I was wrong - Denon DRA-635R

donberry

Super Member
I just figured there was no way an inexpensive receiver of today could match up with the great vintage era amps/receivers. Thought one would have to spend thousands to get comparable quality.
Got this receiver in a deal where I wanted the speakers. Never really even gave it a 2nd thought. Hooked it up to make sure everything worked, to a pair of PSB 500 speakers.
Must say I was really surprised. It is a really nice receiver, sound is really clean, surprisingly so for me anyway. Hate to say it, but I like it better then the Kenwood KR 7600. I ran it through the gamut, some Diana Krall, steely dan and some pink floyd - kenwood was a little deeper in bass, but I believe it is just because the Denon is cleaner - reminds me of a carver amp actually.
Is really nice little amp.
edit -
also, I can not find out anything about this amp. I was wondering what else was made in this series but with a little more power? Can't even find it on Denon's website.
 
I picked up a Denon DRA-545R for mucho cheapo at a yard sale last year, in very good condition. Has variable loudness, not as good as that on Mac pre's or my Yamaha C-85, but decent enough, nice banana jacks in the back. It also has video switching, which I don't care for actually. RC motorized volume control. It's been a steady player at my girlfriend's place since, coupled to some KEF 303.

I too did not find much on it. Early 90ies, something like a 50-60 Watter. Very decent unit.

az
 
Well it is an older unit, manufactured in Japan in 1991 by Nippon Columbia. It puts out 80 wpc. I'm sure it would be better than today's "made in China" units from various manufacturers...
 
There's one on the bay right now, currently @ $77+shipping, probably will go higher. Also its baby brother, the DRA-325R, which I picked up the other day at GW for $20, currently @ 4X what I paid (with shipping).
 
denon has always made good sounding gear...certainly well into the 90's anyway...:scratch2:
 
You'll find good, bad and ugly from every year of manufacture. My preference for 70's gear is mostly nostalgic, partly economic. I can afford to buy something that was the best of the 70's once in awhile but I can't afford to but the best of the new stuff, far from it I'm afraid.

Some of the worst gear seems to come out of the transitional periods. When manufactures began to embrace the transistor and get away from tubes some truly awful stuff hit the market. The same thing happened again when they started using IC's in place of discreet components. Once they learn how to tame the new technologies things return to a much higher quality level.

My 2 cents anyway.
 
Reminds me of a trip I took to an audio store when I was really obsessed with vintage receivers. They had a Marantz 2325 that I asked them to hook up, and they did so in their Home Theater room. It sounded nice. Just for kicks I asked them to hook up a big Yamaha HT receiver that was sitting next to it, just to watch the salesman be shocked when the Marantz sounded much better. Instead it was me who was shocked...the Yamaha ate the Marantz' lunch, stole it's next day's lunch money, and punched it's friend in the gut just for objecting to it all. I was more than a bit surprised. Now..recap the marantz and it might have been a closer match, as they just probably checked to see if everything was working ok. But it was not even close sonically.
 
wow, this is an old post -someone pm'd me about this receiver and I did not even remember owning one..........let's just say my taste in audio has changed a bit.
Sorry to the guy who pm'd me, I guess I did own one but it was sold to make way for different gear.
 
As I posted in another thread, my Yamaha RXV-850 from that era was a pleasant surprise also. I sold both Denon and Yamaha back then. There were plenty of good units from that era but they suffer compared to earlier vintage units in terms of looks, feel and build quality. This means they can be had for very little now if you know which ones to pick up and that's the problem: there were also a lot of awful sounding AV/HT units put out in that era when it was often about the feature/dollar ratio.
 
Here I am, dragging up yet another thread from the depths. Found this during a search for my receiver.
I bought my Denon DRA 635R new in late 1993. I paid $384, marked down from $479, not sure if the $479 was the suggested retail price.
It's bigger brother was the Denon DRA 835R rated at 100 wpc. As mentioned above the 635 is 80 wpc.
I've used mine since 1993 with no problems.
Recently I've been using it with Infinity RSM speakers. The Denon DRA 635R is not rated for 4 ohm speakers so I've been keeping close watch on it. So far it's clean up to halfway on the volume control and just barely running warm. I did give the top of the receiver another inch of clearance in my rack for additional ventalation.
I'm late to the party (old thread) but I've been very happy with mine and it's been trouble free for almost 18 years.
JMO---I'd say if you find a working unit cheap it would be worth buying.
 
I recently picked up a thrift Denon av2800(85wpc)home theatre receiver (circa 2000).I mainly got it to do the home theatre thing on the downstairs tv.I decided to compare it in two channel sound against a vintage Sansui 890db(80wpc)pushing a pair of L100s.The Denon held its own against the Sansui and may have actually had a cleaner sound but the Sansui seemed to have more depth to the music.Anyway I was shown that these Denons aren't that bad for a newer HT av receiver.
 
Picked up a DRA-635R for cheap yesterday. Sounds real nice.

I'd been keeping an eye out for an early '90s Denon receiver, as my cousin had bought a DRA-545R new back in the summer of '91, along with a pair of AR M2 speakers and a Denon CD changer. It was a real good sounding system, and we had a blast trying it out the weekend he bought it. (It's still going strong- his parents are still using it.)
 
Time travelling tonight. Resurrecting a long dead thread. Paid 15 bucks for a goodwill Denon DRA-635R and it was delivered and unpacked tonight. Checked for insect passengers, cleaned off the grime and plugged it into my Mcintosh XR 6 speakers - phono is a goodwill technics SL5 (60 bucks). Listening to Neil Young Decade and Jethro Tull Stand. Maybe the wine is playing a part, but this sounds fantastic.
 
I have two dra-545r's and a 435r. Work well as a nice clean pre-amps w/ 2v output. The bass boost is rather poorly done. One caveat though, tone controls don't work through the preout on the 435r,...bummer.
 
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