Dear reader, Denon has launched a new flagship AVR that seriously steps in the realm of audiophilia, surprising us with 13.4 channels powered by 9 stereo DACs. The new AVC-A10H is situated at the top of Denon’s AV receiver line-up, alongside the existing leader of the pack AVC-A1H.
The new AVC-A10H is just a hint under AVC-A1H, having lost just a bit of power (210W versus 150W per channel) and a few channels (15 versus 13) in comparison with its much expensive big brother. As we can see above, A10H compared to the A1H is not a big downgrade, moreover, A10H could even be a better deal as it packs newer stuff than the A1H even with the slight loss in terms of channel and power.
As you can imagine, Denon is a standard, being the Mercedes of Home Cinema, and this new AVC-A10H does exactly that: offering high-end quality, top-notch connectivity and features. The speaker configuration can be 7.4.6 or 9.4.4, but, with the help of an external power amplifier, these numbers can be increased. It supports all the current multi-channel formats: Auro 3D, Sony 360, Imax Enhanced, DTD:X Pro and, of course, the most famous, Dolby Atmos. Inside of the beast you will find an upgraded DAC array based on ESS chips, in total 9 separate stereo DACs powering each of the channels separately. That’s something, isn’t it?
A10H includes Auddyssey MultEQ XT32 calibration software, but the most interesting part is that you can purchase a Dirac Live license separately and use that instead for calibration. Some claim that is a better way of calibrating.
In terms of connectivity, as we are used from Denon Home Cinema processors these last years, A10H is very complete and well equipped, having 7 HDMI2.1 sockets supporting 8K, 4K 120Hz for haming, VRR, ALLM and QFT, and supporting, of course, HDR10 and HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG. The device has Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Amazon Music HD and Denon own’s streaming application, HEOS – this one is also taking care of multi-room streaming.
The new AVC-10H is not cheap, being available worldwide from this November at $4700. But, you know what? When you buy a new car, go for a Mercedes, you will never go wrong with that.
