Denon have dominated the sub £500 Home Cinema amp market for over a decade, but they came a bit of cropper last year, at the hands of Onkyo’s brilliant £399 TSXR 605, which outsold everything else by a huge margin. For the first time ever, Denon were left on the sidelines – and they were not happy bunnies. This year, things look set to be rather different. The bunny is back - and with attitude!

Onkyo’s successor to the all conquering 605 (called the TX-SR606) is another superb product, but this time it is being met head on by Denon’s excellent new budget offering, the AVR 1909. This new Denon is far stronger competition for the Onkyo, in that it is bang up to date and better priced than its predecessor. It’s a cracking battle, because the two amps are very evenly matched and have many outstanding features that put them miles ahead of the competition. Both have multiple HDMI 1.3 inputs, both fully support True HD sound, both have onboard upscaling, both have Bi-amping capability and both have excellent matching + iPod docks. The Denon scores well, thanks to its unique sound and 1080p scaler, but the Onkyo fights back with one extra HDMI input. It’s your call, but the truth of the matter is, you won't go far wrong with either amp!