Denon 3803 Review

Overall Rating

Great compromise for HiFi users who want good HiFi sound with the convenience of great Dolby Dital performance.

Dolby Digital performance moves the foundations of the house!
Usable if not outstanding HiFi performance
Stacks of power and weight
Good tuner - sensitive and selective
Compact size - the similar spec Harman Kardon unti was huge and wouldn't fit my rack due to its height.

Lacks the absolute high frequency detail in HiFi (pure direct) compared to the Pioneer A400X stand alone amplifier it replaced.
The user manual is AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL; so bad it could take you weeks to set this unit up unless you read my review.
Poor speaker terminals which don't accept 4mm plugs.

I puchased the Denon 3803 when I bought a Widescreen TV as I wanted to replace my stand alone HiFi amplifier (A400X Pioneer) and separate ProLogic I Yamaha decoder. This separates solution used a lot of rack space and was awkward to use for films. I needed Dolby Digital and more convenience and above all a remote control!

So, how does it sound? Well it is quite different from the bright-sounding Pioneer. I use it with a pair of B&W 603 floorstanding speakers and a Rell Strata subwoofer; 'MR Centre' centre speaker. Rear speakers are Kef Coda 7's. All speakers fed with 79 strand copper. With this combination, the Denon 3803 has a neutral weighted sound and almost seems to lack high frequency detail compared to the Pioneer it replaced (which was very bright sounding). There's huge amounts of power with the Denon (more than the Pioneer) and excellent bass weight, but the treble is more restrained. After a few weeks you get used to it, but I have to say that I still miss the absolute detail that the Pioneer produced from CD's (Marantz CD63 is used). I use the digital input on the receiver.

On Dolby Digital the 3803 has a MASSIVE soundstage. Whilst I can't use seven speaker mode here as I can only have two rear speakers - the performance is still spectacular. The new James Bond Film Die Another Day literally rattles the windows. It's completely awesome! Dynamic Range is vast, in fact too high if the kids are in bed! There's an option that turns down dynamic range too (if needed) if your DVD player doesn't have one.
Setting up the levels (particularly subwoofer level) takes some experimentation. There is a tendency to set it too high. Listen to some CD's with DTS NEO to get it right. When you wire this unit up, don't forget to wire the video output to your TV's spare video input as the more detailed set-up is all done through the on-screen menus. In my case, this was inconvenient as the receiver is the other side of the room from the TV due to room limitations. I had to route 75 ohm coaxial cable to the TV under the carpet to get the video connection. Still I needed to do the same for the DVD digital output too!

On Pro Logic II, I was very disappointed with the sound's weight, until I found that under 'Speaker setup' you have to set 'LFE+Main' to actually get the Sub to work in ProLogic II decode. This is confusing as the subwoofer was working in stereo modes with just LFE set, but not in PL II! The manual doesn't make this clear adequately. I use the front speakers set to 'Large'; Centre and Rears set to 'Small'; crossover set to 80Hz; LFE+MAIN for the subwoofer. This works great on all modes.

The tuner seems to be very sensitive. We are 55 miles west of London and I get nearly fully limiting stereo signals from all the London local stations with working RDS Radiotext. I have even picked up German FM stations with RDS at times this summer. The tuner has very good IF selectivity too picking out weaker stations right next to strong local ones something my older separates Sony tuner needed to be set to IF-Narrow for.

The handset is excellent. It learned the Infrared codes for virtually everything in the house. It is wonderful not to have stacks loads of remotes for different units!


It is possible to set different channel and subwoofer levels for ProLogic II/Dolby Digital than for CD's, Tuner etc (all non-surround modes). It is also possible to set different channel and subwoofer settings between Pure Direct/Direct and non-surround Stereo modes. It is, however, NOT possible to set up different default subwoofer levels between different surround modes (DD versus PL II for example) unless you manually change the settings yourself each time. In practice you can live with this but PLII can lack the bass weight that DD gives with this amplifier.

Members' Comments onslark3220's Review

• usa2be4me on 15th Jan 2004

  I just purchased the 3803 and could sure use your help?
  TODD
  usa2be4me@aol.com

• oscarman on 5th Jan 2005

  Have owned my 3803 for a few months now. You seem very knowledgable. Could really use help w/SACD hook up if your so inclined.

• usa2be4me on 6th Feb 2005

  Did you figure out the SACD?