Denon AVP-A1HD Product Review

denon aVP-a1HdcI surround sound Processor and Poa-a1HdcI Power amplifier
"... the next level in surround sound flexibility."
by John E. Johnson, Jr.
"Denon's A1HDCI is a
surround sound processor
(SSP) that a lot of people
have been waiting for,
including me. It turned
out to be everything I was
anticipating, and more."
of
Home Theater High Fidelity
october 2008
IntroductIon and desIgn
Denon's A1HDCI is a surround sound
processor (SSP) that a lot of people have been
waiting for, including me. It turned out to be
everything I was anticipating, and more.
The processor has twelve channels for the
main zone (there are two additional zones
for other rooms). The basic configuration is
Front Left, Front Right, Center, Surround
A Left, Surround A Right, Surround B Left,
Surround B Right (Surround A speakers
are direct to the side of the listener, while
Surround B speakers are to the side and rear),
Surround Back Left, Surround Back Right
(Surround Back speakers are placed on the
rear wall), Subwoofer 1, Subwoofer 2, and
Subwoofer LFE.
Each one of these channels is fully balanced
with a 24/192 stereo DAC (one channel
of the DAC handles the + portion of the
signal, and the other channel handles the -
portion).
There are six individual power transformers
for maximum
separation of the audio and video circuits.
The video circuit will de-interlace and scale all
video signals through a Silicon Optix HQV
Realta video chipset. Those six transformers,
plus an overall massive build quality, result
in the A1HDCI weighing almost 60 pounds.
That is more than the average receiver with
all its power amplifiers.
© Copyright 2008 Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
www.hometheaterhifi.com
review
Built-in 80211b/g network capabilities will
let you stream music from your network
server or PC, and also your iPod. You can do
this wirelessly or with an Ethernet cable.
The A1HDCI handles just about every audio
processing algorithm out there. On the next
page is a graphic from the Denon website
showing what this processor will do.
Notice in particular that it has Audyssey
processing, which will adjust the loudness
and frequency response of each speaker,
and adjust the time delay depending on the
distance of each speaker from the listening
noise attenuation and
and