Audio experts Denon have unveiled two new receivers, including what they tell us is their very first stereo network receiver – and that receiver looks set to deliver flagship performance for a considerably lower price tag than you might expect. The new DRA-900H is £799 compared to the £1,399 of the flagship DNP-2000NE and it has a seriously high specification for the price.
The new DRA-900H is the successor to the DRA-800H and it's designed to bridge the gap between legacy hi-fi and modern AV tech. It's a 2.2 channel AV receiver with 8K video support, up to 145W per channel, dual subwoofer outputs and the ability to connect two pairs of speakers for switching, parallel playback or bi-wiring. It has six HDMI inputs. Three of which are dedicated to 8K video, and it has both eARC and HDMI out. The obligatory CD, phono, USB and TV audio inputs are here too, along with Denon's HEOS system.
A great way to put HEOS in your home
HEOS is Denon's streaming music tech, enabling you to stream music wirelessly from other HEOS devices as well as from key music apps including Spotify, Amazon Music HD, TIDAL and more. You can also use AirPlay 2, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth streaming, and the DRA-900H supports ALAC, FLAC, and WAV at up to 192kHz/24 bit. It'll be available from September.
Denon has also announced a new AV receiver, the 7.2-channel AVR-X1800H 8K audio/video receiver. It has Dolby Amos, DTS:X and three 8K HDMI inputs, support for 8K/60Hz, HLG, HDR, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and Dynamic HDR pass-through up to 40Gbps bandwidth. Gaming support is excellent, with 4K120, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Quick Frame Transport (QFT) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM).
This is a seriously powerful AV receiver, with discrete high-current amplifiers on all channels that can deliver up to 145 W per channel. It can drive up to seven speakers.
The AVR-X1800H is available from October with a price tag of £699, and there's also a DAB model, the AVR-X1800H DAB, which will go on sale at the same time for £749.
