Gene,
From your responses I gather two things. I had been hoping to acquire the Denon separates but now I wonder.
The first is that the pre/pro is buggy. Are the bugs showstoppers? And also, do none of these bugs affect the power amp since the two talk to each other?
The second more critical issue I sense is that Denon's support is still bad. I read Jeff Talmadge's interview where he assured us that support is now much much better. This customer support is my main issue with spending a bundle on them. Do you think your case was particular because I guess you were asking deep questions(I presume)?
For so much money I do not expect bugs in the system, but if they occur I would very much expect red-carpet treatment.
Until I get a second sample, I cannot confirm if the bugs were limited only to a defective sample they initially sent me. I would assume I got a run of bad luck as the unit was essentially non operational.
I did find an interesting issue in volume control scaling NOT limited to this pre/pro but virtually any new processor on the market that does THX processing, Audyssey room EQ, multi channel downmixing, etc. I have some ideas on a workaround and will write it up in the review. Essentially I mimmicked the problems people were having with Onkyo receivers and Audyssey not allowing them to max out the volume control. This has to do with the volume IC's not keeping up with the dynamic requirements of todays processors. More on this later.
As for Denon support, I only deal with 1 or 2 people both of which are extremely stretched in their duties and dedicated to what they do. Since they always travel, its difficult for me to get ahold of them. I never tried calling Denon tech support so I cannot comment on that.
I did however send back my 5805 for mkii upgrade and they did a turn around in less than 10 days which really impressed me!
