Denon AVR-3805 Receiver

I bought this receiver to tie all of my other home ...

Strengths: AV Switching with Component Output, Dolby Digital with 7.1 support, Plenty of power, clean signal, Lots of options to keep even the most avid listener busy for months.

Weaknesses: No HDMI, Remote is impossible to read in day light and the instruction manual sucks.

Summary: I bought this receiver to tie all of my other home theater components together. I am retiring my Technics unit to the master bedroom. It supported four channels with mono rear surrounds and had two audio digital inputs but is starting to show its age.

I choose the Denon 3805 primarily for its price and its component switching support. This unit even takes my HD signals and converts them to 480i so I can watch HD programs on my SD TV.

The OSD makes setup a breeze and if anyone tells you it is difficult to set up, remember that half of the people in this world are below average.

I had this unit set up and running in 30 minutes including wiring, configuring the speakers, configuring the digital inputs, and configuring the output device function settings. The OSD was perfect and made the remote easy to navigate. Done and running in no time.

I coupled the receiver with Klipsch reference series surround speakers, a Denon 910 DVD, Kenwood CD, Direct TV H10 HDTV receiver, a Sony Wega TV, Panasonic AE700u HD projector, and a Proscan VCR.

All of these devices feed into the receiver except for the projector which is HDMI. The receiver handles all the switching when a component is selected and it sounds GREAT! Plenty of power and easy to use.

I coupled this with a Logitech Harmony 688 and my wife is happier than I am. She can now watch tv, listen to a cd, watch a movie, or set the tv so she only hears the tv and no stereo! A must if you want to sell a HT to your wife. All of this with one press of a button. This remote is almost as good as the receiver!

The remote is difficult to use in daylight but fine during normal PJ hours. But, a Harmony remote is really the ticket.

My only other small complaint is that the speaker terminals are kind of hard to access with 10 gauge wire or larger diameter.

Best bang for the buck with a company with a reputation for great products.

I am going to try the delay tonight after discovering some lip sync issues last night on HDNet. I will provide an update.

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Upgrade from 1993. Pro-Logic to Dolby Digital is a ...

Strengths: 1) Dolby Digital. 2) Power. 3) Sound reproduction. 4) I/O Flexibility. 5) Made in Japan.

Weaknesses: User...but I'm learning. Remote...but it can learn too.

Summary: Upgrade from 1993. Pro-Logic to Dolby Digital is a big improvement. High current amp provides power on que. At low volume, movie dialog is crisp while special effects rumble your seat. Through on-screen menu, a/v inputs can be cross-connected.

Made in Japan=quality+expensive=smiling+broke.

The remote is quirky. If you don't choose a source(amp) before hitting the off button, the remote freezes. (user error?) This product is complex. That's one reason why I like it. If you want something simple, buy something else.

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I really like the other Denon components I own. BU ...

Strengths: Extremely versatile. Hundreds of features. Works well with other Denon A/V products.

Weaknesses: Overly complex. Difficult to use as a stereo. Remote control is hard-to-read and hard-to-use.

Summary: I really like the other Denon components I own. BUT ... this receiver is so complex that it's hard to use, and I'm a stereo buff. The receiver is better designed for managing your home theatre system than for use as a stereo, and it does a good job with home theatre if it's professionally installed and you never have to change a setting. However, when it comes to playing music, a simple task like switching from CD to FM and then selecting an FM station can take a minute or more -- and that's after you figure out how it's done. The receiver only has buttons for a few of the features which are on the Remote. The button labels are printed in tiny brown print on the black face plate, and are hard to read unless the room light is bright. The remote control is pretty cool, and it has a soft blue screen that comes to life as soon as it's moved. However, it has the opposite problem of the receiver -- it's easy to read in dim light, but hard to read in brighter room light, because the pale blue color fades out. And again, just to switch to FM and change stations involves pressing numerous buttons to work your way through various screens (much like opening windows on a PC), and even then, it takes some study and experimentation to figure it out. Denon's engineers have cleverly incorporated hundreds of complex features, and the result is that after 3 months, I still have not gotten familiar enough with it to use it easily.

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• Why did you spend so much on a FM receiver? If you wanted to hea...

Denon AVR-3805 Receiver

Strengths: Build quality, 3 Component inputs, 4 optical & 2 coaxial (digital) inputs. There is also a front panel mike input for room equalization, but mike is not supplied.

Weaknesses: No HDMI capability for the best video quality.If you have 4 ohm speakers, you may have amp shutdowns (which I did) on loud passages due to protection circuitry (A real hassle waiting for resumption)

Summary: Lately high end receivers (this one included) have become very complex to set up and use. As a degreed Electronics Engineer I admit to some confusion with programming & wiring these "beasts". I would caution the average person to obtain expert help for any set up involving more than 2 or 3 pieces of equipment such as a DVD & CD player, plus a Cable or Satellite receiver. The Denon manual is very thorough but could be "daunting challenge" without help for the audio neophyte. Presently DVD's only support 5.1 audio, (2 front, 2 rear & 1 center speaker w/subwoofer), but this amp will support 7.1, which has 2 additional rear surrounds.

Finally, although the AVR-3805 is an excellent product, I would recommend an upgrade to Denons' AVR-3806, (for its HDMI capabilities) and for those who value the best "digital" picture quality. (However, component inputs are of high quality and most folks will find them completely acceptable.)

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Great bargain

Strengths: Lots of features and options Tons of connectivity Component Video switching Impressive remote control

Weaknesses: Relatively difficult to configure No HDMI in/outputs

Summary: I recently purchased this piece and found that it was a little difficult to get set up initially since I wanted to use the optical connection for my DVD, but the defaults wanted me to use the Coax. This setting was easily changed once I read through the very comprehensive users manual. The unit has much more connectivity than I will ever use it for, and has some level of "future-proof"ness to it by including functions for HD-DVD and DVD-R. There are several optical and coax digital connections which can be individually assigned to functions.

The remote control is impressive, having the look of a touch-screen remote. It is not a touch screen but has many of the features that an expensive remote has, including only illuminating the buttons that are appropriate for the selected device. I was able to easily program the remote to work with all my components and my television, and avoided spending a few hundred more on a LCD touchscreen universal remote.

All in all I couldn't be happier with the unit.

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