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Denon delights
A “best buy” in AV receivers
By Michael Jones
April 2002
Denon AVR-1802 AV receiver. $1599.
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| Denon's AVR-1802 is available in both black and gold |
When it comes to home theatre receivers, Denon have been on a roll in recent years. They have produced a series of receivers that offer solid performance in all areas and specifically have sounded better than many competing products when doing what may, at first, appear to be the simplest of tasks - that of reproducing stereo music.
The model under consideration is part of the new 02 series. Like the previous 01 series (of which AudioEnz reviewed the 1601 and 2801) the 180x model is the second in the range. It offers a few more features and a tad more rated power than the lower 1602. But in the real world of loudspeakers, the 1802 will drive speakers with more authority than the difference in power rating over the 1602 would suggest.
Speaking of power, the 1802 is specified at 80 watts for all five channels. Unlike some other brands, the Denon's ratings are specified as per the US FTC specification; some brands use much looser specifications in order for their amps to look more powerful.
One of the bigger differences between the 01 and 02 series is the inclusion of Dolby Pro Logic II. Developed by a well known audio engineer named Jim Fosgate and licensed through Dolby Labs, PL2 was specifically designed to take normal two-channel stereo sound and reprocess it into five channel surround sound. It also should work well for movies.
In terms of features the 1802 hits all the right notes. You get Dolby Digital, DTS and Pro Logic II for movies (and the latter for music too). There's a small smattering of mainly useless DSP surround modes that manufacturers insist upon. The 1802 has proper banana plug compatible binding posts for all channels, pre-outs for the front three channels and s-video connectors.
Missing are what you'd expect not to find on a receiver in this price range: component video switching, decoding and amplification for a centre rear speaker and onscreen graphics.
One feature that's increasingly unusual these days is an input for a turntable. This may be enough to sway some vinyl-toting users towards the 1802.
There's no doubt in my mind that the worst part of this receiver is the remote control. Unchanged from the bottom two models in the 01 series, the remote is too small for the number of buttons, meaning that it's hard to press the correct (small) button. The battery compartment at the top of the remote makes the control top heavy, meaning that the remote is likely to slip from your hand, heading straight down to the floor.
I've always found that the sound of AV receivers is dominated, not by the digital processing as some might suspect, but by the sound of the amplifiers. That's one reason why I always begin my auditioning of AV receivers with music, as it's easier to hear the differences this way. (The other reason is because most AV receivers spend more time playing music than they do movies).
Missing from the 1802 is the harshness and bright, overbearing quality that many AV receivers suffer from. I've found with many AV receivers that after a while I'm left with a headache after a couple of CDs or a movie - not a good sign!
That the 1802 is missing these negative "attributes" is a wonderful start. But let's look at what the Denon does right.
Listening to the 1802 showed that it was typical Denon. The receiver has a warmth and easy to listen to quality that is lacking in many AV receivers.
The tuner was also excellent, displaying similar qualities to the amplifier - a clean and warm sound. The 1802's tuner section picked up an enormous number of FM stations from my location on Auckland's North Shore. Interestingly, this tuner also showed me that National Radio is broadcasting an RDS identification signal alongside their FM signal - the front panel of the 1802 showed “National” when tuned in to NatRad.
Movie sound was simply excellent. Finding an affordable receiver without the harsh and bright sound of many receivers allows movie watchers to relax into their movies, without battering their ears.
I made use of several DVDs including a DTs demo disc that has excerpts from many DTs-encoded movies.
Very noticeable was the sense of envelopment from the Denon's decoding. The viewer was placed within an acoustic environment, just as was intended by the sound engineers working on the movies. Panning of sounds was clear and consistent, without any "jumping" from speaker to speaker.
I'm
highly impressed with the performance of the Denon AVR-1802. This is "best
buy" material and comes warmly recommended.
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