These days one accepts that audio equipment for home theatre systems is going to be complex. After all, there are all the program sources which must be catered for, the minimum of five audio power amplifiers, the need to cope with Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS (Digital Theatre System) and Dolby Pro-Logic sources plus DSP (Digital Signal Processing) to give surround sound effects like concert hall, rock stadium, jazz club and so on.

The Denon AVC-A1D has a host of operating features while still managing to look very clean and uncluttered. It provides all possible operating modes for home theatre systems.

This Denon product does all that and a whole lot more and it takes quite a lot of time to work out just how many functions and features it has. In fact, for a unit which has so many features, it is quite inscrutable at first sight. It looks more like a large conventional stereo FM/AM receiver than a surround sound amplifier, doesn't it? After all, it appears to have a long dial scale and a large knob on the right, just like a stereo receiver. Well, the knob is the master volume control but it is not a normal potentiometer and it is not motorised, as are many in systems with remote control.

The other knob on the front panel is the input selector but it is not a normal switch and it can be rotated continuously back and forth, without stops. There is a large door in the control panel and it drops down smoothly to reveal 18 pushbuttons and two more knobs, for the bass and treble controls. And yes, the tone controls aren't normal pots either - they rotate continuously while the amount of boost or cut is displayed on the large vacuum fluorescent dot matrix display.