Need help! Denon AVR-4306 alone or AVR-3806 plus external amp?

[Jay_WJ]

Need help! Denon AVR-4306 alone or AVR-3806 plus amp?

After a long wait, I'm finally ready to pull the trigger for a receiver purchase in a month or two. I should say that I'm a Denon fan. Although many other brands offer similar functionalities, I trust Denon's correct and meticulous implementation of available technology, and I like user tweakability it provides.

Within my budget, I narrowed down the choices: the 4306 alone or the 3806 plus an external amp. For the external amp, I'm considering the Emotiva UL LPA-1 or a used Outlaw, Sherbourn, Adcom, etc. I prefer 4306 and 3806 to the 2807 because of their HDCD support and Denon Link. And the 4306's better HDMI video support does not matter much to me.

I'll match this with a 7.1 speaker system that has 88dB SPL and 6 ohm nominal all around. The HT room is an about 1,000 sq ft basement. For either music or movie, I don't volume up too high. My major concern is sound quality.

According to the rave reviews of the 4306 by Clint here and Steve Guttenberg at Cnet, they seem to say that the 4306 is better in SQ than the 3806, although they didn't mention this explicitly. If this is true and it's because of the 4306's better preamp section, I would definitely go with the 4306 with a possibility of adding an external amp later. The question is, is the 4306 really worth additional $5-600 over the 3806 for better SQ especially due to better pre-processing? I don't care much about the 4306's better feature set.

Can anyone help me to decide? I'd appreciate any opinions based on experience with either setup.

 

[zildjian]

I went with the 3806 plus external amps and couldn't be happier with it. I was in the same boat as you, the extra features that the 4306 offered didn't matter that much to me. Also, going with the 3806 plus external amp(s) will give you a much greater power yield than the 4306 alone. If you ever like to turn things up loud, the receiver alone will have a harder time not sounding strained vs. having the external amp in the mix. Final thought, if you go with the 3806 plus external amp, when it's time to upgrade receiver/prepro in the future, think about how you would be able to keep your external amp in the set up and go with another high quality receiver/prepro that doesn't break the bank. Those are just the thought processes I had when I was going through the 3806 vs 4306 debate last winter. Hope it helps.
Brad

 

[eirepaul]

I have a 3805

and found that I needed additional amplification. However, it looks like my circumstances are a little different from yours. I like to listen mostly to multi-channel music at reasonably high levels in a large open room. Receivers do not provide their rated power to all channels at the same time. My 3805 is rated at 120w/ch but I have read that with all 7 channels driven it may only be delivering about 60-70w/ch, and I certainly found it to be lacking in that scenario with my particular listening requirements. Therefore, I added two used Adcom power amplifiers (from Audiogon) and realized a tremendous difference in clean, detailed output when listening at high levels with 5-7 channels driven. I felt comfortable buying these amplifiers used, as they are built like tanks. Generally, not much can go wrong with a decent power amplifier - they are pretty hard to abuse. I don't think you can go wrong by adding power amps if you can get them at a reasonable price - more available power in reserve is definately better for most systems.

Hope my experience helps you decide.

 

[mike c]

My 3805 is rated at 120w/ch but I have read that with all 7 channels driven it may only be delivering about 60-70w/ch, ...

just FYI

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/assets/download/DenonAVR-3805lab.pdf

93wpc x 7
or
107wpc x 5
or
139wpc x 2

only the lower models give the 60-70wpc

 

[Jay_WJ]

I heard that the 4306 would provide enough power in almost all situations. Isn't this right? I don't usually listen too loud. If I went with an external amp, it would be because of sound quality at a moderate listening level it could provide, not the high-volume listening advantage.

 

[eirepaul]

I heard that the 4306 would provide enough power in almost all situations. Isn't this right? I don't usually listen too loud. If I went with an external amp, it would be because of sound quality it could provide, not the high-level listening advantage.

This is true - if you don't typically listen at loud volume levels the 4306 will likely be perfectly adequate. It depends on a number of factors, including speaker sensitivity, room size, is there a powered subwoofer included in system, etc., but overall the 4306 probably has adequate power for most typical applications. However, if you start to push it's limits to any degree, it's sound quality will break up quickly and that's where the external amps have the advantage. At lower volume levels, I would say there is a discernible improvement in sound quality with external amps, but it is fairly minimal. The big question to ask yourself is: will you be pushing all 7 channels of your receiver very often and will you want to turn it up?

 

[eirepaul]

just FYI

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/assets/download/DenonAVR-3805lab.pdf

93wpc x 7
or
107wpc x 5
or
139wpc x 2

only the lower models give the 60-70wpc

OK - thanks for the clarification Mike

 

[AVRat]

I think you’re beyond “almost all situations” with 8000+ cu. ft. of space to fill. A good quality, high-powered amp is required in order maintain good SQ in that size space. It also looks like the power will be needed to maintain the good SQ for your 88db sensitivity speakers at lower volumes.

 

[Jay_WJ]

How about the quality of the preamp section of the two receivers? It seems to me that there is no difference in preamp SQ between the two.