Denon D-M33

oilsheik

Thinking of getting one of these anybody have any experience of these or the Denon products in general.

Slaphead07

I wasn't going to wade in but seeing as how nobody has any reply for you.... I'm not a fan of Denion gear at all... some of their AV amps are ok but not great. CD players and audio amps are horrible. Very bright with too much treble and while they do deliver detail they can be very tiring to listen to for any length of time.

In short, avoid Denon unless you're not all that fussy and it's going very cheap. Purely personal opinion of course.

mossym

i'd say most people would disaree with you there, denon are generally on the higher end of audio, and are very popular.

try www.avforums.co.uk, there is bound to be reviews of that unit

to be fair I've got denon gear and love thier stuff, would buy over yamaha/sony/pioneer/marantz any day.

Slaphead07

mossym wrote:

i'd say most people would disaree with you there, denon are generally on the higher end of audio, and are very popular.

try www.avforums.co.uk, there is bound to be reviews of that unit

to be fair I've got denon gear and love thier stuff, would buy over yamaha/sony/pioneer/marantz any day.

I knew someone who owns Denon would defend it. It's nowhere near "the higher end of audio" but in fairness none of the brands you mentioned are either. Top end Marantz maybe but not the rest.

mossym

Slaphead07 wrote:

I knew someone who owns Denon would defend it. It's nowhere near "the higher end of audio" but in fairness none of the brands you mentioned are either. Top end Marantz maybe but not the rest.

well agreed, if you start getting into seperates, rotel, nad , those brands yeah. then denon isn't high end. However the normal consumer isn't going to walk in off the street and buy a rotel pre/pro without having done some serious research.The brands i mentioned (and i should have added onkyo and harmon Hardon) are the common all in one receiver units you'll find in electronics stores. Among those i'd consider denon higher end than the rest, maybe on par with the marantz, but personal taste would take the denon any day.

and to be honest, if you have to ask who denon are, they're high end enough. you don't want to scare the originak poster with the 4 and 5 figure prices of what is truly high end do you? Horses for courses...

Slaphead07

If we're talking only about AV (and not "the higher end of audio" ) then I'd consider Marantz, Onkyo or Yamaha (Sonys tend to have a buzz for some reason) - in fact I curremtly a Marantz. I still find Denon too harsh even as an AV amp. I suppose if you have dull speakers or a 'limp' DVD source it might all balance out as an overall sound but, because it'll be a string of compromises, it's a recipe for aural disaster.

mossym

funny, i'd say the opposite, i demoed denon, marantz, onkyo and yamaha when i was buying, (don't like sony). Was living int he usa at the time, so had proper electronics stores where you could demo most of the gear in one place. tried a couple of different marantz receivers, and thought the sound was muddy with the marantz, thought the sound was much clearer with the yamaha and denon, onkyo fell out of the way immediately. tried each receiver witha couple of differnt speakers, and just didn't like the marantz sound at all. I've never had a problem with harshness with my denon. i would have said the marantz were tryign to bee too warm, and lost some detail because of it.

just shows you what brand loyalty will do. you'll say denon is an audio disaster, i say marantz are a waste of money. go figure..

op, audio is subjective, denon do quality electronics build wise(as do all the others we've mentioned), so it's down then to what you think of the sound, which is a personnal preference. find someone who stocks it, ask for a demo and if you like it buy it. Myself and slaphead could argue this all day, and neiother of us will change our mind.

oilsheik

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

Slaphead07

mossym wrote:

just shows you what brand loyalty will do. you'll say denon is an audio disaster, i say marantz are a waste of money. go figure..

No brand loyalty here..... just personal expierience. I've had a few Marantz CD players over years but that was quite some time ago (back when they were good). I wouldn't even consider a Marantz amp for audio - not a runner. But then I've gone way out on hi fi this past few years and wouldn't expect anyone to follow!

But Mossy is right, it's what you like that counts - it's your money.