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Is the Denon 3800 DVD still a good player compared to some of the newer Denons ?


johnnyglk

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I was looking at all the refurb Denons at ECOST and everyone is talking about the 2200 and the 2900, but I hardley ever hear mention of the 3800.

Is it out dated already or what ? I just thought it would go with my 3802 like a matching set. has anyone compared these. Oh yea... dvda and hdaudio are not really that important to me at this point as much as movies.

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Before I bought the 2200 I purchased a used 3800 unit but I didn't have much luck with it. The particular player I had would overheat and shut down before one movie was over, and that was in an open rack. That problem was specific to the single 3800 I returned and not the line as a whole, as far as I know.

Anyway, I never had both the 3800 and the 2200 in the house at the same time so I couldn't A/B them, but if I remember right some of the 3800 models have the chroma bug, which is fixed in the 2200. Also, the 2200 has more features for less money.

The 3800 is much larger and, I believe, should have a much better power supply.

Denon has a pretty good Web site and you can get a complete comparison chart showing what features, DACs, etc. are available with each model. It helped me make my decision when I was looking for a new model.

Good luck

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The 3800 and 2900 share some of the same features as far as I can tell, from the 8MB memory buffer to the Silicon Image deinterlacer. The 3800 had a plentitude of problems BEFORE September 2002. All units manufactured thereafter were pretty much flawless. What the 2900 has over the 3800 is the SACD playback capability. What the 3800 has over the 2900 is build quality, power supply, superior audio quality, and a clearer, sharper picture.

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sorry in advance for diverting the thread but i wanted to ask what PS Audio product you're using nicholtl. I've been curious about their stuff but I've been bitten before by supposed improvements of power conditioners, etc. and I'm a little gun shy.

Still, I've heard good things about PS Audio and I'm a little curious about them. Are you using a power regenerator or something similar? I've seen a 300 watt generator, which seems just enough to drive a DVD player, CD player and pre/pro, maybe. It's a lot of cash for 300 watts though. Do you have any experience with the "ultimate outlet," which supposedly doesn't limit current at all but does provide surge protection and cleaning?

Sorry again for hijacking the thread.

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Hahaha "hijacking" lol, no problemo I'm sure Johnny will chime in if he has any more questions about the Denon components.

Regarding the PS Audio products, I've demoed them and I am in the process of having them shipped to me via my Parasound/PS Audio dealer. What will be arriving is the Power Plant 1000 watt generator, an Ultimate Outlet, and 3 additional Xstream Prelude power cables (I already run 3 of them - one for each of the amps, and one for the preamp).

Now I'll tell it to you straight up, minus all bullsh!t. I use Monster's 2 top-shelf components (HTPS 7000 and AVS 2000) and they make sh!t for difference. So I admit, that's $2500 down the drain. But the PS Audio products, all technical benchmark tests, computer sine wave analysis, blah blah blah aside, it's no smoke and mirrors, snake oil, or magic voodoo. It's just science, and it works. I'm going to plug my 2 amps and preamp into the power regenerator, and the rest of the components (via the Monster units) into the Ultimate Outlet, along with the SVS PB2+ subwoofer, as the UO is non-current limiting (unlike the Power Plant).

Now, since I don't have the 200 hours necessary to write all the praise and accolades I could give these products, here are some links that will give you a pretty good idea of what these products can do for you.

NOTE - I didn't include the lovely reviews from audioreview.com because we all know how credible THOSE are. Most of the reviews are not even in proper grammatical english.

http://128.121.62.219/volume_8_2/ps-audio-p1200-6-2001.html

http://128.121.62.219/volume_6_4/ps-audio-power-plant-300.html

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_6_4/ps-audio-power-plant-300.html

http://www.stereophile.com//accessoryreviews/181/index6.html

http://www.stereophile.com//accessoryreviews/181/index.html

http://www.audiorevolution.com/equip/psaudio/index.html

http://www.audaud.com/audaud/JUN01/EQUIP/equip1JUN01.html

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/psaudio_p600.htm

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Thanks for the links. Just one more question.

I've been going through some old threads about the about the UO and I realize I may be rehashing material that's way too old but I'm confused about the power capability.

I've got 20 amp dedicated lines for my system but PS Audio's HC UO is rated at 15 amps and guarantees 1800 watts. Still, I've read that the same UO's balun is actually capable of allowing access to up to 40 amps.

If I hook up the High Current UO to my 20 amp line will I limit the current available to my system? Will I damage the UO?

I've written to PS Audio but haven't gotten a reply yet so I was hoping you might know something about this.

Thanks again. If this goes on too much longer I'll really have to start a new thread.

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I've spoken with 3 different engineers at PS Audio pertaining to this exact same question, and for further input you should just call them instead of writing them. They're very friendly and helpful, and they actually pick up the phone!

Yes, they said that off the record, the 15A HC UO's are capable of 40 amps. They discontinued the 20A HC models because people were buying them and getting confused when they couldn't properly install them into their 15A sockets. The 15A HC and 20A HC are exactly the same, run by exactly the same iron core balun. So if you were to hook up a 15A HC to your 20 amp circuit, no, you would not damage either of them. But I still suggest you call them to get a professional opinion.

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Yup, you're right. Very friendly and helpful. I got the same response from them that you did and they were very quick at getting me an answer.

Might make the plunge again, we'll see. I'm still sore about my last power conditioner purchase but it's been a while since that experience so, who knows ...

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I got my Denon 3800 player used off Ebay a month ago for $400 shipped, this player is awesome!! Heavy as heck, has awesome picture on progressive scan, it is very fast in layer changes and has great audio quality, I use it to play my DVD Audio Discs and it rocks! Well worth the price, it beats the 2900 in price and performance. I didnt care for the SACD playback because I already have a Marantz SA-8260 which handles that.

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