Customer Ratings & Reviews

Quality unit add an amp for the front stage and you’re all set.

Seems good so far, still working on speaker choices so it maybe a little while to really test it out.

I walked into Best Buy intent on purchasing a Sony AVR. Best Buy’s consultant suggested I look at the Denon X3800H instead. He was right. This AVR rocks set up in 11.1.4 format. I’ll eventually purchase an amp to power the F/C/FH speakers to take some of the load off the AVR, but it’s great without the ext amp. We invited a friend over to watch a MI movie and her comment was “I’m blown away by your new home theater.” After some help with setting it up by the Best Buy team that installed a pair of ceiling speakers, the Demon performs flawlessly in switching between Xfinity, Apple TV, Blu Ray, etc. Music encoded with Dolby Atmos played through the Apple TV box is like being in a recording studio with the artists. I owned a Denon AVR 3-4 receivers back and liked it. The 3800 is light years better. The only complaint, a small one, is when I switch input devices, it takes the Denon 5-6 seconds to transition to the new source. Denon’s new setup software is good and Audessy works fine to set the speakers to the proper levels. If you still have several devices that are limited to outputting in component format, the Denon isn’t for you. There’s an RA connection for a turntable, a couple of Optical ins, a digital coaxial plug, and that’s about it. We now live in an HDMI world. After two weeks with the X3800, would I buy one? Oh yeah.

I've been using Denon 3-series receivers since I first bought a Denon 3803 around 2002. Trying to keep up with technological changes over the years turned my system into a frankensystem, so I upgraded to an X3000 in 2013, then an X3400H in 2018, and finally this model. Each new generation has brought improvements in connectivity, ease of use, and video features. Amplifier performance has stayed about the same, which means that it is excellent. The sound is clean and dynamic, which gives real impact to sound effects in movies. It also sounds great with music, but maybe I've just gotten used to the sound of AVR's over the years. Nah, it sounds great. The HEOS whole home audio system is nice. It doesn't have as many streaming services as something like Sonos, but it has the big ones: Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, TuneIn, Deezer, Pandora, Soundcloud, SiriusXM, and a couple others, but no Qobuz. Tidal, Amazon, and Deezer all support lossless streaming. If you have a DLNA server on your home network, it will also connect with that and allow you to stream your ripped CD's. I've taken advantage of the whole home aspect and installed a HEOS 3 speaker in my office and a HEOS amp driving a pair of small bookshelf speakers in my bedroom system. The upgraded video capabilities are one of the main reasons I decided to make the jump. The 8K aspect was not a big deal, there are few 8K displays and even less in the way of 8K sources. What I wanted was on-screen display for 4K sources, and also the ability to handle 4K 120P signals. The OSD was important to me since my LG OLED display does not have an on-screen volume display when audio is controlled by an AVR. This is something I really missed. Finally, ease of use. Over the years, Denon has made changes to the Audessey setup procedure. One big improvement over the X3400H is that it now has a preliminary step which allows you to set your subwoofer level to the proper range, about 75db, before doing the calibration. The calibration procedure itself is similar to other Audessey calibrations I have done. Set the mic on a tripod, make your measurements from the first position, rinse and repeat for the other 7(!) positions. You can use as few as 1 or as many as 8 positions for your measurements. After that, it is automagic, and does a pretty good job. If you want to make some basic tweaks the on-screen UI is much more helpful than before and provides useful diagrams and explanations for the various Audessey tweaks. In particular I finally learned what LFE+Main meant for bass routing! But the built in room correction is not the only thing going on here. For $20 you can download the MultiEQ Editor app to your phone, or preferably tablet. This app allows you to make adjustments to the corrections made by Audessey. It used it and tried out a few changes which were recommended on the interwebs, a couple made improvements, but because of how bad my room was, the most commonly recommended one made things worse. So I made the changes that improved things and saved them to a speaker preset. If you want to spend more money, this AVR can be upgraded to use Dirac Live to do your room EQ. I haven't tried this, being very satisfied with the results from Audessey MultiEQ XT32, but if you like tweaking things.... I've been happy the with the receivers in the middle of the Denon line for a few decades. I have a moderately sized room and use speakers which are not particularly sensitive (SVS Prime Towers). It has plenty of power to make these speakers sing. It is easy to set up and use, with plenty of ability to tweak the sound to your liking. Finally, the network capabilities quite nice, I love streaming KPIG radio throughout my home on the weekends when I'm cleaning. I use SiriusXM in my living room and office while I'm working. The one weak point here is the Alexa skill for HEOS, which is limited in the services it can access. Boo, Denon, make this skill more useful (this is why I am only giving 4 stars for ease of use).

I purchased this receiver for my husband to replace his Marantz 6014. This reciever is far more updated with all the newest technology including 8k Ultra HD ready. While we dont have an 8k TV, he was happy to know that it can handle it for the future. Straight out of the box it was very easy to install and my husband used the Audyssey speaker set up program that made it even easier for set-up. The sound is incredible and is slightly different than the much warmer sounding of the Marantz. However, if its music your looking for then Marantz may seem better whereas we watch movies a lot and the movie sound is far better then the Marantz. We did notice that the more use we get out of it and the simple tweaking to the system it is really starting to get better. We highly recommend getting a fan system. We chose the AC Infinity Aircom T9 for venting above the unit, because like the Marantz it gets a bit warm, So far this has been a great system with excellent sound over all and very easy to use and install. We highly recommend Denon and feel no loss from losing the Marantz. By the way, Marantz and Denon are made by the same company, so expect a lot of the same design and system programming. We may have become a Denon family

So let me start by saying I absolutlely love the x3800h for my setup. For reference, I'm coming from an Onkyo RZ830 which I absolutlely loved as it really is a powerhouse of an AVR for the money! My speakers are klipsch rp8000f towers, klipsch 504c center, klipsch rp500m side surrounds, polk owm3 for my rear surrounds and four overhead atmos speakers, dual svs pb3000 subs up front, one svs pc2000 rear nearfield sub. Using an emotiva basxA7 to power my front 3 and side surround speakers. Used a mini dsp to dial in the three subs with the Onkyo. Sound comparison: when listening to movies at say -10db volume level, the Onkyo admittedly sounds more impactful. It just seemed like movies played louder at the same volume levels on the Onkyo and I was initially thinking I may keep the Onkyo over the Denon. But.... I decided to turn the Denon up to what I thought would be an ear piercing 0db (reference level) and holy cow... it was perfect! Super impactful, crazy deep and punchy bass that slams you in the chest, crystal clear details with great seperation, and just the best my system has ever sounded to be honest. My lesson, to get the most put of audysee and their dynamic volume implementation, the Denon likes to be played LOUD. Whereas I never felt the need, nor wanted to turn the Onkyo up to 0db volume levels, it just never sounded as good as the Denon did when I cranked the 3800h close to or at reference listening levels. Bass comparison: the Onkyo with the mini dsp had my subs sounding good. The Denon with the built in Audysee xt32 room correction with subEQ brought my subs to another level somehow. I love the minidsp as that magical device had my subs eq'd perfectly flat down to 15hz. On paper, the minidsp should be superior to what audysee xt32 can do for my subs, but in reality my subs have never sounded better! So much slam, punchy, tight sounding bass. Audysee just does something magic for subwoofer EQ. It was so good, my plan to add buttkickers to my theater seats may be on the backburner now as the tactile response from the subs alone was that good! Color me beyond impressed! Conclusion: I couldn't be happier with the Denon. Even though I had a perfectly great sounding and working Onkyo rz830 AVR that I loved, the hefty price of $1500 I paid for the Denon is money well spent in my opinion for my unique setup at least. Hope this helps anyone out there on the fence about buying this receiver.

Great Value, this AVR is a Monster for its Price and does a great processing Job for Dolby Atmos and DTS-X, as well as Amplification, has Audissey EQ handy and doing quite a good Job, supports multiple sub Woofers, etc. Note that, just like as I've set it up, I recommend to use an external Amp for the Front Speakers, so that the AVR has plenty of Power remaining available will all Channels driven for the Surround and Ceiling Speakers.

I upgrades from a marantz cinema 70s to a denon 3800H and its was a great choice. I got some now speakers and my marantz didnt have the channels i needed. After setting up the Auros 3D it became clear how much better this was. Now Marantz did do a good job and they are nice to look at but at the end of the day I like the Denon's deep bass and ease of set up, connecting everything to my DefTech towers and in ceiling speakers.

I cannot say enough about this device. Originally I had purchased the Denon AVR-S760H 7.2 receiver but I did not realize it was underpowered for my needs. After taking it back, I decided to forego additional purchases until I could get a recommendation by an expert. I consulted with Best Buy in home services who, within minutes were able to recommend this device for my needs (Thank you Megan!). She was spot on. This receiver satisfies all of my audio (music and surround sound TV) needs, easily. Hits all speakers in every station of the house, and provides quality sound output without breaking the bank for cost. This thing can even accommodate 4 sub-woofers if you desire!!! Too many features to list however I highly recommend this device if you want a decent home setup for a good price and value!

Terrific receiver. Have a 5.1.2 set up with the "2" located as high front speakers (Ascend Acoustics) above the main L/R. Audyssey was impressive (no need to for Dirac). Room is roughy 14wx18Lx9h. Have thorough enjoyed Denon's capability in home theatre. Terrific is the word. Music sounds great as well with the Ascends (Sierra's). Great speakers (almost bought the KEF R3 Metas, also excellent). What convinced me to buy the 3800x is A/B'ing them at BBY against the 4800, and Marantz Cinema 50. I couldn't hear a sound difference between them and preferred the Denon's traditional styling albeit outdated (objectively the Marantz display while styled nicer was too small. For me, functionality wins. Others prefer the Marantz. I really got down to the 3800 or 4800 but I wasn't going to pay an additional $1000 for 20 more watts which effectively is not doing much and Made in Japan. I may add a second sub woofer which the 3800 accepts and it's a discrete signal as well (compared to the Onkyo 30 / 50). Also I am enjoying and preferring the "Surround" mode for music as others have spoken to on various forums.

I have this "running" my 5.1.4 bedroom home theater. I am familiar with Denon receivers so set up was pretty simple. My bedroom TV is an LG OLED and I everything is streamed directly to the TV via ROKU with audio back to the receiver via EARC. Bottom line is that everything works great. Ironically I have a more expensive receiver in my living room home theater that uses ROKU as well and I had to run the ROKU thru the receiver instead of directly to the TV because of audio dropping. Kind of wished I had bought the 3800 for the living room as well. Better all around audio and less expensive. Lesson learned. I definitely recommend this.

This is a great receiver, and an excellent value when on sale (i got it for $1050). Easy to set up, and with 9 powered channels you can jump right into a 5.1.4 Atmos capable system. It has 4 individually timed subwoofer outputs, which is remarkable on a receiver in this price range. And it has 11 channels of processing, so if you pick up an external amplifier and max out the box's available outputs, you can run a 7.4.4 system

I chose this AVR as an upgrade to my Denon AVR-970 so I could run it as a 9.2 system. The set up is easy and the interface for their room correction software is much improved. The HEOS app and interface have also been revised and makes it so much easier to have multi room speakers. Haven’t tried to the second zone as it would require an additional amp to run given my configuration. Overall easy set up and sounds “cleaner” than the last Denons I have had in the past.

This receiver does everything except the dishes in the sink. Top of the line performance and swift easy set up, sounds incredible connected to anything. Paying extra for Dirac was the deal breaker although Auddesy was fantastic. Wanted to keep this but a power surge shut it down completely

I bought this receiver for my home theater it works great awsome sound plenty of power ans easy set up

Great AVR - easy to set up, sounds amazing and powerful. Audissey works awesome, but can't wait for DIRAC to be available for this AVR. I'm using it with 20 year old Polk Audio speakers. Using it in a 7.2.4 configuration, but I just found out it can also control tactile transducers through one of its 4 subwoofer outputs. So, maybe next year we can add those to the seats. We are very happy with this receiver. It had some video switching issues out of the box, but they cleared up on their own during setup; don't know what the problem was, but its gone now.

Denon 3800H, Purchased 4 months ago. This avr has brought my home entertainment to the next level! I've never run height speakers (just two) or been able to "tame" my 4 subs, but this Denon 3800 was very easy to setup and with some light fine tuning using an spl meter (worth the $30 on Amazin) all my movies have taken on a new dynamic feel (especially ones done in Atmos). Even without height speakers, it has settings to simulate overhead surround, but you can't beat the "realness" of having a few overheads. This Denon has Audyssey room correction so you don't need an spl to enjoy this Denon, but it is a noticeable difference when you hear it; you know. Watch some vids from Audioholics, or Audio Advice and you will get way more avr than you expected! Still many features I have yet to explore, but my needs haven't called for them yet. Enjoy the next level with this Denon...

Works very well. Easy to configure, even interfacing with a samsung TV

Wanted the pre amp outs. This is the lowest level denon that offers them. Out of the box using the internal amplification, it sounds good. Can’t wait to upgrade to external amps. Mine doesn’t run hot. Longevity stbd Ratings are based off 1 month of use…hopefully I didn’t get a dud as others have reported.

Upgraded from a 10 year old Pioneer Elite 90sx. Far better sound. I found it easy to hook up, despite some of the reviews. The ap works well. I don’t upgrade to the Dirac live feature. I’m just not sure what that would give.