Just wanted to post a short review.
I just bought my first ever HT set-up from avshop last saturday. Got everything from him to simplify the purchase (thanks for the great deal). I pruchased the ff gears:
Denon 1909
Wharfe 9.5
Wharfe 9cs
Wharfe DFS
Polk Audio PSW 125
Its primarily for HT, as I'm not much of a music lover.
As a newbie, the reason I got the Denon over other receivers (HK, Yamaha) was primarily because of Audyssey. I wanted to simplify my life in terms of setting up. I didnt think I'd have the patience to keep on tinkering with the receiver if I had to set-up all the speaker delay, crossover, etc settings myself. I just wanted a box to plug in and enjoy right away. The manual of the Denon wasn't the nightmare as most of the online reviews mentioned. Most guys can go over and understand it easily.
Setting up via Audyssey was a breeze, took about 20 mins to perform the 6 location test. To my untrained ears, it sounded very good. I guess Audyssey really works well as advertised.
The unexpected bonus for me was really the Audyssey Dynamic Volume. I can't really watch full blast at home, so this feature really helps when watching movies at night. It has 3 settings -- day, evening, and midnight. I've used evening and midnight. The feature helps you hear the dialogue of the movie better without sacrificing the sound effects, especially if you're watching late at night, and without disturbing people asleep.
You can turn off both features if you want to. But for a newbie like me, the Audyssey features really made it easier for me to enjoy my HT set-up quite quickly. The Denon 1909 is a good buy.