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I've got the 2309 last week: $799 from a local authorized Denon dealer. This is my first Denon and my first HDMI-capable receiver. I am very excited!

It will replace a 5-year old Harman/Kardon in my den and will be used with Sony Grand Wega III and Energy Take 5.1 speakers ... for now

I don't think I can offer you a detailed review, but will gladly share my thoughts and observations with the fellow SateliteGuys forum members. Perhaps some of you will find them helpful, especially if you are shopping for a new receiver this Holiday Season.


SPECS

Here are some specs that caught my attention:

- Four (!) HDMI 1.3 inputs. I need all four of them! One of the main reasons I decided to go with the 2309 vs. 1909 is to have more HDMI inputs and save on an HDMI switch.

- Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding (7.1 channels, up to 96 KHz), that's, of course, in addition to full support of multi-channel LPCM over HDMI.

- Analog video to HDMI scaling up to 1080p. This is very convenient if you have some components with analog outputs: no need to run additional cables to the monitor or projector.

- 2-zone/2-source capability. Since I currently don't have a 7.1 setup, I may very well take advantage of this. The receiver comes with a second-zone remote, but I guess I will need to buy an IR-repeater to use it in another room.


AUDYSSEY

This receiver includes advanced Audyssey processing. (The newest version of it, according to the sales person.) It includes: Audyssey MultiEQ (multi-point room equalization), Dynamic EQ (essentially improves sound at a low volume), and Dynamic Volume (reduces volume during loud commercials).

I am usually very skeptical about any artificial sound processing. But I found these Audyssey features rather useful. Of course, under ideal listening conditions in a room with perfect acoustics you wouldn't want to do any "processing". But most of us live in a less-than-perfect world and the Audyssey features help compensate for some of the imperfections.

Of the three Audyssey technologies, MultiEQ is the most practical, IMO. I was able to do full speaker configuration and equalization in just a few minutes and it was all automatic. The 2309 comes with a special Audyssey microphone (which can be installed on a photo-tripod). The on-screen instructions walked me through the entire process. Basically, I was asked to put the microphone sequentially in six listening positions and the receiver ran some sound tests. The program automatically configured the volume compensation for each speaker, equalization levels for different frequencies and accurately estimated distances to each speaker from the main listening position. The result was pretty good! I will need more time to play with manual settings to see if I can do any better, but for now, I am pretty happy with the automatic settings.

Dynamic EQ noticeably improves the sound when watching TV at a low volume (say, late at night when you don't want to disturb your family or neighbors): it gives it more depth, allows to hear background music and sounds, which otherwise would've been lost due to low volume. I turn this mode off when watching movies at a normal volume.

And if you find yourself adjusting volume all the time, say during commercial brakes, you will like the Dynamic Volume feature, that tries to do that for you automatically. Personally, I rarely watch channels with commercials, so I have this one turned off.


REMOTE

The main remote (the 2309 actually comes with two remotes: one for each zone) is comfortable enough and can be used as a universal remote for most of your components. It's not back-lit, but some of the buttons glow in the dark. Buttons are relatively easy to find. A much better remote than the one that came with my old Harman/Kardon. Unfortunately, for setup and menu navigation you have to use the other side of the remote and have to flip it back and forth all the time. For day-to-day operation, personally I will use Harmony (which does have the 2309 in its database).


DISPLAY

The on-screen display is rather simplistic: B/W text mostly. But does the job. The user interface is simple but not very intuitive. It took me some time to understand how inputs and outputs are assigned and configured. It was more straightforward with H/K, I think.

The front-panel display is informative, but hard to read from a distance, even the volume level. And I can't figure out how to turn off the blue "HD Audio" sign which is too bright and stays on even when I use the "Dimmer".


VIDEO

Didn't notice any changes in the picture quality compared to direct HDMI connection. What else can I say?

And it felt so good when I removed a spider web of cables and replaced almost all of them with HDMI's!

(By the way, I bought a bunch of HDMI cables from Monoprice.com for $3.59 each and so far I am pretty happy with them. I see absolutely no difference between them and a $100+ HDMI cable.)


SOUND

I am not currently setup for a good sound evaluation or any back-to-back comparison with other receivers, plus I haven't finished tweaking, but over all, I am impressed with the sound quality so far. I did expect improvements for Dolby TrueHD sound tracks, but surprisingly, even Dolby Digital sounds better to me with this receiver. I don't know, may be I am just too excited about the new toy!

That's it for now. Please feel free to ask questions or post your own reviews.