With the advent of high-res, the gap between the mid and high-end audio markets has grown smaller than ever – and Denon’s latest stable of AV and Hi-Fi products are perfectly poised to seize upon it.
Their big focus for the holiday season is the increased and in-built functionality for their HEOS audio networking technology, which now seamlessly integrates with the company’s AV Receivers and broader audio offerings.
Denon promise the new AVR-X6300H and AVR-X4300H will become the heart of networked home entertainment, with the former bringing nine amplifiers to bear and the latter packing two more – bringing the total to eleven. While their pricetags come separated by about $1500, they both come with both DTS:X and Dolby Atmos support pre-installed.
The X4300H is set to boast a high quality 32-bit D/A converter ensuring you can enjoy audio in the highest quality possible. Meanwhile, the X6400H will take this high precedent for home audio to new heights through the incorporation of a discrete monolithic amplifier design that ensures clarity, power, detail and depth.
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Denon Brand Manager Paul Astbury was quick to emphasize that while the 2016 models look the same as their predecessors and take up the same amount of space, a large amount of work has been done on the internal components of the units to ensure the brand is as solid as it needs to be.
As put by Astbury, “Everyone wants an ecosystem now – Microsoft, Apple, Nintendo” and they’re looking to facilitate that with the software accompaniment to their new hardware.
They’re breaking new ground for Denon by incorporating a full-blown GUI for use with their HEOS system and in-built support for both Bluetooth and dual band Wi-Fi.
Used in coordination with the free Denon AV 2016 Remote & HEOS apps (available on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store), users can manage their wireless audio setup and either synchronise or diversify the sound of their home accordingly.
Versatility is the name of the game here and based on demonstrations given at the company’s launch event for the new products, creating and managing the ‘zones’ of your setup as simple as dragging and pinching on your smartphone screen.
The Apps are even integrated in such a way that you can easily toggle between them and there’s even a ‘legacy’ remote control that comes with the receivers that allows you to play music through streaming services Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Deezer, Tidal, SoundCloud or directly off a USB drive in the event that your smart device runs out of battery.
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Denon have polished and refined this year’s lineup, incorporating many of the premium features previously only included for the company’s flagship devices.
“It’s a brave new world for Denon,” says Astbury.
After seeing both the performance and usability of their latest, we found it hard not to feel the same way.
The AVR-4300H arrives in December at an RRP of $2999. The AVR-X4300H arrives at the same time for $4699.
