Powerful receiver, 110 watts of very clean sound. Very well build, exellent for music and HT, plenty of I/O for all your gear.

At this price!! NONE

I started my quest for an A/V receiver over a year ago; after I bought a pair of speakers:(JBL's S312), to replace my Technics rack system speakers. What a disaster!, the JBL's showed how bad and limited my receiver was. I started with a Marantz in mind, because of their legendary reputation, but after checking the reviews of some of their latest receivers, and reading about Denon's receivers, I decided to check the Denon's , Yamaha's ,and Onkyo's. I auditioned for almost 10 months, before settling on the Denon AVR 3802. After 3 months of owning this receiver I can only tell you how amazing it is. Extremely clean sound at any volume. I'm glad I waited for so long to buy it, because, I ended up paying $799 + tax,(with warranty) rather than the $1200 when it first came up. I use it practically for audio. My CD's sound awesome, what's better yet I am finally re-enjoying my vast collection of LP's, even my metal cassette tapes show more wide dynamic range than I ever noticed with the crappy Technics. Set up was a breeze, partly because, I do not connect video inputs to a receiver, only the audio from any video source. The On Screen Display was great for my speakers set up.(I cannot say the same above The AVR 2802, which I bought prior to the 3802, and returned because, I was not able to make it display the OSD. See my review of the AVR 3802. After all the negative reviews I read about the remote, I cannot understand what's all the fuss about it. I find it very ergonomically designed, and easy to use (at least the audio section), I cannot comment on the video section of the remote. I do not care one bit for all those DSP modes. I listen to my music on 5/7 stereo channels with my surround speakers placed at 90 degree of my fronts. This turned up to be the best set up for music in my living room. A lot more powerful and, much more detailed sound than any of the other setups, like DPLII, direct, 2ch. stereo,etc.

Similar Products Used:

Technics, Marantz, Yamaha, Onkyo

Power,looks,remote control,Dolby Digital, DTS playback

One weakness maybe is that it only has 1 subwoofer output. Weak binding posts on the back of the receiver, no inputs on the front of the receiver

I have had the pleasure of using this receiver for the last month and must say that it is the best reveiver I have ever owned. I have gone through my fair share of receivers including a few Denon's and numerous Yamaha's. The 3802 is by far the best sounding one I have had yet. I found the Yamaha's to be a little bit harsh and bright, I am no means an audiophile but the Denon just seemed to sound alot more detailed and warmer than the Yamaha. The 3802 is 110 watts per channel and is plenty powerful to drive all of my speakers which are very power hungry. Dolby Digital and DTS playback is absolutely phenominal. I am hearing effects in movies that I have never heard before. 5 channel stereo is phenominal as well. The 3802 is also a very intelligent reciever. It remembers all the settings for each input so you don't have to switch all your settings when you change your sound settings. For example me personally when I listen to two channel direct mode I like to have my subwoofer off and when I watch movies I have it on. With previous receivers I would have to manually turn the sub off in direct and manually turn it on for movies. The personal memory plus feature of the 3802 does it automatically for you. I have heard others complain about the remote and personally I like it. It is very simple to use and functions all of my auido components without any trouble. The remote is backlit but the actual buttons aren't. This is one kickass receiver and I would recommend it to anybody.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha DSP A 1000, Yamaha RXV 2095, Denon AVR 3300, Yamaha DSP A1

Everything

nothing

this reciever is the by far the best i have heard. before i purchased it i did not read any reviews or anything. i simply went to the store and listened to recievers they had there. ther were some from the pioneer elite series, the higher end harmon kardon recievers along with denon avr-3802, 4802, 5802. the 5802 made me cry cuz i wanted it so bad but at the time it cost like $6000 so i went for the 3802. i have to say that i am very impressed with this reciever. now you will hear people complain that it doesn't sound great in stereo mode and all that but what is their setup? i have $2000 worth of wire connection all my components and speakers to the reciever. with a high quality reciever like the avr-3802 you also need to have high grade cables for your components. my setup is as follows: front speakers: 2 cerwin vega's e-712 (300w/each) center: cerwin vega e-75c (100w) back speakers: 2 cerwin vega e-706 (125w/each) the other 2 back surrounds that this reciever supports: 2 cerwin vega e-76c (125w/each) the denon avr-3802 sounds amazing in every mode i have tried. as for the remote, i rather like the remote. i find it extremely easy to use and it looks nice at the same time. the on screen display is also very usefull and easy to set up and use. for those of you that have complaints about the sound you should first take a look at the gauge of speaker wire that you're using. 10 gauge is what i would recomend. when i bought this reciever it was going for $2600 but i offered $2000 cash and got it so to me it was a good deal at the time. all in all i love this reciever. it kicked the you know what out of many other recievers i tested out at the store, some of which were said to be more powerful.

Great power, great sound Well built Great remote Everything about is is amazing

Nothing at all

I've been using Denon for years now, so when I decided to update my receiver, Denon was on top of my list. Strictly as a good value, the AVR-3802 was head and shoulders above the competition. I won't rag on Onkyo, Marantz, etc like everyone else seems to do; I'm sure they are great products but I never tried them out before. But when I hooked this Denon up to my Paradigm Reference speaker system, my jaw dropped at how perfect everything sounded. Vinyl sounded incredible (Flaming Lips - the Soft Bulletin: perfect audition material!) and CD, now hooked up digital with a coax wire, was crisp and tight, as it should be. When I finally figured out that I had to modify the output of the DVD to get a digital signal to the receiver, I had to kick myself for not buying this thing sooner! What a sound! Perfect channel separation, incredible reproduction of anything from a bullet ringing out, to a covertly whispered dialogue passage. Ample power for my huge, high ceiling living room. Also, plently of connectivity. I have to say, the remote is simply the best one I've ever used. I don't know why everyone complains. What a great piece of equipment I now have in the AVR-3802.

Similar Products Used:

All products in Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer Elite and Sony ES lines.

Amp quality Surround processing Multi-preamp

None

Was looking to upgrade an old Yamaha receiver and spent a long time investigating. Listened to Sony ES, Yamaha, Marantz, Pioneer Elite, HK, Kenwood, Onkyo, and nothing in the price range came close to the sound quality of the Denon 3802. I do not really care too much about the usability of the piece so long as I can manage to set things up correctly. The key to me is sound quality and nothing touches Denon in my opinion when it comes to this. I do not have the physical room to properly set up 7.1 so I mapped the extra two powered channels to my outdoor deck speakers and use the multi-preamp to control them, nice feature and it was easy to setup using the on screen display. If you do not need the extra two channels at all I would go for the 2802 because the sound quality was just as good for hundreds less. I use it with Paradigm Monitor Series Speakers, sounds amazing for the money spent!

Power Expansionability Good General Workhorse

Purchased to power Martin Logan Aeons - very happy with purchase. Has ability to pump some really hoggish hybrids. Liked the expandability on back side.

Denon is the BEST!

$200 price increase. Good chance to get the AVR-3802 at a discount. AVR-3803 not on the market for sale until end of October....

Good News... The Denon AVR-3803 is out! Check out the facts on the WEB page (Denon.com). Looks like it is the same receiver, but it has more stuff. The remote is completely changed for one! Another cool feather, is video conversion... Now you can connect only one time to you TV. The unit will convert to what ever video output you need, reqardless of the input type. I always questioned this because you can go to Radio shack and get this conversion all day long. Now it's in the box! There are alot more feathers, and alot are the exact same. The manual looks easier also. Download it from the WEB. It is in "pdf" format. Bad news. It now cost $1,200. But, if you remember, when the AVR-3802 came out, it also was listed at $1,200. The price dropped after about 6 months.

Similar Products Used:

Polk RM7500 speakers

Sound is beautiful. Remote works well. Well Built. On screen display is grea!!! Has 5.1 and 6.1. Upgradable to 7.1 devices.

None so far!!!

Using it with Klipsch RF3 II speakers. Loved the highs on the horn tweeters. Bass is decent. On-screen setup is very handy and makes setting up much easier.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood KRXV1000 Sony 555

Power. Great for the price.

Have owned it for a over 8 months and still have not figured out the remote but it still is awesome

Awesome! Plenty of hookups for all of your toys. More power than you will ever need unless you have 3000sq/ft of listening space.

Similar Products Used:

AIWA Reciever My System: TV: Toshiba Widescreen 50' HDTV Denon 3802 Fronts: Def. Tech. BP2006 Center: Def. Tech. C/L/R 2500 Surround: Def. Tech. BP2x DVD: Denon 1600 Toy: X-box If you want t

-Power -Clarity -Performance for the price -An abundance of every possible input/output jack -7 Channels!

All remote related: -Not real forgiving regarding the angle to the equipment you are trying to run -Could not learn several basic commands from some of my equipment -Not laid out real well for ease of use

I had been researching receivers for several months and had been reviewing this site for information. Based on all the reviews here at audioreview.com had really focused on either the Marantz SR-7200 or the Denon 3802. Both had the power I wanted and a highly respectable name. Next step was to go hear them in person. I heard the Denon first and was blown away by the sound. Listening to a Dave Matthews CD in the store eminated a very warm sound that seemed to flow from the speakers. Then watched the Matrix (lobby shooting spree scene) and was blown away by the clarity and power of the unit. Next I checked out the Marantz which sounded very "bright" to me. The power was there, but I really liked the warm sounding Denon better. It was a little more money, but the Marantz did not have the 7.1 capability. Plus, this is a unit I hope to own for 15+ years and had read numerous reviews about Marantz quality problems with this particular unit. I stuck with the Denon and it ROCKS. I've owned it a little over 3 months now and it is impressive. I am using the Mirage AVR-500 satellite speaker system with the Mirage LF100 8-inch Subwoofer and all I can say is WOW. The two sound awesome together. I purchased the AVR-500 system and subwoofer for $600, what a deal. They sound better than the best Bose system available and at about a third of the cost (check 'em out). Sorry to get sidetracked there... As far as performance goes the 3802 gets no complaints from me. As others have stated the remote could be better. You really have to be pointing DIRECTLY at the receiver, or piece of equipment you are operating, for it to work properly all the time (not real forgiving when it comes to the remote's angle to the equipment). Also, the remote was unable to learn a couple basic commands from my Toshiba DVD player and SharpVision front projection TV (power on/off?). It does run most of my other equipment just fine (Mitsubishi VCR, Kenwood CD player, Cable TV box). Also, the user friendliness of the remote is not great (my previous Kenwood learned remote was much better). Takes several buttons to switch to different equipment and make basic adjustments (volume, changing channel, etc.). I figure I can always get a cheap universal remote if need be. I did not have a problem with the directions as others seemed to. I DID have a problem getting the On-Screen Display to show up on my older

Similar Products Used:

My system setup includes: -Denon 3802 -Mirage AVR-500 Satellite System -Mirage LF100 8" Subwoofer -Toshiba DVD Player -SharpVision Projector TV -Toshiba TV -Kenwood CD Player -Mitsubishi VCR