Multy surround speakers, DTS suite, pure direct mode, very easy setup (too easy)

Remote, Bass Management, only one c/o, poor dsp modes, no user saveable preset, last use options saved/no default setting, very easy setup, not enough options, can't be upgraded.

Couln't take the Bass miss-management any longer, too bad, it is a promising AVR. Very clean sound, pleanty of power. With family I need to set defaults so when they watch a movie it will default to THX DD/DTS/prologic, know if I play around and listen to Pure direct then turn it off, then direct is what you get when you turn it on, very bad ! not user friendly. The remote is a terrible, cheap and again not user friendly, takes to long to change something. I returned it !

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Integra, Marantz, B&K

Much power in the amplifier section

Too much negative feedback int the amplifier section

It's big and sturdy. Somewhat user friendly. Unfortunately it uses cheap parts and Denon seems to have cut too many corners in order to "try" and keep the price down. It is ok in the area of Home theater but in the area of music it severely lacks (what else can one expect from a receiver).
It has horrible negative feedback due to a poorly engineered amplifier section.

The Integra I used prior on the other hand is remarkable in all aspects. It does somewhat lack in the area of music but then again it's a receiver too. I was so impressed with the Integra and regret having switched that I plan to get rid of the Denon and go with Onkyo Integra Research seperates (www.integraresearch.com). That Amplifier is most impressive. BAT makes some of the best solid state amplifiers on the market. Do more research, don't take my word for it, as a scientist I know to investigate, and audition the Denon alongside other top end products. For a little more then the 5800 one could go with B&k or Parasound seperates.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo Integra DTR 9.1

Analog Devices DACS, DTS-ES Discrete, DTS Neo 6, Pure Direct mode uses 4 DACS per channel

Remote

Plenty of power. Music sounds great. Ability to cut video circuits off when listening to music. Simple setup. Two sets of rear surrounds plus rear center. Two DACs per channel. Two sets of external multi-channel inputs. Component switching. Huge 1200 VA transformer. Includes DD, DTS, THX EX and DTS ES Discrete.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha DSP-A1, Denon 4800

Amplifier quality, processing abillities.

None

It is very simple. This is the greatest receiver ever devised. There is no other unit from any brand that can touch the 5800. At full retail of $3800, this receiver is a bargain. Anyone who even compares this receiver to the top Yamaha or Onkyo, doesn't know what they are talking about. There is simply nothing else in it's league.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RXV1, Onkyo 989, Marantz SR-14EX

16 DACs at 24/192, 4 DACs per channel in pure direct mode, power reserves, imaging, super clean, features and of course- the remote

Needs to buy it first and then pair it up with the appropriate speakers, not the other way around.

IMHO the Denon 5800 is an excellent product. It can play super clean and loud with no sign of strain (The neighbours showed some). It has all the musicality of the other three receivers I compared it to and some. The Denon 5800 presents this musicality with a higher degree of sound separation while the Marantz tends to mellow the overall sound. They are both musical and clear but in diffferent ways. Match it with a forward or laid back speaker to get your desired sound.

The pure direct mode applies 8 DACs per channel (4 dual differential DACs/channel) to the incoming PCM signal. I have yet to hear something so clear yet so musical, in one physical unit. Sound separation of instruments is fantastic yet the soundstage is uniform and very smooth. There is no harshness whatsoever even on the high frequency happy Nautilus Tweeter on the CDM NT. The midrange is outstanding. The entire presentation has a sense of airiness to it. HT dialog is very clear, separate and one can even hear the inhalation of breath before words are spoken. EX creates a more complete environment. Hopefully more movies will be released with EX.

There are sufficient number of inputs of all types. A thoughtful design feature is the high bandwith component connections for HDTV/DTV signal switching. It has an RS-323 port +24/192 decoding (2 DACS per channel dual diffrential x 8 channels) + 10Hz-100KHz frequency response + 1394 Firewire upgradibility, which means it does not come with the usual anchor of obsolesence that accompanies most electronics today (this is my third system in 5 years).

The 5800 comes with a fabulous remote - It is very easy to use and after navigating through it the first 2-3 time, one can get addicted to it. It comes preprogrammed with a variety of device/brand codes and will cover most components.

As with any high end audio component, all other components have to be matched very carefully to arrive at the sound one likes.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, SR-18, SR-19, Denon 4800. All Side by side comparison in my living room with the new B&W CDM NT Speakers

Great remote, Excellent range on music as well as DVD Audio, Features, Multi Room support, Upgradeablity, Extensive Optical(Fiber) Inputs, Easy programing.

Initial Setup, weight of this beast, amount of time to setup and physical size.

Well this is one IMPRESSIVE piece of equipment to own. Once you get past the physical charistics of the device, close to 60 pounds and at least 30% larger than the 3600, all I can say is that this was WELL WORTH THE WAIT!!

Not only is the new DTS music awesome but the range of the reciever can produce is unbelievable. There is NO and I mean NO Audiable sound from the huge fan, which must be close to 5 inches across in size, which was one thing I was worried about at home. The remote was very user friendly and easy to configure with other non Denon devices. It intergrated seamlessly with my OLD (1988) CD Player, but I was disappointed that it did not work with my Sony AD4 DSS Reciever but oh well. :)

Sound quality from the oldier Denon AVR 3600 reciever to the new 5800 was much better than I expected and I was VERY VERY Impressed with the quality as well as the distinction with DVD's such as the Eagles, Terminator, Armageddon, and a few other DVD's. I am waiting tonight to re-watch Saving Private Ryan and I am looking forward to the difference from the old reciever. The wife was impressed with the difference in the reciever which was a pleasant suprise. I was blown away with the difference in the DTS with the new reciever and I did not think it was possible that I could have my speakers sound better than they were before. Yet again this was a pleasant supprise.

A few things I did was compare DVD Music such as the Eagles, Hootie and the Blowfish, etc and found that the difference was unreal and to me the difference is the same as going from a CD Sound quality perspective, which in itself is not too bad, and compare it to DVD Sound. AWESOME in every respect.

The only problem was the setup of this monster but even after it was completed it was a well worth the effort.

If you have the money, want a SERIOUS piece of hardware, and want to enhance your existing equipment, BUY THIS!!!

IT is worth every penny spent.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR 3600, Marman Cardon Citiation 22, Denon 2500

Sound quality is on Par with other high end receivers
Build quality is very good.
Has connections for everything.
Remote is programmable.
Auto-detection of surround sound mode
Passes THX ULTRA specifications

low level hiss
remote poorly designed
manual poorly written
very difficult (impossible for me) to read volume level from 7 feet away.
poor human engineering*

Strong Points:
I am not going to run through the good points on this receiver because everybody else does.
What I will do is show you the few weak points it has that bother me. You can then decide if they are important to you.

Weak Points:
* re the poor human engineering: because this type of audio/video component is relatively new, my impression is all the "top-of-the-line" receivers have fairly poor human engineering because the manufacturers haven't really figured out how to handle all of the features yet. This situation should improve with time.

The low level hiss: There is a very low volume background hiss.
This "white noise" is extremely low level and you don't notice it at normal listening levels unless your sitting right next to the speaker when no sound is being produced. But I think you may notice this if you have a very quiet home theatre room. My home theatre is set up in my apartment living room, so there is a steady background noise level coming from its environment.
NOTE: This hiss does not bother me, I simply never notice it at the volume levels I listen at.

I tried to do a test to see if the source of the hiss was the preamp/processor or the power amp.

I run my L & R front channels thru a power amp, the hiss is there and its not coming from the Power Amp, so it must be coming from the DVD-out on the Dennon. To test this I used the Dolby 5.1 decoder on my DVD player and ran the L & R front channels to the L & R fronts in the external processor inputs on the 5800 ("external 1"). I then set the "audio in" source as "external 1". It worked, and I got sound from just the 2 front channels. But putting the DVD on Pause and listening carefully with may ear close to the speaker, showed hiss was still present, even in the other channels, though nothing was hooked into them under "external 1". Use of my DVD 5.1 decoder in the past did not produce this hiss.

So even if you use an external surround-sound processor, I think each individual channel must still go through the preamp on the Denon to allow for volume, tone and channel level adjusting. Therefore the two sets of 8 "external" RCA jacks DO NOT allow direct access to the power amps in the 5800.

Remote: Very poor, but versatile.
If you have the patience and enjoy dealing with highly complex home electronic equipment, (like myself) you will be able to figure out how to use this remote. It's an attempt to produce a product "similar to" a best-selling remote (the Pronto) but is just a bargain basement imitation. It has a touch screen and 6 buttons and a joystick.

The 6 buttons cannot be reprogrammed. Touch screen Button shapes cannot be changed. Empty buttons cannot be deleted. Pages of empty buttons cannot be deleted. (Each "device" has a preset format of pages of buttons).
Contrast on the touch screen is OK. There is no setting to automatically turn on the back light with touch screen activation. (Of course, pressing the "light" button will turn on the screen with backlight).
The joystick is good, with solid feel. It doubles as a control to either select devices and navigate pages of buttons, or as the menu control for DVD and Amplifier settings. But to use it for menus you have to touch the screen or the "light" button (to turn the screen on), select the device who's menus you want to control, then page to a screen which has a cursor control button on it. Press that and THEN you can use the joystick to select menus for your DVD or amplifier settings. Very cumbersome.

It is programmable, copying a command from another remote is VERY easy.

Denon has programming software on the net for this remote. I can't test it, because one computer I own uses Windows 95 (which they don't make a version for) and the other uses Windows ME , which crashes when I attempt to run it.

The volume indicator is a two-digit number about 1 cm high, very difficult to read from a distance. It is not displayed on the television screen.

Summary:
The 5800 looks nice, but average. It comes only in black (at least in Canada). You can get most of the technical details off their web site so I won‘t run through it here.
The Denon 5800 has more features and connections than any other receiver on the home market that I'm aware of. (The Onkyo TX DS989, because it's upgradeable, may eventually have more surround sound modes, but at the time I purchased the 5800, it had less).

All in all I like the Denon 5800, I think it's major failings are the hiss, which I simply never notice because it's at too low a volume level, it's human engineering, which seems to be a common failing for a surround-sound receiver, and it's remote, which I think was manufactured for the purpose of tricking consumers into buying their product. (Luckily I new about the failings of the remote prior to purchase). I am satisfied with the performance and features of the Denon 5800, but I think it is over-priced.

Ratings:(out of 6) Looks: *** Ease-of-use: *** features: ****** Sound: *****

Similar Products Used:

none, auditioned several others, but those didn't have all the features I wanted.

Everything

None

This is a truly outstanding piece of equipment. I searched for months for a good A/V receiver and, frankly, I was torn between the B&K 307 and the 5800. I read the reviews and auditioned them both in listening rooms of high-end video stores. Ultimately, I was hard pressed to distinguish between the two as to performance or sound quality. I loved the way the B&K sounded. It is truly an exceptional piece of equipment. The primary reason why I went with the 5800 was its additional features. Thus far, I am extremely pleased with my decision.

Though, historically, I have spent a majority of my time listening to music, this is not why I purchased this receiver. I have separate components for music and use the 5800 primarily for home theater. I have been surprised, however, at how good it sounds in both two-channel stereo mode and, surprisingly, five channel stereo. When listening to “Autumn Leaves” by Miles Davis in the 5 channel mode, you can almost forget that you are not listening to a live performance! The 5 channel mode provides a good sampler of things to come as the 5.1 channel DVD Audio format gains more prevalence.

I have also been pleased with the video performance of the unit. I was concerned that I might experience image degradation by running video signals through the receiver. No problems at all. I have a Toshiba 65H80 HDTV, and the images from my DVD player look spectacular.

My only concern relates to the Atkis remote. I guess most people either love it or hate it, and I’m leaning towards the latter category. The unit has had a single software upgrade from its pre-programmed set-up. Succinctly, it needs more work. Denon should provide direct links between component switching on the receiver and the controls of the selected component. Currently you have to access the receiver menu and switch to, say, the DVD player, then scroll through another menu to access the DVD player’s controls (which controls may occupy some 2 or 3 separate screens). You know that the remote needs work if it would be easier to just keep the dedicated remotes handy rather than scrolling through so many screens. In spite of this weakness (which I might be able to overcome if I had the time or patience to program macros), overall the remote is okay. It’s just that I think it could be much better.

Anyone interested in an A/V receiver should definitely audition this product. Notwithstanding a handful of (probably fraudulent) negative reviews that are posted here, this is an outstanding unit. I find it notable that the professional reviewers have uniformly applauded the 5800 both for its audio and video performance (there is yet another set of accolades in this month’s “Stereophile Guide to Home Theater”). Check it out.

Similar Products Used:

Denon

Beats any other receiver on the market! Incredibly clear, crisp sound. Amazingly powerful. A TON of features. DTS ES Discrete capabilities. Basically everything you could ask for in an A/V receiver.

Too heavy for the shelves in my A/V rack!! Other than that, this thing really has no weaknesses. It's the perfect audio creation. The problems mentioned in the review will probably sound stupid as time passes, since this is one of the first reviews of the receiver.

Boy this thing is a beast! I had to put it on the floor of my A/V rack because the max weight for the shelves is 40lbs. This thing weighs over 60! Well, let me tell you it IS as good as the early reviews have praised it for being. It really does everything, and damn is it powerful! It has more power than I could ever think about needing. I only hope to have a house some day with a living room big enough to require more power. It has a TON of features - really everything you could ask for.

I'm going to do something different here. Instead of writing paragraph after paragraph of how good this receiver is, I'm going to tell you only the things I do NOT like about it. This should be a change, as I don't think I've actually read one bad word about this receiver. So, here goes:

Really, it's only 1 thing that's bugging me. I don't think this receiver will actually switch to DTS ES mode (matrix or discrete) when it detects a flag on the disc. Well, that's not entirely true. If you are in DTS mode, it will. But if you are in THX Home Cinema mode, which I normally am, it won't switch to DTS mode when a flag is detected. I have tried both, my DTS Demo Disc #4 DVD (with the flagged Haunting clip), and The Haunting DTS DVD, and both cause the "Signal Detect" indicator on the front of the receiver to light up (indicating there IS a flag), but it won't switch to DTS mode. You have to do that yourself. If you are currently in DTS mode, it will then automatically switch to the appropriate mode (i.e. DTS ES Matrix or DTS ES Discrete). Am I expecting too much here? I have tried setting the Auto Flag Detect Mode on the receiver to ON and OFF, and it won't switch automatically to DTS mode either way. You always have to switch manually.

Another thing I'm wondering about is whether or not you can have THX processing in DTS mode. When in DTS ES Discrete mode (with The Haunting DVD playing), can I press the THX Home Cinema button and just add THX processing? When I do this, the display changes to THX Surround EX, leading me to believe that I'm not actually getting a discrete rear channel. I wish I knew the answer to this question. I thought you could add THX processing to DTS, but since the display changes from DTS Discrete to THX EX, I have no confirmation I'm actually getting a discrete rear channel.
If I could get this straightened out, I'd be one happy camper!

I wish I could review the remote, but I never really got to use it. I sold it as soon as the receiver arrived to help alleviate the cost of the receiver. I already own the Philips Pronto and from what I've seen of the Aktis remote, the Pronto is more flexible.

That's about it folks. Everything else is gravy. I didn't want to bore you with a big glowing review, as you can already imagine this thing must be pretty good for a $3800 MSRP.

This is truly the best receiver in the world by a fair margin.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-4800 (owned before upgrading to the 5800), Onkyo TX-DS989, Yamaha RX-V1

Now I have used this product for 7 months, and I'm still very happy with the sound and performance in both 2 and multi channel. Now that we have Prologic II and DTS 96Khz/24bit I have asked denon to know if they are working on a software upgrade for those new formats. The answer was "we are decidin if we will make an "upgrade service" or not for this product". So, the upgradeability was only on the paper? If someone know some more, please, contact me.