Denon AVR-A1H what a Beast

D

dlaloum

Full Audioholic
I think manufacturers know that a lot of hobbyists put a lot of value on the ability to use one box to do it all. In that case, the A1H is currently a great value for those who do want to run 15, or 13 channels. The overall cost with all the DL licenses would be about $8,000, that's still a lot less than the Marantz "separates".

For those who only need 11 channels max, there's always the Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer alternatives, and save a few thousand dollars.

People who only want 5 or 7 channels, they are unfortunately out of luck as there are currently nothing they can buy that can match the feature sets of the Onkyo/Pioneer/D+M/Arcam/NAD/Monolith/McIntosh except with only 7 channels + 2-4 sub channels.

Anthem does have the MRX540 that may fit, but if Dirac Live is a must, then no, it isn't an option.
At the 5.1 and 7.1 levels the Integra/Pioneer/Onkyo's or Denon's are good value (although you will get a few additional height channels - which can also be used as additional zones in some cases)
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
In my opinion, people should not spend that much on speakers, what's the difference between a $10,000 pair of speakers vs. a $20,000 pair? At 10K I should be able to purchase a great pair of speakers. There should be no need to spend more, if not, I have wasted my money.

That said, I believe people make poor purchases, not because it makes them happy but due to marketing. Saying that superfluous, useless features that drive up the price of a product are purchased because they make you happy is a bit of a cop-out.

That Denon unit is priced at $6,500 and it doesn't have Dirac Live, which most people in this forum have opined is a superior room correct software to Audyssey. That would be a useful feature for a premium-price product. However, they want to give you useless stuff like 15 channels, when small rooms don't even need it.
Depends on the speakers...and their furniture-ness to an extent. These days I'd consider 30k for a pair of top end speakers not too horrible depending on what you want. You can do well at 10k, too. I'm cheap but the top end JBL speakers are always saying to me....come on, you know you want to.

The Denon A1H doesn't include a Dirac license, and somewhat agree that maybe they should throw it in at that price (or just make it 7K and include it :) ? Then again maybe someone didn't pay retail, either.

Whose small room are you referring to? I looked back and didn't see OP mentioning size of his room.
 
Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
Depends on the speakers...and their furniture-ness to an extent. These days I'd consider 30k for a pair of top end speakers not too horrible depending on what you want. You can do well at 10k, too. I'm cheap but the top end JBL speakers are always saying to me....come on, you know you want to.

The Denon A1H doesn't include a Dirac license, and somewhat agree that maybe they should throw it in at that price (or just make it 7K and include it :) ? Then again maybe someone didn't pay retail, either.

Whose small room are you referring to? I looked back and didn't see OP mentioning size of his room.
By small room I mean not a commercial theatre. All home theaters, dedicated rooms or not, are small rooms.
 
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