• Please note that there are a few updates and clarifications made in the Audiokarma Rules, mostly relating to advertising and the addition of the new "Paying it Forward" & "Giving back" forums in the AudioKarma Audio Marketplace section.

Denon Integrated Amps and Receviers

arclight73

arclight73

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I have had my eye on some of the older Denon equipment from the late 80's and 90's. However from my understanding there quality seem to take a turn for the worse at some point in the 90's. Not quite sure what happen and was hoping someone here has some history.

Is there way of knowing when the changes happened by using the model #'s ? There is quite a bit of used stuff available at great prices.

What where the best stereo receiver lines they produced along with integrated amp lines ?

Thanks
 
Register to hide this ad
Denon's best receivers and integrated amplifiers were like most every Japanese make, not marketed or sold in the USA. Denon was late to the USA market. So, their best only trickled into the USA if ever sold here. 1982-1983 was when Denon became available here in numbers.
 
The best Denon stuff was made before about 1987/88. That's when they went through a big corporate shake up and the bean counters took over. After the shake up their quality didn't drop off much, but the design started to suffer. In the 90s the quality started to drop off as well. Over the last ten years or so they seem to have gotten the act together again and have been producing some very nice amps.
 
I had a Denon 1083 which sounded very nice. Think it was late 90s early 2000s Wish I hadn't sold it.

I then had a Denon 3802 which was nowhere near as nice sounding. Sounded much thinner and "digital"

The 80's POA 1500 I have is great, I doubt I would part with it.
 
The store I worked at starting selling Denon late 80's IIRC. Nice stuff but I noticed the carryover models were quite a bit nicer than the new ones in many cases. Very obvious in their TOTL 3 head tape decks.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I have been really happy with my Denon AVR 1911 HT receiver. Been going on 3 years with no issues.

Are there any good sites for older Denon models. Maybe a site with an archive. Probably a long shot but figured I would ask.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom