Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: I might have to part with my Denon AVR3802

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 01-30-2011, 05:48 PM:

I do not remember how long I has it but I bought a Denon AVR3802 from my local dealer and at the time it was one of Denon's best receiver. It was a long time ago because I was still watching laserdiscs when I purchased the unit. It has served me very well all these years and I never had any problem with it until recently when I only got sound from my right front speaker when I watch television. Since I rarely watch TV I was willing to live with it because I was still able to get good 5.1 surround sound from the receiver whenever I watch movies on Blu-Ray and DVDs. All was fine until the other night when I played a DTS demo Blu-Ray disc my friend brought home for me from the recent CES show at Las Vegas. The disc is a DTS HD Master Audeo demo and it played very well at the beginning with awesome 6.1 DTS discreet sound instead of the usual 5.1 . All was fine until I had noticed there was no sound from my right front speaker after an hour. The problem was still there when I played other discs and after trying to figure out what was going on, I turned off my video system because it was late. When I turned my system on last night to watch the movie 2012, Surprise! Surprise! All speakers was active including the right front. All was fine until the last 30 minutes of the movie when the right front speaker stopped working again. I have now come to the conclusion that it is time to get a new receiver and get one that will allow me to enjoy Blu-Ray Master Audio whenever I watch a Blu Ray disc.

The Denon was not cheap because I remember paying a little over a thousand dollars for it but I do not want to spend that much when I buy a new receiver. Best Buy has been offering receivers for about $500.00 or slightly less. How are these units? All I want is a system that will deliver great sound without paying an 'arm and a leg' for it.

-Claude

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-30-2011, 05:54 PM:

Toss it. Get a higher-end Pioneer ELITE.

Posted by Cody Martin (Member # 2523) on 01-30-2011, 06:05 PM:

Had a very similar problem with my older Pioneer unit whenever the unit was started up after being off for a long time. A small tap on top of the unit fixed the problem while the unit was on.

Sent the unit in and found out it was essentially one of the channel "relays" sticking which is what I assumed it was. Pioneer service fixed the issue for a small price and all was well the entire time I used that unit(around 3 years). I've since upgraded to the Pioneer VSX-1120-K and am very happy with this unit.

Hopefully your problem is something better than this (maybe a speaker wire coming loose from vibrations?).

Good luck!

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 01-30-2011, 06:14 PM:

Sounds like dirty switches. Try pushing/turning all the switches, and turn all the pots back and forth several times. Don't forget the ones on the rear pannel. Pull out all the connectors, then put them back in. Do this several times each, and do it one connector at a time. If you do this while running audio through the receiver, you may hear crackeling when you find a dirty switch/pot/connector.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-30-2011, 10:05 PM:

Replace all the caps if you don't want to toss it. I hope you are handy with a soldering iron.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 01-31-2011, 08:48 AM:

I just went through a couple of Denons from Best Buy. I should have known when I walked in and they had about 100 of them stacked up in front of the "home theater" room. Denon blamed it on my 6 Ohm speakers I bought at the same time. I ended up exchanging for a Yamaha RX-V367. It has all the inputs I need, my only gripe are the speaker outputs. The L/R have screw on terminals which accept banana plugs, the c/ls/rs are tiny push button terminals which my big wire won't fit in. (hehe, I hear that all the time from my Chinese girlfriends) [Big Grin]

. Seriously though, when I turn it up to "zero" it kicks ass in my 12x12 room. The walls shake, drywall cracks, and the neighbors complain.

Rick me

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-31-2011, 01:16 PM:

If you are otherwise happy with the unit, take it to a place that repairs stereo equipment. It can probably be fixed for far less than the cost of replacement with a new unit.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-31-2011, 03:57 PM:

But a new unit would have shiny new features like DTSHDMA and DolbyTrueHD (and other HDMI-flavored audio).

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 02-05-2011, 01:16 AM:

So Claude?

What have you done?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-13-2011, 02:15 PM:

Sorry for not keeping you all up to date with the problem I am having with my Denon receiver. I have had no problem for over a week when I play movies with 5.1 soundtracks and mono but the receiver does not seem to know what to do with movies with 2.0 tracks. The Criterion MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE and UNCLE BUCK i bought last week in Blu Ray have a 2.0 track. The spoken dialogue in UNCLE BUCK can be heard coming out of my left and right front speakers and very faintly from the centre. MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE is not that bad. The dialogue seem to be coming from between the centre speaker with normal surround activity and I was able to live with that. Although UNCLE BUCK on Blu-Ray is in early Dolby Stereo 2.0, I had to play it back in mono and it sounded good. Although I probably can get my receiver serviced, there is no guarantee it will be as good as it originally was and if I did send it off to be worked on, I will no be able to watch any movies so I am considering getting a new receiver eventually.

-Claude

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-15-2011, 01:01 PM:

Rich...that picture brings back many memories. My first job in NYC was as a recording engineer for the LaBrie FM Stereo Network. The man who gave me that job was Gene LaBrie, the president and CEO. He was a great, energetic spit-fire of a guy, always with imagintive ideas. Our company produced prerecorded music packages for automated FM stations across the country, our biggest client being WLS in Chicago. One of the music program packages that we produced was called "Lush-A-Go-Go"...I kid you not.

The man was a father figure and mentor to me. We would sit for hours in his private studio in huge recliners, quality-checking the master tapes, playing them at really hefty levels. At the time I had a wild mane of hair. When he went to Maxell as a marketing consultant he single handedly created that Man In The Chair - It Will Blow You Away ad campaign that turn the company around from an unknown to a major player in the blank tape/cassette market.

He told me that the inspiration for that ad came from our hours listening in the studio with me slouched down in that huge lounge chair, hair all disheveled, and I admit - we weren't drinking wine as much as smoking those funny cigarettes. [beer]

I am much richer for having known him.

Gene LaBrie