Denon DRA-800H

Advantages: A very decent device for a budget level, fully justifies its price, in general, Denon has recently been producing very decent amplifiers and receivers for the budget stage.

Disadvantages: For this price, none.

Comment: Used with Monitor Audio 200 and Technics SB-EX7 (vintage) speakers with the latter, the sound is generally credible, I especially liked the bass. Those. the device loves high-quality acoustics, which is twice as expensive as the device itself, I think it will also play well with Dali, in terms of power it gives out real 100 watts on the 8th, on the 4th it gives out about 150W, Technics has a nominal value of -180W at the 4th and the device is quiet rocked. The sound is similar to the Marantz, but more on dry land, without embellishment, which is interesting, the sound via HDMI is more interesting. than analogue and optics. When I turned it on for the first time, I immediately asked for an update. Finally, a removable HDD with a capacity of 1TB formatted in the NFTS (or FAT32) system is quietly played via USB, previously the devices had problems with this. I gave the best sound via USB, playing DSD files 5.6 MHz (dsf, dff) [and no computer needed], here I did not expect this, I was a little shocked, I listened only to this format for the next week, although I have devices (Marantz SA8005 , Cambridge Audio Azur BD 751, OPPO UDP-203) playing HI-RES music. FLAC is now out of favor. Compared with the Marantz PM7005 amplifier (although it also has its strengths) in sounding almost at the same level. In general, I am very pleased with the device both in quality and in price.

Advantages: Beautiful, comfortable, sophisticated.

Disadvantages: In comments.

Comment: The sound is good but cold, I have a Marantz (old analog). Give it a voltage of 230 volts, my network as it turned out 245 + - and up to more than 260 volts. I had to buy a stabilizer, the photo shows the edge on the left. I'm thinking about buying a HIFI stabilizer. Listening began with a rattle, with the stabilizer began to smooth out and sound. All network gadgets, etc., work well. The application for the smartphone works well, but not without drawbacks. The smartphone warned that this application is eating the battery, I had to limit it. WIFI sounds good from the smartphone, again at 230 volts. I could not dock with the home network yet, I installed JRiver but he does not want to work throughWasapi, I will study. With Foobar2000 even DSD, SACD and DVD-audio go through DOP, ASIO. I will try Native but hardly. I played DSD one and a half songs from a flash drive and hung, unrecognizable file. For some reason it does not play without pauses (gapeless) .When you turn it on, for some reason, the image on the PC monitor flashes. I wrote in support, they do not know (they have a video card, then the cable is to blame, I hope it does not burn my video card, the cable is not to blame, I changed it. Branded CDs sound just gorgeous. Everything works well (WIFI , Blutooth, etc.) I will test further and supplement the review. Excellent for movies, good for music. I add: I adjusted the stabilizer to 230 volts, put the filter on power, warmed it up (although I don't believe in warming up, but it turned out that this is not so, saw the manufacturer's recommendation for a serious amplifier about warming up, warmed up and sounded warm and luxurious). Now everything is buzzing. I put my favorite music: Dire Straits 1982, Black Sabbath 1983, Celentano SACD and others. It was played perfectly, in detail, there is no such cold. The sound is like that. as it should be. Black Sabba th is especially difficult, the bass is heavy, but it sounds very good, the recording is peculiar if anyone heard it. Everything was lost at 5. It is obligatory to buy. PS. My JBL TLX-181 floor standing speakers pump well, and they are up to 200 tons of watts. Maybe even more powerful, but that's another story, I'm looking at power amplifiers.

Advantages: Clean sound, power for a room in an apartment is enough.

Disadvantages: No line out. No rewind of the composition. For some reason, it does not play all the tracks on usb with hdd, it skips, although the format is the same for all and is readable on other devices. It is not clear how to compose a playlist at will and save for subsequent playbacks. The tracks on the display are shown in dots (if in Russian). Turning on two zones for playback will clear the tone settings and turn off. If you look through it on a tricolor receiver on hdmi, then the video quality for some reason becomes 720 * 576 instead of 1920 * 1080, so the tricolor stuck into the TV set, and the sound from the TV set was taken through the optics (maybe I didn't understand something with the setting, but it seems like it costs 1920 * 1080).

Comment:

Advantages: omnivorous, sound, price

Disadvantages: no rewind

Comment: the sound is detailed, the scene is being built, easy tuning, the power behind the eyes. reads many formats including dsd / for such a price everything is gorgeous. Heats up quite noticeably.

Advantages: Nice sound

Disadvantages: The lack of Cyrillic in the font for the screen, Russian letters are displayed as dots. Low-resolution image on a 4k TV in the menu and when playing from spotify and tunein services

Comment: I use the receiver in conjunction with the Monitor Audio Bronze 200 6g floor-standing speakers of the 2020 model year. The sound is soft, pleasant, but I had to plug the bass reflex pipes with complete plugs (they came with the acoustics), because it boomed and pressed low frequencies so that it became uncomfortable. To my regret, I can only compare with my Dali Zensor 1ax, which are initially used with a built-in amplifier and in general these are devices of different weight categories, they have different placement in the room. The comparison is not entirely correct. I can only say that the Denon with monitors has a softer sound than the distance. Dali have more pronounced high frequencies. I really did not like the image on the screen of a large TV, displayed by the receiver, it is of low quality. I have an LG 60UM7100PLB TV with 4K support, and the receiver outputs an image of a greatly reduced resolution via hdmi, so you can see a fierce ladder and blur in the image, and the picture is in 4: 3 resolution. I'm talking about the receiver's menu, streaming services Spotify and TuneIN Yes, the sound from the Spotify can be output via HDMI from the TV application with an excellent picture, but if the receiver plays music from the streaming service directly, then it sounds better for my taste, but the image ... Various TV consoles, game consoles, DVDs, etc. I do not know how they will work through a pass-through connection through a receiver, for I do not have these devices.

Advantages: The advantages are widely described in the prospectus.

Disadvantages: Subjectively I do not like: 1) volume control - you turn (the knob) a lot, there is little effect; from the remote control in the same way, 2) you don't like the buttons on the front panel - you can't find it by touch, 3) no line-out, 4) no USB Audio (USB DAC), 5) when listening to Spotify, the front panel displays a meaningless "Spotify" and not the name of the song, 6) a long turn-on of the mobile application with a constant search for devices (5 times a day my devices in my house do not change in order to search for them every time) Probably the main inconveniences ...

Comment: An alternative variant was the Marantz NR1200. Comparing their documentation, we can assume that both of them are one and the same device, only with minor differences. Functionally they are identical, I admit that they differ slightly at the element base level. The front panel is more convenient - the buttons are like buttons and it's not clear what is like Danon's. If I had money, I would have bought a set of Marantz ND8006 + Marantz PM8006 ... with the loss of HDMI and FM tuner (but there is Internet radio)

Advantages: A very successful and high-quality device.

Disadvantages: No

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