Denon has taken the wraps off a new A/V receiver that should appeal to serious home theater fans.
Slotting in just below the flagship A1H ($6,499 USD), the new model can power up to 13 speakers (channels) and 4 subwoofers. Denon says the AVR-A10H will sell for $4,699 USD ($6,349 CAD) and starts shipping from Denon and online retailers on October 1, 2024 and includes a 3-year warranty.
Like the A1H a key differentiator between the A10H and lower Tier Denon AVRs: it’s manufactured in the famed Shirakawa Audio Works in Japan. Reportedly it’s even tuned by sound master Shinichi Yamauchi. So the quality and performance should be just about as it gets.
Denon AVR-A10H 13.4 Channel AV Home Theater Receiver
Key features:
- 150 watts per channel (two channels driven)
- Dedicated boards for each channel to minimize crosstalk
- 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio
- 9-DAC array of 2-channel ESS DACs
- Oxygen-free copper (OFC) wound transformer
- Expansive audio format support including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X Pro, IMAX Enhanced and Auro-3D
- 7 HDMI 2.1 inputs
- Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, 8K/60, 4K/120, HDCP 2.3
- 3 HDMI outputs (one 4K/120, two 8K/60
- Capability for 15-channel pre-amp
- Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction built-in with support for Dirac Live (paid upgrade)
- HEOS music streaming (with support for Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal and more)
- Apple AirPlay 2
- 3 Trigger out ports
Source: Denon
All told the AVR-A10H has just about everything anyone who is building out a dedicated theater space could want. You could easily drive a 13 speaker set-up or use the pre-outs to stack a rack of separates for massive amplification for large rooms.
This flexibility and the addition that it’s made in Japan (versus China or Vietnam where others are typically manufactured) make it a strong contender in the up-level market. Competition includes players such as Onkyo, Anthem, Arcam, and McIntosh. Though models with 13-channels of amplification built-in are few and far between — most higher end models cap out at 9 or 11 channels maximum with most common mainstream consumer models topping out at 5 or 7 channels.
Audyssey MultEQ XT32 is among the best room correction technologies out there today, so you should be able to get great results in even tricky spaces. Though, if you like, you can also opt to pay for Dirac Live and use a Mac or PC with a special microphone for even further calibration and customization of sound curves.