Timh
Distinguished Member
I have now owned the above receiver in Gold for 2 week's now, it replaced my ageing Sony strb-925.
After opening the box in natural light I was surprised at the colour, it just seemed differant to the show room amps. Its also not made in Japan but Korea, this hasn't seemed to effect the build quality or feel of this amp.
All connections are chrome apart from the front inputs which look gold plated.
setup is quite simple, a step by step guide is displayed on the fascia, you could virtually set this up without looking in the hand book IMHO.
Comparing to my old amp the sound quality seems much smoother sounding, my old sony amp always seemed a bit harsh, especially when pushed. the denon goe's much louder without sounding harsh. I was forever adjusting the speaker settings with the Sony, all seem's spot on with the Denon out of the box, i even find the centre speaker sounding much clearer even at 0db setting, the sony was usually on +5db
Pro-logic II : Go get your self a Pro-logic II amp now, i can't beleive how good this sound format is, watching programmes like stargate seem's like watching them for the first time, an episode 2 weeks ago in the Arctic had a scene where a roller door shuts behind the camera just to the left, the sound of the roller door shutting came from the left rear speaker just like dolby digital would same goe's for Enterprise with the ship coming from rear right. Pans accross the front sound stage seem much more accurate.
Dolby Digital EX : Tested the Pod race from SWTPM, only because i no it so well, pans accross the rear seem much more accurate, a tuscan raider takes a shot at one of the racers, it appears in the back surround then echoes to rear right. Also watched Toy Story II for a test piece, once again some good spots where people close doors behind you quite a view moments of back surround in this film.
EX is good, but not amazing 5.1 sound is pretty good anyway, EX just seems to fill the gap behind you with the plus of the odd effect thrown in.
As for DTS ES descreet/matrix I cannot comment yet, I haven't got round to trying them out.
The Tuner: well its a tuner it get's radio signals with RDS texting scroling the programme info, I usually listen to Sky Radio.
The only downer i have found is when you have the sound format set to Auto. If you play a DDEX film and then play a normal DD film, the Amp stay's in EX mode, you have to manually switch the back surround off, thats if you want to.
DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 and Dolby Digital EX with Power Amps for 6 Channels
The AVR-1803 is equipped with 6 amplifiers of equal power, one for each channel, in a discrete configuration for total accuracy when reproducing sound from demanding DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX sources. The Dolby Pro Logic II feature lets you hear 2-channel stereo sources in realistic 5.1-channel surround sound.
I have probably missed plenty out so fire away with any question's.
After opening the box in natural light I was surprised at the colour, it just seemed differant to the show room amps. Its also not made in Japan but Korea, this hasn't seemed to effect the build quality or feel of this amp.
All connections are chrome apart from the front inputs which look gold plated.
setup is quite simple, a step by step guide is displayed on the fascia, you could virtually set this up without looking in the hand book IMHO.
Comparing to my old amp the sound quality seems much smoother sounding, my old sony amp always seemed a bit harsh, especially when pushed. the denon goe's much louder without sounding harsh. I was forever adjusting the speaker settings with the Sony, all seem's spot on with the Denon out of the box, i even find the centre speaker sounding much clearer even at 0db setting, the sony was usually on +5db
Pro-logic II : Go get your self a Pro-logic II amp now, i can't beleive how good this sound format is, watching programmes like stargate seem's like watching them for the first time, an episode 2 weeks ago in the Arctic had a scene where a roller door shuts behind the camera just to the left, the sound of the roller door shutting came from the left rear speaker just like dolby digital would same goe's for Enterprise with the ship coming from rear right. Pans accross the front sound stage seem much more accurate.
Dolby Digital EX : Tested the Pod race from SWTPM, only because i no it so well, pans accross the rear seem much more accurate, a tuscan raider takes a shot at one of the racers, it appears in the back surround then echoes to rear right. Also watched Toy Story II for a test piece, once again some good spots where people close doors behind you quite a view moments of back surround in this film.
EX is good, but not amazing 5.1 sound is pretty good anyway, EX just seems to fill the gap behind you with the plus of the odd effect thrown in.
As for DTS ES descreet/matrix I cannot comment yet, I haven't got round to trying them out.
The Tuner: well its a tuner it get's radio signals with RDS texting scroling the programme info, I usually listen to Sky Radio.
The only downer i have found is when you have the sound format set to Auto. If you play a DDEX film and then play a normal DD film, the Amp stay's in EX mode, you have to manually switch the back surround off, thats if you want to.
DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 and Dolby Digital EX with Power Amps for 6 Channels
The AVR-1803 is equipped with 6 amplifiers of equal power, one for each channel, in a discrete configuration for total accuracy when reproducing sound from demanding DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX sources. The Dolby Pro Logic II feature lets you hear 2-channel stereo sources in realistic 5.1-channel surround sound.
I have probably missed plenty out so fire away with any question's.