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Need guidance for a 3808ci replacement

982 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by jdsmoothie, Feb 17, 2014

niqht

Discussion Starter · Feb 15, 2014

But a bit of back story first. I did not buy this beast. I married my wife just last year and she got it after her divorce. Says she "kept it out of spite", despite the fact she hated it's complicated nature. I would never have bought such a monstrous and expensive receiver. Although the tech head in me couldn't help but be in awe, it was annoying to use and I planned to use a macro capable remote to make it easy for her and kids.

We moved last summer and I have been working on setting up the game room with things in differing states of functionality. The latest being I unhooked *everything* to install wall banana jacks.

Fast forward 2 hours ago, I was doing a quick rehook with amp and speakers to watch a movie for valentines. While pushing non-banana bare wire into the side of a speaker post I touched the outside ground of the pre-amp RCA jack....

There was a moment of speaker crackle and then smoke.

And I cried on the inside, because no, I didn't think to turn it off

.

Opened it up to inspect caps and fuses and of course it burned an IC so there are no repairs I can do.

Sooo... the point of this post. What to replace it with? We have an also high end 7.1 Infinity speakers set. My only requirements of what little I know about this newer stuff so far (haven't done A/V research in a long time and you'll understand if I don't have the will to do it right now) is analog conversion to HDMI, the prologic IIx sounds like a keeper, and a UI/GUI that makes sense. This is all in a 20x20ft game/media room with a projector setup. I don't want or need the highest of high ends. Something capable with good but commonly used features, for example, I have an ITX/Steam box so any internet functions are redundant.

and a thank you for any help

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DMark1

· #2 · Feb 15, 2014

Sorry to hear you fried your pre-pro, even if you didn't buy it...

As a replacement, I'd recommend a Denon X4000 ($1,299), X3000 ($999), or X2000 ($699) receiver. They are all 7.1 or 7.2 channel receivers. The main differences being the power of the amplifier sections, (125, 105, 95 WPC respectively) and the flavor of on-board Audyssey room correction. Denon has a control app for iPhone, which might make operation a little easier for your family.

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jdsmoothie

· #3 · Feb 16, 2014

It's going to depend on your budget. The current successor to your 3808CI is the Denon flagship 4520CI while at a lower pricepoint you can get the X4000 both of which use the more advanced version of Audyssey MultEQ XT32 which would provide an improvement over the XT version in your 3808CI.

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commsysman

· #4 · Feb 16, 2014

I recommend the NAD T-758 receiver.

It has excellent sound quality and the operation is very straightforward and it has a manual that a human being can actually read and use.

Denon is not known for the clarity of its manuals, to say the least...rofl.

Note that NAD specifies that the T-758 will provide 60 watts of RMS power to all seven channels driven SIMULTANEOUSLY (like in the real world...lol). That is plenty of REAL power for almost any speakers.

No other company except Cambridge Audio even attempts to give a comparable specification. The other companies all lie, distort, mislead, and give meaningless specs except for 2 channels only. What they REALLY put out to all seven channels at once is a mystery, since they won't publish it. They won't publish it because it would so low that it would expose how phony the rest of their numbers are.

Denon and all the others give specs for EACH channel, but NOT when they are all driven at once. Everything about their specs is very deceptive and dishonest.Their so-called "total power" is an absolute LIE (the meaningless mathematical sum of the individual channels, not actual available power; a number that is total nonsense).

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niqht

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 16, 2014

I got around to checking the model numbers on the speakers.. they are the Infinity TSS4000 set. With the 1100 sats. Rated 140w and 125w respectively.

I've spent some time reading today and something that has caught my eye is 2 HDMI outs, one down to the living room. This is appealing to me if the PS3 controls can manage to reach my HTPC/Steam box and PS3.

How does this work, or does it at all work like I am imagining? Pass separate inputs to each HDMI/room as you need? Say... pass one hdmi and zone 2 powered speakers to the living room while someone else uses projector/surround upstairs? I've starting shopping in that route, but I have seen some that only put audio ports into the zone 2 and no digital sources.

This is such a nightmare to research actual capabilities. I will take a visit to Fry's tomorrow and see how there is displays are set up :/

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niqht

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 17, 2014

Leaning to the Pioneer 1123 for zone 2 HDMI... though the android app looks to be questionable. Any comments overall?

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jdsmoothie

· #7 · Feb 17, 2014

The Denon 4520CI and the X4000 both have (3) HDMI outputs .... (2) for the main zone (PJ and TV) and a 3rd for Zone 2 (X4000)/Zone 4 (4520CI). This Zone 2/4 output is capable of passing either the same source playing in the main zone or an independent HDMI source either directly to the Zone 2/4 TV using the TV's speakers or to a 2nd AVR and using another set of surround speakers with the Zone 2/4 TV connected to that 2nd AVR. The capability to pass PCM 2.0 over optical/digital coax ton Zones 2/3 that is featured on your 3808CI was removed from the 4520CI but returned with the X4000. The X4000 can also pass an independent HDMI Stereo PCM 2.0 source to the Zone 2 speaker posts/pre-outs.

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