[drgameboy]

Purchased a DENON AVR 5803 from a local pawn shop for $100 just for fun, and tried driving my HD800 from the headphone output. Let me just say that it seriously spanks my Auralic Taurus MKII//Gungnir Multibit combo, it is not even close. never knew the HD800 had this much dynamics and bass... this journey is crazy.

 

[Matez]

Interesting. Taurus is a good amp after all. What exactly have you found so unique about that Denon multitasker?

 

[drgameboy]

overall just clearer, better dynamics, and better bass. Soundstage even improves more.

 

[SilverEars]

Purchased a DENON AVR 5803 from a local pawn shop for $100 just for fun, and tried driving my HD800 from the headphone output. Let me just say that it seriously spanks my Auralic Taurus MKII//Gungnir Multibit combo, it is not even close. never knew the HD800 had this much dynamics and bass... this journey is crazy.

Does it sound warmer? Perhaps it's making it sound warmer with the large resistance value from the headphone output jack. That's what OTL (output transformer-less) essentially does. Large output impedance to mess with the inductor coil impedance to change the transient response from high damped solid-state.

Edit: there must be some differences from OTL to a receiver headphone jack. The receiver headphone jack is using resistors in the path, but the OTL seems to be capacitor coupled? Both will interact differently to an inductor coil.

 

[drgameboy]

no it does not sound warmer. treble is just as sparkly as it is on the auralic taurus. this amp is amazing with the HD800 period. I researched the amp, and It was apparently Denons TOTL amp back in 2003. It has such a great headphone output. another thing i noticed is that even when i have the headphone volume maxed, I get NO NOISE AT ALL. amazing.

 

[andrewd01]

Was $4300 in the day. I suppose there is no market for them anymore because there is no HDMI.

 

[drgameboy]

This is a hidden gem. I look them up on ebay, and have some listed for almost a thousand bucks. also these drive my ELAC bookshelf speakers amazingly well. Did not know what my speakers could really do, till i hooked them up to this receiver.