I have a new 3808 ci and have noted the following. Also have experience recent experience with Yamaha 2700.
Denon 3808ci
oppo 981, till hd war ends.
HDMI TW Cable
APC H15
2x JBL L5 for 2 ch music, old stuff
4X NHT Classic 3 For HDCD, Sacd and movies
3 Center
Definitive Tech Cube 1
Pany 42" plasma till 58" w/ deep color comes available.
Sound quality good at low to mid volume. Higher volume is a bit on the weak side. But, I am old school and like it loud. In my opinion Bass management issues at volume make incorporating a powered sub and setting FR FL as small speakers w/crossove tweaks a necessity for decent sound quality. My acid test with receivers is to crank the volume with no output signal and listen for the level of sssssssssssssss. There is plenty of that in both the Yamaha and denon units. Discrete amps?
Volume control is quirky- that is; one must turn the unit up quite a bit before it reaches a sound level sufficient for listening.
Video performance is good. Scaler did a great job with an old copy of TOP GUN and Bullet. Lord of the Rings was impressive.
New GUI is the best I have seen on an AVR. Surprise: its user Friendly.
Music playback via cable digital music and Cable TV is interesting and I will forego any judgment as new HDMI Cables are forthcoming (as is another post) and I do not want to conclude any thing at this juncture. - Cable Signal pickup is slow.
I have no idea what is going on with the heat. I had been told that heating issues with demon products are inherent, hmm, hot dogs anyone...With 7 blocked digital amps this would be a non-issue.
I have only had this thing for a few days and will have a final opinion here in a week or two. I will say that 4 to 6 ohm speakers justify separates if music is the focal point. I will also say that I am puting a meter on this thing as 130watts is not what I hear. Maybe a 100 before clipping.
Ichira
