AL24+ Processing, 5 Disc, HDCD Decoding

Remote does not control all functions.

Previous to buying this unit I was using a Sony DVP-C650D into a Pioneer PD-R19RW acting as a DAC. The Sony is a great transport, the Pioneer has a great DAC and analog output stage. My Denon 4800 receiver's DACs are fine for DVD, but not great for CD. I auditioned this player against the new Musical Fidelity 3D , which sells for $5000 and I prefer the CD sound from the Denon. I am playing analog out through Cardas Golden Cross interconnects through the pre-outs of the 4800 (direct mode) through Cardas 300Bs to a Rotel 991 amp into Cross speaker cables to Paradigm Studio 100s.

Denon could have made this unit easier to control by remote. You can't turn the video circuits on or off by remote, for instance. Denon suggests that you turn off the coaxial out while listening in analog, and that requires entering the on-screen setup. I had to program the remote in two steps due to timing issues.

I use a Monarchy Audio DIP when playing DVDs through the coaxial cable as the sound is dramatically improved. I suspect that this is due to jitter.

I bought L.A. Woman on DVD-Audio just to check it out. The DVD on screen interface is ridiculously clumsy for music, and the 6 channel playback sounds like a movie soundtrack. The high resolution stereo track of Riders on the Storm is very good. The bass management, time delay and trim controls in the Denon are state of the art.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-C650D

Great audio and video performance, consolidates two devices (CD and DVD) into one which is a nice space saver.

A bit slow to change discs, takes its time reading a disc to determine what's on it (PCM, DTS, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, etc.), but then again, my DCM-460 CD changer was pretty slow, too and it only read CDs.

Because I don't have 5 full range speakers, I've held off on taking the plunge into DVD-Audio, although I did buy two discs to enjoy the 5.1 mixes via Dolby Digital and checkout what DVD-Audio "could" be all about. When Denon advertised the DVM-4800 with "real bass management", I decided the time was right. I really didn't want to add to my collection of Outlaw products and buy an ICBM with 6 pairs of interconnect cables to play DVD-audio through my system. I love my Outlaw 750 amplifier, but that's a lot of money for cables.

I have not been disappointed with the DVM-4800. The DVD-Video performance is first rate, but as you can see, my standard of comparison is Toshiba's first "top of line" DVD-video player. Yes, I was a DVD early adopter and have never regretted it, but until I got the DVM-4800, I couldn't listen to DTS soundtracks. The Denon delivers a bit more detail and color saturation to my eye. Chapter skipping, fast reverse/forward, etc. are all tremendously improved over my SD-3006. The on-screen displays during playback are useful, but I haven't figured out yet how to not scroll through all 3 displays each time. Then again, my SD-3006 required mulitple button pushes, all with slow response, and overlaid a very large text display on the screen, so I'm definitely better off with the DVM-4800s display system.

I'm letting my B&K Ref. 30 do all the DTS and DD decoding, so I can't say much about the DVM-4800's capabilities, other than it obviously does a fine job of delivering the bitstream to my B&K by the sound of things.

Now for the much awaited DVD-audio sound: it's great and it's the real deal. Playing my discs through the DVM-4800 in DVD-audio mode really demonstrates the superior sound of DVD-audio. There is more detail and space between the instruments as well as an upper treble region that seems less edgy than CD or DD/DTS. I got my third disc, Hotel California, with the DVM-4800 and it sounds great. I can hear elements within the music I never knew were there before, but then again, when I first bought Hotel CA on vinyl way back when, I had a Philips turntable, Kenwood 40W/ch integrated stereo amp, and Ohm E speakers. Ah, the good old days!

Sound and Vision reviewed the DVM-4800 and found that it really just summed the bass from the 5 main channels and delivered it to the subwoofer. I have listened carefully for strain and midrange mudiness/compression with my NHT SuperOnes, SuperCenter, and SuperZeroes and have found none. In the past, I was not happy with running full range signals through my NHT speakers because they did seem to lose their midrange performance, but that was with a receiver (Denon AVR-2700) many moons ago. I guess my Outlaw amplifier has something to do with the lack of problems now. The B&K allows me to lower the volume of the sub channel so it doesn't get too bloated at times. The "preset" capability of the B&K also makes using a multifunction player like the DVM-4800 easy. I have preset modes stored in the B&K for DVD-Movie, 5.1 music, Music CD, and DVD-Audio disc that set it to the correct audio/video configuration at the touch of a button.

So, all in all, a great product I'm very satisfied with and once again I'm amazed out how well my NHTs perform with all the better gear I've added to my system. I keep thinking I need to replace them, but their performance keeps them around.

B&K Ref. 30 Pre/pro
Outlaw 750 5-ch. amp
Denon DVM-4800
NHT SuperOnes (FL/FR)
NHT SuperCenter
NHT SuperZeroes (SL/SR)
Veoldyne HGS-10 subwoofer
Straight Wire Symphony II interconnects
Monster and Tributaries video cables

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-3006 (1st generation DVD player), Denon DCM-460 CD changer

sweet sound, eaze of set-up and use, great picture

poor custumer service, sound not involeing, glitch in sound when watching movies

Well the first 4800 I brought home and hooked up didnt work at all, (no picture or sound), took it back. The second player worked fine. The picture is definately outstanding, especially once you tweek it. Also this player will remember your tweeks the next time you play the DVD.( can remember up to 200 different movies) The bad part about this player was that it would have a short Blink in the sound while watching a movie. Kind of annoying for a $1,200 dollar player. The sound of this player was, very sweet, and unfatigueing. Bass was supperb. My problem laid in the soundstage it just wasnt there, ( close, but not there), there was absolutely no depth to the sound stage, and the music was not involeing enough.
Conclusion; with the blink problem in the DVD movie area, and the lack of imaging, and bad customer support, I decided that I could not live with these, defects in a product. Returned the 4800 for a full refund ( holding my breath), and am looking into the Cary Audio D-3p ( which by the way I got to talk to a live representative, the first call I made, and answered most of my questions, have a few more) , to continue on the path of audio, and now video ( got to wonder why I started this mess)nirvana.

Plethora of technical specifications

remote, UI, CD player, manual, player firmware

This is my 3rd and last Denon purchase. The first being a single-disc
Denon CD player some ten years ago that still works great. The second
being the AVR-3802 which is a user-interface nightmare, and now for the
third disappointment, the DVM-4800.

First up to bat is the CD-Player portion of the unit. Of the twenty store
bought, scratch-free, clean CD's I tried, only 2 were actually read by my
4800. These same unreadable CD's were playable on my cheapy PC CD-player,
my el-cheapo boom-box CD-player, my generic Ford car-stereo CD player....
you get the point. The 4800 makes two quick attempts to read the disc,
then gives up and moves on to the other disc trays to determine what's in
them. Upon finding no other CDs it indicates something like "no discs" on
the display and stops. This is totally lame! When it can read a CD, it
indicates this and spends several seconds doing some initial reading. Why
it takes so long to read is beyond me. Most Cd players are ready to start
playing a CD the instant you put one in. Not the 4800. After waiting
several seconds the CD tracks are finally displayed on the unit and you
can press the play button. Much to my surprise, ALL my home burned CD's
as well as MP3 single session CD's played without a snag. It won't read
past the first session if you put in a multi-session MP3 CD. I was
disappointed that it didn't display the artist or song name for MP3s.
Furthermore, I would have expected a good use of the TV GUI stuff would
have been to display the ID3 tag info of the MP3 or atleast a directory
listing of the MP3 titles on disc. But of course they don't. I guess
this is a better done with free software like WinAmp, not professional
audio equip from Denon.

Upon playing a CD, you'll see the default count up 'time' indicator on the
display. I prefer a more useful count down 'time' indicator, but this can
only be changed through the TV GUI interface not the unit's front panel or
remote. Upon figuring out the miniature TV GUI Icons and/or cryptic
letters, you can switch to a count down time. Upon choosing it, a huge
minus sign is put on the unit's display. For some reason a huge plus sign
isn't put on the display when the time is incrementing, so why clutter the
display with an ugly minus sign when decrementing. Isn't it obvious the
time is decrementing?

Next I tried the "Random Play" feature. It's a slow noisy process where
the player firmware initially spins the not so quiet cheap plastic
carousel round and round doing who knows what for a min or two. Sometimes
the carousel would stop spinning making you think it finally located the
disc it wanted, only to start back up again...argg.. After finalizing on
a disc, it would switch to randomizing the track on the CD. Even this
takes time. Once the track is selected it is played. After the track is
played, I expected the unit to go through the entire randomization process
again, but it didn't. Much to my disappointment, the unit stays on the
same CD until all the tracks are played in a random order. Afterwards, it
goes through the lengthy noisy randomization process to locate the next CD
to play. During several experiments with this 'feature', I discovered
that sometimes when switching to a new CD it wouldn't play it. It would
sit there waiting for the user to hit play. Bug? Why oh why didn't they
come up with a firmware algorithm which locates the next random sequence
prior to needing it and then rotate the carousel into position?? Another
quirk of randomization is that you have to stop the player to
enable/disable the feature. This wouldn't be so bad if the player was
faster and more reliable in reading CD's. Also in "Random Play" mode the
'time' indicator can only be set to incrementing time or time remaining on
the entire CD, not the more useful time remaining per track. Note that
"Random Play" isn't available for MP3 cds for some reason. I would have
expected this feature on an MP3 player since it is possible to have some
30+ hours of music.

Let's talk about the TV GUIs. Unlike the AVR-3802, this unit CAN display
it's GUI stuff through the component video outputs. Whew!! The GUI's are
activated by pressing the 'Display' button on the remote. Depending on
what kind of media is playing, different GUI's will appear on your TV
display. To sum it up, the icons are too small, the labeling is cryptic,
and most of the GUI items could have been put on the remote or the unit's
front panel with the exception of the initial setup selections. FYI, the
initial setup GUI's are nicely done. So why did they bother putting
up/down positioning arrows on each dialog but not left/right? Given the
screen area available on the TV, this interface could have been done much
better.

I've only played 4 DVD's so far and haven't had enough time to really
test the DVD compatibility/readablity portion of the player. So far it
works, and I haven't noticed the blinking problem which previous posters
alerted of.

The remote has a pretty short range and is pretty weak. The buttons I use
most frequently like play, stop, skip, and seek, are small buttons located
in the middle of the remote, while the GUI arrows buttons which I try to
avoid are rather large buttons eating up valuable real-estate towards the
upper half of the remote.

The instruction manual is typical of Denon, it sucks. The user must have
a degree in geek-ology to understand it. Answers to real questions are
few and far between.

Wow, they must have been hurrying to get this puppy out the door because
the firmware for the unit is sad. I call this the "Can we ship it
syndrome?"

For the 1K price tag this unit is NOT a worthy buy. I don't know what's
up with the my 4800 and store bought CDs but Denon tech support is going
to get a call after the holidays.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2715

Excellent audio and video performance

Poor quality control with blinking video

I just wanted to add that I also had the blinking video problem. It occurs on all non-anamorphic material unless the 4:3 transfer mode is turned off. After several frustrating calls to Denon, they informed me that they could duplicate the problem but currently don't have a solution. They are hoping it can be corrected via firmware, but the service representative indicated that hardware was not out of the question. I ended up returning the unit over this which was very disappointing because it seemed like a great solution. The video performance on anamorphic material and the audio with both CD and DVD-Audio material was excellent.

It is extremely disappointing that Denon continues to have problems with their players. The 2800 had problems with initial quality, and this player seems to follow the trend. I'm sure they will correct it, but I hate the thought that the first customers end up acting as their quality control department.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Elite DV-37, Pioneer Elite DVL-91; Panasonic RP91

Audio quality and build. Burr Brown DAC's

remote could use some help

I upgrades to this unit from the DVM3700 as my dealer has a 1 year buy back toward the purchase of new :)

I am real pleased with this purchase! The audio stage is typical of Denon and top notch. Uses the new Burr - Brown 24 bit 192kHz DAC's for stereo and 24 bit 96kHz DAC's for all six channels. The DVD audio sounds great. Fleetwood Mac's Rumors is outstanding. I have this on CD and the DVDA is way better.

Video passed the test also without the chroma bug. Unit uses the panasonic MPEG decoder and Genisis deinterlacer. I ran fifth element and toy story and no chroma bug. Ram Armageddon and not jitters. Very pleased so far. Do not use the scaler feature as my 56H80 does not lock into full mode with a progressive signal.
Overall a great buy that I am very happy with.

Similar Products Used:

DVM 3700, RP56, SD3109

Wide Soundstage, Warm, Detailed, Presence

The remote could be better

I did not expect the differences between my previous setup
(Pioneer DV 525 DVD/ Musical Fidelity X-24k DAC) and the
Denon 4800 to be that dramatic. Using the Denon as a cd player (using the analog outputs), the sound was warm without the highs being rolled off. I could clearly identify
every instrument in the music. The bass was well defined
and detailed. I could hear passages in the music that I
had missed on my previous setup (mainly in the bass). I comtemplated purchasing the Pioneer DV38A($1599) and the ARCAM DV88 (1599 w/o DVD Audio), but for the money the
Denon is a superior product. Now for the Video, the picture
is clear and smooth. Watching movies gave me the feeling of being in a movie theater. The sound of DVD Audio discs is best that I have ever heard ever (using coaxial).
IT WORTH THE MONEY

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-525

Very Good Picture, Great 2ch. Audio Sound, Good Build Quality, Fast Menu Browsing

No backlight on the remote, A little slow on the initial read of the CD or DVD when changing discs.

For the longest time I've been looking for a good Progressive scan DVD/CD combo unit that does a good job in both CD and DVD playback. I think this Denon combo player has finaly done it. I was a little sceptical at first but when I took this unit home and pluged it in I was just blown away. After calibrating the player with the Avia test DVD the picture on this unit was just plan and simply amazing. No croma bug!!!! Toy Story finaly looked great. It looked good before but now it looks great. Actually every DVD I played with it looked great. The color reproduction on this is very true and acurate. There are alot of really cool feature on this player to tweak the picture even more. I personaly think that the progressive scan picture on this unit is better than the Denon DVD2800, Toshiba SD9200, Pioneer DV37. And those are really good DVD players too. For the music lovers out there the audio play back on this thing is top notch. It's using the latest 24 bit 192 kHz Burr-Brown dac inside for music playback. I'm telling you it sounds good. The new dacs really brings to life the music. All the CDs I've stuck in really sound better. The CD portion of this player rivals most of the single tray $999 cd players out there. This unit is a must buy if you are looking at a combo DVD/CD unit. Even if your not looking for a combo unit you should put some thought into getting this player. This unit is a bargin at $1200. It far exceeded my expectations. All I can say is WOW!

My Setup
Mitsubishi 50" HDTV VS50805
Use to have a Toshiba SD5109 DVD player
Use to have a Yamaha CDC775 CD player
Now use Denon DVM4800 for both DVD & CD
B&K AVR307 Reciever <--- Best Reciever out there!!!
Definitive Technology BP2002TL for Front L & R
Definative Technology CLR2500 for Center
Definative Technology ProSat100 for rears
AudioQuest Caldera for Front L & R and center speaker wire
AudioQuest YIQ4 Solid Silver for Component Video Cable
AudioQuest VSD2 for Digital Coax Cable
AudioQuest Python for Stereo Innerconnects
PS Audio Power Director for Power Conditioner
PS Audio Mini Lab Power Cable for Reciever

Similar Products Used:

SD5109, SD9200, DVPS9000, DV37, DVD2800