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The Short Form
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| $1,199 / USA.DENON.COM / 201-762-6665 |
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Snapshot
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| Outstanding audio performance outweighs basic onscreen displays and limited video processing in Denon’s newest receiver |
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Plus
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| • Excellent overall audio performance • Good analog-video processing • Accurate auto-setup and calibration, and useful room/speaker EQ correction |
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Minus
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| • Onscreen graphics are a bit slow, and aren’t available with all video signal formats and inputs • Video scaling limited to analog video inputs, with HDMI-only output |
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Key Features
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• 7 x 115 watts (1 or 2 channels driven) • (4) HDMI 1.3a inputs, (1) output • Upconverts component-, composite-, and S-video signals to 1080p via HDMI • Decodes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and multichannel SACD • Audyssey MultEQ XT auto-setup/equalization with supplied microphone • Audyssey Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Loudness level- and volume-correction • XM/Sirius satellite-radio-ready • iPod input and control via optional dock •Assignable front biamp or powered Zone 2 amp channels • (3) Quick Select presets store source and mode adjustments • IR in/out, 2x 12v trigger, RS-232 serial port • 17 1⁄8 x 6 7⁄8 x 10 3⁄8 in, 28 1⁄4 lb |
The AVR-989 eschews the fancy high-def color graphical displays that are becoming common on receivers, contenting itself instead with a rather dated-looking — but perfectly functional black-and-white text menu system. It also omits the home-network connectivity and media-player functionality that is fast becoming standard on up-market receivers.
What this new Denon does offer is the full palette of Audyssey-licensed audio processing. These include MultEQ XT auto setup/room equalization; Dynamic EQ, for massaging equalization and relative channel levels on the fly so that a movie soundtrack will retain its integrity when listened to at lower-than-reference-level settings; and Dynamic Volume, a “smart leveler” that adapts the receiver’s master-volume setting to changes in the source or program signal (including those damn infomercials).
Audyssey’s MultEQ XT setup routine is by now a familiar one: plug in the mike, call up the Setup screen, and hit Go. To perform the second step, you have to invert the AVR-989’s remote and flip open the bottom panel to reveal keys that are mostly used for setup and tweaking. The routine includes moving the included mike to various positions (as many as eight) within the listening area. Rinse and repeat.
As usual, MultEQ XT’s results proved reliable, with just about spot-on channel levels and crossovers. The Denon adjusted my dipole surrounds a dB or so too high, but every robotic setter-upper I’ve used does this. In truth, you almost always have to tweak dipoles by ear anyway.
It didn’t take me long to confirm that the AVR-989 maintains the Denon-receiver tradition of excellent-quality amplifiers. Its rated 115-watt (stereo) output proved easily able to drive my medium-sensitivity full-range front speakers to realistic levels with truly elevated sound quality, eliciting the clarity, impact, and detail of which I know they’re capable. Multichannel music was even better. The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack on the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Blu-ray Disc is a magnificent surround production. Just listening to the opening crowd noise and then the open-tuned drone introducing “Bartender” offered enough proof that the Denon was more than capable of reproducing this production’s spatial and tonal richness.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has a world-class soundtrack, and the Denon again handled the DVD’s wide-ranging demands, delivering pristine music, dialogue, and effects with ease. For example, the dense spatial activity in the exam-room fireworks scene was wonderfully represented, with outstanding dynamic “pop” and transparency.
Denon uses Faroudja processing for the AVR-989’s analog video paths, a reliable solution that in this case delivers deinterlacing and rescaling of analog video up to 1080p format by way of the HDMI output. As usual, this processor passed my eyes-on tests without a hitch, delivering crisp, full-resolution, artifact-free images.
On the other hand, the Denon will only process analog video arriving at its composite-, component-, or S-video jacks and pass the upconverted signal out by way of its HDMI output. HDMI sources, meanwhile, are switched by the receiver and passed through untouched.
The Audyssey MultEQ XT room/speaker correction worked just the same as I’d found on previous versions. (Results will vary enormously depending on the individual room and setup.) In my system, this made for slightly clearer center-channel dialogue, tighter bass, and a smoother sonic bubble with surround effects.
I was also impressed by the other two Audyssey elements. Dynamic EQ, which I’ve encountered before, was able to retain musical bass, male-vocal character and weight, and surround spaciousness even at very low master-volume settings. And it did so without once sounding heavy, bassy, or ill balanced the way fixed “loudness compensation” circuits so often do.
Dynamic Volume, which is new to me, might be an even more welcome feature since it effectively leveled the volume from source to source, channel to channel, and — significantly — program to commercial and back again. While a bit less subtle than Dynamic EQ (it’s an entirely different process), this is an insignificant price to pay to keep those supernaturally loud Cockney pitchmen from shocking you into buying some idiotically useless item.
For movie playback, Dynamic EQ kept an excellent semblance of spatiality even at very low, late-night-suitable volume levels. The courtroom scene early in Order of the Phoenix proved a fine demonstration. When listened to at a very soft level with Dynamic EQ turned off, the reverberant ambience of the chamber was effectively erased; with it engaged, the space’s individual, echo-y character was clearly restored.
Oddly, the AVR-989’s onscreen displays only worked when it was upconverting an S- or composite-video source. (And there’s a several-second delay while it re-syncs the video each time you call up or release the display.) It didn’t work with signals passing through the component-video or HDMI inputs, which is unfortunate since the Denon’s displays offer easy access to many valuable options and parameters. They also provide a comprehensive display that includes information about the video- and audio-signal format and the surround mode, including dialogue-normalization offsets for Dolby Digital soundtracks.
The simplified, “everyday” top side of Denon’s two-sided remote is easy to use, and it might well prove a great compromise solution for some folks. But power users will find that the remote has a few problems. If you want to select among all 12 of the AVR-989 inputs (only six are included on the remote’s front), navigate menus (including the oft-needed Parameters page), or change surround modes, you need to flip the handset, open the door, and access a set of small, unlit keys. (And it’s particularly awkward for lefties.)
The AVR-989’s audio and video performance is beyond reproach. That said, I found its comparatively basic (and limited-access) displays and its frankly confusing video-processing limitations slightly disappointing. And in our increasingly networked home-entertainment era, the absence of media-client functions probably qualifies for the same complaint. Counterbalancing these is the Denon’s powerful Audyssey processing, which, along with its indisputable audio and video chops, make it an excellent, affordable A/V receiver option.