Denon AVR-2105 Home theater receiver with Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, and Pro Logic IIx

Rating:
Summary: Behold the holy grail of receivers!
Review: My friend (a total audio & video ignoramus) gave me a budget to do his first home theater system. The solution: spend the biggest bucks on the Denon AVR-2105. Why?
1) It has an auto setup facility that does more than just set up the speaker levels. It actually adjusts for flaws in the room and the weaknesses of the speakers. Whatever speakers you connect will sound like they are a few levels better in quality thanks to the kick ass audio setup technology from Audyssey Labs that Denon uses.
2) It does video conversion. This means I hook up his High Def TV to the Denon using component video cables (the best quality hookups available at this point). Then I hook up his VCR, DVD & cable box using their best hookups (S-Video, Component, Component respectively) & the Denon automatically converts the cheesy S-Video to component. Now the TV just always stays on component input & I never have to adjust it again, ever.
3) Because of 1) I can buy the best speakers the lowest bidder can provide. US$350 for a 5.1 package in this case.
4) I hook it all up & attach the auto setup microphone & let the auto setup rip. One minute later the speakers are dialed in for the room, it detected the fact that they are small speakers & there is a subwoofer attached. Distances to the sweet spot are exact to the foot.
5) "Ronin" is popped into the DVD & we skip chapters to the beginning of the big chase & fight. Holy cow, does De Niro ever have a sweet sounding machine gun! In the small living room, the sound is awesome. Next up, in goes Andrea Botticelli's "Romanza" & he lets rip some operatic arias (my friend is Italian). Sweet, sweet sound.

Finally, there is just one thing to do: girlfriend proof this setup. After a long struggle it is close but no cigar. The TV's video input is no problem, but switching devices on the Denon remote is ugly using those sliders. The button layout on the Denon remote sure is nice though. The Panasonic TV remote is pretty nice but it is still confusing switching around and it stupidly tries to adjust the TV's volume at times & who knows what devices are on or off at any time or what mode it is in. Ack.

A lucky trip to the dealer introduces us to the Harmony remote. I am surprised other remotes have not been outlawed yet. This sucker downloads exact codes for your exact components off of the web (via USB cable to your computer) & then just controls everything, easily.

Mission accomplished. His low budget system sounds better than my high budget system, since it is dialed in better than mine + the speakers are compensated for, which I can't even do on my system. (Sigh.) Soon I will have to demote my Denon AVR 5700 to the bedroom and get a shiny new Denon receiver with the Audyssey Labs tech for the living room. (Oh Poor wallet!) Thanks to the Harmony remote it all is easily & intuitively controlled from just one remote. (Yippee!) I am now another proud owner of a Harmony H688 remote.

Rating:
Summary: Best value receiver <$800
Review: Wonderful "brains" behind your home theater/stereo, whether you're just getting started out or looking for a receiver upgrade for an existing setup. This is the type of receiver you can grow with. Start with it and an inexpensive set of 5 speakers, then gradually swap out the speakers as the budget allows. Point is, the clean, efficient ouput of this receiver will shine driving low-end Infinity HTIB satellites or powering a set of B&W bookshelves.

Operation is as easy as you can get. Discrete input codes, discrete off/on codes make programming a universal remote much easier. Auto-setup is great, auto-detection of input signals mean you don't have to know whether the input is DTS or PLIIx or whatever - it figures it out itself.

Lastly, it's the little Denon touches that will ultimately justify this purchase. For just a hair more than a Sony, Pioneer, or Yamaha you get a rock-solid build quality, 3 component inputs (vs. the usual 2), full 7.1, 5 way posts on all speaker outputs, Auto-EQ including the microphone (costs extra $ on most others) and configurable inputs.

Spend the money to get this receiver, and you'll be able to grow your home theater around it.

Enjoy!