This receiver does it all and does it well!
Written: Jun 20 '01 (Updated Aug 25 '01)
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Pros: The money you'll spend on a Denon pays for quality, not quantity.
Cons: The remote control! What were they thinking?
The Bottom Line: It does its job well with a no-nonsense attitude and at a fair price.
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| tvlawyer's Full Review: Denon AVR-1801 5.1 Channels Receiver |
After countless, sleepless nights on the net, I narrowed my search for a mid-priced A/V receiver to the Denon, the Onkyo TXDS-595 and the Yamaha RX-V620. After many more hours listening to each of them, I went with the Denon. I couldn't be happier. The Denon does exactly what I need... It provides a sufficient amount of CLEAN power, without glitz, glamour and a lot of wasteful features (Like digital sound fields I'll never use. Are you listening SONY?)
One of the first things that I noticed about the Denon was the absolute lack of any hiss coming from the amp when there was no audio signal going through. I figured that a quiet amp under those circumstances would mean a quiet amp under normal playing conditions. I was right. I would describe the Denon's sound, during music or DVD playback, as uncolored and crisp. There is none of the induced "harshness" that the Yamaha (across most of their product line) seems to produce. At home, the Denon seems to have enough power to cleanly drive my Paradigm Titans, CC-170 center and ADP-170 surrounds as loudly as I could ever want. Like many digital receivers, the Denon has the 5-channel stereo feature. Listening to my favorite Pink Floyd albums, and "The Wall" DVD, I hear things I never heard from these works before. The 5-channel effect is very enveloping.. as if you were listening through headphones.
The Denon's input controls are very straight forward and simple... just push the button. The Denon detects the type of signal fed to it (DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby ProLogic Stereo TV, etc) and processes accordingly. In this regard, I did not care for the Onkyo's multi-function button which requires you to press one button to access the menu, turn the wheel to select the menu, and then press the button to select the desired input. The Denon does use a knob to select one of five DSP's. Only five? So what? Sonys with 14+ sound fields are just silly.
This receiver could be, hands down, the BEST mid-priced A/V receiver on the market... but...The remote... ugh!
The remote seems to be the common negative factor in most reviews of the Denon line. It is not intuitive or well planned. It is marginally functional. It doesn't even fit in the hand very well. The battery compartment is mounted towards the front of the unit so it will tip right out of your hand. The buttons are ridiculously small and the labels hard to read. The Onkyo has a very nicely laid out remote and I nearly let that be a deciding factor. But in the end, Denon's sound performance reigned. If you buy this receiver, just be prepared to use a universal remote from elsewhere.
A caution to shoppers. Many retailers sell Denon products at heavily discounted prices, but few are authorized Denon retailers. If you buy from an unauthorized retailer, Denon will NOT honor your warranty. Denon does this to avoid diluting the company's reputation. I could have purchased this receiver for $75 less from an unauthorized dealer. However, to me, the peace of mind is well worth $75. You can find authorized dealers at www.denon.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 475.00
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tvlawyer
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 5 members
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