Compared to what? For me, it is a nice compromise from the Trinnov and Storm AVPs I was shopping. Anthem's AVM 90 is more and in my opinion, offers less. (Marantz now offers both Audyssey MultiEQ XT32 and Dirac Live and soon, DLBC. Gene and Matt Poes did a YouTube video detailing that Audyssey actually did BETTER than Dirac in the AV-10. Worth a look.) Now that we have two excellent bench tests (Gene's and Amir's) combined with Marantz/Denon's reliability, I think this is a great price point. If you are looking for similar but cheaper, the Monolith HTP-1 is a solid performer but not without growing pains early on. I owned an Emotiva XMC-1 that worked good... WHEN IT WORKED. When it didn't or got "stuck" it was a real pain. Forget the fact that the family doesn't tolerate resetting and reboots when all they want is Netflix. My previous Marantz 8805a and now my Denon's AVR 4700H just WORK. No fuss.
Agree with this even though I have the HTP-1. I previously had the Marantz PM-10/SA-10 combo, so you can call me a Marantz fan. I have had lots of Denon and Marantz gear as well, dating before their merger.
1) +1 on Audyssey. People seem to look down on Audyssey because it's "free" and used to be available on entry-level products. It was one of the first do handle multiple subs well and did a great job with their dynamic EQ. I think the problem was that prior to the iOS app, it was hard to turn off the mid-range dip or adjust the target curve so a lot of the default settings were not to everyone's preference. Once RatBuddysey came out which let you create your own target curve to use with the iOS app, everything changed. With MultEQ-X, it got even better.
People will point out Dirac Live Bass Control as a novel feature that Audyssey has failed to match. I bought DLBC and honestly do not find it a meaningful improvement over my standard Dirac given that I have full range speakers in my bed layer going below 30 Hz *AND* commercially recorded content rarely needs your bed layer to reproduce in the 16-30Hz range. That is, running full range + LFE for the effects is pretty much indistinguishable from Dirac Live Bass Control running with 35 Hz or 70 Hz crossovers.
Where Dirac should beat Audyssey is Active Room Treatment. Right now, only Storm has it working. Monolith is supposed to get it, but hasn't shipped yet. Rumors are that the AV10 will get it, but that's just rumor.
2) Reliability is critical. What gear would you buy for your family members if you didn't want to be on 24/7 tech support standby? D&M products, including HDMI CEC, are truly gold standard products. There are plenty of stories of failures and once Denon stopped allowing local shops to act as service centers and needed you to send things into depots, the overall service level dropped. However, I believe that the D&M reliability and servicability still remain leagues ahead of just about anything else other in the mainstream to premium price points.
3) The HTP-1's growing pains are largely addressed now, where anyone on ASR would probably be comfortable running it as their primary AV processor. It still forgets its IP address sometimes if the router is rebooted for any reason, requiring a power cycle, the HDMI CEC isn't quite as flawless as Denon or Marantz. I still would choose a D&M product over the HTP-1 for a non-technical person.