( 21 reviews )
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Posted: May 15 2009
As the Blu Ray / HDTV bug bit me, I had to upgrade to a receiver with HDMI switching. I upgraded from a Rotel receiver which did not support HDMI. I did quite a bit of research and auditioning before I chose this Denon. The important features for me were HDMI switching (with full support for Dolby TrueHD and the rest of the Blu Ray sound formats) and Audissey room calibration. Since many of us watch movies and listen to music in our regular living rooms which are not specially acoustically treated, room calibration is very useful, and it only became available in receivers a couple of years ago. Other brands / receivers considered: Integra, Onkyo, Marantz, Pioneer Elite, Yamaha, NAD, Arcam, Rotel, Sony. Of these, Arcam and Rotel do not offer room calibration and yet are expensive, so they were ruled out. Sony, Yamaha, and Pioneer have some proprietary room correction which may or may not be good. I liked the sound of the Pioneer Elite for what is worth. Integra, Onkyo, Marantz and NAD have Audissey RoomEQ, which is the most advanced tried-and-true room correction available in home theater receivers today. The NAD and Marantz feature more limited versions of RoomEQ. Marantz sounds kind of dull and smears high resolution detail; some call this sound "sweet" but it really is just dull :) Integra and Onkyo are pretty feature rich and their highest end models are in the same league as this Denon. Integra and Onkyo (which are the same company really) sound detailed and somewhat bright. Denon won because it has the fullest set of features (you can even listen to web radio or stream your music files over WiFi!), it is network upgradeable unlike most of the other brands (kind of like your PC which gets software updates), has enough power (140 Watts/channel) to drive most speakers, and it sounds fantastic. This summer Denon is introducing the successor to this and a few other receivers, so prices for this receiver are lower now -- it must be one of the better deals on the market right now in this price range.
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Posted: May 1 2009
Just bought this unit as an replacement for my Denon 4802R 7.1 THX AV receiver. This new unit while not THX rated out performs the other in every area. Both units were driving a set of M&K S-150 THX speakers in a 7.1 configuration. The 4308CI made more of a improvement than I would have expected. I bought the new unit for improved features which it has more than I'll ever use...the improved sound is a bonus. I found it very easy to set up after spending some time with the unit.
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( 4 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 14 2009
Bought the AVR 4308 in December, and its been now in the Denon repair log jam since February. No end in sight -- they again had to order "all new parts" after the first batch failed. As an owner of 4 Denon receivers, I grow worried that the first parts failed, the new batch they ordered failed, and they can't even give a MONTH or QUARTER when it will be repaired. When I called the Denon cust support line, he wouldn't give me an answer on when they finally gave me a new machine, when I asked 6 months, 9 months, 1 year?? He wouldn't even commit that after trying to fix it for a year that they would replace the machine. Asked to speak with a supervisor -- they refused to put one on the line -- saying that was Denon's warranty policy, and they would continue to fix it. Oh yeah -- and naturally, once the parts were ordered, the receiver goes back to the END of the line. Even if the parts come tomorrow, they won't look at it for 4 weeks - at the earliest. Having talked with one of the tech's who works at the repair place, they have been getting an increasing number of Denon's back -- and are "swamped". It seems like their quality control has completely gone out the window -- if their spare parts don't work, and repair clinics are swamped, I wish that I knew this prior to giving them what looks like a donation. April 28th Update: Turns out the authorized repair agent shipped my unit to Denon. Of course, neither they nor Denon decided to share that with me until I called back and forth in search of an update. While on the phone with Denon, I again asked for a supervisor -- told there wasn't one on staff. Seeing as they had my receiver now since the beginning of February, I asked if there was a possible ETA, or when they would just replace the unit. The guy actually laughed at me, and said that they wouldn't consider replacing the unit. Again, I asked for a supervisor -- was told that he would get one to call me once they were around. This was much earlier today --- 6 hours later, no update. So, for the four months that I've had the "pleasure" of owning a fancy Denon receiver, its now been at their repair blackhole for 3 of those months. My next steps are lodging a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and suing them in small claims court for a working receiver. May 18th update: after calling an EVP at Denon, he finally expedited the process, and got my unit back to me about a week ago. Well, it stopped working again yesterday. The HDMI port will not pickup my satellite -- which worked fine the day before. When I plug the satellite directly into the TV -- not problem. Tried different ports, cables.. etc etc etc. To no avail. Back to sitting on hold at Denon again. Seems like they tried to pack too much into a product...
