My second surround sound receiver (purchased for $50 with remote off CL). Great for movies but fantastic for all channel stereo.Replaced a Yamaha R-V1105 which is still in use as a kitchen stereo. It was driving a pair of A/D/S M-12's towers, a pair of DCM-TF400's and a Klipsch C-5 center and made movies come alive. We don't watch regular TV channels and watch maybe one movie a month at most so most of the time it has been used as multi-channel stereo. That is why I like these Denons, very clean and dynamic sound. I have since bought two more Denon 3805's and a Yamaha RX-V1 (my most expensive receiver now since I paid $100 with remote from a guy whose "upgrading" to those little Bose cube systems). Now I have all four receivers hooked up to our entertainment PC via a distribution amplifier and many more vintage speakers and it sounds great! The Denon's are perfect for multichannel stereo use and the Yamaha is good at home theater stuff (it sucks at all channel stereo though, those dang DSP modes). Anyway, if you find a 3801 for sale you won't regret it, it is a fantastic and very well built unit with plenty of power. With nearly every room in our house with it's own system and an under $1200 investment let's just say that used stereo buys will save you tons of money. Don't forget that there are many great acoustic suspension type speakers that are very, very good at producing beautiful and accurate music out there.

I've had the Panasonic HE100 as my AV receiver for many years, and rate it much higher than it's original
low cost. I wanted a more powerful receiver to drive my monster(143lbs ea.) Altec Lansing #19 speakers,
and was able to find a Denon 3801 that does a fine job. It lacked the remote, and without it, I can't get the
radio function to play. For some reason, Denon did not include a master tuner control on the 3801. I'm looking
at a Logitech Harmony 510 remote to do the job. I would like input from any of you with universal remote
knowledge. As a gaming computer builder, I always remove the covers of my equipment to remove dust,etc.
and take a look-see. The 3801 is the best built chassis I've seen to date, and with all it's awesome output
power, doesn't produce as much heat as my lesser-powered HE100. The heat sink assembly is huge, AND
yes, it does have a fan built into the heatsink, which can't be seen from the outside. No, it doesn't have HDMI
plugins, but component cables and my Toslink optical to my Sony upconvert DVD player, which in turn, is
connected to my 1080p HDTV via a HDMI cable, does a great job. As a brand new member to Audio Review.
com, I would like all the comments you guys have to offer. This is how I learn. THANKS!

I have used this reciever constantly for 8years with no failures, or any other problems at all. It has been in my dedicated listening room for the entire time. I now have it connected to a PS3, and Pioneer LX70a BLU-RAY player. The Pioneer is linked via 7.1 output and the PS3 via an HDMI to 7.1 converter from Lektropacks. Although the LX70a is deffinately a more serious piece of AV kit, the PS3 with the downloaded upgrades to the audio processing does a very good job with BLU-RAYS, so all that is left is for the 3801 to relay the decoded audio to the amp circuits and on to the speakers. Simple really. I should mention that 4 years ago i bought a SONY STR DA 1200 ES because it had the now universal HDMI input. But after 2 weeks use i removed it and replaced my 3801! I still believe you would have to spend a hell of alot more than the £900 i paid in 2001 for this reciever to get any real world improvements on audio reproduction, but still would need some sort of converter or a player with analogue audio outs to take advantage of the new HD audio formats.

Sound quality, many settings, build quality, denon demands respect from all who know the name.

Remote- but who the heck cares. In this day and age anybody running a home theater uses a programble single remote. Let's not get stuck on a moot point.

Everthing is awesome about this receiver. I did major research on this before buying. I love all the settings- even has 7.1(THX) without the expense.

Great sound Easy to Use The Price The All 5 channel & sub Natural sound mode for playng CDs, the tones Just great!

Doesn't have built in microphone to set DB & Equilization levels- you can do this yourself, big deal!

I love this receiver & totally recommend it to everyone. You can find the 3801 in very good to excellent condition with a remote & manual for between $380- $475 with shipping on Ebay & I totally recommend you purchase one from a seller who has numerous positive feedback in the USA. If you have a Universal Remote you can sell the Denon Remote for $35- 50 on Ebay. Anyway, as I said, I love this receiver. I have my CD player, DVD player's audio & digital box/DVR attached to it (I have my component cables from my DVD & HD/DVR straight into my HD TV. The sound is awesome. I actually prefer with the equipment I have now to use optical cables in it for the best sound. I know this is heresy to say, but for CD's, I listen in the all 5 channel & sub stereo mode which outputs the left & right front & back output without reprocessing the signal, the sub & the center channel is a combo of the left & right output. This gives my CDs much more depth. if you're sceptical, try it. Anyway, this receiver is a bargain & it gives great sound which you can play in 5.1 or 7.1 modes for DVDs & TV. The only thing lacking & it wasn't a problem for me whatsoever is there is no built in microphone to set DB levels & EQ's. As you can do this yourself within 2 hours or so & fine tune as necessary, I think its worth saving $1,000 & not buying a newer Denon Receiver with this feature.

Customer Service

I think Denons customer service is a joke for as good as the product they make.

All relevant sound formats 7 channel amps pre-outs for all channels Good build quality

Stereo performance not acceptable Remote is bad Manual even worse

Well, I have used this product now for a few years. It is a fine product, with some strong but also some weak points. First of all the HT performace is what you get. Loads of power, adequate steering and smooth on high volumes. It does all valid formats, and has worked flawlessly. It has no fan, so no background noise. It even dos not get very warm The manual is written by someone who wrote a manual for the first time. It has no structure and because of this things are hard to understand. The remote plainly sucks, but I won a Pronto anyway. The OSD is easy to understand. Thats a plus, so you do not need that manual. The ablolute weakness is its Stereo performance. The sound is flat, has no detail and most of all the bass is muddy. Do not use the tone controls. Thats even worse. Using the 5.1 input is better then the CD input. It seems to be more direct than the CD input. Even when you use the direct mode. Now for the good news, I heard both the 3802 and the 3803. Amazingly their stereo performance is no better, I rate even the 3802 as worse. Problem is that a 500 Euro Rotel RA-02 trashes the 3801. On the entry level speakers like JMlabs chorus it was very audible.

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Excellent build,perfomance & good values for money

hate the remote,manual is completely misleading,only one coaxial and optical inputs.

I bought the unit in May 2001,well the sound was miles ahead of my previous prologic technics receiver. Clean continious power. dd,dts & the various flavours ommisions of 7.1. The units has perfomed flawlessly since may 01. Set up of this receiver was extremely straightforward and easy, the only problem i seem to experience is components in/out dont seem to work,but it does not bother me. DTS Neo cinema matrix is on equal par with PL II

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Musical! My old Infinity Qbs and BIC turntable love this receiver, but so do my Denon CD changer and Sony DVD player!Multi zone is very nice and convienient. Some folks don't like the remote, I think it's fine. DSP modes are fun if you tweak them a bit. Made in Japan.

Yeah, the tuner section...it does ok pulling in stations, but it is a bit of a pain to program. Too many banks.

Still amazing - got this unit in December of 2000 to replace TWO posessed 3300's and I couldn't be happier. Puts the old Yamaha 850 I had to shame. Roger Moore's cousin(see below)was dead on.

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TWO lemon 3300's, and a Yamaha 850 (RX - V maybe?) but the Yammy was only pro-logic, so....apples and oranges.

Power, sound quality

A little bright (when paired with Energy Speakers)

Replaces AVR3300, that despite the poor recent reviews, I did not really mind. This is much better though. Great clean power.

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DTS-ES, MADE IN JAPAN, THX WITHOUT THE LOGO, 7.1 CHANNEL, GREAT PRICE WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK, DOLBY DIGITAL IS FANTASTIC, FACEPLATE IN BLACK WITH GOLD DENON NAMEPLATE LOOKS EXPENSIVE

REMOTE, TUNER IS TOUGH TO GET THE DESIRED STATIONS

Thanks God, I bought this receiver. This is the best receiver out there. It has a clean power and has a tight strong bass. I agree with Roger Moore with his review that this receiver has a THX qualities without the logo and it is a sweet sounding receiver when hooked up to Paradigm reference speakers preferably the Studio 20's or 40's. I have done a lot of research and this receiver is on top of competition. The DTS-ES is superb in 6.1 surround especially when I was watching "Gladiator" where the archers released their arrows, you can hear every arrows being released and they keep on zinging from both rear surrounds. I would not trade this receiver from any manufacturer other than the top of the line made by Denon. It rocks in stereo mode and so detailed that you can hear every musical instruments being played, the imaging is so clear that you can pinpoint where drums, cymbals, and guitars in the soundstage. Vocals are clear and feels like the singers are within your reach. When I played Diana Krall's CD "The Look of Love" I showed this to my in-laws and their jaws just dropped and they cannot believe what they were listening to, one of them commented me for such an awesome receiver I got. And they told me that I probably spent a thousands of dollars for this receiver. I told them that it only cost just a little over a thousand dollars and you can get it cheaper on the internet. Overall, I'm very very happy with this receiver, although it only has a 105 watts of power at 8 ohms, still not bad for a receiver, all I wanted now is to add dual mono amps from Odyssey Audio to run a pair of Paradigm Studio 100. I highly recommend this receiver to those who would like to upgrade their systems with a limited budget. Get one now if you can still find it.

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