I went to book Denon 790, but the demo guy introduced me to Denon 1311XP. it has 3D ready receiver and hell lot of latest decoders to increase it compatibility. HDMI 1.4 enabled, 4 in 1 out. It has 5.1 channel amplifier with receiver and pre-amp is provided for 2 more channels to upgrade it to 7.1. You need a 2 channel amplifier and 2 speakers to achieve 7.1 setup.
About receiver.
All latest decoders with Dolby, DTS, Prologic I & II, DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD etc. Receiver Has all the possible settings like bass, speaker sizes, distances, crossover frequency, crossfader, center stage, LFE, tone control for Bass and treble. The receiver consists of 6 independant identical amplifiers which enables to control the output of each channel. Master volume allows increase decrease with maintaining your independant channels out put levels. Decoders are selected automatically(manually setting also provied) depending up on source you are playing. Every decoder has various surround parameters to enhance the experience, Addition to this, inputs can be controled like input modes, input audio level, video input source etc. All fun even if you ignore all settings and run it with factory box settings.
About Speaker
It comes with 5 surround and 1 active(powered) sub woofer. Front Left, Front right and center speakers are same in specs and dimensions. Rear once are small. Woofer is magic, it is powered so you can control its output through receiver as well as through it independant volume control. Speakers are responsive and crisp, does not creat sound fuzzyness, Woofer creates enough thump and feels solid lower frequencies, All speakers has wooden cabinates and receiver is vibration controlled to minimize the distortion(THD to 0.8%).
What I liked the most
I was looking for some home theater system with the budget of 30K. I looked at SONY, PANNY, SAMSUNG and blah blah blah. Not at all happy. So decided to explore in to component system area. Had a research for a month, visited many forums and understood what to expect what not to expect and tuning, setting and all. What to listen during the demo and all. Auditioned all Onkyo, Pioneer, Yamaha, Denon. I was expecting 50% -50% music movie experience, Pioneer todorki is core music+ over budget, I skipped it. When I heard denon, I was impressed. I had a lenghty demo of around 3 hours(requested shop owner to let me remain inside the demo during lunch time), he allowed. Tried various sources and tracks whcih I carried with me, not the showroom owned.
The demo went amazing. I had a strict fight for budget. Denon 790 28K in my budget, Denon1311XP 38 K way out of my budget but future ready with great output.
I could convince the owner for 2K of discount+ free installation. He agreed and I finalized 1311XP for its future readyness, crisp and clear sound, 7.1 upgradable capacity and 3D enabled with HDMI 1.4.
I was very impressed with the way it handles higher as well as lower frequencies. It never looses its crispness whether you play MP3, Audio CD or video, DVD. It has sounr restorer which enhancees sound quality coming from compressed file formats like MP3. This is naother cool feature.
Next to all, I connected my Sony DVD player, Tatasky set top box and Panasonic 42 inches Plasma and overall experience at home was great. I enjoy movies at 6 channel audio sources and its fun. Now planning to buy 3D BDP and few years down the line a 3D TV to use the receiver at its fullest.
Connecting and installing the system was way easy and the technician did it and half an hour. It can be done at our own very easily too.
Over all, its 8 months I own it and I am very much satisfied with its performance. I had rasied its volume couple of times to check vibrations and distortions, but found very less and that to due to my household stuff were viabrating on tables or racks,
I strongly recommend this product. Its great package woth capability of professional audio. we can also upgrade to floor speakers if budget permits or in future. That will be an icing on cake.
Only thing which I Feel missing is, it does not show setting and menu system on TV screen. You have to look at small LED screen of the receiver to adjust the settings. But not ans issue as you dont need to change the settings frequesntly. Once its set no need to doing again and again. Just enable setup lock, so no chances of setting change accidently too.