Denon AVR-4806 - AV receiver - 7.1 channel Review

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(More customer reviews)I started out looking at $500 A/V receivers, and gradually worked my way up to the Denon AVR-4806. Sometimes I think I must have been crazy, but more often I glad I bought this unit. What do you get for 3 grand? Needless to say, you get great sound, but you get a lot more.
It is THX Ultra2 certified and will handle up to 10 speakers. So no longer do you have to live with a mere 2 channels of surround sound. It actually gives meaning to the word surround. It comes with a microphone (on a 20' cord) used to set the system up you plug it in and place the mike in various listening positions, and it determines all the distances and sound levels for each speaker automatically. Very cool!
It has 3 HDMI inputs, so you can plug in your DVD player, Tivo Series 3, and Playstation 3 using HDMI and output them all via HDMI to your TV. In the present technology world this is the best way to connect things digitally. If your equipment doesn't have HDMI outputs, it will also accept component, analog and optical output and upconvert them flawlessly.
The manual is about 150 pages, and not terribly easy to understand. When I bought it, it was offered by Crutchfield, and from Etronics (for several hundred dollars less). I paid the premium that Crutchfield charged, and I'm glad I did. With all the possible settings and confusion, I've already taken advantage of their lifetime tech support to get things working.
The AVR-4806 is now discontinued, and is replaced by the AVR-4806CI. I understand the CI stands for `custom installation'. What the exact differences between the two are, I don't know, but for the additional $1,000, I doubt they're worth it.
If you want an audiophile quality receiver that is able to upscale all your inputs to 1080p, and can afford the relatively steep price tag (although half the price of the next level up), you won't be disappointed in this unit.
Although no longer listed on Amazon as a vendor, Crutchfield still has a few left for $2,999 (the AVR-4806CI is $3,999 from them).
Update 01/10/2007 - I must apologize for this review. After trying to hook up a 1080p device I learned that this unit does NOT switch 1080p. In fact that is the main difference between the AVR-4806 and the AVR-4806CI. The unit is now at Denon being upgraded to a CI. The AVR-4806 is discontinued, but still available from a few vendors (no longer at Crutchfield). I would not recommend buying from somewhere that doesn't offer robust tech support as it is a very complex piece of electronics.
Again, my apologies to anyone who may have been mislead by my erroneous information.


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