avr3806

There is a Denon AVR-3806 Receiver owners thread on AVSForum; members have commented on their experiences with Denon’s new budget receiver.

The good: SACD playback — the multichannel sound reproduction is wonderful (source is a Denon 1920). Also, Audyssey equalization has improved the acoustics considerably in my oddly-shaped home theater.

The bad: I’m sad to report that the 3806 does not synch up with the HDMI input from a Comcast/Motorola 6412 DVR either (DVI output converted to HDMI via DVI-HDMI cable). HDMI from the Denon 1920 DVD player works fine. Fortunately, my TV has two HDMI inputs, so no worries yet. However, such an expensive receiver should not have trouble synching up with garden variety (HDCP-enabled) DVRs. That’s not acceptable.

The ugly: 1) the manual. Never been a big fan of Denon manuals, and this one is no exception. There seems to be no logic to the organization. 2) Human interface design. I spent a frustrating half hour trying to run the auto-equalization scheme. Turns out that you start the sequence by pressing the left-arrow key rather than the “enter” key like all other menus everywhere on the planet.

View AVSForum thread