Denon AVR-588 AV Receiver

[admin]

The new entry level Denon AV receiver is out and it is packed with more features than anybody has a right to expect for around $350. With plenty of connectivity options, features, and power, it’s hard to think of any reason a serious home theater enthusiast on a budget wouldn’t want to anchor their system with the AVR-588. While it is a very impressive A/V receiver, it will require some work to set it up in your theater and make full use all of its features.

Discuss "Denon AVR-588 AV Receiver" here. Read the article.

 

[westcott]

Sounds like the perfect solution for my evolving master bedroom system. My Technics is not Dolby Digital so an upgrade like this will be a welcome upgrade. It should have plenty of power to drive my Altec Valencias and at a great price.

Thanks for the informative review.

 

[wjens]

Will it work with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?

I thought I saw on the Denon site that this receiver only passes video via HDMI, and I was wondering how next generation disc players would work with this. I didn't think toslink could handle the bandwidth for the audio under Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio. I know the receiver won't decode either, but isn't there an option to pass PCM over HDMI?

 

[Seth=L]

I thought I saw on the Denon site that this receiver only passes video via HDMI, and I was wondering how next generation disc players would work with this. I didn't think toslink could handle the bandwidth for the audio under Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio. I know the receiver won't decode either, but isn't there an option to pass PCM over HDMI?

There is the option to pass high resolution multichannel PCM. You are right in your assumption that toslink (which works in the SPDIF protocol, thanks to Mtrycrafts.) does not have the bandwidth of those formats, even stripped down the lossless PCM.

If I ever set budget to spend over $200 on a new receiver, I wouldn't get a receiver that couldn't support audio over HDMI. Unfortunately one has to spend around at least $400 minimum to get that feature (at least in new receivers, refurbs would obviously be cheaper or last years models).

I would compare this Denon to the Onkyo TX-SR575 in terms of performance and features, they are the most directly related.

 

[Bluesmoke]

I'd love to see Audioholics review the Denon 788. That one looks like a winner with the ability to accept audio through HDMI, and also has individual bass management crossovers per speaker.