I'm looking at 2 different Denon receivers to use for HT: either the 3806 or the 2807. They are fairly comparible on paper, unfortunately our local dealer probably won't get any more 3806's in, and they just ran out of the 2807 last saturday but are getting more in a week.

I've read that the DAC's are better on the 3806, but HDMI is better on the 2807. 3806 has a nicer remote w/ a touchscreen on part of it and Denon Link, 2807 has an ipod dock available for it.

Anyone have real world experience with either of these models? The 3806 may not be available locally, but it's still available thru Crutchfield.

 

Did a little looking at this.

I our (my brothers and mine) opinion the 2307ci is the way to go.

The 3806 will be superseded here soon. should be going to the 3807. the advantage to it would be good power and a third zone option. i.e. for multi room music.

the 2807 again has good power, but only two zones for multi room music.
http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3255.asp

the 2307 has 2 zones, good power, HDMI switching, XM, and the ipod hook up. and the price can not be beat. It should meet your need very well.

As far as the remotes go, get it set up and toss em. For home theater you need to be using a Universal, RTI, or at least a Harmony task orientated remote. Will make things Extremely easier. well worth the cost.

What speakers are you planning on running?

DVD player? Display?

I personally would go with the 2307ci and take the $300 and get the 1930ci player, has a nice Faroudja scalier which will make a noticeable difference.
http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3299.asp

If you have any other ?'s we can help you out.
We do this for a living Custom Home Theater installers.
My Brother is the brains in this department so any ?'s you have if i don't know i can get answered easy enough by him.

 

thanks for your feedback, I'll check in to that 2307ci. We're finishing our basement, so we'll be putting a plasma TV down there too. We're planning on a Pioneer Elite PRO-1140HD.

We currently have Paradigm Monitor 7's, with a CC-370 center and mini monitors for surrounds. The sub is just an old KLH, but I'm thinking about a Paradigm PW-2100 or 2200. Our DVD player is a Denon 1920.

 

Sounds like you have it all in hand.

If you have trouble finding the receiver, basically because its new. Let me know i am pretty sure i can get it from my distributor and ship it out.

We use Pioneers industrial line, has a nice picture.

Also don't forget your power conditioner. We generally use Panamax. Really good value works really well. No sense in putting out all that money and having the Display go south because a car hits a power pole.

We don't have any experience with the speakers you mentioned. I looked them up and the ones we would probably use in that application are the Kef Q series. http://www.kef.jp/products/iq/iq5.htmlThey sound pretty good.
One of our customers wife is a pianist, and she was very sceptical until she heard them play.

Let me know if you need anything, I'll see what info i can drag up or what not.

 

Reggie,

Any experience with HD-ILA TV's? I was in one of our local HT shops this weekend looking at subs. This is where I've bought all our other Paradigm speakers. Anyway, the guy was asking what TV we were looking at for our new basement, and I mentioned the Pioneer Elite or a Panny plasma. He sort of winced, and said that we should really be looking at LCDs instead of plasmas, but that the best right now is the HD-ILA rear projection TVs.

I think this is JVC's niche right now. Prices are reasonable, and from what everyone says, their new 1080P sets have stunning PQ. Only thing that worries me is that it is lamp based - which means I'd probably want a battery back up to keep the fans running to cool the thing down in the event of a power outage, and I'd also need to replace that $200 lamp. JVC says their average life is 6,000 hours, but there seems to be more than a few complaints from people that have only got 600-1500 hours out of it. I certainly don't want a $200 per year maintenance fee on a TV.

I didn't have time to demo a TV on that trip, but I'm thinking about going back this week to see just how good the image is. JVC also has 1080P LCDs out too.

 

We generally steer clear of LCOS displays. They had a bad problem with what is called the screendoor effect. From a distance the picture looks fine but up close it looks like you are looking thru a screen door.

LCOS was just a few manufactures answer to DLP, did not really take off like DLP did as you can tell there are many more DLP displays to choose from than LCOS.

If you are going to go this route i would stick to DLP we have use Toshiba's Cinema series displays and have had good results. http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/televisi...?model=56hmx96

Not to sure why he "winched" at the mention of tow pretty good displays. My brother just picked up a Pioneer industrial 50 yesterday for his theater. and we have designed on using a Panasonic industrial in a showroom we are putting together next month.
Plasmas have very god black levels, bested only by good Ol CRT TVs.
LCD displays are not far behind and don't have the burn in issues plasma has, but most manufacturers have addressed that issue. DLP display do need to have proper cool down on the lamp, so if you live in a area where frequent power outages you will definitely need something like Panamax's Max 1500 UPS.
http://www.panamax.com/products.cfm?...il&id=259&ly=h

The two displays you mentioned are more than capable. Unless they have resolved their issues with LCOS i would stay clear and go with tried and true.

As for the lamp issue, on the DLPs we have used we have not had any problems. The 200 charge would be just for the lamp not the installation, so if there is complaints of 600-1000 hour life on the lamps that is just another reason to steer clear.

 

Was this any help?

 

Yeah, you pretty much reinforced what I was already thinking.