For Christmas and my birthday, Amanda got me a denon avr-987 a/v receiver to replace my old and outdated sony receiver. Today I finally got it all hooked up correctly. By this I mean that I got my hdmi cable in today and it is now outputting EVERYTHING through the hdmi cable to the tv. I also was able to borrow the auto setup microphone from Jeff tonight so I could run the auto room setup. I must say, the sounds the speakers make while running the setup is a pretty cool noise. I wish I could explain it, it’s probably like an over-amplified version of corduroy pants rubbing together…vwoop, vwoop, vwoop, vwoop…something like that.

It’s a sweet setup….finally. I used to think that my old setup was nice, but once things were hooked up to this receiver, it was a world of difference. I played DiRT and after a few seconds of playing, I paused it and turned to Amanda in astonishment. With DiRT, there is normally a co-driver in the car reading off the turns. For instance - 6 right, 3 left, or 1 right. With the old receiver, the co-driver’s speech came out of all three of my front speakers. With the new receiver, the co-driver’s speech only comes out of the center channel speaker. Amazingly it made the game easier. I normally find myself turning sfx and music volumes done in games and turning up the speech volume so I can hear it better. I have a feeling that with this new receiver, I will be setting games back to the default settings for audio output.

If there is one thing I learned from this receiver, it is to never skimp when it comes to home theater equipment. This includes a/v receivers, televisions, speakers, and remotes. One bad link in the chain can destroy the experience. Now why can’t I convince myself to get a sub…