Quote Originally Posted by RGA
Don't assume a Denon is any better than a Sony - from what I heard that is hardly the case. Denon just hoses people living off their name. The 3803 was pretty pathetic when I hear dit IMO. I remember the old AVR 3000 which was truly awful - poor sound and terrible QC. the 3803 well>??? the 3802 is pretty much identical...looks like it's better than 3000 http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/review_read.asp?ID=2180
I think it's a very safe assumption based on the build quality alone. Sony has had power supply reliability problems with several of their recent receiver lines. Denon doesn't "hose people" with their products. Their reliability seems to have slipped somewhat with the two ownership changes they've had in the past couple of years, but it's still a cut above Sony and a lot of the other mass market brands. I don't know where you get this "pathetic" and "truly awful" criteria, since to my ears they really don't sound all that different from competing products. That is, unless you apply those labels to ALL receivers, which would be a gross exaggeraton.

Quote Originally Posted by RGA
Check out the blind auditions of receivers. a little out of date BUT these receiver makers re-badge and remodel the same amps and add one or two features to have an excuse to charge $200.00 for a 2cent chip.
That's BS. I doubt you'd be able to name me a single receiver model that increased its price by $200 just to add "one or two features" on a "2cent chip." If the year-to-year changes involve adding a feature or two that comes from a processor chip, then receiver manufacturers DO NOT charge one cent more for their newer models than the previous ones. Competition, technological improvemeents, and established price points in the market do not allow for that, unless a company's intentionally out to lose market share, in which case their shareholders would probably revolt. The OEM processor suppliers do continually add new features to their chips, but they don't increase the prices in order to do that.

The only receiver I'm aware of that recently increased its list price was the Denon AVR-3803, which added $100 over the 3802. And the component price difference just by switching the DACs from Analog Devices to Burr-Brown, which the 3803 did, is already more than $100. (talking about $7 per unit versus $15 per unit, and the 3803 uses 16 of them)