So the fact that the Yamaha sounds better and costs less is "a load of old tosh" is it? Funny that, always thought buyers would be happy if they could get better for less, particularly in these straightened times.
And the Denon doesn't fare "so badly" against the Yamaha. It's very good - as the reviews says - just not the best.
Quite frankly your reviews are worthless without technical back up. You say the Yamaha 863SE sounds better ? but I say it sounds slightly bright .. Denon say the 2809 decodes DSD direct to analogue without internally converting to PCM and you do not comment on this for multi-channel Hi-Rez SACD fans.
nada3020e - I don't know who is doing the Reviews at the moment but they really don't make any sense and lack consistency. Once again a load of old tosh !
I'm one of the many who've been waiting for this one. Got to say I'm a little disappointed to hear the Denon fares so badly against the 863se. I auditioned the Yamaha against the 876 and found that while it sounded richer overall it was annoyingly vague and woolly on the home cinema front... music was good though. Horses for courses...
Would be good to know how the Yamaha, Denon and Onkyo fare when it comes to final video quality before I purchased. As far as I can see you haven't evaluated that aspect yet. Would the superior ISF calibration facilities of the Onkyo give it an advantage here?
Would like to use one of these receivers as the basis for a Kuro-based system but I'm at a loss as to what player work best? Would a Denon Blu-ray player be a good match for the Onkyo if picture quality was the no1 priority?
Also a bit confused when you say that the 2809 is cheaper than the Onkyo equivalent... isn't the £800 TX-SR806 the equivalent model in terms of spec and price?
Posted my query two weeks ago and still no response on the video assessment front. Am I to take it that WHF doesn't know how the Denon and it's competitors rank when it comes to potential final image quality? Perhaps it's an unfair question to ask given the mag's priorities.
Daresay mags like home Cinema' choice and what video might have a better handle on video-performance - nevertheless disappointing to not get any response.
I have just purchased the Denon in Norway, where it is competitively priced with the Yamaha (which over here is not UK tuned - I'm not sure if it is Viking tuned, god forbid)!
So far so good. Set up was logical though the on screen display is a long way from exciting and I have still not got the volume level to show on screen except when playing music from the tuner! Most important, I am very pleased with the sound, flexibility and picture quality - which I am pretty sure is improved when put through the Denon's onboard processing. I can also agree that the bass is not the fastest in the world and I feel that the auto set up perhaps generates a tad too much bass. And I really appreciate that fourth HDMI input - I am pretty sure that all four will be in use within a short period of time. It would even have been nice to have had two outputs as I have an LCD telly and a projector.
I have two reactions to this thread. One is to wonder why the Sony STR-DA2400ES gets 5 stars when it is still £100 more than the "equivalent" Yamaha, while the Denon only gets 4 starts compared to its equivalent Yamaha (maybe because it is £200 more)???
But more importantly (agreeing with NAD3020e), I really would appreciate a thoroughly detailed supertest of mid-price (say £600-900) receivers that looks not just at their sound quality, but also how they process picture and sound when connected to both state of the art and also 2-3 year old kit (screens, projectors, DVD players, satellite PVRs etc etc).
Thanks for a great magazine - I still have copies back to 1994!
I't interesting to come back and read this thread almost 2 years after buying the kit. Having lived with the Denon for 2 years, I am very happy with the sound and picture quality - especially when using bluray but also when upscaling standard def.
2 years later, the price issues and 4 or 5 star debate don't matter much (and of course Denon have come out with at least 2 new generations). Being happy with the kit does:-)
I have AVR-2808 and from what I have read differ from this one only by having 1 HDMI input in plus.
If you prefer to compare it with Yamaha, I can only say that it is much better then it on the audio. I have it attached to a pair of Klipsch RF-82 and they have a great bass, sounds great on my Dual turntable its analogue input does the job flawlessly..
I believe it is very important on what speakers you do the test and in what configuration...
The quality of this Denon is also top of its class, it has an aluminium think panel and supports bi amping, as well as other things like having an detachable power cord, that can be upgraded to one of better quality...
Comments
So the fact that the Yamaha sounds better and costs less is "a load of old tosh" is it? Funny that, always thought buyers would be happy if they could get better for less, particularly in these straightened times.
And the Denon doesn't fare "so badly" against the Yamaha. It's very good - as the reviews says - just not the best.
Quite frankly your reviews are worthless without technical back up. You say the Yamaha 863SE sounds better ? but I say it sounds slightly bright .. Denon say the 2809 decodes DSD direct to analogue without internally converting to PCM and you do not comment on this for multi-channel Hi-Rez SACD fans.
nada3020e - I don't know who is doing the Reviews at the moment but they really don't make any sense and lack consistency. Once again a load of old tosh !
I'm one of the many who've been waiting for this one. Got to say I'm a little disappointed to hear the Denon fares so badly against the 863se. I auditioned the Yamaha against the 876 and found that while it sounded richer overall it was annoyingly vague and woolly on the home cinema front... music was good though. Horses for courses...
Would be good to know how the Yamaha, Denon and Onkyo fare when it comes to final video quality before I purchased. As far as I can see you haven't evaluated that aspect yet. Would the superior ISF calibration facilities of the Onkyo give it an advantage here?
Would like to use one of these receivers as the basis for a Kuro-based system but I'm at a loss as to what player work best? Would a Denon Blu-ray player be a good match for the Onkyo if picture quality was the no1 priority?
Also a bit confused when you say that the 2809 is cheaper than the Onkyo equivalent... isn't the £800 TX-SR806 the equivalent model in terms of spec and price?
Posted my query two weeks ago and still no response on the video assessment front. Am I to take it that WHF doesn't know how the Denon and it's competitors rank when it comes to potential final image quality? Perhaps it's an unfair question to ask given the mag's priorities.
Daresay mags like home Cinema' choice and what video might have a better handle on video-performance - nevertheless disappointing to not get any response.
I have just purchased the Denon in Norway, where it is competitively priced with the Yamaha (which over here is not UK tuned - I'm not sure if it is Viking tuned, god forbid)!
So far so good. Set up was logical though the on screen display is a long way from exciting and I have still not got the volume level to show on screen except when playing music from the tuner! Most important, I am very pleased with the sound, flexibility and picture quality - which I am pretty sure is improved when put through the Denon's onboard processing. I can also agree that the bass is not the fastest in the world and I feel that the auto set up perhaps generates a tad too much bass. And I really appreciate that fourth HDMI input - I am pretty sure that all four will be in use within a short period of time. It would even have been nice to have had two outputs as I have an LCD telly and a projector.
I have two reactions to this thread. One is to wonder why the Sony STR-DA2400ES gets 5 stars when it is still £100 more than the "equivalent" Yamaha, while the Denon only gets 4 starts compared to its equivalent Yamaha (maybe because it is £200 more)???
But more importantly (agreeing with NAD3020e), I really would appreciate a thoroughly detailed supertest of mid-price (say £600-900) receivers that looks not just at their sound quality, but also how they process picture and sound when connected to both state of the art and also 2-3 year old kit (screens, projectors, DVD players, satellite PVRs etc etc).
Thanks for a great magazine - I still have copies back to 1994!
I't interesting to come back and read this thread almost 2 years after buying the kit. Having lived with the Denon for 2 years, I am very happy with the sound and picture quality - especially when using bluray but also when upscaling standard def.
2 years later, the price issues and 4 or 5 star debate don't matter much (and of course Denon have come out with at least 2 new generations). Being happy with the kit does:-)
I have AVR-2808 and from what I have read differ from this one only by having 1 HDMI input in plus.
If you prefer to compare it with Yamaha, I can only say that it is much better then it on the audio. I have it attached to a pair of Klipsch RF-82 and they have a great bass, sounds great on my Dual turntable its analogue input does the job flawlessly..
I believe it is very important on what speakers you do the test and in what configuration...
The quality of this Denon is also top of its class, it has an aluminium think panel and supports bi amping, as well as other things like having an detachable power cord, that can be upgraded to one of better quality...