HOME CINEMA AMPLIFIERS

For a big sound to accompany big-screen thrills, these amplifiers are an excellent choice

Denon AVC-X3700H

₹1,64,900

WHAT HI-FI? AWARDS 2021 ***** BEST HOME CINEMA AMPLIFIER UNDER ₹1,65,000 PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

When you listen to class-leading products as often as we do, you know immediately when a new standard has been set.

Such is the case with Denon's latest 8K-ready home cinema amplifier. The sonic improvement it has made on the previous model, the Award-winning AVC-X3600H, is quite surprisingly marked.

One of the AVC-X3700H's seven HDMI inputs and two of its three outputs are full HDMI 2.1 sockets with support for 8K@60Hz and 4K@120Hz. All of its HDMI connections support HDR10+, Dynamic HDR and Quick Media Switching alongside HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision. For gamers, there's VRR, ALLM and Quick Frame Transport to reduce lag and improve performance.

The AVC-X3700H has 11 channels of processing and nine power amplifier channels built in, each feeding a claimed 180W of power per channel. That means you can set the AVC-X3700H up in a 5.2.4 or 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos configuration, or add an extra two-channel amp to make full use of the processing power with a 7.2.4 set-up.

This amp's 3D audio support (whether or not you have dedicated height speakers) runs to Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos Virtualization Technology, DTS:X, DTS Virtual:X and IMAX Enhanced.

For music playback there is hi-res audio decoding of files up to 24bit/192kHz and double-speed DSD. Thinking of pairing it with a turntable? There's a built-in moving magnet phono stage too.