Multichannel Mastery

REMEMBER WHEN cars ran on gasoline, cell phones flipped, and you needed a forklift to get a flagshipmodel AV receiver onto your equipment rack?

- Daniel Kumin

Denon does. Its new pennant-flying model, the AVR-A1H, clocks in at an impressive 71 pounds. And while I managed to hoist our sample onto my rack unaided-mostly because I was too abashed to ask for help-if I'd had a forklift I for damned sure would have used it.

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, Auro3D, 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).

All these channels require a truly massive main power transformer and, of course, a lot of output transistors and attendant heat sinks: hence those 71 pounds. Fifteen powered channels put the AVR-A1H at the top of the AV receiver-power heap, aside from a very few, very expensive (twice the Denon's cost and up) and fairly esoteric designs featuring 16 or more channels. Moreover, the AVR-A1H can command up to four discrete subwoofers, each independently addressable via Dirac Live Bass Control, which we'll get to.

Visually, the AVR-A1H departs not one iota from Denon's familiar, twoknob design language. There's a drophinged door to conceal the few direct-access buttons and the five-way rocker to navigate menus: obviously, all these functions will typically be performed on-screen in real life. It's conventional and unadventurous but perfectly handsome and eminently workable.