And today we’re tackling another in a surprisingly long series of that most misunderstood and neglected of home theater equipment pieces, the receiver.  Today’s target, the Denon AVR-890, shows that you generally get what you pay for, and if not specifically what you pay for, then at least you’ll get a lot presuming you pay a lot.

The Denon AVR-890 offers 7.1 channel surround sound with Dolby Laboratories new Pro Logic IIz Matrix decoding featuring front height effects channels, Audyssey MultEQ, Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ, as well as FIVE HDMI inputs and one HDMI output.

The controls on this beast are actually a lot simpler than its panoply of options would imply, although there’s one set that’s covered by this push-off cover that I frankly can’t stand because when you push it, it just flies right off, so unless you’re careful you’ll be picking that thing up off the floor every time you push it.

Worse, though, is the cost.  You will NOT walk away with this thing for anything less than EIGHT HUNDRED BUCKS.  I’m sorry, but for one component, that is a lot of cash.  But you get what you pay for, and the Denon AVR-890 is perfect proof of that.