Denon AVR 3312

The Denon AVR 3312 has been out for almost half a year now.  It appears the growing pains may have been worked out.  What pains?  The 3312 was starting to get a reputation for crashing during lenghty internet firmware updates.  And that meant having to send it in for "repairs."  Although covered by the warranty, most people were still stuck with some $25 in shipping charges.

With that fixed, the 3312 is a nice improvement over the 3311 by including Airplay at no charge.  That was previously a $50 upgrade.  That plus the iPod-compatible USB interface and the ability to control this receiver with any device with an internet browser makes it super-flexible.  The trade-off is that the new model no longer has an optical digital audio output.  But very few people use that.  Other than that, the new model has all the quality and feature-rich goodness of the old one.  Another nice feature is the quick-set buttons as shown below.

Update

After being out for nearly a year, the Denon 3312 is finally being discounted.  At around 1/4 off the list price, it's now just about exactly the same street price as the 3311 with the AirPlay adder.  This new model adds FLAC compatability and a 7th HDMI input.  But you loose the 2nd zone remote, dedicated satellite radio input, and optical audio output.  But for me the AVR 3312 is a clear winner over its predecessor.