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Denon's Next Gen Receivers: The Stuff Home Theater Dreams Are Made Of

I've always been a fan of Denon's A/V components and their newest line of receivers reinforces my infatuation. The sexy new boxes will include HDMI 1.3 inputs and support for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. There aren't that many devices out there that support HDMI 1.3, but we've already seen some upcoming Samsung HDTVs that carry the new spec, which allows for better color support and a smoother HD image. A nice way to future-proof your home theater set up if you ask me. So what else does Denon have in store for us? Well, for one, their high-end model (AVR-4308CI) will have built-in Wi-Fi for Internet radio (a nice bonus on a receiver).

Their other high-end model (the AVR-3808CI) will only have Ethernet connectivity. (Both will be out in July). September will bring the AVR-1508 and the AVR-1708, both of which will have HDMI 1.3, but no internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD processing. Pricing has yet to be announced, though by the looks of it, you should be in good shape with whichever model you choose. – Louis Ramirez

Denon Next-gen A/V Receiver Specs Leaked? [Crave]

5:11 PM on Wed Feb 21 2007
By Louis Ramirez
27,657 views
9 comments

Comments

zingbot at 09:35 PM on 02/21/07
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Nice that they can afford to throw case design under the bus and focus on features. (Yes, that was a backhanded complement.)
lumpydog at 11:04 PM on 02/21/07
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I can't wait for the price. I've been needing to update my home-theater, and the 4308 looks like it might fit the bill.
broadwayblue at 11:20 PM on 02/21/07
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List on the 4308 is $2,499, the 3808 is $1,499. This info has been around for several weeks so I don't get this talk of spec's being leaked. Check out http://www.hometheaterblog.com/ for more info on features and release dates.
pharmboy at 11:57 PM on 02/21/07
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For as much as these things cost, why the hell can't they update the display screens on these things to bring them out of the 90's? I know purists audiophiles and all, but I don't see how much the display on the unit has to do with sound quality. An LCD high-res display would be nice...one that 'dims' or 'blackens' out after a few seconds to keep from distracting you during your movie watching...
pete at 12:51 AM on 02/22/07
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To my knowledge the only sources for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD over HDMI 1.3 are the PS3 and the Toshiba HD-XA2.
So if you get one of these plan on picking up one of those as well...
HiFi at 06:31 AM on 02/22/07
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This is anything but a purist audiophile piece.
med at 09:42 AM on 02/22/07
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Personally I would rather have a unit with simple styling and a display like this one instead of some huge, obnoxious LCD to drive up the price by several hundred dollars. What are you going to display on that thing besides eye candy anyway? If it were a media center, then yeah, an LCD would be justifiable. I still think it sucks that nerds like myself with 6 different game systems have the option of using a radio shack switcher box or buying a $4000 receiver to handle it all... but that's sort of a separate topic.
TheNthDegree at 10:24 AM on 02/22/07
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Yeah....I was getting so pissed trying to find an HDMI 1.3 unit I just gave up. Wen with 1.1 Onkyo. My place is too small for me to ever care about the color depth or the other auio formats.
TheNthDegree at 10:28 AM on 02/22/07
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One more thing: I think when I realized that my XBR2 was only 1.1, and that my PS3 was the only 1.3 device I had, I just stopped sweating it.