Denon AVR-1506 Receiver

Break out the cigars! The newest addition to my home theatre family is the confusing, but cool, Denon AVR-1506 7.1 surround receiver. It replaces my 4-month-old Sony STR-DE997 7.1 receiver.

After listening to this noble-looking receiver it for a few days, I've come to the conclusion that it's 24% phenomenal, 25% completely radical, and features 51% awesomeness.

This causes a 12% increase in spine-tingling thrill, putting the stately silver Denon on equal footing with my old 5.1 Sony receiver.

Even better than the physical looks of the Denon is most certainly the sound. Although it's only rated at 75 watts per channel, the power rating is different from the standard manufacturers. The 75 pure watts it delivers is quite adequate.

The sound quality it delivers is, like, totally stunning. During a sound-test with Garbage's "Why Do You Love Me?", children playing on the street began crying as they covered their bleeding ears. This just encouraged me to turn the volume up even louder. As distraught mothers ran into the street to save their incapacitated offspring, they too were overwhelmed by the sound and crumpled to the ground in sobbing heaps.

As for video, the Denon does a superb job, especially in comparison to the Sony 7.1 receiver that preceded it. Sadly, though, there is only one optical input. After careful thought, I decided to connect my DVD player instead of the military sonic head-exploder.

On the plus side, all the customizable surround features one would expect are there; Speaker size and distance from the listening position, individual speaker volume levels, and even room size. As well, bass, treble and the LFE (low frequency effect) can be adjusted individually for each of the DVD, TV, CD, etc. inputs.

My only qualm is with the remote. It is menacing and lame at the same time. Button colours are horrendous to say the least, and button functions don't make much sense even for the most studied home theatre nerd.

To confuse you, Denon decided you must press 4 on the number pad for DVD input, 5 for TV, 6 for VCR, etc. These are PRIMARY functions and as such, should have their own button. They should not be piggy-backing on the number pad.

Considering this receiver is supposed to be the brains behind an entire home theatre system, Denon should have put more thought into the remote instead of relying on the CEO's 4-year-old grandson to design it.

Verdict: Receiver = extreme! Remote = extremely stupid.