When I opened my humble little retail store, The Audiophile, back in 1973, Denon was a small company just entering the country. Giants like Yamaha, Kenwood, Pioneer, Marantz, and others dominated the receiver market. But I was a tweak and always looking for something better. My local rep would drive up on his moped to Venice, California, with the latest Stax headphones or a few other top-notch toys and a new moving coil cartridge from Japan. "Hey, check out this new Denon DL-103 conical moving coil cartridge." Conical? How could that be good? We would spend the afternoon listening in my high-end room to see how it stood up to the hottest cartridges of the day. They also had a few integrated amplifiers, but who would ever be interested in Denon...too much competition.

Additional Resources
• Read more AV Receiver reviews from the likes of Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, Sherwood, Sony, Sony ES and mamy others.
• Read DVD-Video and Blu-ray players from the likes of Denon, Sony, Onkyo, Oppo Digital and many others.

But after 30 years of delivering some of the finest electronics in this category, Denon has earned a reputation second to none, consistently producing A/V receivers that are ranked at or near the top of the industry. And while the company's premier models often command a premium price (for example, their AVR-58o5 mkII costs $7,000), Denon's newest, the AVR-2807, is priced at an affordable $1,099. I also requested a matching DVD player (DVD-1920 at $369) to test the combo, so let's see how this duo works together.

Unique Features AVR 2807
It delivers the same HDMI digital video interface terminals and high-resolution 1080p video signal transmission offered on higher priced Denon units, plus all the features we've all come to expect from Denon--at an entry-level price range (well, sort of). Power is rated at 110 watts of power per channel--this is no lightweight! There's an enhanced version of the Audyssey MultEQ XT auto setup/calibration (which helps you achieve optimized system performance for your specific room), as well as support for the addition of any XM Connect-and-Play antenna module for integrated satellite radio reception. The powerful new 32-bit floating-point DSP automatically and accurately analyzes, adjusts, and sets the speaker configurations of your system. I'm a fan of Pure Direct mode: sonic quality gets enhanced as all of the unused circuitry is shut down for the cleanest and most precise stereo sound from any audio component in your system. The direct iPod/MP3 connector found on more expensive Denon models is lacking, but it will be compatible with a new iPod dock (the ASD-1R dock) that Denon is planning to release later in 2006. When available, the dock is expected to provide audio, photo, and video playback control via the 2807's remote.

Other key features should be mentioned--such as multi-zone audio capabilities, two assignable 12-volt "trigger" outputs, an RS-232 port for computer-controlled touch-screen operation, 200ms audio delay for precise synchronization between image and soundtrack. Need I mention that there's Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, DTS-ES, DTS 96/24, and Multi-zone 5.1 in the main room with stereo capability in a second zone, and the Digital bass management functions enable you to tailor the sound from high-resolution audio discs to a wide variety of systems--from full-size speakers to compact satellite/subwoofer setups.

Read more on Page 2