Sure, it's great to be an “early adopter” of new technology. You get to play with the latest, coolest gear before any of your oh-so-20th-century friends, and you can learn about new trends as they emerge, transforming yourself into a thundering bore . . . er, valued cocktail-party guest. Of course, you pay top dollar for the privilege and inevitably end up with a few dead ends shoved back in your closet. (Anybody wanna buy a DCC recorder?)
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On the other hand, you conservative-with-a-small-“c” types have waited until now to buy a modern A/V receiver. You patiently suppressed your desire for a receiver with 6.1-channel Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES decoding, Dolby Pro Logic IIx (DPL IIx) processing for 6.1/7.1-channel playback of stereo and Dolby Surround sources, and fully flexible component-video facilities until you were really, really, really sure they weren't going to spring some new, “must-have” wrinkle on you next month. (Sadly, we can't guarantee that they won't.) Well, good for you — you're smarter than most of us. And Denon's got your reward right over here: the new AVR-2805.
From the front, it looks very similar to other recent Denon receivers: same big central display, same big and small knobs and scattering of small buttons, all with the same tiny, black-on-silver (or dark-gold-on-black) label-ing.
SETUP I like the rear panel. There are lots of digital audio inputs (only two are coaxial, unfortunately) and three component-video inputs. The new Denon has two more welcome features:
First, its onscreen displays (OSDs) go to all its video outputs, including component — though only in standard 480i (interlaced) format. That means that if you call up an OSD while watching HDTV or using a DVD player's progressive-scan (480p) output, you'll have to wait for your TV to blank and resync. But better that than having to toggle TV inputs just to read a sufferin' receiver display — hoo-rah!
Second, the AVR-2805 upconverts every composite- or S-video input source to component, so you need only a single component-video connection to your TV for everything. No more switching monitor/TV inputs, ever — double hoo-rah!!
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Nevertheless, if you asked Denon to name the receiver's most notable feature, it would probably be the auto-setup routines. The AVR-2805 joins the growing ranks of A/V receivers that come with small calibration microphones. You hook up the microphone, place it at your listening position, and select auto-setup from the onscreen menu. After a series of noise bursts from each channel in turn, your parameters are set for speaker size and distance, bass crossover, and channel levels. I found the AVR-2805's settings just about perfect all around.
The Denon can even use its supplied microphone and onboard smarts to automatically perform “room equalization,” boosting or cutting the level in eight bands per channel, with freely variable center frequencies and “Q” (bandwidth) for each band, as with a parametric equalizer. There's also a manual mode that's more like a graphic equalizer, with level adjustments in eight fixed, 1-octave bands per channel.
Experimenting with the auto-EQ modes was fascinating. The corrections were larger than I expected, and when I moved the microphone 18 inches to the left and repeated the process, the results differed in all parameters (frequency, Q, and level) for almost every band in every channel. This confirms that without extensive spatial averaging, even the most sophisticated room equalization can work only for a single, fairly rigid listening position. (For proof, move your head by as little as a foot in any direction in your room. What you hear is likely to change.) While one of Denon's three auto-EQ presets might prove useful in some rooms, I did most of my listening with the system off.
OPERATION On the ease-of-use front, the Denon produced few surprises. I found its onscreen menus simple and logical. I especially liked that there's a single screen for all the important surround parameters and another for temporary tweaking of channel levels and front-rear balance.
The supplied multicomponent learning/preprogrammed remote has a reasonably good layout, but the lack of backlighting or other illumination earns a demerit in this price range, especially given its small white-on-black control labels. The code library is adequate but not as inclusive as some — it had no codes for my TiVo/DVD recorder or my HDTV, both current models from major brands.
MOVIE PERFORMANCE The AVR-2805 cleared a selection of my regular movie-sound hurdles without breaking a sweat — things like the train crash from The Fugitive and the buffalo stampede in Dances with Wolves with complex, dynamic sound in all six main channels at once, stressing amplifier reserves and digital surround processing simultaneously. But the Denon excelled just as audibly on subtle stuff as well.
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For example, in Chapter 8 of The Missing, a postmodernist western, Tommy Lee Jones tosses a small cowbell to one side. The bell's muted dinging moves from center front to far left quickly but smoothly, and very convincingly — all this for a small, quiet background effect. Nice!
A thunderstorm, galloping horses racing through canyons, gunfire, and dialogue ranging from a whisper to a scream — all the sonic elements of the classic western — come later in the film. The Denon obediently reproduced them all with precision, impact, clarity, intelligibility, and impressive dynamics.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE Listening to music recordings was similarly satisfying. A spacious, clean two-channel production, such as the Bruce Hornsby classic The Way It Is, was beguiling on my 6.1-channel speaker array with the AVR-2805's DPL IIx processing. The sound was enveloping and rich, without any false reverb and no sacrifice in clarity. The modest set of proprietary surround modes Den-on provides are nothing special, but with both DPL IIx and DTS Neo:6, who really needs more music-processing options? DPL IIx is a big advance, and not just for the addition of a back surround channel. It sounds even cleaner and spatially more stable to me than its predecessor, plain ol' DPL II. Playback of Super Audio CDs and DVD-Audio discs proved the receiver to be capable of meeting the six-channel power demands of even the most dynamic recordings.
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BOTTOM LINE The Denon AVR-2805 receiver is virtually fault-free. It performed its job with high honors. Power from all channels? Check. Dynamic clarity on music and movies? Check. Stability and imaging from various surround modes? Check. Ease of use and overall ergonomic design? Check with minor reservations — the remote's tiny labels and lack of backlighting.
If you've got plenty of coin, by all means buy a flagship (or cruiser-class) receiver from Denon or one of its esteemed competitors. But if you're looking for serious quality in every key function and honest performance value for the money, check out the AVR-2805.