AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Receivers, Amps, and Processors › The "Official" Denon AVR-3808CI Thread
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

The "Official" Denon AVR-3808CI Thread - Page 7

post #181 of 19878
8/1/07 at 5:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gte747e View Post

After skimming the Owner's Manual, it appears one cannot have any audio via HDMI output to Zone 2 or 3. I was hoping to be able to watch a baseball game (satellite DVR) in Zone 1 and also hear the audio in Zone 2.

Also, I think I have a better understanding of the Zone 2/3 stuff. The 4308 does allow 5.1+2, or 3.1+2+2 speakers without any additional amps, while the 3808 is only 5.1+2.
I only wish there wasn't such a large price jump between the 3808 and 4308.

I think you are mistaken about the output. I just looked over the manual and the only thing I see about mono is that you can take the 2 assignable channels and instead of assigning both to one zone or the other, you can assign one to Zone 2 and one to Zone 3 (mono to both). Everything else is stereo.
Reply
Reply

Gear mentioned in this thread:

post #182 of 19878
8/1/07 at 5:37pm
good news and bad news. (well, when one says this its never really GREAT news) but the receivers i expected today did not come, and status still shows that they are not located in our supply warehouse. Good news is that I was able to "order" the receiver and get a SOLID confirmed date. HOWEVER, i firmly believe that Denon will be drop shipping a handful of receivers to my store very very very soon. (for whomever was interested in seeing them in person)
Reply
Reply
post #183 of 19878
8/1/07 at 5:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MagnoliaPro2 View Post

good news and bad news. (well, when one says this its never really GREAT news) but the receivers i expected today did not come, and status still shows that they are not located in our supply warehouse. Good news is that I was able to "order" the receiver and get a SOLID confirmed date. HOWEVER, i firmly believe that Denon will be drop shipping a handful of receivers to my store very very very soon. (for whomever was interested in seeing them in person)


Where are you located??
____
Axel
Reply
Reply
post #184 of 19878
8/1/07 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MagnoliaPro2 View Post

good news and bad news. (well, when one says this its never really GREAT news) but the receivers i expected today did not come, and status still shows that they are not located in our supply warehouse. Good news is that I was able to "order" the receiver and get a SOLID confirmed date. HOWEVER, i firmly believe that Denon will be drop shipping a handful of receivers to my store very very very soon. (for whomever was interested in seeing them in person)

Is the warehouse you speak of in Kent, WA, or a different one?
Reply
Reply
post #185 of 19878
8/1/07 at 6:26pm
Wow, what a screw up!!! When I saw the HD Radio on the site I thought this increased the standing of the 3808 in my receiver prospects list. Then I downloaded the manual and saw no mention of HD radio or any inputs on the back view of the receiver labeled "HD Radio".

That's the kind of screw-up I expect from Sony!
Reply
Reply
post #186 of 19878
8/1/07 at 6:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Axel View Post

Where are you located??
____
Axel

VA, Baltimore, DC metro area.
Reply
Reply
post #187 of 19878
8/1/07 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DuallyDave View Post

Is the warehouse you speak of in Kent, WA, or a different one?

The distribution center which the majority of the Denon products i receiver come from the mid-atlantic region. However, when Denon drop ships, it's an all new animal. Could be WA or Jersey?
Reply
Reply
post #188 of 19878
8/1/07 at 6:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MagnoliaPro2 View Post

VA, Baltimore, DC metro area.

Which store? PM me with the store info if you prefer, but definitely keep the thread updated with the stock status, we appreciate the info! A little OT, but have you gotten any 4308s yet?
Reply
Reply
post #189 of 19878
8/1/07 at 8:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by strutter View Post

denon has historically been described as having a warm sound and everyone at klipsch forum agrees that denon and klipsch mate well together.

I have never had a Denon. How well does Denon work with Polk speakers? I have RTi70's and a CSi40 in the front, and a f/x300i's for my surrounds. I also have a Velodyne subwoofer.
Reply
Reply
post #190 of 19878
8/1/07 at 9:21pm
My gut feeling is that the Onkyo's would be a better bet than the Denon... The 3808CI weighs in at 39 lbs and the Onkyo 805/875 weighs in at 50 lbs. I already have a Denon 3803 and it clips easily at moderate volume with my Polk LSi15 speakers (4 ohms). Hooked up an older Onkyo receiver and it easily plays louder than the Denon did. So, in my view, the Denon is a poor fit with the Polks. Soundwise, the Denon seems a bit "sterile" to me, very clean and flat, but no emotion. The Onkyo was a tiny bit less smooth, but the sound had more impact.

The Onkyo probably has a larger power supply than the Denon, that's why it weighs 25% more. Larger the power supply the more "juice" going to the speakers. The Onkyo 875/905 also has the HQV Reon vide processor which is supposedly superior to the Faroudja DCDi that the Denon has.

The Denon feature set may be a tad better than the Onkyo, but it's not stuff I really need. So I am now awaiting my TX-NR905 which should be in house on Friday if i am lucky.
Reply
Reply
post #191 of 19878
8/1/07 at 9:26pm
User manual:
http://usa.denon.com/AVR-3808CI-OM-E_006.pdf
Reply
Reply
post #192 of 19878
8/1/07 at 9:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon S View Post

My gut feeling is that the Onkyo's would be a better bet than the Denon... The 3808CI weighs in at 39 lbs and the Onkyo 805/875 weighs in at 50 lbs. I already have a Denon 3803 and it clips easily at moderate volume with my Polk LSi15 speakers (4 ohms). Hooked up an older Onkyo receiver and it easily plays louder than the Denon did. So, in my view, the Denon is a poor fit with the Polks. Soundwise, the Denon seems a bit "sterile" to me, very clean and flat, but no emotion. The Onkyo was a tiny bit less smooth, but the sound had more impact.

The Onkyo probably has a larger power supply than the Denon, that's why it weighs 25% more. Larger the power supply the more "juice" going to the speakers. The Onkyo 875/905 also has the HQV Reon vide processor which is supposedly superior to the Faroudja DCDi that the Denon has.

The Denon feature set may be a tad better than the Onkyo, but it's not stuff I really need. So I am now awaiting my TX-NR905 which should be in house on Friday if i am lucky.

I wasn't aware that the 3803 was designed to work with 4 ohm speakers. Kind of like saying... damn, my corvette did a crappy job towing that trailer.
Reply
Reply
post #193 of 19878
8/1/07 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon S View Post

My gut feeling is that the Onkyo's would be a better bet than the Denon... The 3808CI weighs in at 39 lbs and the Onkyo 805/875 weighs in at 50 lbs. I already have a Denon 3803 and it clips easily at moderate volume with my Polk LSi15 speakers (4 ohms). Hooked up an older Onkyo receiver and it easily plays louder than the Denon did. So, in my view, the Denon is a poor fit with the Polks. Soundwise, the Denon seems a bit "sterile" to me, very clean and flat, but no emotion. The Onkyo was a tiny bit less smooth, but the sound had more impact.

The Onkyo probably has a larger power supply than the Denon, that's why it weighs 25% more. Larger the power supply the more "juice" going to the speakers. The Onkyo 875/905 also has the HQV Reon vide processor which is supposedly superior to the Faroudja DCDi that the Denon has.

The Denon feature set may be a tad better than the Onkyo, but it's not stuff I really need. So I am now awaiting my TX-NR905 which should be in house on Friday if i am lucky.

Heavyer does not = better reciever. From what we have been hearing about the issues people are having with the new Onkyos (Input switching probs, speaker popping, etc) the Denons are looking better and better every minute. People have 4308's in hand and no major issues as of yet. No 3808s tested out yet but since the hardware is pretty similar my thought it will be equally as awesome.
Reply
Reply
post #194 of 19878
8/1/07 at 10:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StressPuppy View Post

I think you are mistaken about the output. I just looked over the manual and the only thing I see about mono is that you can take the 2 assignable channels and instead of assigning both to one zone or the other, you can assign one to Zone 2 and one to Zone 3 (mono to both). Everything else is stereo.

Right, Zones 2 and 3 can handle stereo....just not at the same time. Is that what you were saying. Rathen than having mono run through the speakers, I'd prefer to use one zone or another (Zone 2 OR Zone 3).
Reply
Reply
post #195 of 19878
8/1/07 at 11:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon S View Post

My gut feeling is that the Onkyo's would be a better bet than the Denon... The 3808CI weighs in at 39 lbs and the Onkyo 805/875 weighs in at 50 lbs. I already have a Denon 3803 and it clips easily at moderate volume with my Polk LSi15 speakers (4 ohms). Hooked up an older Onkyo receiver and it easily plays louder than the Denon did. So, in my view, the Denon is a poor fit with the Polks. Soundwise, the Denon seems a bit "sterile" to me, very clean and flat, but no emotion. The Onkyo was a tiny bit less smooth, but the sound had more impact.

The Onkyo probably has a larger power supply than the Denon, that's why it weighs 25% more. Larger the power supply the more "juice" going to the speakers. The Onkyo 875/905 also has the HQV Reon vide processor which is supposedly superior to the Faroudja DCDi that the Denon has.

The Denon feature set may be a tad better than the Onkyo, but it's not stuff I really need. So I am now awaiting my TX-NR905 which should be in house on Friday if i am lucky.

The Polk LSi15 speakers really do need external amps. Neither receiver will drive those to their potential.
Reply
Reply
post #196 of 19878
8/1/07 at 11:45pm
Ok, just spent a couple hours hooking it up and watched a little of 300. I'm coming from a HK AVR7200. First the manual and remote suck. There are so many things to adjust on this thing. I ran the audessey and it was not correct. Changed my distances & crossovers to 80. It wanted to set my mains & center as large. Overall it sounds fine. The main benefit over the 7200 is the PLIIX for 7.1, the on screen volume and GUI over hdmi, and the neatness of the hdmi connections. I still need to program my harmony. It passes 1080p24 from my ps3 to my RS1 no problem. It set it to deinterlace 1080i to 1080p from a toshiba A1 and it looks fine. No popping, humming, hissing or overheating yet. I have a bundle of cables left over from the 7200. Had to change all my dual banana plugs to singles as they don't line up on the denon. I'm tired it's almost midnight. I will play a little more tomorrow night.

muncey
Reply
Reply
post #197 of 19878
8/2/07 at 4:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gte747e View Post

Right, Zones 2 and 3 can handle stereo....just not at the same time. Is that what you were saying. Rathen than having mono run through the speakers, I'd prefer to use one zone or another (Zone 2 OR Zone 3).

If you ONLY use the internal amplifier channels to drive Zone 2 and 3, then yes, you can only get 5.1 in your main and then mono in Zone 2 and Zone 3.

BUT

If you have external amplifiers, then you can do 7.1 in your main, and stereo in both Zone 2 and Zone 3.

Keep in mind that Zone 2 and Zone 3 and Pre-Outs that are meant to feed another amp to drive that room. What makes this all confusing, I'm assuming, is that the Surround Back stereo channel is assignable. That means you can assign it to be the Surround Back channel of the Main Zone so you have 7.1, or you can configure it a couple of ways for your other zones.

If you look at page 68 of the manual, it shows you what you can do. But that page is specific to using the INTERNAL amp only of the receiver.

If you look at page 70, it shows you what you can do with EXTERNAL amps.

To me, this Denon unit is very flexible and configurable in this manner. My old 3300 simply had pre outs and you were on your own. The 3808 gives you some options.

Hope this helps.
Reply
Reply
post #198 of 19878
8/2/07 at 5:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gte747e View Post

So your Denon wouldn't work with your Def Tech speakers?

My 3803 played my DefTech speakers just fine until the volume was loud. My room is 33' x 13' so a bit of volume is necessary, particulary with movie soundtracks. I don't think what I encountered was any different from what I've read from others experiencing receiver shut down when their speakers approached 4 ohms.

An installer that I refer to on occasion felt sure it was an impedance problem, particularly when the Denon receiver clearly stated it's for use with a 6 to 16 ohm load. Once the McIntosh was installed, volume levels that I was once afraid of sending the receiver into shutdown mode were easily surpassed by higher volumes. Not once has there been a repeat of the problem. This was a year ago and probably 150 movies since.

I've liked my receiver and my speakers, but, to me, the amplifier in my receiver is no match for the McIntosh amplifier - nor was it probably ever intended to be.
Reply
Reply
post #199 of 19878
8/2/07 at 6:00am
One of the things that I was hoping would change is how these recievers handle the Surround Back\\Multiroom amp assignment. This has been a complaint of mine since I first bought the AVR-3801. I have a set of surround speakers on my back wall that I use to get the 7.1 configuration and I also have speakers on my deck that I use for the multiroom. I currently have a speaker selector that I have to use to toggle between the surround back and deck speakers. With the 3801, you have to go through the setup menu and change the amp assignment every time I want to change it. Am i the only one that wants to use both the multiroom and the surround back speakers? Is there a better way to accomplish this?
Reply
Reply
post #200 of 19878
8/2/07 at 8:05am
HT23,
Same receiver (3801), same problem. When I moved into the new house, the room didn't support dual surrounds (direct and bi-pole) so I am only using Surround A. But I have a 7.1 system and deck speakers, so I bought an external amp for the deck. On the 4308, you can assign one of the surrounds for a different zone, but I guess that is one of the reasons for the price difference between the two models. How long have you been wanting to upgrade the 3801? I have been trying to hold off since the 3805, but when I bought a new TV last year, and have a PS3 with Blu-Ray, I think it is now time to upgrade.
Reply
Reply
post #201 of 19878
8/2/07 at 8:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dgotwals1 View Post

HT23,
How long have you been wanting to upgrade the 3801? I have been trying to hold off since the 3805, but when I bought a new TV last year, and have a PS3 with Blu-Ray, I think it is now time to upgrade.

Shame that this was not something that was addressed in the design. I have been waiting since the 3805 as well but could not justify getting rid of the 3801 since it has been absolutley awsome since I bought it in 2001. TrueHD and HDMI 1.3 pushed me over the edge. I have demo'd the Onkyo 605 and 805 while I have been waiting for the 3808 to come out. They are nice but I cannot believe that Denon's new recievers will not blow them away. The one thing that I absolutley love about the Onkyo recievers is that the speaker inputs are lined up across the entire bottom of the reciever in a single row. Very easy to hook up the speakers. Guess Denon just figures that everyone has banana plugs on thier speaker cables so it does not matter how much the cram them together.
Reply
Reply
post #202 of 19878
8/2/07 at 9:51am
On the 3808ci will the HDMI monitor out and the component monitor out both be active at the same time. Because I want to hook it up to two LCDs, the TV in my living room would connect HDMI and my bedroom LCD would connect component.

That is the way I have it right now the bedroom tv and living tv hooked up component and HDMI just only hooked up the my HD DVR cable box. I'm waiting for my 3808 and wanted to just add it into the mix.

Also if I plug my cable box into the 3808 using HDMI will I also have to connect with component so that it also work on the component monitor out?
Reply
Reply
post #203 of 19878
8/2/07 at 9:51am
FYI guys - The 3808CI manual and some additional info is finally up on the Denon USA site. The status says, "Shipping Soon."
Reply
Reply
post #204 of 19878
8/2/07 at 9:59am
I got mine yesterday! It has already shipped!
Reply
Reply
post #205 of 19878
8/2/07 at 10:08am
I have looked through the manual and cannot tell if this is possible:

5.1 +Separate pair of 2.0 bi-amped speakers.

Is this one of those features that I would need a 4308 for even though the 3808 has enough amp channels and speaker connections?
Reply
Reply
post #206 of 19878
8/2/07 at 10:19am
muncey - where did you pick yours up? I'd love to get one before the weekend!
Reply
Reply
post #207 of 19878
8/2/07 at 10:45am
Denon's speaker posts are a weakpoint of their design. It hasn't stopped me from being a fan, but it is frustrating as I had to switch to banana plugs when I bought the 3801. And the dual plugs don't fit, so now you have to buy single ones.

It is frustrating that the 3808/4308 don't have the Reon vp. That is the only negative I see with the 3808. Although I think performance is more important, I do not like the look of the 875/905 and the dedicated front panel buttons kill me. I am so glad that the 3808 comes with the function of renaming input sources. Who has the exact name and number of the default inputs. I see this year they have dropped the default of 2 vcrs. In some way I agree, but I still have 2, only use 1 (rarely) but I still have two. And I have a tape deck. It will be nice to have it custom for my equipment.
Reply
Reply
post #208 of 19878
8/2/07 at 11:09am
Zap Audio Fullerton California
(714) 526-2154
local sales only
Reply
Reply
post #209 of 19878
8/2/07 at 11:14am
If anyone gets a call from a BB Magnolia store for your preorder of a 3808 let us know. I was told my receiver should arrive at the store by the 8th of August which would be next Wednesday.
Reply
Reply
post #210 of 19878
8/2/07 at 12:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by muncey View Post

Zap Audio Fullerton California
(714) 526-2154
local sales only

Interesting, Zap sold the first 3808 reported here, and the first onkyo 875. They must be special.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Receivers, Amps, and Processors

Gear mentioned in this thread:

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Receivers, Amps, and Processors › The "Official" Denon AVR-3808CI Thread