2023 flagship Denon AVR-A1H A/V receiver (15.4 channels)

[HDTV1080P]

This year 2023 Denon AVR-A1H A/V receiver is very nice. Current list price is $6,499. This is the worlds first 15.4 channel A/V receiver. Offers all the most used HDR formats for passthrough like HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR. Plus Auro 3D surround sound.

https://www.denon.com/en-us/product/...eivers/avr-a1h

[Robert Zohn]

Glad you started Denon's AVR-A1H thread.

Here's Denon's A1H .pdf specification sheet.

We love this new premium 15.4 channel A/V receiver. We're just finishing the set-up in one of our new theaters. I need to finalize the overhead speakers to use all 15 amplified channels fully active.

[HDTV1080P]

Around 10 years ago I pre-wired a home theater room for 13.2 channels. I see this Denon AVR-A1H has 15.4 channels. I most likely would only use a maximum of 2 subwoofers for my setup, but having the ability of hooking up 4 subwoofer is a nice feature. While I can easily do 13.2 channels with pre-wired 10 gauge speaker wire wall jacks to all locations, if I wanted to do 15.2 channels or 15.4 channels I would just need to have a couple of visible white color speaker wires that are outside the wall.

I really like the specs of this new $6,499 Denon AVR-A1H A/V receiver. I try and upgrade my A/V receiver once every 10 years. The two year 2008 Pioneer Elite SC-07 A/V receivers my family members currently use are now 15 years old and they work perfectly fine for 7.1 channels. I am currently using a year 2011 Pioneer Elite SC-57 THX Ultra 2 Plus A/V receiver with 7.1 speakers, and that is now 12 years old.

The Denon AVR-A1H specs are real cool. The A/V receiver is 70.5 pounds out of the package, which is fine for me since I carry things around that are 70 to 100 pounds by myself with no issues. Looks like all 7 HDMI inputs are native 8K passthrough/8K upscaling and also the 2 main HDMI outputs are 8K passthrough/upscaling. However the third HDMI output for zone 2 appears to be 4K passthrough and 4K downscaling.

When and if 8K Blu-ray players, 8K videogame consoles, 8K streaming boxes, 8K satellite receivers, and 8K cable boxes are released around the year 2026+, then I hope they use the HDCP 2.3 encryption, since if they end up requiring something new like HDCP 3.3 to protect the studios movies, then one would have to sale the Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer, and Sony A/V receivers with 8K switching and buy a new 2026+ A/V receiver that offers HDCP 3.3. But maybe the movie studios and content providers will use HDCP 2.3 for 8K content.

I could maybe in the future upgrade my A/V receiver once every 5 years instead of once every 10 to 15 years. I really wish the A/V receiver companies would go to a universal A/V receiver motherboard design like a desktop computer. Then one could purchase a Denon A/V receiver, and plug in a new HDMI card from Denon or Pioneer with the latest HDMI cards. If there was plug in HDMI PCI cards, tuner cards, power supplies, etc that would be awesome. But the A/V receiver companies appear to have no desire to make a A/V receiver like a desktop computer motherboard, where the consumer just plugs in the latest Yamaha, Pioneer, Denon, or Sony HDMI card, tuner card, power supply, etc. More consumers would buy A/V receivers if they had all kinds of slots to swap out old cards with new card similar to a desktop computer.

[HDTV1080P]

quote

"To say that the AVR-A1H is fully featured is like saying that Shohei Ohtani is multitalented. If you can think of it, the new Denon flag probably does it. But the lead story has to be this: Fifteen. As in 15 channels of on-board, built-in amplifier power, ready to drive a 15-channel Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Auro-3D, or IMAX system, or an 11-channel system with two stereo remote rooms, or any of the myriad other configurations you can dream up. And those 15 channels are all identically powered, rated at 150 watts full-band 0.05% distortion (two-channels driven)."

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...hannel-mastery

[LordoftheRings]

That's 9.4.6 all decoded and powered from one box only ... impressive ... and expensive too.

* DACs: ESS Sabre ES9018K2M chips times ten (x 10).
This is a 2-channel chip, with one DAC channel per output channel on the receiver.

Complementary details with pictures / In & out

[DTSBOY]

£5000.00 or thereabouts. Harks back to when Denon made weighty beasts of home cinema amps.




old 5800 for reference. very cool piece of kit.




Pioneer's flagship Susano.
Those were the days. Hernia inducing amps.

[HDTV1080P]

If the HDCP chip was made to be firmware upgradable, I would strongly consider this Denon AVR-A1H A/V receiver for a 13.2 or 15.2 surround sound setup. But with no firmware upgradable HDCP chip I am currently holding off. With my luck if I purchased one in 2024, come 2026+ a new HDCP version might be needed for native 8K content, and I would be forced to sell the A/V receiver in two years and get a new model that does 8K switching with the latest HDCP version. Otherwise, this A/V receiver is almost perfect. I wish Pioneer would make something like this.