Denon AVR-3808CI or Onkyo TX-NR906?

[Sammy]

Well that's the question. They're both nice receivers, but how do they compare side by side in your opinion?

[sokrman14]

I have the denon, i obviously prefer this over the onkyo. There was a recent review done on Denon vs Onkyo, and the denon ousted the onkyo in terms of sound quality. I will browse for it and post it to you. It was for their lower end receivers, but it should still hold true for their higher end ones.

[sokrman14]

Denon receiver review

Although this is a lower end model, they said that the remote lacks, although the AVR3808 has a very nice remote, and that the plain On screen menu sucks, but once again the AVR3808 has an Graphical On Screen menu which I can vouch for is amazing. It is the easiest menu to navigate that I have ever used, and I have played with a lot of receivers, including onkyo.

[Sammy]

Yeah, I'm looking at the specs on them both and the Denon does look better for a receiver in the same price range...

[Squozen]

I've always really liked Denons and would have one now if the equivalent Yamaha hadn't been available for $500 less.

[Sammy]

At this point it's 90% Denon and 10% Onkyo.

[jeff92k7]

When I was looking to replace my HTIB a year or two ago, I did extensive research on receivers to find what would:

1. Sound the best and
2. Give a good balance of features while
3. Meeting the price range that my wife and I agreed upon.

I chose a Denon. It doesn't have every feature available (no HDMI and no TrueHD or DTS-HDMA) but it does sound fantastic.

I looked at all the major brands and read many, many user reviews and settled on the Denon brand, mainly because the Harmon Kardon that I wanted was out of our price range. Other brands (Onkyo, Yamaha) offered more features but didn't rate as high on sound quality, so I found the Denon to be a good balance.

[Sammy]

There's a lot more votes for the Denon, but with no explanation as to why you would vote that way. Anybody care to elaborate on the reason that you voted for the Denon or the Onkyo?

[blujacket]

Originally Posted by Sammy

There's a lot more votes for the Denon, but with no explanation as to why you would vote that way. Anybody care to elaborate on the reason that you voted for the Denon or the Onkyo?

Reliabilty would be the #1 reason.

[Robmx]

Originally Posted by blujacket

Reliabilty would be the #1 reason.

+1

I have had way too many bad experiences with Onkyo back in the 90's to give them another try... Once I switched back then to Yamaha I never looked back.

[wdhays]

Several of my other posts may give you some relevant information that you are looking for.

I will try to give a brief answer here. It really comes down to price/ performance, for me. I am currently waiting to receive my TX-SR876. I just returned the 806.

My attraction to Onkyo in either case is their BTL feature(bridging to 210 watts, each, for the fronts). Onkyo's website says the 806 has it, but it is an error, that they have yet to correct. The 876 does, in fact, have it. Denon doesn't offer anything like this, at any price.

Your Monitor 50's would deliver much more of their potential with 200+ watts driving them, as well.

The reason I didn't choose the 906 is that for $300.00 more, I didn't think 5 more watts and a 5 amp larger current supply was worth it. I have a HTPC for networking.

I was unimpressed with Onkyo, over the phone, dealing with the advertising issue.

The 806 did sound very good. I just wanted more power for my mains, without going to outboard amplifiers.

Depending on how the 876 turns out, Onkyo may or may not get my vote. Denon has never disappointed, they just didn't have what I was looking for in this case. Yamaha & Pioneer have some impressive units as well, but the good ones are out of my price range. Unfortunately, I have been unimpressed with their entry-level to mid-level.

At this point, if I am not satisfied, it will probably be separates for me. Emotiva is looking pretty good.

[Nooff]

^^ any chance on telling us why?

As far as reviews concerned, the Onkyo is favored by a large margin

Now if this were a comparisson between the 906 and 4308, the Denon would win.

[Sammy]

That's why I was looking at the 3808. The 4308 is half an order of magnitude more in price but I don't see that increase in features. The 906 and 3808 appear to be priced about the same and carry similar feature sets.

[wdhays]

Originally Posted by Twitch9

Go with the Denon, better in every way.

Well, maybe not every way. It looks a little over-rated in it's power spec to me. See link:
http://hometheatermag.com/receivers/...08/index2.html
Obviously, I would love to see how the Onkyo bench tests. Considering the 906 is Onkyo's flagship, I bet they are right on their spec. The 3808CI is 2 models down from Denon's flagship.

[bliebs77]

The 4308CI adds a few things:

-a bit more power in the amp (10 wpc/channel I think)
-zone 2 component out (send two different HD outputs simultaneously)
-mirrored zone 1 HDMI output (send the same hdmi image to two places)
-Wi Fi connectivity for control/setup
-Ability to play WMA-lossless audio files from the home network

[nugent]

Originally Posted by Twitch9

Go with the Denon, better in every way.

Definition of a fan boi comment!

I have owned at least 5 of each Onkyo, Denon, and Yamaha receivers over the last 25 years. I have never had any trouble with any of them. I bought each one at the time purchased based on a particular feature I wanted. All three make very nice receivers. You will be hard pressed to tell the difference in sound quality between any of the three.


I had a retail store in the early 90's that sold Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha as well as Sony ES. There was ZERO difference in the reliability of any of those 4 brands.
Look around the net there are plenty of both Denon and Onkyo refurbs available. So none of them are perfect.

To claim one or the other is “better in every way” is just ridicules and silly!

I currently own a upper end Onkyo,TX-SR875, that I have been very pleased with. I would be just as pleased with any of the upper level models from Denon, or Yamaha.

[wdhays]

Originally Posted by bliebs77

The 4308CI adds a few things:

-a bit more power in the amp (10 wpc/channel I think)
-zone 2 component out (send two different HD outputs simultaneously)
-mirrored zone 1 HDMI output (send the same hdmi image to two places)
-Wi Fi connectivity for control/setup
-Ability to play WMA-lossless audio files from the home network

For $1,000.00 more? Not worth it to me.

[wdhays]

Here is the 805 on the test bench. I trust that the 876 & 906 would provide comparable, if not better results, considering they have 5 & 10 more amps current capacity, respectivey. Now we're talking power.

http://www.hometheatermag.com/receiv...nk/index5.html

Even the 5308CI can't beat the 805 in power output.

http://hometheatermag.com/receivers/808denr/index3.html

[CasualKiller]

Power wise the new 06 line seems to be lacking compared to the 05 line. In the last HT magazine they tested the 806 and found 79 wpc vs the 805's 120.4.

I have no info on the rest of the line, 876/906 but It would seem safe to assume Onkyo made shortcuts in materials across the board.

Edit> There is an 805 in my sig but I am in no way attempting to glorify one Onkyo model over another. Overall my experience with Onkyo has left a bad impression on me and I intend to move onto Marantz gear as soon as it's affordable for me to do so.

[wdhays]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Power wise the new 06 line seems to be lacking compared to the 05 line. In the last HT magazine they tested the 806 and found 79 wpc vs the 805's 120.4.

I have no info on the rest of the line, 876/906 but It would seem safe to assume Onkyo made shortcuts in materials across the board.

Edit> There is an 805 in my sig but I am in no way attempting to glorify one Onkyo model over another. Overall my experience with Onkyo has left a bad impression on me and I intend to move onto Marantz gear as soon as it's affordable for me to do so.

I see where the 806 dropped to 36 amps current from the 805's 60 amps. I believe that would account for the drop to 79 watts. Cuts were definitely made for this model.

However, as I mentioned before, the 876 has 65 amps & the 906 has 70 amps, same specs as the 875 & 905, respectively, as well as besting the 805. That should produce more power than the 805, in both cases. Just my opinion. Can't wait for official testing.