Home > Consumer Reviews > Denon AVR-789 630-Watt 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver

Love the receiver, hated the set up. After we got the hang of it the set up did go faster. A little confusing with the naming of the inputs (had to use VCR for the DirecTV connection) but the receiver is well worth the money.

I searched the internet for advice on the set up and it helped tremendously.

.... The other reviews pretty much cover the difficulties regarding the manual and remote. Once it is up and running the sound is very rewarding. My first Denon AVR unit is from the 80s and still sounds great.
The learning curve on the 789 is steep compared to the earlier unit but the difference in what it can do with the sound is just a wee bit short of incredible.
Flipping through the manual looking for something else I noticed you can assign two of the 7.1 amps to be used for bi-amping your main speakers. Definitely on my to-do list.
One caveat for purists, if you like being blown out of your seat by loud sounds, i.e., bombs exploding ect. you will probably not like the way this unit tames the sound.
I expect Denon will improve the user interface on these units in next few years to make the the features more accessible to mere mortals...
UPDATE: As a down-side, the unit did have to go in for repair. I have a SquareTrade warranty on the unit which after a little coaxing they decided to honor. It was a hassle non-the-less. On the plus-side, the unit seems to be widely available at discount prices currently but make sure you have a warranty. Enjoy...

I haven't had many receivers and this was not easy to set up but as countless people have mentioned do your homework it is worth all the reading.Very happy with this purchase and all the help from AVS forum.

Let me start out by saying that two things prevented me from giving this receiver 5 stars: the remote (I had to return the first one as it was defective) and the user's manual. Both leave much to be desired. However, with that said, once I got this thing up and running and played around with the various audio settings, I was thrilled. What really impresses me is the audio performance at low volume. The bass is crisp and clear and the highs are excellent. One thing to note about using a subwoofer. I have a Polk Audio PSW 111 and when I first hooked it up I couldn't hear a thing. I finally had to go to the remote (use ch sel enter) to bring up the subwoofer's volume. I couldn't find anything in the manual and was getting very frustrated. I noticed that some of my DVDs that I initially found lacking in great sound quality really shined with the Denon. Be patient with the set up and all the buttons on the remote. The auto setup feature is great and gives you a good start.

Wow, this is a nice piece of equipment, a steal at this price really. I'm upgrading from an old Pioneer VSX-D711 and while the quality of sound on this unit is clearly better (albeit the Pioneer certainly wasn't poor in this regard) the more complex setup options and rather poor menu and remote make accessing many of the nicer features of this receiver somewhat bewildering at first.

If you're thinking of buying this as a first receiver I would recommend asking a friend or family member with experience to help out for setup and figuring out the menu system and (rather uncomfortable) remote. Once you understand it all this is a great receiver with a huge variety of advanced audio options and does a great job of combining competent analog-to-digital upscaling with full resolution 7.1 at a very affordable price.