AVR-5803 Listening Tests: Two Channel

Using the AVR-5803 as the DAC, I engaged the "Pure Direct" mode and heard a few relays click on while I watched the front panel display indicate "Pure Direct On" before disappearing as an almost hypnotic blue LED indicating the Alpha 24 processing has been engaged. Never have I listened to a DAC that had quad dual differential implementation of some of the best quality DAC's in the industry. I was excited to say the least.

I stated with track#3 "The Girls Next Door" from Pat Metheny's We Live Here CD. Immediately, I was overtaken by the tight and well-defined bass extension of this track. I was in awe that I managed to musically integrate my subwoofer with my front speakers so well - in fact, better than I have had in the past even with my own reference gear. Aside from the fluidic and well extended bass, was about the most articulate, pin pointing sounds from Pat Metheny's guitars while the air in the percussion instruments was unlike how I have heard it in the past. It sounded so darn good that I kept cranking the volume up higher causing my adrenaline to surge. I took my SPL meter out and measured over 90dB with music and over 105dB with bass peaks. How could this be? How could a receiver deliver so much raw and clean juice to my hungry 4-ohm large tower speakers without breaking a sweat? We were always conditioned to believe separates were the only way of achieving this. Did Denon somehow rewrite the rule book? I suspect they did, as I have never heard a receiver sound this musical and muscular while having the finesse to produce the lowest level of details in music such as the triangles and wind instruments from the fabulous Special EFX Collection CD. Listening to female vocals from Jewel's Spirit CD was a real treat. Never did her voice sound stringent or harsh, but instead sounded lucid and melodic while the guitar ballads in the background seemed almost limitless in their dynamics and detail. Dire Straits Brothers in Arms needs no introduction as it serves as a rock classic as well as a state-of-the-art recording of the time since it was one of the first digitally mastered CD's in the 80's era, and didn't suffer from compressive artifacts typically found on many rock/pop CD's of today. I actually listened to this whole CD one night in utter enjoyment while the Denon AVR-5803 was serving as the DAC and power amp to my reference speakers.

Moving on to "higher" resolution formats such as DVD-A and SACD were equally enthralling. I started out with SACD two channel, since in my opinion, SACD offers the best high fidelity two channel software currently available. Some of my favorites include benchmark performance SACD discs from Patricia Barber and Rebecca Pidgeon. I spent a lot of time listening to Patricia Barbers Nightclub SACD using the Denon AVR-5803 and DVD-2900 combo. Track #3 "Yesterdays" is perhaps my favorite on the disc. It starts out soft and mellow and soon explodes to a complex and well orchestrated jazz ballads unfamiliar to the typical self-proclaimed jazz listener who's only exposure to this classification of music is the "Smooth Jazz" genre spoon fed to the public on FM radio. What really struck me when listening to this disc was all of the low level details I previously didn't hear on my more costly separates system. This clearly indicated to me that the Denon gear provided a superior noise floor. For the first time in my experience, the playback and associated electronics equipment was no longer the limiting factor for faithfully reproducing high resolution formats. To me the AVR-5803 sounded transparent, dynamic, and fundamentally. right . I didn't hear any grain or brightness, nor was I welcomed with sterility. Instead, the Denon equipment persuaded me to listen, almost hypnotically. My feelings regarding the fidelity of this equipment never diminished. I found myself listening to tracks on this disc and other SACD's in my collection out of sheer sonic enjoyment that I normally disliked based on musical content.