My search for a good receiver at a fair price stopped with denon 1803
Written: Sep 28 '03 (Updated Sep 28 '03)
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Pros: Clean detailed sound with decent power and clarity at a terrific price.
Cons: The receiver takes a while to get familiar if you are going by the manual.
The Bottom Line: If anyone is looking for a good receiver on a decent price compare this with the others with a good speaker system and you will hear what you wanted to.
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| bala_zala's Full Review: Denon AVR-1803 6.1 Channels Receiver |
After prolonged usage of my stereo system i decided to go for a AV-Receiver. I was all over the web and AV magazines to get the best receiver in a decent low price. I tried visiting several AV showrooms too. More than one occasion i came across this receiver Denon-1803, which had the right balance between features and performance. The comparison with other brands in this price range was very useful. The warm sound of denon really got me going for it. Other receivers like yamaha in this price range may sound attractive in the initial stages but on the long run it will cause listening fatigue(atleast that was the case for me).
I got this baby home and got it connected to my old sony speakers as mains(temporarily) and bose161 as surrounds. The sound was pretty good even with the ordinary speakers i was using them with . Then i upgraded my main speakers to paradigm m9. This is when i knew what this receiver was really capable of. The sound details and clarity was really something i never heard in many other systems in this price range. I still am yet to upgrade my center channel (currently using Sony). I have my pioneer dvd player connected to this through coaxial input with a quality monster cable which again adds up to the performance. The quality of the cables used to connect the system and the speakers surely makes a noticeable difference in the sound output.
Watching movies like "Saving private Ryan" was simply something else. The speed at which the sound pans from speaker to speaker is really something to listen. The receiver surely needs a fair bit of break in time to sound better than the initial stages of usage. So far the movie that really impressed me in this receiver is "The Haunting", it may not be the best one to watch for the
story line but it surely will let u know what your receiver can do and your speakers too. Some people may be confused about the setting of the speakers in the receiver as "Large" or "Small". If u have this movie try setting the speaker to "large" in your receiver setup and watch chapter 10, if your speaker do not give any audible distortion then ur speakers can be set to large itself. Also make sure the bass settings is in "0" level before doing this test. Even the tank scene from "Saving private Ryan" will be a good test for the speaker configuration.
Overall this receiver may be a little low on the bass region, especially for music but u wont miss out on the details of the material you are listening to. I guess you cant expect more in this price range. Listening to music on Prologic 2 is really cool. It creates a wonderful 3d spacious sound. Any stereo material will sound great in prologic 2. The bass management for movies and music are really quite different. The deep bass which u can literally feel can be sensed in the movies but not quite so with music material. It could be because of the way the recording is done. I listened to Onkyo txsR-600 with B & W speakers , the sound was similarly impressive but i got a terrific deal on denon which i could not resist. $380 for a receiver of this caliber was a steal. So i decided upon denon. Besides the sound from Denon isn't really that different from Onkyo (comparing only these two models).One more thing i like about the controls is the bass and treble adjustments can be preset with different levels at different modes like Stereo, dts, etc. So you can have different settings for movies and music which need not be adjusted now and then for your liking. This feature will not be there in most receivers in this price range. Most of the receivers which has knob(analog) controls for bass and treble won't have this feature.
If someone out there is going to a audition for this receiver make sure you are listening with some quality speakers, cause the speakers matter more than anything else in a Home theater set up. If you really want to know the power of the receiver, try them with floor standers as mains and dont include a sub. The rating of 80w/ channel might sound under rated at times. As for the
features, it will be a wise decision to think of what we would be using often in a receiver rather than to compare it with other receivers which might offer so many extra features which might not be used at all. So, in my opinion, the sound quality should be the first preference to choose a receiver, cause that is what ultimately matters on the long run. I might not have mentioned much about the specs of the receiver but i guess it will be
best to get them from the Denon site itself for a perfect information.
Hands down, this receiver has what it takes to be called as a quality receiver and it really delivers the good sound. Other receivers might offer tons of sound processing like dsp this and dsp that but believe me they are all as useless as they can get to be. All that they do is only add colour to the original sound which i dont think is a nice way to listen to music or watch movies.
I am in love with Denon now.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 380 - w/o sp
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Epinions.com ID:
bala_zala
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Reviews written: 2
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