A couple of months ago, I was able to take advantage of a mistake by Circuit City and purchase a new home theater-in-a-box system by Denon. The Denon DHT-487 is an outstanding setup for a reasonable price–in my case $269. Here’s the story:

It’s a typical Sunday morning in the Kirks household. We’re drinking coffee, eating breakfast and reading the newspaper. Typically, I’ll pull all of the ads out of the paper first, then the pull and toss the “chaff” (classified ads, sports, TV guide), and finally sort the paper for Tammy. I let her read the comics and other sections first while I pour over the ads looking for unique deals.

This particular Sunday morning I breezed through the CC ad until I saw the Denon kit. Knowing it was too good to be true, I grabbed the savings checkbook and went downstairs to talk to Tammy, already working on a project that morning. She confirmed that I was not seeing things nor crazy so I was off.

After a brief discussion with the chagrined CC staff, I walked away with the Denon equipment and a $30 CC gift card. Wow! I spent about four hours that afternoon setting it up and it was time well spent. It’s amazing at full price, let alone the bargain I got. The sound quality is stunning for this type of setup. Combine the good sound with the HDTV I bought in November of 2006 and I have the home theater setup I’ve always dreamed about.

I’ll try to take some pictures this weekend and write some detailed posts on the components. My brother-in-law was down in Springfield for the Easter holiday and we watched Die Hard at full volume. The upconverted picture was amazingly clear, ensuring that I won’t be buying HD-DVD for quite some time. The sounds of bullets, crashing glass and more were crystal clear even at the high volume.

Amazing!