A competent mid-range AV receiver

The AVR-1906 is one of the lower-end models in Denon's product line, but considering Denon's high-end positioning relative to the rest of the market, that still puts it somewhere in the mid-range of AV receivers. It offers up to 7.1 channel surround sound, component video switching, and a 7 x 85 watts/ch power amp.

Denon updates their models fairly frequently - this one superseded the AVR-1905 in 2005 with more power, connections and features. It has already been replaced by the AVR-1907, which appears to be almost identical except that it adds support for a couple of trendy new features – it’s “satellite radio ready” (with the addition of an extra-cost accessory), and has iPod dock control capability (with the addition of an extra-cost accessory).

As with the rest of Denon’s products, there are no shortcuts when it comes to audio and video quality, and the specifications are conservative. Unlike the many AV receivers advertised with wildly exaggerated power ratings these days, this one supplies a true 85 watts per channel into 8 ohms across the entire audio frequency spectrum of 20 Hz – 20 kHz with low 0.08% distortion, with all 7 channels driven simultaneously. (If you want a number for comparison, those other guys would probably call this a "5000 watt" receiver.) It can also deliver a continuous 120 watts per channel into 6 ohm loads, demonstrating the high-current capability lacking in lesser amps. That’s adequate power to drive all but the largest speaker systems in the largest rooms. The amp can handle lower impedance loads such as 4 ohm speakers, but the manual warns that it’s not recommended to drive the amp too hard with such low impedance loads since it may trigger the amp’s automatic overload protection circuit. The receiver is medium size as AV receivers go, and as you’d expect it’s fairly heavy at 25 pounds.

The 7 amplifier outputs are split into 5 main channels, plus 2 auxiliary channels which can separately be assigned to one of 4 functions:
1. One or two rear channels in a 6.1 or 7.1 speaker arrangement
2. Two independent channels in a separate room (Zone 2)
3. Extra power for 2 front/stereo speakers which support bi-amplification
4. Driving an unpowered subwoofer which has its own crossover filter

Note that there is no separate subwoofer speaker output on this receiver. It is assumed that you either have an independently-powered subwoofer (the usual case), or that you will drive an unpowered subwoofer from a full-range speaker output using one of the extra channels.

This receiver has the usual Denon style: all black, with a glowing blue front panel display, big knobs, and tiny buttons with tiny labels (apparently it's available in silver too, but silver seems less popular). While it’s aesthetically pleasing, I have to question the utility of the front panel design. The tiny buttons with hard-to-read dark grey on black labels are unnecessarily difficult to use, and the small indicators on the display are impossible to interpret from normal viewing distance. Denon’s choice of which controls to put on the front panel (as opposed to the remote control or the on-screen menus), and how they are grouped is unfathomable to me. The rotary knobs have multiple alternative functions depending on what buttons have been pressed and how many seconds have passed since they were pressed. I think Denon needs to re-think their user interface design. Oh well, it has an illuminated On/Standby button (Red = Standby, Green = On) and a big volume knob, and I guess I won’t be using the other controls too often.

A key design flaw I have to mention is that there's no Setup button on the front panel, meaning that you can't access a whole group of important functions without the remote control. If you ever lose or break the remote, you're going to be left with a receiver that can't be set up properly. Apparently Denon agrees that this was a flaw, because the newer AVR-1907 model does have a Setup button on the front panel, and they mention that prominently in the list of features. There's also no way to program individual tuner preset stations without the remote control, since only the remote has the Memory button.

If you have any of the video outputs hooked up to a TV monitor, there is an on-screen display of status messages and function menus. You’ll need to hook this up to accomplish some of the setup tasks, but it’s not required for normal operation. If you are using the Denon for video input switching, you can choose whether or not you want on-screen display of normal status messages superimposed on the output picture when you operate the controls.

As with most AV receivers beyond the most basic models, the rear panel is jam-packed with connectors:
- 9 pairs of speaker connectors, all standard screw-terminal/banana-plug posts (not spring clips).
- 2 digital audio (TOSLink) optical inputs + 2 digital audio coax inputs
- 6 pairs of stereo audio inputs (for DVD, VCR, tuner etc.)
- 6 discrete multi-channel analog audio inputs (from external 5.1 digital decoder)
- 1 pair of stereo audio pre-amp outputs (variable volume)
- 2 pairs of stereo audio recording outputs (fixed volume)
- 1 pair of Zone 2 stereo audio outputs (variable volume)
- 8 discrete multi-channel analog audio outputs (for 7.1 output, including a variable volume subwoofer/LFE output)
- 1 digital audio optical output (TOSLink)
- 3 component video inputs, 1 component video output
- 3 composite video inputs, 2 composite video outputs
- 3 S-Video inputs, 2 S-Video outputs
- 2 switched 120 VAC power outlets for other gear
- FM and AM antenna spring clips + FM coax inputs
- Serial remote control in/out connectors (for pro systems)

Space is tight, but everything is clearly labeled. All outputs can be driven simultaneously. It may seem like overkill when you first look at it, but believe me when I say that the connection flexibility it provides can be a godsend when it comes time to hook up a messy array of existing equipment.

Under a pop-off cover on the front panel are:
- 1 composite video input (no S-Video input on the front panel)
- 1 pair of stereo audio inputs
- 1 digital audio (TOSLink) optical input
- 1 microphone input

There is also a stereo headphone output and the IR remote control receiver on the front panel.

Overall this is a very complete set of connectors. It’s missing only the very old and the very new: there’s no phono input (for turntable), and no HDMI inputs or outputs.

Composite and S-Video inputs are upconverted to component video output for connection convenience (and vice-versa), but of course there’s no actual gain in quality with this type of analog upconversion.

The digital audio decoder supports pretty much everything you'd want, including Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 96KHz/24-bit, DTS-ES Discrete 6.1, DTS-ES Matrix 6.1, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, and DTS-ES NEO:6, as well as SACD via external discrete inputs. Denon's controls for selecting the surround-sound mode are a little confusing, and they differ between the front panel and the remote. It's easy to get stuck in the wrong mode and have difficulty getting out of it, at least until you figure out the usual shortcuts. Fortunately there's an Auto-Surround mode that usually chooses the correct default option in normal viewing/listening circumstances. There are plenty of different modes and parameters you can adjust to find an ambience that suits you. The only thing lacking is a Mono input mode - you need a Y-adapter on the input if you want a single input channel to be reproduced by all speakers.

The speaker configurations supported are:
- One pair of stereo speakers L+R (the "A" pair)
- 5.1 multi-channel with Front L+R, Center, Surround L+R, Sub/LFE
- 6.1 multi-channel, adding rear center
- 7.1 multi-channel, adding rear L+R
- Additional pair of Zone 2 stereo speakers L+R (mutually exclusive with 6.1/7.1 rear channels or bi-amp use, since they use the same amp outputs)
- Optional second pair of stereo speakers (the "B" pair) selected by the "B" button on the front panel (you can select A+B together by pressing both A and B buttons, but they are connected in parallel and may overload the amp if the combined impedance is less than 6 ohms, which it probably will be)

This is called a “Multi-Zone Receiver” because it can output to two zones (rooms) independently. If you enable Zone 2, you can control the input source, volume and other settings for Zone 2 independently from Zone 1. For example you can be listing to or recording the TV input in Zone 1, while simultaneously listening to the FM radio in Zone 2. There is a restriction though – Zone 2 is strictly analog, and digital audio inputs to Zone 1 cannot be simultaneously output to stereo in Zone 2, I guess because the DSP is already busy decoding multi-channel. That means you can’t listen to the TV in Zone 1 and Zone 2 at the same time from the single digital TV audio input.

You can also connect any analog input to the analog recording outputs independently of the main source you are listening to. The Zone 2/REC Select button and the Main button toggle the Input selection function between Main, Zone 2, and RECOUT. One again the restriction is that this function works with analog sources only, not digital.

The advanced settings allow you to enable/disable individual speakers (or pairs of speakers) and set the relative volume and distance delay independently for each speaker. You can set a separate overall audio delay independently for each input to compensate for video lag. You can’t set tone or equalization independently for each speaker/pair though. You can set the subwoofer crossover frequency from 40 Hz to 250 Hz, but the crossover point is a single setting shared by all speakers. In compensation there's a useful option to designate whether you want the subwoofer to get only the LFE channel, or whether you want to also send bass frequencies below the crossover point to the sub on a speaker/pair basis (the Small versus Large option). For example you can have your big tower speakers in the front handle their own bass, while sending the below-crossover frequencies from the small surrounds to the subwoofer. I note that home theatre experts usually recommend that you set all your speakers to Small if you have a decent subwoofer so that the low bass is only coming from one source.

Denon offers automatic setup of speakers in your room if you hook up a microphone placed at your normal listening position. A microphone is supplied, which connects to a standard 3.5mm microphone jack on the front panel. The automatic setup checks the distance to each speaker to set the time delays, the relative volume of the speakers, and the phasing of each speaker to make sure it is hooked up correctly. Honestly though I found it only approximately accurate. I could set the distances more accurately myself, and it persistently identified the closest of my surround speakers as being out of phase when it wasn’t. It also tends to set any full-range speaker to Large, which conflicts with the Large vs. Small recommendation above.

There are many other customizatons offered. If you want you can rename the inputs using an on-screen keyboard. You can set the Mute level to something other than completely off. You can assign which digital audio input goes with which input mode (although the Automatic setting worked fine for me).

There are a flexible set of multi-channel output modes, including:
- Simulated surround output from mono input (Mono Movie mode)
- Stereo output from stereo analog or digital input
- Duplicated multi-channel stereo output from stereo input (5ch/7ch)
- Simulated surround output (5, 6, or 7 channel) from stereo input (DD PLIIx, DTS Neo 6, or Denon Matrix)
- Various ambience “effects” (e.g. Jazz Club, Rock Arena) for stereo input to surround output
- 5.1 multi-channel output from discrete external 5.1 analog inputs
- 5,.1, 6.1, or 7.1 multi-channel output from digital multi-channel input (DD or DTS)

The selected surround setting is remembered independently for each input, and there's an automatic default which switches to the best supported surround mode.

You can adjust bass and treble, but there is no custom equalizer mode.

There’s a standard FM and AM radio section, with auto-channel-scan and up to 56 memory presets.

Denon provides a multi-device remote control with numeric keypad, transport controls and illuminated buttons, but I prefer to use my Harmony remote. [Hint for users of Harmony remotes: you won't find any Zone 2 commands in Harmony's default AVR-1906 codes - try looking for the device "AVR-3803 (Zone 2)" in the Harmony database instead.]

A full printed manual is included, but it could use a bit of work. While it covers all the important topics, the organization is confusing, there's no index, and the explanations of more advanced features and topics come up a bit short. During initial setup, tuning and experimenting I found myself puzzled several times, going back and forth between the manual and the controls trying to figure out how to get the mode I wanted. But in the end I was able to configure it optimally for my 5.1 speaker setup with digital audio input from my satellite STB and DVD player.

Overall there’s nothing to complain about in the audio or video characteristics, the quality of construction, or the “feel” of the controls – they’re all exemplary, as expected from Denon. The sound is completely transparent, and there is no audible hiss or hum. The configuration flexibility is excellent, with only very minor exceptions (I don't know about you, but it sure frustrates me when I should be able to do something and the equipment won't allow it because of a silly shortcoming in the design). I was impressed with the intelligence of some of the little automatic features, like the way it picks the correct digital audio input and the correct surround mode without being told, or the way it shuts off automatically when the digital input from the TV turns off.

This unit has a 2-year warranty, and Denon components are usually reliable. I expect to be using this receiver for a while.