• 02-14-2010, 05:45 AM
    gman02
    Denon 3803 VS HK 3490 For Music
    Help Please Just for Music How would these 2 stack against one another 3803 110WPC Burr Brown vs HK 120WPC #803 is 375 refurbed the HK about the same price new so what do you'll think ?
  • 02-14-2010, 10:43 AM
    harley .guy07
    Is there a way that you could hear both of them yourself through like equipment? I have heard many people compare HK to Denon with different opinions in either dirrection. I sold Denon and HK in the 90's and they were both good for their price class and the sound quality had its differences from each other but were good in different situations. I always thought that HK receivers and amps had a little warmer sound that Denon and while both brands delivered on their rated power easily the HK seemed to be the more underrated as far as realistic output compared to the ratings. But this was 15 years ago or so and companies can change quite a bit in a short amount of time. The fact that two of the three receive brands that I carried back then are now sold at best buy's normal store(Yamaha and HK) and Best Buy's magnolia store (Denon) tells me that something is different because you would have never seen these brands at a department store in my day of working with these brands but all the publications seems to say that Denon,Onkyo,Marantz, and others still are good units. I don't hear much about HK any more and the last unit I looked at was a unit I looked at in passing at Best Buy and it did not look as well built as the units I remembered from the 90's but that does not mean that I am totally against them. I would try to listen to them if possible before buying.
  • 02-14-2010, 03:08 PM
    blackraven
    Both are very good units. I like that fact that the HK is a dedicated 2ch unit and has dual sub out, preamp outs, bass management and a phono preamp. It also has a nice warm sound which is a bonus.

    The Denon 3000 serives avr's are very good units and will excel at 2ch music as well. That fact that it has digital inputs and built in DAC makes it useful if you want to hook up other digital equipment like the digital sound from your digital cable tv or a digital tuner.

    My vote is for the HK for strictly 2ch because of its warmer sound and features.

    http://stereos.about.com/od/stereore.../fr/HK3490.htm
  • 02-14-2010, 05:07 PM
    poppachubby
    The HK is way more musical.
  • 02-14-2010, 05:33 PM
    Ajani
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by blackraven
    Both are very good units. I like that fact that the HK is a dedicated 2ch unit and has dual sub out, preamp outs, bass management and a phono preamp. It also has a nice warm sound which is a bonus.

    The Denon 3000 serives avr's are very good units and will excel at 2ch music as well. That fact that it has digital inputs and built in DAC makes it useful if you want to hook up other digital equipment like the digital sound from your digital cable tv or a digital tuner.

    My vote is for the HK for strictly 2ch because of its warmer sound and features.

    http://stereos.about.com/od/stereore.../fr/HK3490.htm

    The HK 3490 also has a built in DAC.... It has a very impressive list of features for a $500 2 channel component...
  • 02-14-2010, 06:18 PM
    gman02
    Thanks