If any of you can shed any light on the likelihood of this problem worsening, please e-mail me at unclesmittydog@hotmail.com. Thanks.

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Rotel RSX-965

sound, connectivity, value

fan

Imagine the most delicious, creamy, lovingly cooked soup.. with a fly in it. For an integrated unit: stupendous tonal quality (no shrill highs like Yamaha), great power in all ranges, tons of connectivity options for now and future... But a little fan that comes on about every 10 minutes and can be heard over normal TV dialogue. If this unit produced this sound through speakers it would be recalled (or at least shunned). What's the diff if it's coming out of the box itself--you still hear it. If you're planning to install in a closet or aren't bothered by little whirring sounds interrupting quieter music and TV moments, this IS your reciever. Otherwise check out new Harmon Kardon AVR510 (or even 310).

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Harmon Kardon AVR510, Yamaha RXV995

This is a great Piece and the best high in my opinion is the 5 chanell stereo and the sharc processing.

only has 1 coax input

The sharc prosessing and the 5 discrete chanells of audio makes this the perfect 1000 limit preamp.

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rotel

Great Sound, easy to use

Users Manual, binding posts seem flimsy, must use remote to search through AM/FM stations

I've had this unit a week (they are very hard to get) and I have to say, this is a very good sounding unit. In some cases, it rivals my Macintosh equipment for sound (1) when digital (coax) connect from CD player (Pioneer PD65) and (2) listening in DIRECT mode. I only have three speakers in my setup so far (fronts are B&W P4s, and 3rd is a B&W 600 series 2 center), but the receiver does a nice job in both 5 channel stereo and Dolby Pro. I will be purchasing a DVD player soon, but still auditioning, so haven't tested in DTS yet. I'll also be filling in the rears soon with a pair of smaller B&Ws. Not sure if I want, or need, a sub at this time.

I've heard the high pitched whistle twice now. There are reports in this section that say this is related to the fan. The unit does run hot, but not overly so (my impression was that you could cook an egg on the Denon AV5700 and Marantz 18/19, although these are nice units, especially the AV5700). Other than the whistle, I can't hear the fan start up or running, and this makes me a little nervous because MAYBE THE FAN DOESN'T WORK. Anyone out there know how to make the fan kick in, or can you feel it push air out the back of the unit? I'd say the users manual is poorly written and laid out, and you can't perform some functions on the receiver without the remote, like search or step through AM/FM stations, or put the unit in or out of MUTE. However, the auto station search and assignment is nice. I wish, though that Denon had added a memory for preferred begining volume based on the input device (not just surround effect).

I compared this unit to receivers in the $1000-$1500 price range, including the Marantz 8000, the Sony 777ES, the Onkyo Integra DTR7, Sherwood Newcastle R-945, B&K and Rotel receivers. Alot of work, but the Denon beat them all IMHO. I did, however, notice differences in build quality, and the Onkyo is a pretty solid unit. Upgrading to surround with Macintosh was just too cost prohibitive (somewhere between $8000 and $15000 depending on how you look at it). One last thing, I am convinced that there are NO receivers that sound as good as GOOD separates, but getting high quality cables, speakers, and media players (CD, DVD, VCR) does help.

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This is my first AV Receiver... have had a music only system with Macintosh C712/7100, B&W P4s

Ouality build,great sound.

nome so far.

Did months of research, was looking for price, quality and
sound.I found all of the above and more with the Denon AVR
3300.I found the best prices (by far] Alphasound and Video Rt 9, Freehold,NJ Tel # 1-800-354-1354 Web address abcstereo.com. You will not find any better prices anywhere. ABCSTEREO.com did what they said they would,delivery was before promisesed. These people treated
me like family.If you want the best prices,top quality and great service ask for Tony De in Freehold and at abcstereo.com.

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Too many