AVOID THIS THING CAN NOT BE REPAIRED
Written: May 13 '02 (Updated Jul 27 '07)
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Pros: Price features and sound. Phono preamp.
Cons: Reliability problems. Surround sound parts impossible to get after only 5 years. Avoid
The Bottom Line: AVOID DENON RECEIVERS. After 5 years the parts are not available. Denon clearly believes their products are not to be repaired.
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| dadeo7432's Full Review: Denon AVR-1802 5.1 Channels Receiver |
I now know that this receiver is garbage. Or rather Denon's serviceability and parts availablity is. My receiver's digital surround electronics bit the dust in May. It took several weeks for Denon to finally own up to the fact that they can not supply the part to fix it. This thing is only 5 years old, and it can not be repaired.
The company that was trying to fix my Denon kept with me for weeks trying to get the part. Several techs at this company said Denon sometimes had trouble getting parts delivered. I agree.
I recently got another receiver repaired. It was a 30 year old Hitachi that had several things wrong. It was restored to nearly new condition by the same guys who worked on the Denon. Hitachi hasn't built a receiver in over 10 years. Hitachi parts were easily available: the original factory parts.
Come on Denon, get your act together.
If you expect to keep your AV Receiver more than 5 years I would not buy a Denon.
I will leave the body of my original post 5 years ago below.
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What I use this thing with: This receiver is the center of my home entertainment system. Located in a large carpeted basement TV and music room, I have hooked up 2 year old Boston Acoustic (model #s forgetten) center, front and rear surround speakers; a Miller and Kiessel 14? inch sub-woofer; a 6 year old RCA 52 inch projection TV w/ s-video inputs; a Dish-501 PVR satellite system with s-video, DTS and Dolby 5.1 output; a VHS VCR; a 10 year old CD changer; and, "old school analog": a Nakamichi tape deck and Dual turntable/changer. No DVD. With the PVR capababilities of the Dish 501, I've really not seen the need for DVD...quite yet. Since I have nearly 1,000 33rpm records, I still insisted on need phono inputs. The system also drives a total of 6 other speakers in stereo mode (outside, family room and living room) through a switch I bought from Radio Shack.
Performance: Sound is Outstanding. This unit can comfortably drive at very loud volumns, all the speakers, surrounds and extensions included, without clipping or going into safe mode because of overheating. The phono input pre-amp is as good as it gets, it would have been ranked tops 20 years ago too. The switching between components is good and the various synthetic surround modes work very well. We primarily use Dolby Pro Logic II set to Music mode when playing music only through the basement speakers. When playing other speakers in the rest of the house we set the surround to 5 Channel Stereo or just Stereo. When watching TV the system is set to Dolby and Automatic Input from the Dish-501. The receiver always knows and switches to the proper format when the satellite is sending it a signal in Digital Dolby 5.1 or the older non-5.1 signal, or DTS or just plain analog Dolby Surround.
Set up: While the instruction book is written in fairly plain english with good diagrams, I recommend seting aside an entire day to set up a large TV/surround system (even if you are only replacing an older receiver). This way you will be able to take full advantage of this receivers's switching and surround features and trouble shoot without too much stressing out. You should also have all the instruction books to all the other components (including TV) in the system. I strongly recommend taking a few hours the day before to review all the instruction books You may even want to do a basic wire diagram before starting to wire the components together. Take a look at the back of the receiver and you will see enough inputs and outputs to confuse anyone who doesn't do this for a living.
YES the remote SUCKS! You will have to use it to set the system up. Then get a good learning remote and you won't have to use the Denon more than a couple of times a month. I guess that the remote is where Denon shaved a vew bucks off the price.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 350
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Epinions.com ID:
dadeo7432
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Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 1 member
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