Nuckle

Depending on how good of a deal we are talking this is what I would do. RW-12D as sub with no question. RF-82 as fronts RC-52 as center RS-42 for rears If you are wanting to run 7.1 you could get a set of the RF-62's as your back surround sounds and use the RS-42 for your sides. That would be one hell of an impressive system in my mind. Nuck

No not at all. The TV does not have to be on. If it is you see the banner and if not then the receiver operates just like any other receiver. The only thing you need the TV for is for the set up menu just because of the amount of information there. Pictures of menu below: 1080i upscaled to 1080P New Menu Screen Shot Denon Wall Paper Nuck

Well I listened to some music this afternoon and I thought it sounded great. The best mode was the 2.1 channel direct. Very detailed and excellent base response. I do have my RF3's bi-amped just to clarify. The best thing was taking a USB flash drive and dropping music on it. Then just plugging into the front USB port on the receiver and BAM worked like a champ. Now when friends come over and want to bring music they can just drop it on a flash drive and be done. Another thing I really like is when you are doing anything that does not involve video the TV screen is black and has DENON in white letters slightly shaded across the screen. It looks pretty slick. I am fired up over this 3808ci, I just cant imagine what the 4308ci would be like. No question it would be better but I am not sure how much. One more thing to add from a distortion standpoint. I was able to adjust the volume level to the point where it was so loud that I did not want to stay in the same room with my set up woth no distortion. The only negative that I would say and it is being picky is that the 3808ci is a little brassier than my past receivers but we are talking about klipsch titanium dome compression driver tweets. If anyone wants any pictures of the menu or screen savers or whatever just let me know and I will send them. Nuck

I can answer a couple of the questions now and will address the others later. I am using HDMI and there have been 0 issues. Everything switches perfectly and to be honest with the new programing function I did not have to set any of my HDMI devices up, they were already set up when I powered up the receiver. I had to set up a few other things but mainly because of what all I have hooked up. PS3 via HDMI DTV receiver via HDMI Wii Via component DVD2800 via component and digital coax (optical is dead out of 2800 due to lightning) You can even re-label everything so now instead of switching to DVI or something for the PS3 I am actually switching and on screen it says PS3 or Wii or whatever. I will listen to some music via the 2800 today and report back. Movies sound incredible so I hope music will be the same. This receiver is a good step up from the 3806 and it was not slouch. The guy I have purchased all of my equipment from over the years pushed me away from the 4308ci. He said that he would love to make the sale but he did not feel it was worth the extra $900. As I said before, I would have had a tough time getting approval from my wife for the 4308ci so I dont want it to sound like I would have bought it otherwise. If you have the extra $900 and it is of no issue then by all means get that monster. Speakers: RF3, RC3, RS3 and KSW12 Nuck

Well I bought the 3808ci today and got everything moved over tonight. So far I am very impressed. The GUI menu is incredible. It is like 1,000 times better than any of the previous. I did not get to listen to any music but I watched a few scenes of casino royal in bluray and I would say it is a much better reproduction in sound over my 3806. It just seems to have more detail. If the 4308ci is in your price range then I can assure you that you will love it. The 1080P up-scaling looked very good on my DTV signal over the previous 720P or 1080i connection. Nuck

It is GTHD I am not sure if it is the newest. I have not looked at the PS store in a while. Nuck

strutter, I talked to my AV guy today and he told me that he had a 3808 in stock and on demo. He said that the set up menu was extreamly nice. I am going to go see it first hand on Monday. I may make a purchase why I am there but will for sure post back my thoughts and findings. I am not sure he can up sell me to the 4308, mainly because it may come along with divorce papers . FYI, I have already been quoted $1,320 for the 3808 to give you an idea of the wiggle room. I will get him to quote me the 4808 as well. Nuck

I agree with what you are saying but that does not solve his problem. When watching movies it is about balance. If you cant hear your center over your mains then there is no point to having surround sound. The La Scala's will still do what they are intended to do as far as surround sound goes. By turning them down and the center up it will allow you to adjust the master volume higher so that everything is even. Lets say in his current set up he is watching movies at 50% volume. Once he turns down the other speakers to allow his center to be louder he may end up with a master voume of 75%. THe La Scala's will be just as loud as they were before but his center will be louder due to the off set. Any of the new receivers with an audessy type system would do this for the best overall sound performance when watching movies. If listening to music switch it to 2-channel stereo pure direct and twist the knob off. Nuck

If your centeres are at +10 is there any room to turn down the other channels? If so try to turn them down some and see what you get. Nuck

Others may know something I don't but I would think the only way to make your center louder than it is would be to turn that channel up higher than the rest. In some cases you may need to turn the other channels down in addition. Still it is tough to match a small center with the rest of your speakers being so large. Nuck

This is my set up. It has to double as our living room. I hope to build a house some day that has its own theatre room but until then this will have to do. Back against TV Left Side of room from TV Right side of room from TV View from back of room Close up of set up Equipment: PS3 60GB Mitsubishi 65" Diamond Display DTV H20-250 HDDVR Denon DVD2800 DVD player Denon AVR3808ci Receiver (Bi Amped) Denon AVR3806 Receiver for patio speakers Klipsch RF3 Fronts, RC3 Center, RS3 surrounds and KSW12 Sub Klipsch SPA3's on patio Nuck

I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that the product page on the Denon US site has been updated. http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/AVReceivers.asp strutter you can fill in some of the missing blanks now if you care to. I am sort of in the same situation right now. I am currently running a Denon 3806 that was hit by lightning a couple of months ago. It is still operating but has lost all inputs on HDMI2. My insurance company did not want to fix anything that had any issues and paid me replacement on all of my equipment. I have been waiting on the release of the 4308 since then. I was dissaopinted in the price point of the 4308 and the 3808. I did not expect them to be that much higher than the 4306 and 3806. Now I am caught up in trying to decide between the 4308 and 3808. The only real differences I can see in the two are 10 more watts per channel and wifi on the 4808. I just don't know that I see a $900 difference. Maybe one of you can point out something more than I am seeing. I am willing to wait a while on this purchase because I want this receiver to carry me for 4 or 5 years. I have had others point me towards the 905. I am a huge Denon fan so I do not know that I will move away from them. When testing for my original system and listening to all the receivers in my price range (at that time a 3300) Denon was hands down the best pairing with the Klipsch speaker I chose (RF3, RC3, RS3). Anyway, I am not trying to hijack this thread just hoping that there are more discussion on the new Denon products. Nuck

In considering a center channel speaker one thing that I would think about is the size. I currently have a RC-3 center. I only keep it adjusted maybe one or two levels above my two RF-3 towers. It has performed great. I can hear every whisper in any movie. No doubt the RF-7's are a better speaker. The thing to ask is if the size and the $800 vs. $350 price tag is worth having the better speaker. Dimensions: 3's - 7.9" (20.1cm) x 22.9" (58.2cm) x 9" (22.8cm) 7's - 9" (23cm) x 26" (66.5cm) x 12" (30.7cm) My local Klipsch dealer told me that the reason Klipsch came out with the RF-5 and 7 series is because the RF-3's exceeded their wildest expectations. I am just wondering if we are paying a premium now for responding to such a well-made speaker. If you can talk the Wife into the 7's let me know how you did it. I know I would get shot down the second the word speaker came out of my mouth.