Denon Previews New Flagship AVR

[HDTV1080P]

Denon is a Japanese electronics company and for many years their A/V receivers were made in an automated high quality robotic Chinese factory at fair prices. However, like many other companies for various reasons I will not get into in this post, they are pulling all or some of their manufacturing out of China. The new Denon AVR-X6800H is engineered in Japan and made in an high quality automated robotic factory in Japan, and while the quality of the Denon A/V receivers made in Japan well most likely match the quality of the A/V receivers that were made in China, most likely one of the reasons for the $500 increase in price is because cost of manufacturing is higher in Japan versus China (but also new products with improved features cost more regardless of where they are made). Companies should have the freedom to manufacture products in any country that they want as long as the country is on the approved list of companies by the government.

However, for various reasons I have been seeing a very large departure of companies pulling their manufacturing out of China over the last 3 years. That is true for many products and it has greatly increased in the last year or so. It is sad to see since China always did an overall excellent job manufacturing high quality products at cheap prices. Sure, China also made super low-cost medium and lower quality products when instructed to do so by the engineer in USA, Japan, and other countries. At a certain point if too many companies stop dealing with China it could lead to bad international relations around the world. The Chinese economy is also hurt when too much manufacturing is moved to other countries. Perhaps things might turn around in several years or decades to come and China might get new manufacturing contracts in the future with manufacturing returning to China.

Select quotes from article

“Denon today announced a replacement for the AVR-X6700H, the second from top model in its X-Series line of AV receivers.”

“Unlike much of today’s audio electronics gear, which is made in China, the receiver was designed in Japan and will be manufactured in that country. The new model will be priced at $3,499, which is $500 higher than X6700H, which was introduced in 2020.”

“Slated for delivery in 2024, the AVR-X6800H will feature a number of upgrades, including an 11.4 architecture with 11 x 140 watts of amplification (up from 11.2) and support for 8K video on all of its seven HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs. The receiver will also boast a preamplifier mode with up to 13.4 channels of processing.”

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...w-flagship-avr

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Denon is a Japanese electronics company and for many years their A/V receivers were made in an automated high quality robotic Chinese factory at fair prices. However, like many other companies for various reasons I will not get into in this post, they are pulling all or some of their manufacturing out of China. The new Denon AVR-X6800H is engineered in Japan and made in an high quality automated robotic factory in Japan, and while the quality of the Denon A/V receivers made in Japan well most likely match the quality of the A/V receivers that were made in China, most likely one of the reasons for the $500 increase in price is because cost of manufacturing is higher in Japan versus China (but also new products with improved features cost more regardless of where they are made). Companies should have the freedom to manufacture products in any country that they want as long as the country is on the approved list of companies by the government.

However, for various reasons I have been seeing a very large departure of companies pulling their manufacturing out of China over the last 3 years. That is true for many products and it has greatly increased in the last year or so. It is sad to see since China always did an overall excellent job manufacturing high quality products at cheap prices. Sure, China also made super low-cost medium and lower quality products when instructed to do so by the engineer in USA, Japan, and other countries. At a certain point if too many companies stop dealing with China it could lead to bad international relations around the world. The Chinese economy is also hurt when too much manufacturing is moved to other countries. Perhaps things might turn around in several years or decades to come and China might get new manufacturing contracts in the future with manufacturing returning to China.

Select quotes from article

“Denon today announced a replacement for the AVR-X6700H, the second from top model in its X-Series line of AV receivers.”

“Unlike much of today’s audio electronics gear, which is made in China, the receiver was designed in Japan and will be manufactured in that country. The new model will be priced at $3,499, which is $500 higher than X6700H, which was introduced in 2020.”

“Slated for delivery in 2024, the AVR-X6800H will feature a number of upgrades, including an 11.4 architecture with 11 x 140 watts of amplification (up from 11.2) and support for 8K video on all of its seven HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs. The receiver will also boast a preamplifier mode with up to 13.4 channels of processing.”

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...w-flagship-avr

When one spends this much money on an AVR, I am always curious as to the percentage of those who rely solely on the internal amplification of the AVR versus the use of external amplification. For this type of high end AVR, I think a high percentage of individuals who consider themselves audiophiles would be the ones to purchase it. In doing so, I think they would rely on external amplification to feed their power hungry speakers.....minimizing any added benefit of improved internal applification as a selling point.

[oddbox83]

That’s only people who want to play it loud. I appreciate refinements for running them in domestic settings at lower volumes. You don’t want an underpowered speaker even in this situation as you need the speakers powered with reasonable headroom and ability to comfortably accommodate the full dynamic range without distortion.

[HDTV1080P]

My next A/V receiver is most likely going to be a minimum of 13.4 channels. And right now Denon is at the top of my list followed with Pioneer Elite being a close second. Pioneer just needs to make some higher end models since Denon has more features.

I am willing to pay more for a A/V receiver because of inflation and increases in manufacturing costs. But would most likely keep the A/V receiver for 5 to 10 years. I know some people upgrade their A/V receiver every 3 years or so, but upgrading can be time consuming.

[Necril]

Really disappointing that even in this price range, making use of Dirac support requires you to purchase the license from a another website AND a UMIK microphone from a third website (with availability being poor in some EU countries).

On top of that, I see nothing that would indicate a 1440p/vrr support, which is currently unheard of in AVRs, even though many console games offer a 1440p performance mode as an alternative to resource hungry 4k. As far as I've heard, many PC gamers prefer 1440p as well. Maybe for the next AVR generation...