I've have a Denon 5.1 channel receiver that's only four years old and has failed twice. First time the tuner quit and it was repaired under warranty. Yesterday I had no audio on any input, even though video was passing through. By sheer luck I tried plugging in headphones and when I unplugged them the problem went away. Now I notice that in "Direct" mode I get audio out of front left and center instead of front left and right. Resetting the processor didn't fix the problem.

I'm pretty much underwhelmed by Denon quality.

I'm looking for a basic 5.1 receiver that has a microphone for automatically setting the equalizer. I don't need anything more than that.

In the past I had good luck with Sony. Any recommendations?

Reading your profile... in the classroom/lab, what kind of video signal is everywhere? That's not great English but I hope you get the idea.

About your AVR, I recommend Yamaha. I've found they always perform great. They use a mic to set EQ, but you'll want to read about the system they use to do it, as it's different from Denon's and so performs differently.

One thing, though, is that their CI units don't have all the inputs you might think you need. A look at the back panel usually is accompanied by "where are the other inputs?" However, after some use of the Yamaha it seems that other units have more inputs than needed. Just be sure before you buy that you analyze your present needs and make a guess about adding other sources.

I think most installers who visit this site would recommend against Sony.

Not sure what you're asking here, but you did prompt me to update my profile.

Thanks for the recommendation of the Yamaha. I'm sure the EQ routine will be satisfactory. We just remodeled, took out some walls and carpet, and the room is now going to be lousy for acoustics anyway.

I need only two HDMI inputs (BD Player and TiVo box), one composite video (Wii), and two analog audio (Wii and CD Player), and one optical input (TV). And maybe one more analog audio input for a MP3 player or the like.

Of course, it would be nice to have some extras for future expansion.

Before doing anything, if you haven't already replaced the Denon, try blowing out the headphone jack with a can of air. They've been known to accumulate dust and create sound issues.

You know, the dust just might be the problem. We've recently finished remodeling, so there was a lot of dust in the house. Plus, I had connection issues with the headphone jack before that.

I will try the compressed air, and if that doesn't work I'll take the cover off and see if I can give it a proper cleaning. It's worth the effort if it saves me the cost of replacing it.

We changed the layout of the home theater gear the other day so I had a chance to take the Denon receiver apart and blow out the dust. The headphone jack is a bother as the plug doesn't seat properly and keeps poppoing out.

Anyway, I just want to report that the problem with the right channel audio coming out of the center channel speaker when in "Direct" mode still persists. The good news, though, is that in the reconfiguration I replaced the large front mains with smalls so that I no longer use Direct mode!