Well my denon 435R from 1990 finally passed on. It it not worth the repair. i'm lookin to go surround sound. I looked at Denon's website. I was amazed to see that they are not honoring the warranty from any other then their list of specialized dealers. After a little price comparision it seems that their "authorized" sellers are only ones that sell for list price and above. That really sucks in my opinion.
Can anyone vouch for buying from a "non-authorized" retailer or e-tailer or convince me of a better bang for the buck then Denon.
Well you are going to be hard pressed to find any dealer that will do warranty work on equipment bought off the internet from junker / refurb dealers.
A couple of companies, like Harmon Kardon have thier own refurb division set up as an online retailer.
I dont fault Denon for not doing this, They are a upper middle end brand and dont want to piss off the non big box store retailers (whom they wont sell through), by having people undercut thier local store prices on the internet.
If i had to put up with 5 people a day walking in the store and haggeling because they can get their Denon cheaper from Mega Millions Big Box online, i wouldn't sell Denon.
If you want to buy used, fine, buy used, but dont expect me to haggle down prices on new equipment to compete with used / refurbished.
Nowhere, and i mean nowhere, with any other brand, will you get the features and quality per dollar you get with Denon. Thier base line entry level av receiver, the 1905, gives you video conversion, zone 2 capability, assignable digital ins and outs, complete pre-amp function on all outputs allowing for multi-amp systems to use its preamps and processors.
No other receiver out there will touch all those features for $499.00
As to your question, You can buy Used or refurb from ebay retailers, they are as good as any, and if something breaks on your amp, you'll just have to cough up the 30 to 100 bucks to fix it.
Having said that, Denons are rarely damaged except through gross negligence or abuse, the protection circuitry on them is excellent and will shut the amp down if a miswiring or overload situation occurs.