Aural Addict wrote:Never had an issue with the Cambridge volume pot. It's loud, which can give the impression that it's sketch (clicks every db gain or drop), it survived being the main pre/power setup in a retail environment. Pretty much constant play for 12 hrs/ day, 7 days/wk... And let's not forget the classy customers that broke 4 pro-ject rm 1.3 tables on that system. To me that shows a strong build quality.
As for the Denons, we carry Denon, Yamaha, Cambridge, Sony, h/k primarily and the only ones we ever saw continuously was Denon. And it wasn't just one model, it was across the board. I know it's an av piece, but the 19 series 10,11,12 all come in. We would get a few 33 series also. Usually it was overheating or clipping issues. Those were the same issues we had with their stereo stuff. I'll admit that we didn't see many issues with those, but being a ht centric spot we didn't sell a ton. My outlook is this; if a broad range has issues, I get nervous. Same happens if the weight and feel isn't of the same caliber...
I'll also say that denons cust serv is pretty good.
True Marantz deminished a bit, but that, I believe, was around the time they joined with Denon...
Our best selling stuff is Denon and Yamaha, and when Yamaha came out with their '10 models, they definitely trumped Denon... Better bracing, better amps, stronger feel in the controls, it just seemed like Denon started to care more about features in their ht stuff more than anything, but hey, tats where the market is going...
The Cambridge 840 does not have a volume pot, it has a volume control with switching relais. As long as you use the remote control it works fine, but people using the dial a lot have found that after a while the sensor in the dial gets dirty, and when you turn it up one "click" it keeps going up because the sensor in the dial provides false information. This was (they may have fixed it?) a widespread an potentially serious issue: You don't want your volume jumping from 9 o'clock to 13:00 o'clock with a 200 watt amplifier (and most likely an input/output voltage mismatch with a CD player causing the amplifier to be at maximum power with the dial as low as 11 o'clock)
There were also issues with the volume control causing audible pops from the speakers and it just failing alltogether if I recall, it was not a very well thought-out concept.
I can completely share you concerns about Denon's quality issues with their newer product lines: Their CD/DVD/SACD players and AV receivers are not something I would recommend to anyone, but the Stereo amplifiers are still old designs, from before the major cost cutting that came with the "D&M holdings" thing.
Customer service is probably a function of the importer, not Denon itself, in the Netherlands Denon's customer service is pretty abysmal. Bought your Denon stuff at the wrong dealer? No service, Bought your DVD player more than 5 years ago? No service etc etc. Friend of mine had his DVD-A1 break within a few years,and he was told "They don't stock that board any longer" , which points to the worrying idea of Denon not really repairing anything, but just switching out entire circuit boards in the event of a malfunction. For a lot of people this will mean Denon's Products are going to become disposable items: If Denon can't fix your 5 year old DVD player or Av receiver, than you are going to have a really hard time finding some-one who can because of the complicated nature of these devices. But at the risk of repeating myself: Something like a PMA2010AE can be fixed with common parts and without any specialised knowledge about complicated tech: I have owned amplifers like them (Simple, classic designs without overengineered ideas like swicthing relais volume controls for example) for many years, and IF they ever gave me trouble I could always have them fixed by an elderly guy who owns a small electronics store.
