Murtaza's Technoblog THE Technology Blog

Review: Denon AVR-1909 Receiver

Pros

• Great Sound
• Upscales video to 1080p
• Lots of inputs

Cons

• Flimsy, hard to use remote
• Difficult set up
• Auto calibration microphone didn't work
• Generates lots of heat

Overview

The Denon AVR-1909 or 786 as it also known is an excellent receiver. Once you get it running it performs really well.
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Performance

The Denons performance was quite good. Watching movies on it is quite fun and it gives you a cinematic experience. Sound quality was excellent with both music and movies however, setup is quite difficult. The remote is incredibly hard to use and feels quite cheap and flimsy and the flippy door on the back for multi zone looks like it could break off easily. The GUI isn't really very easy to use either. Sometimes the remote doesn't respond alltogether.

The remote is good though for quickly selecting your inputs with the Quickselect functions. You can also rename the inputs to find them more easily. This made the receiver a pleasure to use once it is up and running. Once you start a movie though, all this hassle is forgotten. Especially for people experiencing surround sound for the first time. The sound is really good with great perfomance, great mid tones and almost no distortion.

The receiver can also upscale any analog devices going through it to 1080p which is useful and works well in this receiver. There are no problems with the upscaling and the picture comes out looking quite good. You can even choose to turn off upscaling on certain inputs if you are having any problems.

The Audyssey mic provided didn't work for me. I might not have done something right so I can't tell you how it performed. However manual setup was quite easy provided you could navigate the menus.

Conclusion

Overall, the Denon receiver is excellent. I would recommend this receiver to anyone looking for a decent midrange performer. This is good for people setting up their first home theatre systems and those who are looking to upgrade their old ones. It is available really cheaply right now so it is a good buy as well.
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