Went from Denon AVR-1803 to Yamaha RX-V640

C

Chucky

Guest
I would like to share my experience with the forum.

Firstly all my speakers are Mission. I have 773e fronts, 77DS surrounds, M7C2 front centre, and M7C1 as single rear centre speaker. I have Paradigm PDR10 sub.


Secondly, the acoustics of the room is far from perfect. I currently do not have a back wall behind the surrounds (hanging on walls) and the centre rear (on stand, behind sofa). The wall is actually about 3m behind them.
However, I do not live in a perfect world either. Plus for comparison reasons - nothing else has changed!

Basically, i bought Denon DVR-1803 over a year ago only because of all the glorious reviews and "experts" saying that Denon is great. As it turned out - big mistake.
My thoughts from this experience:
- Manual is too difficult to understand
- Remote is way too big
- Sound is dull and boring. How else to describe it.. LACKING
definition or just lacking very low and very hight frequencies.
- especially hopeless at the low end. Things like car engine noise wasnt reproduced at all, just some kind of "humm".

Decided that its time to go back to Yamaha (i had one previously), since they release a new generation with DTS-ES Discrete. Sold the AVr-1803 and bought a RX-V640RDS.

Could not believe my ears - first reaction, is like removing earplugs! What was i listening to for over a year upto now?
Pluses:
- the sound has much more definition.. sharpness to it.
I can hear sounds that could not be heard on Denon.
- I can hear the higher and lower end
- Especially lower end car engine noise - reproduced very well
- explosions actually feel real, not just "humm"
- Hey, i can only now REALLY feel the strength of Mission
773e fronts
- The remote is smaller, easier organised
- Yamaha has a lot of special enhancement modes like Sci-fi,
Adventure etc., Denon DID NOT HAVE ANY AT ALL

Minuses:
- Sorry Yamaha, i cannot set up the remote to control any of
my devices ie. DVD player and TV. just doesnt do it!


Conclusion: my review is of course subjective. But at least its a real life review. Denon are probably a good brand for hi-fi and perhaps some high-end stuff. But face it, Yamaha is LIGHT YEARS ahead in home cinema. I also suspect that I could have bought a cheaper RX-V440RDS which would do almost everything that 640 does.

Final thoughts - do not trust any magazines or "experts". Their opinion is often bought for money. Learn from my mistake, and try to listen to an amp/receiver in action before you buy! ideally with similar speakers to yours.

I am not an expert nor a real audiophile. then again, the very serious experts would surely buy the high end gear. These models i am discussing are more in the entry - average level home cinema market. Hence, no need to be an expert!

Now that i got it off my chest, i sincerely hope that my review helps somebody! If you found it interesting, i would appreciate a some follow up on this forum.
 
I had the opposite experience myself - am not a Yamaha fan :D - and very much preferred the sound of the 1803.

Seems odd that you found it to be SO bad, perhaps there was something wrong with it?
 
Originally posted by Dimmy
I had the opposite experience myself - am not a Yamaha fan :D - and very much preferred the sound of the 1803.

Seems odd that you found it to be SO bad, perhaps there was something wrong with it?

Same here, I much prefer the sound of the 1803.
 
I've just gone up from an old Marantz to a Denon 1803 and I'm not exactly blown away. My friends got a new Onkyo amp and that sounds miles better. But I didn't pay much for the amp as Denon sent the shop the wrong price so I'm not complaining :)

Regards

Dude
 
Dude 1971

Out of interest, which Onkyo amp did your mate pick-up?
 
well.. I know my review is subjective. However, I had friends (who dont know anything about home cinema) complain that they think the speakers arent using their potential. Somehow the sound seemed a bit dampened especially at the lower and higher ends. Even friends noticed it!
The AVR-1803 that i had was probably one of the earliest batches to be sold in UK, because i was one of the first people to buy it.
Oh... for those who say 1803 is performing better for music - it didnt do that well for music either.
The subwoofer was the worst affected part.
From now on i will never buy another Denon receiver.

In fact i am happy with Yamaha RX-V640 and the 6.1 setup. I see no reason to upgrade anytime soon, unless they release some kind of 3D holographic image/sound processing???
 
yeah, I've got the yamaha 620 - it's great, no probs there, haven't heard the Denon tho.
 

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