Denon 2808 or 2809?

Diinky

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Hi all

Looking for a little help on this.

Not sure which one of these 2 amps to buy.

Denon 2808 is £399 at richer sounds at the moment, but with the 2809 due very soon at about £799 its decision time.

Is the 2808 as good as the 2809 with regards to sound quality? (hd audio and stereo sound for music)

I know that the 2808 only has 2 hdmi in, but that might be ok at the moment.

Is the 2809 worth twice the money?

cheeRS

Diinky
 
I have been very pleased with my 2808, which I have had for while now.

I have not heard the 2809, so cannot comment on that directly, but the specs alone would suggest that it is not worth double the costs of the 08 model. The xx09 models have been very well received, but £400 is a big difference.

The Richer Sounds price for the 2808 is excellent imo.
 
If I were you I'D stick to the 2808.

Except the HDMI inputs there is only one difference: Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume. This will give you for sure a slightly better sound (for the trained ear on high-end speakers I assume) but I doubt it is worth almost double the price.
 
No your not being stupid, the £399 is for VIP members, but anyone can join, I did last week & picked up my 2808 last Saturday for £436 with 5yr warranty , & i must say the sound is amazing, don't forget 12mths ago this was an £800 amp. If you can do without the extra hdmi input on the 2809 then i'd suggest getting the 2808, it's a very similar machine & £400 less, amazing value.
 
I bought my 2808 the last time they did the VIP deal on it for £399. I too wondered about getting one of the newer spec amps (2309 in my case as it was available and the 2809 wasn't then). I found that I've used the three user memories (accessed just below the volume knob or on the remote) can partly make up for not having dynamic eq (not bothered about compressing the sound with the dynamic volume). I can manage with two HDMIs as I already had a 4 in 2 out switch for when I had my 3805.

What I've done is set memory '1' with extra sub level, Cinema EQ 'OFF' (clearer) and boosted surrounds and volume at -30 for 'normal TV' viewing. Then I set memory '2' for when I watch BluRays on my projector: sub and surround levels at their correct matched settings, Cinema EQ 'ON' (to tame sibilance at higher listening levels) and volume at -15. It is possible to assign different Audessy settings too using this method, such as Flat/Audessy/Manual/Off for further control.

As you can see the 'old' models are still pretty flexible and IMHO they sound pretty good too. :thumbsup:
 
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I bought my 2808 the last time they did the VIP deal on it for £399. I too wondered about getting one of the newer spec amps (2309 in my case as it was available and the 2809 wasn't then). I found that I've used the three user memories (accessed just below the volume knob or on the remote) can partly make up for not having dynamic eq (not bothered about compressing the sound with the dynamic volume). I can manage with two HDMIs as I already had a 4 in 2 out switch for when I had my 3805.

What I've done is set memory '1' with extra sub level, Cinema EQ 'OFF' (clearer) and boosted surrounds and volume at -30 for 'normal TV' viewing. Then I set memory '2' for when I watch BluRays on my projector: sub and surround levels at their correct matched settings, Cinema EQ 'ON' (to tame sibilance at higher listening levels) and volume at -15. It is possible to assign different Audessy settings too using this method, such as Flat/Audessy/Manual/Off for further control.

As you can see the 'old' models are still pretty flexible and IMHO they sound pretty good too. :thumbsup:


Just read this thread and wanted to ask you about your HDMI switcher and if you have encountered any problems. My dilemma is that I Have 3 HDMI devices and the 2808 only has 2 inputs. I have a belkin 3 way switch which is 3 in and 1 out. IF I use this device to input my 3 devices into the amp would there be any problems ie would they have different sound settings, this is the thing that's bugging me as I can't afford to make a mistake as the missus is not really onboard as far as the purchase is concerned.
 
I can't elaborate on the switch but practically you would pass all devices through let's say 'DVD' and the DVD settings would be the valid ones.
As a compromize you could pass the two most similar devices through the switch and the third one thru the second HDMI to have at least two sets of settings.
 
Like Spooney says use with the switch and using both the 2808's HDMIs. I actually left all my sources into the switch and then the output of the switch just goes to 1 HDMI input on the 2808. This isn't a problem for me because only my BluRay player uses the HDMI for sound, the others use coax/optical (my PC can't output sound over HDMI and my DVD recorder is linked to another input for sound with different mode settings).

My switch is a 4 in 2 out one that cost me £180 IIRC about a year ago. I think that now you can get HDMI spec 1.3 ones (mine is 1.2) for less if you shop around.
 
Like Spooney says use with the switch and using both the 2808's HDMIs. I actually left all my sources into the switch and then the output of the switch just goes to 1 HDMI input on the 2808. This isn't a problem for me because only my BluRay player uses the HDMI for sound, the others use coax/optical (my PC can't output sound over HDMI and my DVD recorder is linked to another input for sound with different mode settings).

My switch is a 4 in 2 out one that cost me £180 IIRC about a year ago. I think that now you can get HDMI spec 1.3 ones (mine is 1.2) for less if you shop around.

Ah yes that's a point, maybe my switcher isn't 1.3 so maybe it won't pass sound, I wonder how I can tell or find out before I make an expensive mistake. I'll try and do a search to see if I can still find out.
 
Ah yes that's a point, maybe my switcher isn't 1.3 so maybe it won't pass sound, I wonder how I can tell or find out before I make an expensive mistake. I'll try and do a search to see if I can still find out.

It doesn't have to be V1.3 to pass sound. I thought that 1.3 was more for the deep colour mode that no BluRays can use at present, so not really necessary at this time? My V1.2 definatley passes PCM sound from BluRays, but I haven't got access to True HD yet as my player is an older model BDP-S300.
 
From hdmi.org

What’s new in the HDMI 1.3 Specification?

Higher speed: Although all previous versions of HDMI have had more than enough bandwidth to support all current HDTV formats, including full, uncompressed 1080p signals, HDMI 1.3 increases its single-link bandwidth to 340 MHz (10.2 Gbps) to support the demands of future HD display devices, such as higher resolutions, Deep Color and high frame rates. In addition, built into the HDMI 1.3 specification is the technical foundation that will let future versions of HDMI reach significantly higher speeds.
Deep Color: HDMI 1.3 supports 10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths, up from the 8-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification, for stunning rendering of over one billion colors in unprecedented detail.
Broader color space: HDMI 1.3 adds support for “x.v.Color™” (which is the consumer name describing the IEC 61966-2-4 xvYCC color standard), which removes current color space limitations and enables the display of any color viewable by the human eye.
New mini connector: With small portable devices such as HD camcorders and still cameras demanding seamless connectivity to HDTVs, HDMI 1.3 offers a new, smaller form factor connector option.
Lip Sync: Because consumer electronics devices are using increasingly complex digital signal processing to enhance the clarity and detail of the content, synchronization of video and audio in user devices has become a greater challenge and could potentially require complex end-user adjustments. HDMI 1.3 incorporates automatic audio synching capabilities that allows devices to perform this synchronization automatically with total accuracy.
New HD lossless audio formats: In addition to HDMI’s current ability to support high-bandwidth uncompressed digital audio and all currently-available compressed formats (such as Dolby® Digital and DTS®), HDMI 1.3 adds additional support for new lossless compressed digital audio formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio™.
 
So in light of the above, make sure your BluRay player is connected directly to one of the two HDMIs on the 2808, then you won't miss out on Dolby True HD or DTS MA...though if your player can decode internally to PCM then even that isn't strictly a problem.

The rest: I still stand by my above comments that they aren't really needed yet and it's debatable whether they will be unless they start making BluRays with deep colour, you don't need any higher frame rates to display BDs at native 1080/24p as my V1.2 box can happily transmit 1080/60p without problems, so I believe that a large part of V1.3 is just marketing. But that's all IMHO and others may feel differently.
 

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