Denon DHT-1312BA or Yamaha YHT196 - First Home Theater system

Ok, I'll jump in here before pokekevin makes fun of me again

If you like the Yamaha HTiB, I'd look at the YHT-395. It has more bang for less buck (at least compared to the posted BB specs for the 196).

As far as Blu-ray players go, I'd add at the Panansonic DMP BDT-210 to your list.

Don't bother with the samsung panny sony htibs (imho unless you like the dvd bluray combo) if you want sq.

Bang for your buck is like well you get more for what you paid. Which specs do you need help understanding? Just t make it easier ignore ohms for now lol.

I can see otto has struck here already haha. Another vote for the 395

If you want to do separate components look for receivers with mcacc/audyssey/ypao. They will help you with proper calibration for your room.

First off I say 395 cause I bought one and liked it biased yea very much.

Now the second reason is the specs,
from what I can find the 196 only supports AC3/DTS while the 395 supports TrueHD/DTSMA. Can you hear an audible difference between the two? Some say they can but its not really that important unless youre like those people who just LOVE seeing TrueHD on the receiver lol.

Speaker wise, the 196s are slightly bigger than the 395s if im doing the math right but the sub on the 395 is slightly bigger. Either way the sensitivity (How efficient the speakers are at certain amounts of power) is pretty low so you'd need alot of energy to play these speakers "loud".

Also the 395 has an extra hdmi input!

It seems thought the 196 is a oconus thing. could the 396 be the same as the 395?

I see that pokekevin pretty much answered everything so there's no need for me to add to that. Thanks buddy ! What basically sold me on the 395 was cost and the fact that it matched the a/v formats of the Blu-ray player that I was looking at, and eventually bought (BDT-210). I don't listen at high volumes anymore so volume output is not a deciding factor for me. However, I wouldn't go with an active sub-woofer any smaller than 8" on any system that you get. A speaker upgrade for any HTiB should also be planned for down the road regardless. Speaking of which, Pokekevin, you've gone thru a few it seems so I may have to pick your brain a bit on that.