I scoured the internet for days to find my next AV receiver. Considering the features for the price, no other receiver matched the AVR-970H for my budget.\r\n\r\nAs I was upgrading from a 20 year old Yamaha, produced before HDMI was a thing, I really didn't understand how everything was going to work. And the first day with the Denon was rough.\r\n\r\nHard learned lesson: Check for a firmware update before you do anything else!\r\n\r\nAfter taking the time to set everything up, including figuring out the Inputs grid, I am extremely pleased with this machine. I worried that the 90W output was too low, I had 110W previously, but it sounds like it drives the speakers harder, which was a nice surprise.\r\n\r\nI appreciate the flexibility in assigning the second zone. I'm enjoying a 7.1 configuration now, but I'll swap to a 5.1 and put zone 2 speakers outside for the summer time. In which case, the HEOS functionality and app have been a pleasure. They suffer from a lack of basic music player functions, like, why can't I access my Playlists from the receiver directly?!? I don't want to open the app when I'm sitting in front of the receiver, remote in hand. Oh well, once it's playing, it's working well for us.\r\n\r\nIn terms of driving sound, I give this receiver a 10/10. Love it!