In the last year, I have pulled a half dozen Denon AVRs from the E series to X series for various problems. Another one died today displaying no signs of power.

I have been loyal to the line (10 years) and realize that S.W. Florida is the lightning capitol. It just seems the odds are growing for HDMI board failures, and now today's 2 yr old brick. Is this a trend with you guys?

I stopped selling them because of that. Seemed like all the ones I sold died a little after the 1 year mark. Mostly hdmi board and network card failures.

I switched to Marantz ( I know, I know ) and have only had 1 go bad in the last 2 years with a hdmi board failure. That was a lighting strike and it also took out the tv hdmi.

Naturally, everyone will have their favourites and everyone has their horror stories with brands.
However the prevailing opinion is that the recent Denon's haven't worked as well IF you're buying the receivers made in a third party factory and not in one of D&M's factories. The top end, Japanese made receivers are still well thought of, as are the better Marantz receivers.

I don't know what took you so long. Switched to Yamaha and only problem in the last 3 years was dropping off network with one unit.

Do you look at the electrical system of a building before you start? If you see that the breaker panel looks shoddy, has corrosion and multiple splices and the grounding conductor looks like it has been bent & re-bent many times and has a splice (or isn't code compliant for some other reason), recommend that an electrician inspect and repair anything needed.

Are you able to have your own circuit for the AV system?

Good question. The homes are typically high end remodel projects which would require the new electrical to be brought up to code. Any projects I work on will get clean power for the AV closet.

There is one house that has had issues twice that is definitely a reason to get an electrician to inspect the outlet.

Might be a high end remodel, but that doesn't mean someone else hasn't done something to screw things up. I work on a lot of older, large homes and it's common for the homeowners to call an electrician or handyman to change or add something and a problem begins simultaneously, but I'm the one who gets the trouble call because it's on my system.

I dropped Denon after suffering a 100% failure rate.

Sony or Yamaha for me.

No, and success in almost every case has been wildly in favor of not doing so.


How many of us pull the cover off the electrical panel, and any subpanels, before choosing the brand of equipment we'll recommend?

Put another way, if Denons quit when powered by panels with problems, but other brands don't, then that's another reason not to sell Denon. And if that's not what you're saying, then why is this here in a discussion of Denon failures?


This is a good idea in any case, but most systems have not required any intervention in the wiring system. I don't think I'll be requiring inspection, even by me, of the electrical system, before working some place.

I'm not saying that all panels should be inspected, but if equipment failure occurs, it's a good idea.

Just offering some things to think about. I had some problems in 2011/12 when just about EVERYONE had problems with their HDMI boards (have I mentioned that I hate HDMI?) and one other, but the only other one failed because someone was messing with it when I wasn't there. Since they were repaired, I haven't touched them. I have seen rusted panels, corrosion on ground busses and other signs of moisture inside and this is something that definitely warrants inspection and repair.

If the rest of the World doesn't see 100% failure rate in Denon, something else must be the cause and that's likely to be powerline issues (internal or external), ground loops, etc.

I'll be replacing a ten year old Denon soon and since I installed it, I haven't touched it for anything other than making new connections or changing others. I also added a DRA-697CI two channel receiver for the garage and that has been flawless, too. If they had failure rates higher than a couple of percent, I think they might have stopped making their AVRs- no company can afford that.

This is what I was hoping to see, not a universal issue to everyone. As I said, I'm in the lightning capitol of the world and when issues occur (not from obvious lighting hits), I ask the masses. Thanks.

Where is this "lightning capital of the world"? I have tall trees throughout my neighborhood and we get serious lightning- wouldn't want more of it. The house where the 10 year old Denon was installed has similar trees because Dutch Elm Disease swept through the Milwaukee area in the '60s and almost all of the trees lining our streets were replaced. I was in the room with that system during a thunderstorm and when lightning struck very close to the house, I heard a loud snapping sound inside of the room, but the AV system never stopped working in any way and it was powered up at the time.

I worked for 9 years at a shop that is also a service center for most major brands and I can say that Denon is definitely a more repair prone brand than Yamaha but not nearly as bad as Onkyo. Denon had a really bad streak around 2011 with HDMI board failures and bad headphone jacks that caused the sound to the speakers to be cut off without any headphones plugged in. Sometimes plugging headphones in and removing them would fix the problem. I had a 1/4" TRS > 1/8" TRS adapter on hand just for this. If it didn't fix the problem or the problem returned then into the repair shop it went where our technician had a stockpile of Denon headphone jacks. The shop switched exclusively to Yamaha in 2011 and they have been virtually perfect.

With that said, I just purchased a refurb X3300 for a great price. Call me crazy but I want Audyssey XT32 and D&M is the only game in town. I will be purchasing and extended warranty.

Taking things literally, are we? Thanks, google:


On point:

That works out to just under 25 strikes per square mile per year, with more population centers in the area than other lightning-prone states. A quick look at a list of average lightning strikes over the last couple decade shows WI to be about #27 on the list. And, since there aren't bunches of high population areas in Wisconsin, the effect of the lightning on people is much less there than in Florida.

It's like you're complaining because you've got a Denon, but he's got an Onkyo.

Again. This is a riddle. I have no idea why you write theses answers. Who has an Onkyo? ... never mind. It doesn't help me in any way to know the answer.