Good power, good musical quality

Sound, especially bass could be stronger

Pretty good sound, but it can't match my Carver TFM 25. My system has Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble Speakers. Oh, the model year is 1993 but this system doesn't allow dates older than 1995.

Similar Products Used:

Hafler ???
Onkyo M501
Carver TFM 25

I recently acquired the POA-2800 about a week ago for $999 AUD (~$750 USD).The POA-2800 is your medium-to-high end stereo power amplifier. It boasts
200W per channel, and can support two sets of speakers (A & B sets), either
singly or both at once. This means it has a pleasing lack of buttons (3 in
fact, power, A set on/off, B set on/off).

It's big, it's black, and it packs. Used in conjunction with a Sony MDP-V1
as a CD/LD player and a Denon AVR-3600 as a pre-amp and Bose 901's for
speakers, I can say that I'm extremely impressed with it's performance. Prior
I used the AVR-3600 as a main amp, and the POA absolutely kicks compared to
the AVR. Bass immediately became clearer and more musical, all murkiness
disappeared. Transitions became rapid and every instrument throughout the
range gained life and definition. The POA-2800 faithfully reproduces the
source in every detail, adding clarity to complicated mixes of instruments.
Frankly I was amazed at how much difference a good amplifier could make.
My favorite test album, Mike Oldfield's "Amarok", gained life and gentle
subtleties became apparent whereas before they were unheard. Music became
tighter than before with no `slop' evident. Overall I'd say this was close
to the last step you could take before entering the stratospheric realm of
top-quality amplifiers and their price tags.

I am extremely impressed with the quality of the Denon POA-2800 and the price
is definately right. Sure there are better amps out there, but value for
money with VERY high quality sound amplification makes this a 5 star item
for me.

Hi, if anyone is selling their POA-2800, can you please e-mail me? Thank You.

Dual Mono Construction
High Power but runs fairly cool
Fairly articulate sound and absolutely no flabby bass

Not designed to be bridged for high power mono operation.
Large but sub-standard binding posts for speaker connection.

This amplifier does two things very well. First, it sounds natural with no undue emphasis on any frequency. What may be mistaken for a somewhat leaness of bass to me is better described as iron fisted bass control with no artificial mid-bass muck. Second, it is quiet with very little background hiss and that seems to give sound that stark black background that impresses when the source material has the same ultra-quiet background. I understand some versions have level pots, but mine does not and I'm sure that helps all the more to eliminate background noise.

The build quality for this amp is fairly impressive and very impressive when consideration is given to the price. Yes, this amp to many represents a maximum bang for the buck type product. Denon's optical A-Class is suppose to allow the amp to operate free of possible AB switching distortions. Since I have never owned an outright class-A amp I can not tell you if this is true, other than to say that when driven to loud transients it seems to sound totally free of grain.

This amp did not get a lot of press since Denon is Japanese (i.e.: Not KRELL). Amps like this, however, do prove that Japan is capable of not only fine front end electronics, but also brute-force musical power amplifiers.

I would that if you can find one of these amps for sale it would not be a bad deal to pay up to $800 for one in good shape. And in fact you may be able to buy one for less since when Denon decided to build smaller THX rated amps they sold these to dealers at a fairly deep discount. So keep your eyes open and see if you can snag one of these super sounding amps.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaco Stereo 400
Hafler 9505