c|net takes a look at Denon’s AVR-4306 receiver. As far as function-packed receivers go, this one is pretty affordable at $1999. (Unfortunately for us Canadians, Denon’s markup here is pretty bad, so the list price is $2790Cdn when it should be closer to $2350Cdn.) Either way, though, Denon has a reputation for making good stuff, and c|net definitely found that out, giving the receiver a score of 9/10.

This beast has three HDMI inputs, and converts incoming analog video to digital, and upconverting to 720p or 1080i over the HDMI connection to boot! It even passes 1080p signals! It has iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity, and a touch-screen remote (yuck). You can even stream music from your PC using a built-in ethernet port. This receiver is rated at 130W per channel.

A great feature of this receiver is its auto-setup routine with room equilization. The reviewer complained that too much user interaction was needed, requiring you to move the microphone to six room locations and interacting with the setup process the whole way. Personally, I think this is a bonus, because it sets things up exactly just for your room, to give you the best possible sound quality. Why complain about that? At the end of it all, they say “On the upside, the extra work was worth it: the equalization firmed up our speakers as well as the subwoofer’s bass; dialogue was more articulate; and the sense of spatial depth of the soundstage was increased. The Audyssey MultEQxt Room EQ autosetup system’s calibration accuracy was spot-on.” See? Good stuff. All in all, c|net found the sound quality of this receiver to be quite good.

Unfortunately, no mention is made in the review of the bass management of the 5.1 analog inputs. This is important for listening to many SACD and DVD Audio players. Plus, it will become more important again with HD DVD and BD players that have hi-res soundtracks that the Denon can only receive on analog.

On the minus side, and this is something I haven’t seen anywhere else so I don’t know how much of a minus it is, this receiver can’t decode the new DD+, DD TrueHD, and DTS HD formats coming down the pike on the BD and HD DVD formats.

This receiver definitely goes on my “to recommend” short list.

c|net - Denon AVR-4306 A/V receiver