This is Simply a State of the Art Receiver.
5 Stars!

Im in the market for a new HT setup and set out looking at some DD/DTS recievers, my search lead me to my local Yamaha dealer, Ive owned a few(4) Yamaha components in the last few years and Ive always enjoyed their sound quality, however their build quality is in need of help. Of the 4 pieces Ive owned, 2 went out under warranty and 2 went out not under warranty, and their cus service/tech support is the worst next to Toshiba. Well anyway, My local Yamaha dealer is also the B&K dealer so I was able to see the AVR 202. He let me bring these pieces home for a 3 day trial, so with my New Platinum audio loudspeakers and new Sony dvd player I rented a few DVD's and set out for a fun weekend. Im also a big audio buff so I got out my favorite cd's and started listening, The audio of the B&K was pure joy, very fast accurate bass, smooth detailed highs and pure liquid on the mids it was the best thing Ive ever heard in my home. The Yamaha was nice but a bit harsh and the bass was not as well managed it wasnt has fast or as accurate as the B&K, so the B&K easily won the audio test, it wasnt even close. So now I decided to move to home theater, I pulled out my Tomorrow Never Dies dvd and the B&K again was awesome, it had power for days and the Platinum audio speakers are very inefficient, 84db on the mains, 86db on the center and rears but the amp just kept on going and contrary to what Ive read here it didnt get very hot, sure it was warm but I was driving the crap out of it. I then watched 12 Monkees in DTS(I love DTS) and again it was amazingly powerful for a reciever. Well now it was time for the Yamaha, so I swapped out the recievers and put the Tomorrow Never Dies DVD again and sat back and tried the different enhanced modes but they didnt really help much so I settled for the straight DD mode and sat back and it sounded good but again the low end was weak and the top end was harsh, and the amp was starting to get pretty hot, I then moved on to the 12 Monkees DTS DVD and during one of the early scenes the amp started to clip and I thought one of my tweeters was gonna go but before I could react the amp shut down, over heated. I was amazed, but it didnt really surprise me, my experince with Yamaha has been bad and this piece isnt any better, after cooling down for several hours it powered back up but it just couldnt keep up with the B&K and they were both gonna set me back about $2200 with full factory warranty - Yamaha = 2 years and B&K = 5 plus my rep told me that if the A B&K failed within the 5th year they would extend the warranty to one year from the date of repair, very cool, Yamaha wont do that they couldnt afford to! I then decided I should give the Denon5700 a run since its gotten pretty good reviews, I got the B&K for another 3 days and the Denon (from a different shop) and did the same test and the Denon had a nicer sound than Yamaha but still isnt up to par with the B&K and the theater modes where pretty close, for theater the Denon was right there with the B&K but for audio the B&K was the clear winner. Im currently still shopping, Im considering seperates but I havent found anything for under 4k that beats the B&k reciever for $2200. My local dealer for B&k Havent had any failures on the 202. He said he had heard rumors but he hasnt replaced any and hes carried B&K for years, hes also an old college roomate so I know he isnt lieing. Yamaha gets 1 star for the ppor build quality, B&K gets 5 strs for being one of the best buys in HT and the Denon gets 3.5 for its nice build quality and its great theater sound.

I just purchased the Denon 5700 this week, so my observations are very preliminary. I traded in a Rotel RSX-965 after using it for two weeks. The Rotel was my first experience with a home theater receiver. I traded this unit for the 5700 primarily for improvement in its movie and music playback capabilities, more power and its a perfect cosmetic match to my Denon DVD-5000. By the way, the Rotel receiver is a fantastic value and should be seriously considered if your budget is in the $1,000 to $1,500 range. It is more powerful than its 75 watts per channel would suggest and its performance as a home theater product is stellar.
The Denon-5700 offers noticable improvement in bass response relative to the Rotel piece. Its Dolby Digital and DTS processing capabilities are superior to all other receivers/integrated processors that I auditioned (and I listened to virtually all of the best performers from Yamaha, Denon, Rotel, Marantz and NAD; I did not listen to the B&K receiver as its not available where I live). The 5700 is very detailed; during the movie "Ghosts in the Darkness", background noises such as insects buzzing, tall grasses blowing in the wind, etc. were very apparent. The sound stage was seamless as action moved from side to side or front to back. Its overall performance rivals that of many of the separates that I auditioned for home theater playback. I still believe that separates are superior for music reproduction, but the gap seems to be shrinking. I am running Dynaudio Contour 1.3s and the Contour Center across the front and NHT HDP-1s for the surrounds. Still need to purchase a subwoofer.

In summary, if you value the simplicity and reduced overall cost of a receiver for home theater and music reproduction, but prefer the performance of separates, audition the Denon-5700. You may be suprised that only much more expensive separates (preamp processors from Theta, Meridian, Krell and maybe Lexicon come to mind) will outperform the 5700 in a home theater setting. The 5700 is also upgradable should you require more power and it offers inputs for future digital formats. It's the best out there (for now, at least).

Ted and anyone with the 5600DTS/5700, if you like great sound -- as you obviously do -- I want to recommend a title for you. "Great Expectations" on DTS laserdisc is probably the single best soundtrack of the 20-25 DTS laserdiscs and 415 DVDs that are in my movie library. Not only was the movie a huge surprise to me -- I originally saw it as a laserdisc release and never really heard much about the movie and therefore never bothered to rent it or buy it. Now, stay with me on this. There are about 30 DVDs that I can probably name off the top of my head that I use to demo the Denon 5600DTS and the Denon DVD5000 that I have. And, 1 or 2 DTS laserdiscs to demo my Pioneer Elite DVL-91 LD player. However, not one single LD and very few DVDs are of the soundtrack quality of the DTS version of Great Expectations. In addition to the quality that I finally heard this weekend, the movie was a very good story that I found wasloaded with brilliant performances by Gwyneth Paltro, Ethan Hawke, Ann Bancroft and Robert De Niro.
The best sounding scene and the one which shows off the DTS performance by the Denon is on side B about chapter 24 when Hawke's character enters the art exhibit opening and there is a woman singing. From that point to for the next 5 minutes or so, the sound of the track is the best I have ever heard either in a real theater or at home.

I highly recommend -- obviously -- that you buy this one as it will show off the DTS capability of your receiver and give you much pleasure. Not to suggest there is nothing else that does this well in DTS, but I find it very hard to believe ANYTHING at all does it better!

The difference between the Denon 5700 and the Yamaha DSP A1 is that the Denon is 5700 times better!

The difference between the Denon 5700 and the Yamaha DSP A1 is that the Denon is 5700 times better!

As a salesman of Denon, Yamaha, and Sony ES for years, I can say that I have heard all these products in many environments. I have been a Yamaha DSPA1 fan ever since it came out. But now that the avr5700 is out, I have a new fave. I like it better than the 5600 (noticably). For those of you wavering between the Sony 9000, or the Onkyo...no contest. Go get the Denon. The Dspa1 has a new price point however, and the new lower cost makes it attractive once again. One of the gentlemen above had it perfectly right: processing power, or amp power. Yamaha's DSP's still rule. And if your speakers are inherintly bright, stick with DENON.

I must say without a doubt this AVR5700 is awesome.... I just sold my Denon AVP8000 and Rotel RB985 amp and bought this. The 5700 does all the 8000 did and so much more... It is by far the best sounding and engineered piece for the cake/// hands down winner........Buy one! you'll be a believer.

I just purchased this very amazing piece. It replaces a Citation 7.0 processor which retailed for $4,000.00 several years ago and was widely held to be one of the best dolby processors at its time. However, it operated solely in the analog domain and thus lacked dolby digital and DTS. As for my turning to an all in one receiver...I know I went very much against the traditional audiophile nirvana grain. However, I have learned that there are exceptions to everything! The amps that this also replaced were also of excellent quality (Acurus 200X3 and McIntosh M754). My speaker system consists of B&W 804's with their SCM8 triangulars for the surrounds with all components linked via Monster M1000 Series audio cables and Silver Series Video cables (don't throw your money away on MIT...) The center is a B&W HTM. There is also a Sony DVD 7700 and Pioneer 704 LD with a Sony XBR-2 32" monitor.
I must say that for some reason my old combination simply did not make my ears sing. I read glowing reviews on this Receiver and gave it an audition at Harmony Audio Video in Calif. which is a very high end salon. It is one of the few Receivers this salon would even entertain having...yet they elected to dedicate an entire room with it as a center piece. After hearing it...I understood why. It was drop dead silent as far as hums, hiss, pops, clicks, etc. It filled the room with a transparency and clarity I have only heard before with Krell, Conrad Johnson and Theta. Mind you I am not indicating that this piece is in that class. I am very much stating that it audibly it approaches that class in a deliciously frightening way. There was a smoothness in the reproduction of both video and stereo sound that was simply amazing. The amplifier section is extremely well isolated from the rest of the system. This has always traditionally been a downfall to receivers in the past. No more is this true with the advent of this technology. It is 140 watts X 5 of completely discrete sound for a total of 700 watts of pristine high current power. This piece has no hard edges...no rough transient peaks...no hint of clipping. Now of course you can spend five times the money and purchased Krell, Conrad Johnson or Theta for slightly better sound. However, the difference in sound is far from being proportionate to the expense in my belief.

The Denon 5700 not only opened the proverbial veil...it broke down a wall of murkiness and flatness. I can now hear extreme details in movies I never knew existed...leaves rustling...a brook flowing...footsteps of approaching characters into a scene. The sense of being in the scene is uncanny. The surround sound is nothing short of frightening. I found myself turning often in my own home to see if someone was actually in the rear of the room talking! For me this is the true test of surround realism...not so much the fact that you hear big boomy sounds occassionally from other directions...but the fact that you are atually convinced that you are in the middle of a scene! No doubt a result of the fine Burr Brown Chips and the multiple 32 bit all digital processing.

Finally, this piece is a hedge against the future. It has numerous digital (coaxial and optical) hookups, including AC3 RF for those who still have LD machines, MULTIPLE component hooks ups and even has the capability to address George Lucas's new Six Channel Surround which will be introduced in the upcoming Star Wars latest saga within the month! Yes folks...another channel (a rear center channel). In fact it can accommodate up to eight channels of sound for even more future surround modes.

I know many fellow audiophiles will balk at my praising a receiver in such a way. I only ask you to listen to this machine properly set up and be willing to open your mind and ears to the possibility that a receiver has finally grown up. It certainly has in my opinion.

What can i say ?! Denon made another great machine, it has all i wanted......Don't miss this fantastic boy!!