Denon DHT-391XP 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with HDMI 1.4a connectivity and 650-Watt Total System Power (Black)
Review by GreggBzz : You have to work to make it great, but it's great.

I did a lot of research, like most of you will do, and determined that this was the best I could do with my budget. My primary concerns were sound quality and getting enough power for a large room (19' x 20') This does well in those regards, while you sacrifice in other areas. For this price you can't have everything!

Pros:
The components seem quality built. The receiver is heavy and well ventilated. The speakers are heavy and wooden. Everything is just sturdy. It shipped well packed in a heavy box.
The amplifier itself is the same circuitry and power rating you'll find in more expensive Denon receivers, like the 591 and 1611. From what I gather it's THD and power compare well with more expensive models. It certainly does a good job with the included speakers. It will get ridiculous house party loud, no worries.
The HDMI inputs gave no problems. Denon is sometimes noted for handshake problems, but I did not encounter any. I have a Motorola DVR, a Sony BDP-S570 blu-ray and a Samsung PNC50C450 and they all sync up perfectly. I did the latest firmware updates on each device prior to the Denon arriving.
The sound is pretty tweak-able, if you have the patience. More on that later.
The included speaker wires are long.

Cons:
Setting this thing up is tedious. There's no surround auto setup. You need to measure your speaker distances manually. You need to tweak the loudness of each speaker to your liking. They should all be equal. You need to specify the type of each speaker.. etc. The menus are not very intuitive. The included speaker wire is pretty thin 22 gauge. I suppose this is ok, but it seems fragile and I prefer some more durable, less resistive 16 gauge wire for the long runs in my room. You may want to play with the crossover frequencies also. Letting the sub handle everything below 200Hz provided the best results in my case.

At first I thought the sound was muddy. I then did some research on room acoustics and speaker positioning. Most real experts (the ones that work in the field and/or adhere to the scientific method) agree that the room it's acoustics and the position of you and your speakers is the single most important variable in sound quality. I completely agree after re-positioning my speakers three times. The most significant change was moving the sub-woofer out of the corner and into the open. I also got some quality mounts.



In conclusion, do some research, put your speakers in the right spots, work with the setup for 3 or 4 days until you get the sound you want and crank it up. After all that, holy cow! Crank it up!

Denon DHT-391XP 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with HDMI 1.4a connectivity and 650-Watt Total System Power (Black)
Review by djwc : Worth the Money

I purchased this Denon system after a lot of web searchng and price comparing. I wanted a kickass home system but can't afford the high end equipment. I spent many hours on-line and a couple in best buy looking at mid-priced systems. I narrowed my choice to either this Denon system or an equivelant Yamaha. I played with the new 7.1 systems in the store, which made my choice easy. I wanted the Yamaha because of the name and dependability, and I prefered its reciever functions. BUT, the speakers for the denon blow the yamaha's out of the water! If you look at the new system in best buy it comes with little boston's. The speakers that come with this setup are twice the size of the boston's or the yamaha's. I have had the system for almost a month and love it. The first 20 min I was very disappointed, until I figured out the volume goes from negative to positive ( I was stopping close to zero and thought that was it..idiot). I did the standard setup option for ease of getting going, and I havent messed with it since because it sounds great. It is in a large room in a 1700sqft house, and it will go much louder than you want. IF yo want a 5.1 system for under $350 this is the bang for the buck, otherwise you better step up to expensive systems. The only con I have is that both the reciever and speakers are bigger than you think...so do some measuring... I had to adjust my entertainment center a bit to fit in the reciever. Enjoy!

Denon DHT-391XP 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with HDMI 1.4a connectivity and 650-Watt Total System Power (Black)
Review by nateconq : pleased with the reciever at least.

Denon makes a great reciever. I made the following changes:

Surround Mode: DTS NEO 6: Cinema
Made all speakers SMALL, disable S.B (Surround backs, only for 7.1 systems)
Kept sub on LFE - because fronts are satellites (small), not full tower speakers.
Went into TONE and changed TREBLE to +6.0
Turned ON RESTORER - improves audio quality even if there is no compression.
Upped right and left surround channels from 0 to +6.0
Set proper distances to all speakers from couch
Bought 16 AWG speaker wire, the included wire looks way to thin.

Could not be happier with the receiver. Built sturdy, looks great, very good options. You can set the frequency cutoffs for the surrounds and sub, still fiddling with that to find the best setting. Surround sound is incredible. When you hook up this system, play Transformers 2 and just watch the intro where it shows the Dreamworks and Paramount logo - I was blown away. All speakers work very accurately. Some people had a problem with the lack of inputs on the back of the receiver, however I found it perfectly fine because all my components (blu-ray, xbox360, wii) go into the TV first and then a single optical digital audio out goes to the receiver.

Subwoofer is also very powerful and responsive, without overpowering all the audio.

My one complaint is the satellite speakers. Why would Denon ever slap their name on these horrible things? The ONLY thing satellites have to do is provide the mid and upper tones - it isn't expensive to build a good tweeter and 3" woofer. So why is the treble so lacking? Even with the treble maxed out, I feel like I am starving for the clear high pitched sound effects. Sure, mid tones are great, and they definitely do provide quality mid tones, but in my opinion without crisp highs the rest is worthless. I ended up using some Jensen satellites and keeping the provided sub hooked up. That made a huge difference. It was like listening to a conversation while underwater and then coming up to air.

IN CONCLUSION
Excellent receiver and subwoofer. If you are going to get this, buy the receiver by itself and find some better speakers.

Denon DHT-391XP 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with HDMI 1.4a connectivity and 650-Watt Total System Power (Black)
Review by A. Balan "Graybeard" : Great Value HTIB system

Pros:
Price, Functionality (4 HDMI inputs , RCA inputs, AM/FM tuner), sound clarity.

Cons:
Default Bass response from speakers could be better, but works fine after setting tweaks.

Bought this after looking at other HTIB systems, primarily for the Quality receiver, but am pleasantly surprised with the Speakers too. Easy to setup and operate (took me about 2 hours). The downside is the bass response is weaker than expected, but this can be adjusted in the receiver settings.

Denon DHT-391XP 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with HDMI 1.4a connectivity and 650-Watt Total System Power (Black)
Review by spyrus08 : Crisp, Clean, & Easy!

This system sounds great & is extremely easy to set up. For an all-in-one system I couldn't be happier. I set this up in our family room with vaulted ceilings. Since I removed the speakers from the TV this is the only audio for the system & everything I have run through it (Blu-Ray/TV/iPod/Stereo) have all exceded expectations. Also, due to the vaulted ceilings i used the RocketFish wireless system for the rear speakers and after reading some reviews, I was skeptical...so glad I made the purchase with that too...no delay & the rear speakers are full of sound! For the money...you cannot beat this system!